Weighing oneself; how often?

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  • leon0897
    leon0897 Posts: 35 Member
    I typically weigh every morning and nights when I work out. If I work out at night I know that whatever I weigh after I will weigh between 1-2 pounds lighter typyically. The mornings are my gauge for the day though and I'm happy when I eat throughout the day and I only weigh a few ounces then I did in the morning, then I know I'm doing it right. 40 more pounds to sub 200 and 70 more pounds to target weight!
  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
    I also weigh daily for the datapoint but don't pay much attention to the actual number. I use an app called WeightTrend+ and input the weight there. It then calculates a "moving average" for me -- this is a 7-day average of my daily weights. So even though there are ups and downs, my trend weight is always going down, which is what I pay attention to.

    I then record my trend weight in MFP once a week. So in my ticker where it says 10 lbs lost, that's based on my trend weight for Wednesday. If I had told MFP my actual scale weight that day, it would have been 12 lbs down from my start, but my trend weight is always a little higher because it is factoring in the seven previous (and slightly heavier) days. I am okay with this because I'd rather acknowledge that I haven't actually lost the weight until it doesn't "come back" the next day.

    There are other apps that calculate a moving average -- I've seen other MFPers use Happy Scale, I think it's called. I know other folks also just use an Excel doc.
  • nburleson
    nburleson Posts: 2
    I do daily, because even though there are daily fluctuations, I like seeing the numbers. They're encouraging, and knowing that I am steadily in a downward trend helps me with motivation for the coming day.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    I have been weighing myself daily to keep an eye on how I'm doing and recording my weight weekly, but I'm wondering what other people do. The disadvantage I can see with the daily weighing-in is that I sometimes get discouraged with what I know are uncontrollable fluctuations. Does anyone have a system that seems to work well?

    I weigh daily for the datapoint and don't let the value discourage or encourage me. I look at the trend overtime only when I want to evaluate my progress but to get an accurate trend I like to have that data on hand.
    ^ This. I am a data junkie.

    Yeah me too, total data junkie...if I didn't exert some self control to reign in my addiction I'd probably be weighing my scale too.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Oh and to those who state that weight loss isn't linear I get what you are trying to say but honestly if you are consistant in your diet then the trend over time is very much linear at least in my experience both now and when I dieted several years ago.


    My weight as measured by scale every morning for the most recent 45 days:


    2s9ojdg.png

    r-square sez linear at 1.3 pound loss per week average. Considering I am aiming for 1.5 pound loss per week not to shabby. You look at it day to day it bounces all over the place but you look at the long term trend you get a pretty accurate read. I can pretty much tell you what I'm going to weigh a month from now with decent accuracy. More data you have, easier it is to establish a trend.
  • amongstthewildflowers
    amongstthewildflowers Posts: 89 Member
    Good to know I'm not the only one who weighs everyday! I always do it first thing in the morning, after I use the bathroom and before I eat or drink anything. The only time I really frustrated is when I had a great day the day before and am expecting to see a lower number but don't. It's hard not to get discouraged in those moments.
  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
    Yeah me too, total data junkie...if I didn't exert some self control to reign in my addiction I'd probably be weighing my scale too.

    This made me smile. Every morning I take and record my basal body temperature before getting out of bed, examine Fitbit's assessment of my sleep from the previous evening and clip it to my pajamas to start counting my steps for the day, and weigh myself -- all before my morning shower.

    For a good chunk of this first month of MFP, my temperatures were a little wonky and so I was also taking an OPK every morning for about 10 days. Not even trying to conceive. If OPKs weren't so expensive, I'd probably pee in a cup every morning just to have another piece of data to record.
  • wehave4
    wehave4 Posts: 97 Member
    I generally started weighing myself every 5 weeks. MFP gives you a reasonable goal that you should hit with the daily diary logins food and exercise you are taking in daily and I just plan on reaching that goal every 5 weeks. So I weigh myself every 5 weeks. :smile:
  • Polishprinsezz
    Polishprinsezz Posts: 249 Member
    every other week for me. usually wednesday mornings.
  • PurpleCupcakes01
    PurpleCupcakes01 Posts: 141
    Everyday
  • WisheeNY
    WisheeNY Posts: 72 Member
    I weigh every Monday morning
  • AHack3
    AHack3 Posts: 173 Member
    I weigh in every Wednesday morning at the same time of day and wearing about the same amount of clothes.
  • ahancock90
    ahancock90 Posts: 3
    LOL! good idea. but I only go about once a week, which is a real problem for me that I'm trying to fix
  • AtticWindow
    AtticWindow Posts: 295 Member
    I weigh myself every morning and night, but I only record it twice a week, just because. I like weighing a couple of times every day because I can see how certain foods, behaviors, etc. are affecting my weight, but I don't like recording every day because the number can change so dramatically. (Read "dramatically" as up to 4lbs in either direction throughout the day.) (I don't have an emotional/motivational problem with the data points going up and down, I just prefer the twice-weekly record.)
  • ahancock90
    ahancock90 Posts: 3
    Good job with your progress!
  • AtticWindow
    AtticWindow Posts: 295 Member
    Good job with your progress!

    Thanks! :flowerforyou:
  • crissi725
    crissi725 Posts: 82
    A couple times a week. But mostly just out of curiosity. The fluctuations are interesting but nothing more than just fluctuations. I prefer to measure the parts of myself that I am self conscious about. That gives me a better idea of how I'm progressing.
  • _KitKat_
    _KitKat_ Posts: 1,066 Member
    I weigh daily or even multiple times daily. I do this to understand my bodies fluctuations, I do not get upset by an individual number... the trend and range are what is important. I started doing this after watching people freak about 2 lbs up from last week and maybe they just had to pee and had a lot of salt, I needed to know how my body worked and it made the individual weigh ins easier to handle.
  • alexuh
    alexuh Posts: 108 Member
    Usually once every 1-2 weeks - on a Wed/Thurs or Fri (before my weekend treat and never ever immediately after it!) to ensure I'm not dropping much more weight due to having hit my final goal!
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,451 Member
    I find the opposite: if I weigh myself daily, I KNOW my weight is going to fluctuate, so I don't get discouraged when I gain from day to day. If I weighed once a week, I'd be disappointed if my weight went up.

    The other thing I like about daily weighing is that it's easier to see trends in weight (using the "reports" section, which gives you a nice graph). It also just keeps me on track, by reminding me that I'm watching my weight (and also keeps up my days logged on MFP, because I log in every day to enter my weight).

    What you could do if you want to weigh daily is change your scales to weigh in a format that isn't so familiar to you. For instance, I "think" in stones, but I weigh myself in pounds. The weight in pounds doesn't mean much to me - it's just a number. I've done this before by weighing in kg as well. It means I can accurately track the numbers, but I have less emotional attachment to them, if you know what I mean!

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