The Scale

luckypony71

LOL. I weigh daily. Its just a number. Its data. End of story.
I dont get off the scale when it increases and have a bad day or hate myself. I dont weigh more than once in a day hoping for a different result. I dont think about it after I hop off. I record if necessary and move on. Quite frankly, I dont have my lowest weight every Sunday morning at 8am. I track my lows as I get new ones. I am allowed to go up and down and all over in any given week, I am looking for a new low.

Just about every friend in my FL who does a weekly tracking gets obsurdly discouraged when they have an increase. They pin all their hopes and motivation on achieving a loss on a specific day and it hurts to watch them fail because at a set time on a set day they didnt experience a loss.

I agree. An increase will make me re-evaluate, what am I doing differently, but I don't get discouraged.

MBrothers22

If you are weighing yourself daily: STOP. Your body naturally floats weight during sleep cycles so you will always be lighter after you wake up. Obviously, you will also be lighter post bathroom uses. Weighing yourself after eating is also pointless as yes! you will weigh more temporarily until the food breaks down and you burn up the calories.

At best, monitor your weigh from week to week, and do it at the same time. I like to do it sunday mornings so I can compare myself to previous weeks.

I weigh every day and will continue to do so.
Saying for everyone that does that to STOP is a pretty dumb statement.
I like numbers and seeing what food and other activities do to my weight and obviously it hasn't been detrimental to my weight loss or attitude.

MBrothers22

LOL. I weigh daily. Its just a number. Its data. End of story.
I dont get off the scale when it increases and have a bad day or hate myself. I dont weigh more than once in a day hoping for a different result. I dont think about it after I hop off. I record if necessary and move on. Quite frankly, I dont have my lowest weight every Sunday morning at 8am. I track my lows as I get new ones. I am allowed to go up and down and all over in any given week, I am looking for a new low.

Just about every friend in my FL who does a weekly tracking gets obsurdly discouraged when they have an increase. They pin all their hopes and motivation on achieving a loss on a specific day and it hurts to watch them fail because at a set time on a set day they didnt experience a loss.

Exactly this.
I write down my weight every Thursday morning but I'm the same way when it comes to putting it in MFP. This is why some 7 day periods I don't lose any weight and then others I lose 5. That sudden drop in weight was just a day away and the next 7 days the weight comes off quicker.
I feel people who get discouraged over the scale just aren't informed enough about weight loss and it's unfortunate

mathandcats

I weigh myself every morning, because I know my weight can fluctuate a lot, and from previous attempts at weight loss I know that if I only weigh once a week and the scale doesn't move (or moves up!) after one week, I will feel very discouraged. But if I'm weighing daily, I don't expect to see a change, so I don't get disheartened when it doesn't happen, or even if it goes up a bit.

Edit: as an example, yesterday read my first foray into one-derland again (yay!!), but today it says I'm back up to 201. If this was a change over a 1 week period I would have been upset.

Soccermavrick

At first I would weight myself randomly through out the day. Though honestly I learned to only count one as official. Like I normally weight in Friday morning before showering. (By picking one day and time, you stay consistent on the swings that your body has, and big meals, or bodily functions have on you to some extent.)

Though if you are just starting out, I cannot recommend enough, true pictures (you do not have to post - just for you to compare to,) and measurements. Because as I have gotten closer to my goal weight means far less to me. And I know I wish I had a few tracked my starting numbers better.

OnU2nite

I weigh in once a week. Weight is only part of the equation.

Riddle me this.... In 1 week I gained +1 lb. But my body fat dropped almost one percent. .......... Is that Progress?

Absolutely! But how would I know that if all I looked at was the scale?

Do yourself a favor. Look at body fat % and measurements along with that number. Pictures work great as well. Progress is probably there, you just haven't been looking in the right place.

Springfield1970

And the answer is......don't use scales or hand held devices to measure body fat.

You can only gain .5lb of muscle per week.

You can't also lose 1.5-2lbs of fat at the same time either.

The elements being measured here include water, bone density, gut contents, glycogen, fat and muscle.

You just didn't lose 1% fat in a week.

Sorry, thought I'd clear that up.

You look good though!

seltzermint555

LOL. I weigh daily. Its just a number. Its data. End of story.
I dont get off the scale when it increases and have a bad day or hate myself. I dont weigh more than once in a day hoping for a different result. I dont think about it after I hop off. I record if necessary and move on. Quite frankly, I dont have my lowest weight every Sunday morning at 8am. I track my lows as I get new ones. I am allowed to go up and down and all over in any given week, I am looking for a new low.

Just about every friend in my FL who does a weekly tracking gets absurdly discouraged when they have an increase. They pin all their hopes and motivation on achieving a loss on a specific day and it hurts to watch them fail because at a set time on a set day they didnt experience a loss.

exactly this!

DebSM2

Normally I try once a week, sometimes I step on to check during but Wednesday is official. I did weigh on Monday to see if I was on track for hitting a mini goal and I had done. This morning my official weigh in showed that I was .2 lbs from my goal. So, I did my scheduled run, came home, drank a few ounces of water, weighed again, and recorded that because I met the goal after 30 minutes of jogging. What a cheater!

I see how silly it is to be obsessed with that number, given instances like this, and this is the first time that I weighed after my morning jog just for the number. If I hadn't met the goal, my day would have continued as usual and I still would have had a scoop of Culvers vanilla frozen custard because I was on my preschooler's field trip and part of it was the tour and the treat. If I weighed now I understand that it would likely be up, but it wouldn't be from the custard...free custard is calorie free, no? (My jog cancelled it out nicely!)

Trying to stick to once a week, not bothered by fluctuations the wrong way so long as they are not becoming the status quo.


ETA: I did miss the point...the difference between being vigilant and obsessed...for me, the scale isn't something to be vigilant or obsessed over at all ...did I just contradict what I said above ? The thing to be vigilant about is calories in, calories out. THAT needs vigilance, but obsessing over that would also not be good. So scale-wise, I agree with those who said that it is simply a data point.