For the people that weigh themselves daily.
breakyoface
Posts: 160 Member
I have been doing this for 46 days now and started at 224 and am now at 210. I weigh myself every morning at the same time and some days it goes down by .1 or .2 and somedays it goes up. For instance, on the 12th I weighed 209.9..13th it was 210.3 and today it was 210.5. I went to the dietitian today and mentioned it and she said to call her in a week to see where I'm at because maybe I'm eating too many calories. I really hope that's not the case because I don't feel that I am..I always have 500 or more calories left for the day after working out 80-90 minutes. Anyways..just curious how your numbers are and how many days they go up before you go down a whole number.
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Replies
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Weight can fluctuate a lot in a week plus the added water weight we women gain each month. I think I heard if you strength train, you do gain a little weight at first as its your body's side effect of repairing the muscle tissue that allows you to get strong. I really woudn't worry about a pound or two here and there. You're doing great!0
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Your weight fluctuates all the time. From water weight, stomach and intestinal contents, bladder fullness, clothing, and just because. None of your fluctuations are indicative of weight gain. If you want to weigh every day, go ahead, but pick one day a week to be your weigh-in day that you record.
Also, MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Some people only eat back a portion, but 500 or more calories is a lot of have left over each day. You should be eating some of those back.0 -
I weigh every day. A half pound 'increase' is nothing. Sometimes my Sunday weight (after my big, salty Saturday) is 2 or 3 pounds more than my Friday or Saturday weigh in. It tends to go down over the course of the week.
There are a lot of factors, including hydration, glycol levels, solid and liquid waste currently in your system, etc. I would expect a dietician would know that. She probably said to call her in a week because by then, you'll probably see it go back down.
Or not. Weight loss isn't linear. I had a 2 week run last month where I didn't lose anything, and then saw 3 or 4 pounds come off the scale in 2 days. I am currently on a 13 day run where I am 1 pound up. But I am expecting that 'woosh' any time. My calorie intake and exercise is in line, so the weight loss will follow.
BTW, I weigh every day because I like looking for that 'new low'. It's because I know weight can fluctuate that I do that. I don't want to miss that low.0 -
I'm trying to keep 500 left so I can try to lose 2lbs a week. I'm not really worried yet, was just curious to see other peoples experiences with weighing daily.0
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If you look at my page I have a screen shot of a 3 month trend and a 30 day trend. The body's weight fluctuates. Sodium, stress, sleep cycle, menstrual cycle all have effects. But the overall trend is downward.
No worries.0 -
Ps-the big spike in the middle of the 30 day chart: SODIUM + TOM. It eventually worked itself out.
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I weigh every day. A half pound 'increase' is nothing. Sometimes my Sunday weight (after my big, salty Saturday) is 2 or 3 pounds more than my Friday or Saturday weigh in. It tends to go down over the course of the week.
There are a lot of factors, including hydration, glycol levels, solid and liquid waste currently in your system, etc. I would expect a dietician would know that. She probably said to call her in a week because by then, you'll probably see it go back down.
Or not. Weight loss isn't linear. I had a 2 week run last month where I didn't lose anything, and then saw 3 or 4 pounds come off the scale in 2 days. I am currently on a 13 day run where I am 1 pound up. But I am expecting that 'woosh' any time. My calorie intake and exercise is in line, so the weight loss will follow.
BTW, I weigh every day because I like looking for that 'new low'. It's because I know weight can fluctuate that I do that. I don't want to miss that low.
This is why I weigh every day and why I don't worry about it if I see a spike. As long as the overall trend is down, I'm good. I tend to be more active on the weekends and can usually post my lowest weight on Saturday afternoons.0 -
Weight spiking is normal if you weigh yourself every day.
Building so much muscle suddenly on a deficit is nonsense though, it is impossible to build that much muscle in that short time if at all on a deficit to acount for the upspikes.0 -
I've been weighing myself daily for well over a year now. I keep a spreadsheet where I do rolling averages, 7-day, 15-day, and 31-day. I don't worry about day-to-day fluctuations, but I keep an eye on the rolling average trends.
However, I do have rather a *lot* of data on day-to-day and rolling average fluctuations:
Over my ~173 lb to ~145 lb weight loss journey:
My biggest single day swing (relative to the underlying modeled trend) was 8.3 lbs. Std. Deviation: 1.51 lbs.
7-Day average biggest swing: 5 lbs. Std. Deviation: 0.996 lbs
15-Day average biggest swing: 3.7 lbs Std. Deviation: 0.782 lbs.
I have estimated my Glycogen (and water) storage to be 8.8 lbs based on my estimated LBM, so these statistics seem quite reasonable to me, especially considering I frequently cycle my calorie deficit.
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TL;DR:
*Daily* weight fluctuations of a few pounds (or even more) are expected and do not indicate calorie surplus or deficit. If you're seeing a consistent weight loss/gain after a *few weeks*, that will tell you if you need to adjust your calories.0 -
I weigh almost every day - which you really shouldn't, especially if the number on the scale tends to freak you out and/or discourage you.
That being said, my weight will fluctuate A LOT at different times. When I first started losing weight, it was steadily decreasing, but now that I've hit my first goal weight and am just going for 10 more pounds, the scale is fighting back. This is also because I'm burning less calories than prior because my body weight has gotten lower. Normally it will range from 124-126, depending on how bloated I am, how much water I've been drinking, etc etc. It will bounce up and down for a good week before finally dropping down again. This has happened for the last 5 or so pounds I have lost. So if you see this happening when you weigh yourself everyday, that's completely normal and expected!
ALSO, my weight jumps up a few pounds during the week of my period. I think this may be normal for most girls - just so you know!0 -
I weigh every day as well, and I see the pattern you're describing. I'll gain for several days in a row - small amounts like 0.4 lb or 0.6 lb - and then after a few days I'll drop it all and then some in just one or two days. My weigh-in today shows that I lost 1.8 lbs since yesterday. But if I compare that to my weight 3 days ago, I've only lost 0.4 lbs. It's just weight fluctuations. I don't understand why it does that, but I don't let it worry me either.
The reason I weigh myself every day is to desensitize myself to these fluctuations. If my weight goes up a little one day, I know that it will go down again if I just stay the course. But if I was only weighing myself every week and these fluctuations showed up on one of my weekly weigh-ins, I would panic because I wouldn't know what's happening in between weigh-ins; I wouldn't recognize that it's normal.
Weight loss isn't linear. If I could figure out how to add a pic to my post I would show you my weight-loss graph, there are a dozen little peaks, but the general trend is downwards. My greatest scare was my last period. Over 2 days I gained almost 4 lbs, held it steady for 3 days, and then dropped it all in one day.
But doing some math: You said you've been doing it for 46 days and you've lost 14 lbs. That's about 2.1 lbs/week. That's excellent loss rate! I don't think you have anything to worry about.0 -
My fluctuations typically look like this...
Monday: weigh in
Tuesday: up
Wednesday: up more
Thursday: up more
Friday: starts to come back down
Saturday: down more
Sunday: usually the lowest
Monday: up from Sunday, but back down or under previous Monday
The only difference between maintenance and weight loss is that I'm in a weekly loop now rather than being down a little more overall on each Monday.0 -
Another thing I've realized is that weighing every day seems to make every pound lost more exciting. I mean, I reached 214 3 days ago and then watched it go up again. So seeing it drop just below 214 this morning was really exciting. And now I'm looking forward to seeing it drop below 213 in a few days. Every day that my weight reaches a new low is a good day. But if that happened every day, I don't think it would make me quite as happy.
Not sure I'm making any sense here, but I thought I'd share that.
I haven't seen a pattern for how long my weight will go up before going down again. But I've seen it happen enough times that when it does, I consider it a reminder to just stay the course.0 -
^^^ I agree, and like was said before, I like to be able to see that new low! If I weighed once per week, I might be on an 'off' day and missed seeing a new record low number
I'm looking to break 204 personally, when I see 203 I'm gonna be stoked! I'll be even happier when I see under 200!0 -
A weeks worth of small daily fluctuations really isn't enough to know if you are eating too much or not. An accurate food log will generally tell you if that is the case.
I weigh daily and my weight is all over the place. The variables that most affect it are the amount of carbs I've eaten the day before, my amount of activity, my hydration and where I am in my cycle. My weight went up every day this week even though I did nothing "wrong" but I'm fully expecting a drop within the next two days because that's what always happens at this time of the month.0 -
I'm trying to keep 500 left so I can try to lose 2lbs a week. I'm not really worried yet, was just curious to see other peoples experiences with weighing daily.
MFP already has that 500 deficit built in. So what you are doing is actually creating a 1000 calorie deficit. (500 from MFP + 500 from you = 1000 calories left per day)
MFP is designed for you to eat back a portion of your calories, since the calorie burned is a calculated estimate it is recommended to eat 50-75% of those exercise calories back.0 -
I've been weighing myself daily for well over a year now. I keep a spreadsheet where I do rolling averages, 7-day, 15-day, and 31-day. I don't worry about day-to-day fluctuations, but I keep an eye on the rolling average trends.
However, I do have rather a *lot* of data on day-to-day and rolling average fluctuations:
Over my ~173 lb to ~145 lb weight loss journey:
My biggest single day swing (relative to the underlying modeled trend) was 8.3 lbs. Std. Deviation: 1.51 lbs.
7-Day average biggest swing: 5 lbs. Std. Deviation: 0.996 lbs
15-Day average biggest swing: 3.7 lbs Std. Deviation: 0.782 lbs.
I have estimated my Glycogen (and water) storage to be 8.8 lbs based on my estimated LBM, so these statistics seem quite reasonable to me, especially considering I frequently cycle my calorie deficit.
---
TL;DR:
*Daily* weight fluctuations of a few pounds (or even more) are expected and do not indicate calorie surplus or deficit. If you're seeing a consistent weight loss/gain after a *few weeks*, that will tell you if you need to adjust your calories.
Wow!!! What is LBM?
I weigh myself every morning. One morning I woke up 2 hours early and weighted myself. I was able to get back to sleep and when I weight myself a second time I had lost 2 pounds in 2 hours. Last night my husband got overseas phone calls all night. I woke up 2 pounds heavier than yesterday. I anticipate after a good night's sleep, those 2 pounds will disappear plus some because I've been under calories.0 -
I tried tracking daily weigh ins through MFP but don't like how the app isn't optimized for that. Plus, friends are thinking I'm gaining weight and dropping it several times a week.0
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Hey OP do you have all your data and access to a spreadsheet? If so, do this:
In the spreadsheet put the date in one column (or just Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 etc) and then your scale weight in a second column and graph that. It will most likely be a line that bounces all over the place but has a somewhat downward trend.
Like this:
If you look close you can see my weight would sometimes spike 4 pounds in a day.
Now, average all the weight values for 7 days (Day 1 - 7) and put that value in a third column next to day 7. Now average all the weight values for 7 days (day 2-8) and put that value in the third column next to day 8. Repeat through all the recorded days.
Now graph that. Chances are taking a 7 day average (called a moving average) will smooth out any fluctuations and you will see a nice clean downward trend.
Like this:
If after months of recording your moving average doesn't show a downward trend then yes you aren't losing fat weight. If it does though you are and you can get an idea of how quickly you are losing. In my example I am losing a pretty steady 1.3 pounds a week which if that trend continues will put me at my goal weight in September.0 -
I've been weighing myself daily for well over a year now. I keep a spreadsheet where I do rolling averages, 7-day, 15-day, and 31-day. I don't worry about day-to-day fluctuations, but I keep an eye on the rolling average trends.
However, I do have rather a *lot* of data on day-to-day and rolling average fluctuations:
Over my ~173 lb to ~145 lb weight loss journey:
My biggest single day swing (relative to the underlying modeled trend) was 8.3 lbs. Std. Deviation: 1.51 lbs.
7-Day average biggest swing: 5 lbs. Std. Deviation: 0.996 lbs
15-Day average biggest swing: 3.7 lbs Std. Deviation: 0.782 lbs.
I have estimated my Glycogen (and water) storage to be 8.8 lbs based on my estimated LBM, so these statistics seem quite reasonable to me, especially considering I frequently cycle my calorie deficit.
---
TL;DR:
*Daily* weight fluctuations of a few pounds (or even more) are expected and do not indicate calorie surplus or deficit. If you're seeing a consistent weight loss/gain after a *few weeks*, that will tell you if you need to adjust your calories.
Wow!!! What is LBM?
I weigh myself every morning. One morning I woke up 2 hours early and weighted myself. I was able to get back to sleep and when I weight myself a second time I had lost 2 pounds in 2 hours. Last night my husband got overseas phone calls all night. I woke up 2 pounds heavier than yesterday. I anticipate after a good night's sleep, those 2 pounds will disappear plus some because I've been under calories.
LBM = Lean Body Mass = every part of you that weighs something that isn't fat0 -
I'm weighing myself daily for 6 months to get a baseline for what my body does, especially around menstruation. It fluctuates a lot. I lost 2 1/2 lbs after sparing hard yesterday despite eating a ton of calories and drinking a ton of water. It just happens. No worries as long as it's generally going down.0
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My weight changes depending on what time of day it is. No worries.0
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Here are my weigh-ins for this week:
128
127
126.8
127.2
126.6
125.6
127
I just have a maintenance range. As long as I'm between 124 and 129 I'm in my normal range. If I start to notice I'm creeping up then I might have an issue. But I wouldn't base that on any one week-- generally I go by 4 week blocks. For example the past month looks like this:
week 1 average: 127.9
week 2 average: 128.2
week 3 average: 128.7
week 4 average: 126.8
If I was going week to week I might be tempted to cut calories after week 2 or definitely after week 3, but waiting another week reveals that I haven't really gained.0 -
I weigh daily and chart like crazy on excel too. I find it fun to see if I can figure out what makes it move around and, well, I'm anal about trends and data.
I also have an app called Happy Scales which does the moving averages for me.
My longest stall was about 3 weeks.0 -
I also do the 7-day moving average thing. The app I use to do this for me is WeightTrend+.
As an example, this is how my last week went:
Wednesday May 7 -- Daily Weight: 202.0, Trend Weight: 204.7 (I entered my trend weight into MFP.)
Thursday May 8 -- Daily Weight: 200.8, Trend Weight: 204.3 (TMI, but I got my period that evening.)
Friday May 9 -- Daily Weight: 201.2, Trend Weight: 204.0 (Note that my daily weight went up, but my trend weight still went down.)
Saturday May 10 -- Daily Weight: 202.0, Trend Weight: 203.8 (Again, daily went up, but trend still went down. Also, Happy 30th Birthday to me!)
Sunday May 11 -- Daily Weight: 202.4, Trend Weight: 203.7 (Daily up, trend down but barely. Happy Mother's Day to me!)
Monday May 12 -- Daily Weight: 200.8, Trend Weight: 203.4 (Daily weight down again...my period lightening up may have something to do with that, but who knows? Trend continues down)
Tuesday May 13 -- Daily Weight: 200.6, Trend Weight: 203.1
Wednesday May 14 -- Daily Weight: 200.4, Trend Weight: 202.8 (Trend weight entered into MFP)
I don't know if that's helpful, but that might give you some insight into how a moving average can help you smooth out those fluctuations. This was my first menstrual cycle since starting MFP. Most days my trend weight goes down by about 0.3 lbs per day. You can see that my period tightened that up, but still kept the downward trend.
One thing that I like about entering the trend weight instead of the actual weight each week is that the losses are more linear. You can see that this week if I had just taken my daily weight on each of the Wednesdays and not stepped on the scale the rest of the week, I would still have seen a 1.6 lb loss. However, there are some weeks when, due to random water retention or whatever, I would not have lost ANYTHING if I had just used my daily weights. This happened to me on Wednesday April 16 -- Wednesday April 23. I was 208.4 lbs on both of those daily weigh-ins. I would have been CRUSHED if I had been weighing myself only once a week. Instead, however, my TREND weight on April 16 was 211.4 and my TREND weight on April 23 was 209.5, so I could see that, overall, I had lost 1.9 lbs since the previous week.
Thanks for asking this question! I enjoyed looking back through all my data!0 -
I weigh myself daily. Usually it tends to go down .2 or .4. However this past week I weighed in at the doctor's office at 197. I've been all excited during the beginning of May because I finally made it to under 200 pounds. Then on the 12th I weighed 201. I did not gain 4 pounds in 6 days! So hopefully it will work itself out...if not maybe I need to not weigh daily!!!
Some people have mentioned apps to track weight...is there any that will track weight and calories and display on the same graph. I know MFP does this but I find that I don't really like their graphs. I could make my own...which I did for the first few months but was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions.0 -
Track the trend.
I don't pay much attention to the actual weight day by day. I watch the overall trend and go from there.0 -
Here are my weigh-ins for this week:
128
127
126.8
127.2
126.6
125.6
127
I just have a maintenance range. As long as I'm between 124 and 129 I'm in my normal range. If I start to notice I'm creeping up then I might have an issue. But I wouldn't base that on any one week-- generally I go by 4 week blocks. For example the past month looks like this:
week 1 average: 127.9
week 2 average: 128.2
week 3 average: 128.7
week 4 average: 126.8
If I was going week to week I might be tempted to cut calories after week 2 or definitely after week 3, but waiting another week reveals that I haven't really gained.
I have the same timeline for adjustments. Sometimes I'm tempted to jump the gun but I always hold out for a full month before I adjust anything.0 -
Here are my weigh-ins for this week:
128
127
126.8
127.2
126.6
125.6
127
I just have a maintenance range. As long as I'm between 124 and 129 I'm in my normal range. If I start to notice I'm creeping up then I might have an issue. But I wouldn't base that on any one week-- generally I go by 4 week blocks. For example the past month looks like this:
week 1 average: 127.9
week 2 average: 128.2
week 3 average: 128.7
week 4 average: 126.8
If I was going week to week I might be tempted to cut calories after week 2 or definitely after week 3, but waiting another week reveals that I haven't really gained.
I have the same timeline for adjustments. Sometimes I'm tempted to jump the gun but I always hold out for a full month before I adjust anything.
I've noticed that I have a low around the same time each month so it seems like a good way to divide the time. I suspect hormones, since my weight always drops right after I start a new birth control pack.0 -
Here are my weigh-ins for this week:
128
127
126.8
127.2
126.6
125.6
127
I just have a maintenance range. As long as I'm between 124 and 129 I'm in my normal range. If I start to notice I'm creeping up then I might have an issue. But I wouldn't base that on any one week-- generally I go by 4 week blocks. For example the past month looks like this:
week 1 average: 127.9
week 2 average: 128.2
week 3 average: 128.7
week 4 average: 126.8
If I was going week to week I might be tempted to cut calories after week 2 or definitely after week 3, but waiting another week reveals that I haven't really gained.
I have the same timeline for adjustments. Sometimes I'm tempted to jump the gun but I always hold out for a full month before I adjust anything.
I've noticed that I have a low around the same time each month so it seems like a good way to divide the time. I suspect hormones, since my weight always drops right after I start a new birth control pack.
Mine actually drops right before. I definitely think hormones play a part, in fluctuations at least.0
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