Is weighing yourself daily unhealthy?

thekarens

Guess I don't see the point of weighing yourself daily. If you're eating like you should and exercising like you ought to be to me there's no sense in it. Now if I were getting off track I could see why it would be helpful. It would let you know that eating certain things has a specific result.

ivansmomma

I have found that it frustrates me to weigh frequently and watch my weight fluctuate 2-3 pounds at a time. I know I'm eating healthy and exercising/moving every day. As a matter of fact, I weighed this morning, after weighing on Tuesday, and I was up 2 pounds. I got so upset I was ready to give it all up. Will I make it to my goal? I don't know at this time in my life. Will I continue to eat healthy and be active? You bet I will.

I think it's all how you look at the scale. If you can weigh every day, and not get frustrated or upset, then go for it. If weighing in upsets you, then don't do it. I have to continually remind myself that it is just a number, not my score!

susanswan

Does it keep you on track, or encourage an unhealthy attitude to weight?

I keep seeing people getting discouraged and giving up because the number on the scale has gone up, but...if you weigh yourself every day then it will go up, probably as often as it goes down.

I don't own scales and am not a fan of daily weighing. I think once a week is plenty if you are aiming to lose weight, and once a month once you are maintaining. More often and it can become an obsession.

I like to weigh daily. I confess sometimes I see no rhyme or reason why the scale goes up after a "perfect" day. But NEVER has that made me want to give up. I use the information to continually tweak my eating habits, and see the effects of salt and sugar which cause me immediate weight gain. Proud to say I've lost 70 pounds by "watching my weight" on a daily basis!

davitalynette

I don't know about 'healthy' it just pisses me off to weigh myself daily lol weekly is good.

melbot24

It depends on you. I weight myself daily. OK, twice daily. In addition to my morning I usually weight myself again when I get home from work to see how the day is shaping up. I like more information, so to me, weighing myself is exactly that - more data, which helps me make better choices. I know enough to ignore some daily fluctuations and not panic because my weight it up half a pound some morning. But for me, I don't want to wait a week to find out what's going on and make adjustments.

Having said that, I also know some people get obsessed about every tenth of a pound, and avoid the scale for a week or two in order to not drive themselves crazy. That's what works for them.

I think you should weigh yourself as often as you can without making yourself nuts and obsessed.

Well said, I do the same thing. Only once daily - but I like being able to respond quickly to what is happening and make adjustments as soon as possible. It helps me recognize patterns in how my body reacts to certain foods/exercise.
If I tried something new at the gym - I want to know it worked or didn't work.
If I ate something new - same thing.

It's all about how you use it.
But definitely do not beat yourself up over slight fluctuations!

jessicae1aine

It really varies from person to person... I don't have a scale at home because it was giving terribly inconsistent results and finally got so it would just shut off instead of actually weighing anyone. I use the one at the gym, and typically weigh once a week. I've been on some meds that can cause weight gain for a problem with my back, so I've been stepping on it periodically in between to see if I need to adjust somewhere.

HotCuppaJo

It's just a tool, neither healthy nor unhealthy.

Giving up and resolving oneself to obesity is unhealthy. Given a choice between the two, I would pick the scale.

LOVE this ^^^^^^^ What a wonderful point! For me, I weigh daily....keeps me on track and gives me just another reason to keep doing what I'm doing to become healthy and lose weight. MY scale is a MOTIVATOR!!! Lol

emuhawk

I weigh every day and track using an app called Libra. I don't know exactly what sort of formula it uses, but it shows your overall weight trend as a line on a graph, and the small fluctuations won't cause the line to deviate (the individual weight measurements are shown as bubbles either above or below the line). For me, that's really important, because I used to weigh in only once a week, and if the scale happened to be up that day it was hugely demotivating. Now I can look at the graph and see that regardless of those one or two pound blips that happen pretty regularly, I'm still trending in the right direction!

BrendaLee

I weigh myself every morning. Although I'm happier and more motivated on the days when the numbers go down, I've come to realize that the fluctuations are a part of life. I would prefer to weigh once a month and see those big drops, but with a Wii board sitting right in front of the TV, I can't resist. There is a definite benefit, though. I always have my sodium intake in mind, because I know a sodium splurge is probably going to add a pound or two the next morning.

emeraldowl

I usually weigh myself once a week (on a Saturday morning) but for some reason I decided to get on the scales today, two days before this, and was upset to see that it had only moved down 0.25lbs and it has concerned me all day. I have stuck to my calories/macros the same as any other week and I know it is stupid to worry about it as weight fluctuates daily, but this is one of the reasons why I make myself stick to once a week.

toasterlisa

I weigh in almost every day and I believe that I am perfectly healthy.

I feel that it also reminds you of possible slip-ups from the day before; like perhaps too much salty junkfood (not weight gain, but water retention), so maybe more fruits and veggies today to flush out the extra water.

My husband, on the other hand, will weigh in first thing in the morning and right before he goes to bed at night, just to see what the difference is. I think that's weird.

Best wishes on your health and wellness journey!

HealthyAlison

It depends on whether you can see past the daily fluctuations, which are called noise. I look at graphs of data every day and I'm used to sorting out the real info from the noise, so it tends to not stress me out. (Alright, I'll admit to feeling a tinge of regret if I gain a bit and I'm already having a bad day.)

One thing to remeber if you weigh weekly is that the variability still occurs. You just don't have as many data points to tell you if the day you weigh is atypically low or high.

Also, it's safe to assume there is a fair degree of variability in your bathroom scale.

Im_NotPerfect

It keeps me on track. I know to take it with a grain of salt, especially if I had a high salt meal the day before or something. As long as I'm with in .5-1 lb of what I expect to weigh, I'm good with it. But if I'm higher than that, I know to take it easy that day on my calories and really down the water.

MrsTattie

I am amazed at the daily fluctuations! I only really do it out of interest. I can easily be 4lbs higher or more at night. Weighing daily for me is probably good as I now know about these fluctuations and they don't bother me. But if I didn't know, I would be very depressed if I were to suddenly weigh high! But I can see how you could become obsessed. As long as there is a downward trend when you log, that's the main thing. I have had weeks where I have stayed the same or even gained, but I know on average I am doing just fine (also my jeans are telling me that)

jg627

I've weighed myself more than once a day many times. I even weighed myself before and after taking a dump once. It was for 'science'.

fteale

My view is, it is just a tool, but if you are worrying so much about your weight that you have to know what it is every day, that is mentally unhealthy.