Weigh Ins

mfpcopine

At least three times a week. I input the results onto a site like this to see the trend. The more data, the more useful the picture.

Tetonia

I have a lot of problems with water retention. For this reason I weigh every day. I can compare how am I feeling and looking to the scale. The trend is what I am looking at, and I use Diet Power to track that information.

Because of the fluctuations I use my lowest recent body weight as my true dry weight, and I use this number to plan with. The number may be higher for a week but usually it will drop to a new low every 7-10 days, then run higher again. Obviously if I haven't hit that number in two weeks then I assume I have gained.

For example, two weeks ago my weight was 125.2, 125.2, 123.8, 124.2, 122.4, 121.2, 123.4, 125.2. I went by 121.2 as my new weight. The next week I stayed at 122.2 for 6 days straight, dropped to 120.8, and today I am back to 122.2. 120.8 is now my new number.

If I only weighed once a month, that would give me 30 days to not know that my weight is trending up. To me that is a setback. As other people have said, if last week my weight was at a low, and the next week was a high water retention day and was higher, that would make me think I was gaining. I could probably get away with weighing once a week but the fluctuations don't affect my behavior and I know they are normal, and in fact, support sticking with my program so that I don't freak out over being a little up.

I also measure every two weeks and use handheld monitor to calculate body fat percentages so that if the scale is not changing I can see the changes other ways.

QueenofScott

I have chosen to weigh weekly. I would rather see a bigger loss from a week of work, rather than a small change day to day (or possibly a little gain or no loss). Now, I do think a daily weigh-in might be helpful when I hit goal, to try and keep myself in check.