What's your "scale policy"?

sclarktiw

I weigh myself 3 times daily, once in the morning (step on thrice and do the match game just like you) and when I get home from work at 6pm and then at night time before bed.

I know that my weight in the AM will be about 1.1-1.3 lbs lighter.

The only issue is that not all scales are the same, i bought a digital just the other day and it reads 4 lbs heavier, and when I go home (as I work on the road in the oil patch industry) the scale there is 3 lbs heavier...so that part is frustrating.

But no matter what scale I use, they all agree that I am NOT 295 lbs anymore, that I am somewhere in between 233.4-237.4 and that is all that matters...

Good luck on your journey!

Feel free to add me as a friend.

SpecialSundae

My personal trainer insists that I should weigh myself every day, but I don't have a scale at home so I weigh myself every working day at 11:30am (can't do first thing in the morning) in light clothes with no shoes. On the plus side, that does mean that I'm weighing myself on very high quality scales rather than cheap, naff ones.

KathyPBiles

I weigh every Friday morning on my personal scale at home. It has agreed with my doctor's scale each time I have visited their office, so I am happy. Going to London this weekend and not packing my scale because of the weight of it. Hopefully they will have one at the hotel so that I won't have to skip my weigh day (even though it will be a different scale).

feltlikesound

To clarify, I weigh myself rarely -- and am currently using measurements as my "fitness goal" weight marker. I care very little about my scale number, but I do want to achieve a healthy weight for my height. I pulled it out this morning out of pure curiosity.

I did not realize there was so much to think about when using a digital scale (i.e. the fact I move it right before weighing myself). I am going to have to check my behavior and see what might be impacting it.

erg2013

Start off by return the scale to the store and get your money back.

Look in the mirror every few days and take a snapshot on your phone. Compare the pictures. If you're eating right and exercising correctly, the results you need will show on your BODY. Not on the scale.

No scale = better weight-loss journey.

BOOM!!!

I agree here. I am only going to weigh once a quarter. I don't even own a scale.
It is all about how my clothes fit and inches lost.
I decided on this because the first month I had lost no pounds, but clothes were looser.

3foldchord

Of my digital scale gets moved or has been awhile, I have to 'tap it' to 'zero it out' before an accurate weight..So I guess your first weight (170) was your tapping to re-adjust it, making your second weight the 'real one'

twelfty

once a week on a monday at work same time, same clothes, once only but then i have to stand on and off of it about 3 times because it's one f those digital scales that doesn't have an on off button and comes up error lol... not sure if it's me that gets confused or it

i think scales are important, "judging your weight" in the mirror can be dodgy people look at themselves and may think fat or skinny or ugly or pretty or.... etc etc but isn't always the case, you can look at yourself one week in the best mood and think hell yeah! and the next look and think nah it's still not good enough.... scales give you a clear cut answer (hopefully) and you take whatever the result is and if it's good, feel good! if it's not so good, don't ignore it think what caused that? what could i do better, improve your plan, up excersize, lower calories, cut out snacks (or vice versa for us gainers!) and move on.

the scales are your friend they give the honest answer most wont, it's how you take it and deal with it

NatsukoG

I Every once in a while I'll set my dumbells on it to check for accuracy,and it's always right on target.

What a fantastic idea!

scanners107

I weigh myself every Sunday morning, straight out of bed.

jumpingsquare

I just went from a Taylor BF Scale to the Fitbit Aria scale. Both give slightly different numbers each time I weigh, so I've just gotten in the habit of taking the first one I get. If nothing else, it 'wrong' the same way every day.

And I weigh every single day. While, I know that's not good for long term psyche, I've found that for myself, it's more important to get into the routine of doing the same thing every day, rather than just weighing on a Friday, and then forget the following Friday, making it that much easier to forget every Friday going forward.

LikeNoOneElse84

I weight myself once a week in the morning. I always weigh myself in nothing but bra and panties. The floor is level so it doesn't matter where I put the scale, but I do tend to put it in the same position. My scale has been fairly accurate, save a few ounces, since the day I bought it two years ago. I spent about $30 on it. It's one of those digital ones.

Donnacoach

I am trying to teach myself that scales are over rated. It's not the just the pounds that count, it's the inches you've lost, and how you feel about you. MY SCALE IS EVIL!!!!! That's what I've named it.....I know I've lost weight because people are telling me I look great and so on. Good luck

HealthWoke0ish

My policy? Don't hit it with a baseball bat. Good policy, no?

sardesc

I weigh myself with the Wii Fit every Sunday morning. It's nice because of the graph and BMI tracking. I weigh myself for interest's sake, but I base my progress on the spreadsheet I made with my measurements (upper chest, chest, biceps, waist, hips, thighs, calves). The scale can't show you progress the way your body measurements can.

marissa3209

I also weigh once a week, on Saturday morning, after using the restroom, with minimal clothing. My scale can seem to fluctuate a bit too. I do think that my scale is saving my last weight as another poster stated...

Liatush

I, too, have a scale with a mind of its own - it gives me different readings in one weigh-in session- I take the most consistent number (if it shows up more than once)... I also meassure though, so that helps keep it real.

HapThompson

When I started my weightloss journey, I refused to weigh myself and was convinced that i'd measure the changes by taking measurements and photographs. This was fine for the first six weeks but it did lead to me having doubts... "what if i'm not really losing and it's all just an illiusion"? I have OCD, so I sometimes struggle to convince myself that things really are the way they are (yes i've really turned off the lights, yes that surface really is clean etc etc) so I was finding the pictures and measurements and even the smaller clothes unconvincing...

I was scared to weigh myself because I was worried about what the number would be (which I realise now is stupid because I didn't need the scales to tell Me I was fat, I already knew that), but then my friend told me how much she weighed and I looked at her and thought to myself "well, i'll definitely weigh less than her" (*****y, I know) so I went out, bought fairly expensive digital scales, took a deep breath and went for it. I know it sounds like it wasn't a big deal, but I hadn't weighed myself since I was 12 years old (i'm 34), and i'd developed a bit of a phobia about it (can't believe i'm admitting this on the internet...) so it was a huge, momentous, life changing moment for me. The scales said I weighed 3lbs less than my friend which I was miffed by, as she was at that point 3 dress sizes bigger than me, but at least I knew.

I decided at that point that I was going to weigh myself every day, morning and evening, so that I could track the changes. It was a good way to break the phobia. So that is what I do. It was hard for the first two weeks, watching the numbers going up and down and feeling despondent every time the reading was higher, but after a week i'd lost weight overall, and after a second week the same had happened and I realised that if I could ride out the ups and downs and "trust the process", that my weight would decrease.

That was in November, and i've lost 29lbs since then, still weighing myself twice a day every day. It works well for me, has completely demystified the scale and made me realise that it's just a number. I have a spreadsheet with my weigh ins logged so I can see the graph and look at trends and track the general overall movement downwards and I update MFP every time my weigh-ins reach a new low (so close to Onderland I can smell it, 2 lbs to go!).

I think that tracking the daily fluctuations has made me more aware of how what i'm eating affects my body, and I can now predict that i'll be up by a certain amount if I eat x, y or z. I can tell if i've eaten more sodium than I usually would, I can see how having higher calorie days seems to help me suddenly drop, I can see the effect of my fast days... It gives me info and as a scientist at heart the more data the better...

I weigh in my underwear or nothing at all, in the same place at approximately the same time every morning and evening. In the evening I weigh just before I eat my dinner, in the morning it's first thing after a bathroom visit. I step on and off the scales three times at least and i always let the scales witch themselves off again completely before I step back on, otherwise they seem to "remember" the previous weight. I log the number that appears most with a "best of three" approach.

I appreciate that my method wouldn't work for alot of people but it has been refined and honed and is absolutely perfect for me. i still take the photos and measurements too, but now I feel like I can back them up with cold hard facts.

Apologies for the long post btw!

lbd2014

I don't actually own a scale...sometimes I wish I did, but most of the time I know I'd get a little neurotic about it. So the only times I'll weigh myself is when I'm at the gym (right after a work out, before getting in the shower) and when I'm at my mom's house (she has one of those really nice digital Weight Watchers scales). So far this is working for me and I've lost 1.5lbs over the last week and I definitely feel it in my clothes. Everyone's different in their opinions as to when to weigh-in or not but as long as what you're doing works for you keep doing it. :flowerforyou: Best of luck to everyone :happy:

GoffGirl1029

i weigh myself on the same day, once a week. First thing after I wake up and pee, and naked. Then I ignore the dang scale for the rest of the week I'm learnin' to rely more on what my reflection is sayin', how my clothes are fittin', the strength that I am gainin' and the amount of muscle tone I can see from week to week to judge my progress.

Babeskeez

1) the scale is a lying c*nt
2) Measurements are way better, so are reactions from family after they havent seen you for 3 weeks.
3) see 1.

megsmom2

I weigh myself...every now and then. Every month or so. That number isn't that important to me.