DO or DON'T Weight Yourself Everyday??

runningagainstmyself

I tend to weigh myself almost everymorning...and I see a pattern of down 2 pounds one morning, up .8 pounds the next, down 2 pounds, up 1.8 pounds, etc. I'm assuming that this is bloat and salt, so I'm wondering what the best time of day to weigh yourself is and how often you are supposed to?

Once a week, at the same time, with the same kind of weight of clothing on (or none at all) I weigh on Saturdays in the morning after I've had my morning bathroom stop. Any other time in between I won't weigh because weight fluctuates so often during the week from water and food intake alone that you can often shift several pounds in weight over the course of a single day. Once a week at a consistent time will give you a better idea of where you stand in your weight loss journey.

missjennifer1966

I learned in WW years ago to weigh only once a week, preferrably the same day, before breakfast after using the bathroom and in the nude. That is your true weight. Every day will make you feel like a failure.

rodow

Every day, but I use trendweight.com to track my results. This is a great way to visualize your weight loss trend in relation to the daily fluctuations and is based on The Hacker's Diet method.

brittrose33

I weigh myself almost every day, but only because I'm usually curious and it never, ever gets me down or demotivates me. I only record my weight on Thursdays. If I ever start feeling bummed out because of my far-too-often weight-ins, I will quit the habit and just weigh on Thursday. I am more measurement focused, so my weight is more of a fun "what is it today?" activity for me. If my measurements went up or my pants were tight, on the other hand, I would be crushed (unless it was clearly water retention from exercise).

waldo56

Every day. 3x a day, keeing the lowest number.

I"ve done this now for a long time. It doesn't really effect me at all, half the time I forget the number walking between my scale and my computer (5 feet away...)

Its just data. Very useful data.

Weight change data closes the loop. With it you no longer need to estimate what your maintence level is using various throw darts at a board equations and can instead lose/gain/maintain with precision, and need not concern yourself with the hope that what you are doing is working, as you replace "if it is working?" with 'how exact is it working?".

NicoleMensigg

You'll get lots of different answers but I weigh myself every day so that I can see the trend, I don't get hung up on if I'm up 3lbs one day and down 2lbs the next, it's the overall pattern that I like to be aware of.

If I only weigh myself once a week then I find that I have no idea about the overall trend ie, I don't know if I was weighing myself on a 'heavy' day or a 'light' day.

This is what works for me.

This is what I do...most days unless I know I was bad the day before, then I stay off until the next day. I weigh myself in the morning, then at night-to get the trend down. I'm learning a lot about my body (just turned 30 this past year so things are changing) Weighing in keeps me on track and believe it or not helps me stay more focused then if I do not weigh every day. I also keep in mind that while working out things will change...if you lift you'll gain a bit more, if you do cardio you'll lose some...so it's different for every person as the weight issue is with each person. You have to find what works for you...what motivates you..what keeps you on track and stick with that.

willdob3

Hi! I'm Willdob3. I've been successfully using MFP for several months & figured now is as good a time to join the conversations are any.

My take on the scale & weighing follows...

How often one weighs - of if one weighs at all - is going to be different for everyone. If the scale rules your emotions weighing less frequently is in your own best interest.

I weigh every morning, but not right after getting up. I wait a little bit until I have my breakfast ready & then I weigh. I have gone to the bathroom twice by then. I get on the scale three times in a row to see the average. For BF% the time to weigh is in the evening but I rarely do that.

Unlike most women, I do not have "weight" loss goals and the number on the scale does not make or break my day. I do find the scale to be a useful tool. It tells me things like that the dill pickles I ate did not cause me to retain water & that consuming massive amounts of garlic salt did. It tells me when I need more sleep, too.

My concerns are fat loss while retaining LBM & gaining LBM when possible. I want to look good & to feel good. No number on the scale or tape measure is going to automatically grant those things so they are not goals. My goals are behavior-based - eat healthy & exercise. When I meet those goals I burn fat, lose inches and look and feel better. And that is exactly what I want!

chadgard

As several folks have said, there are lots of valid answers. Here's my take:

Your weight can fluctuate 3-5 pounds over the course of a day, and day-to-day. Some folks find this really irritating, and focus on the number, and can't handle seeing it go up and down, so they weigh less frequently, like every week or every month. But, 3-5 pounds of fluctuation is within what a healthy target weight loss for a week is - if your target is 1.5 pounds per week, for example, and you only weigh yourself once per week, if you were on the bottom side of a 5 pound "swing" when you weighed yourself, lost 1.5 pounds that week, and were on the top side of the swing the following week, you'd think you gained 8.5 pounds! That would be rather frustrating!

On the other hand, if you weigh every month, you could actually gain over the course of the month quite a bit before realizing it - counterproductive!

In that discussion, of course, you can flop gain/loose depending on which your goal is.

So, my take? I weigh myself every morning when I get out the shower, and record it. It goes up and down as one would expect. But I track the average weight for the week for my long-term trend. Thus, I get a weight to track myself each week, but smooth out the daily bumps due to normal weight fluctuations. Since doing this, and tracking both calories in and out via MFP and a BodyMedia armband, my weight loss has been very predictable and explainable and made much more sense than past attempts.

yanniejannie

Every morning, after bathroom visit, and naked.
I only record the losses.
Knowledge is power.

KANGOOJUMPS

never, it should be more about feeling good about yourself, not weighing every bloody second.

endoftheside

I weigh daily. It is a first thing in the morning commitment to banishing the ignorance is bliss approach that lets me gain without really noticing. I *love* the fact that I can predict what will happen if my sodium intake is excessively high due to a restaurant meal, and that I can see right there on the scale what is going on if my digestion has gotten out of whack. My weight tends to hold steady (except for temporary upblips due to sodium/digestion) for days or weeks and then drop a couple pounds overnight, so I know to be patient when I am doing everything right and haven't seen a real loss for a while. I never again want to wake up one morning and realize I've gained 30 pounds since the last time I weighed.

I only record when I see a real loss that has stuck around for at least 2 days.