How Do You Track/Record Your Weight While in Maintenance?

TravelDog14

My first OP here in the maintenance group so bear with me.

Question on how you track your weight while maintaining.

Since I started MFP I weighed myself every 10-16 days during the losing weight process.
Now that I'm in maintenance, I've been sticking with that schedule, and I know there will be weight fluctuations of a few pounds either way.
I don't know if it's a positive or negative reinforcement for me to then enter these changing weights on MFP.

Curious to hear how other "maintainers" track where they are weight-wise. And by how many pounds do you let yourself fluctuate up or down before you feel like you need to actively try to lose again?

I realize some "maintainers" have tossed out the scale, but I'm not at that point yet so am hoping to hear your strategies for how you track that you're still where you should be weight-wise.

cbfliz

I've always been one to weigh myself pretty much every day but whatever my weight is on a Tuesday is the one I've recorded on MFP. I find it interesting to observe the various fluctuations and don't get overly concerned if there is an upwards shift at any point. It usually seems to balance itself back out again.

I've been playing around with maintenance calories for a few months now and feel like I've worked out where those should be, so my most recent step is to not log food on the weekends. So far this is also working out well. However I think if my weight was to go up by 4-5 pounds I would then look at tracking weekends again to get it back down and try and use that knowledge to work out where I may have gone wrong.

momzeeee

I weight myself everyday out of habit and don't see that changing anytime soon. I actually did not track anything while I was actively losing weight, but due to continued weight loss after I transitioned into maintenance, I joined mfp to start tracking my calories and macro percentages. So, I guess I'm doing this tracking thing backwards lol. I'm hoping by tracking for a while, it will give me the info I need to tweak maintenance, to get it stabilized. After that happens I shouldn't have to track anything anymore.

TravelDog14

Thanks for sharing your experience momzeeee and cbfliz.

I can have a bit of an obsessive streak so I've stayed away from every day weighing.
I don't think I'm anywhere near stopping logging (even on weekends) since it will probably be a few months before my calorie needs are sorted for maintenance.

Probably a 5 pound gain would put me back watching much closer, hopefully any gains less than that won't stress me out too much.

momzeeee

Thanks for sharing your experience momzeeee and cbfliz.

I can have a bit of an obsessive streak so I've stayed away from every day weighing.
I don't think I'm anywhere near stopping logging (even on weekends) since it will probably be a few months before my calorie needs are sorted for maintenance.

Probably a 5 pound gain would put me back watching much closer, hopefully any gains less than that won't stress me out too much.

Yep, a maintenance 'window' of several pounds is a good way to stay on track, but not lose our minds when the scale fluctuates a bit Mine is a 3 pound window, except when it's that time of month and then I don't' even bother weighing myself lol.

JesterMFP

I weigh myself every day, pretty much. It's just a habit now, although I've noticed that I do sometimes forget since I've been maintaining. I don't really want to stop weighing as I've heard so many stories about how easy it is for the weight to creep back on without keeping an eye on it. I may scale it back to weekly or monthly eventually, but I don't think I'll ever stop.

I never enter my weight on MFP any more. I have a spreadsheet on my computer in which I record my weight, measurements, workouts and any general notes. I do love playing around with the numbers & graphs though; I can see how that would definitely be too obsessive for some people! If I get bored, Ill stop and maybe just track it by hand in a notebook or something.

As for a fluctuation range - I haven't really worked that out yet. I've been maintaining for about 6 months, and to be honest, I haven't really got my head around whether I'm happy at this weight or want to drop a few more pounds. I keep changing my mind. I have a number above which I don't want to go, and would actively cut calories again if I went above it, but if I do end up losing a little more, I guess that upper limit will decrease a little too.

dorothytd

I weigh myself most days and have a 3 pound range where I like to stay. Once a week is probably good for maintenance and recording. It has been interesting over the years to see the fluctuations for things like sodium, TOM, and in the last year or so, muscle holding water after strength workouts. I try not to be obsessive about it, and focus on my health and my clothes fitting!!