How often to you weigh yourself?

TheShrinkingKween

I weigh and measure once a month. I decided this was the way I would do it when I began this journey. I was afraid that, like you, I would become obsessed with that number on the scale and get to the point that I would weight myself every day, or even multiple times a day. I wanted this journey to be more about becoming healthier than about a number on a scale. And I knew that if I weighed often, the focus would change and I would be setting myself up for failure. In the past, when I have worked on my weight, I have become very easily discouraged when I would see a slight gain, or a 1 pound loss. By weighing once a month, the changes I see are larger, and motivational instead of discouraging. I really urge you to do whatever it takes to break this obsession now. Freeing myself from the number on the scale has made this journey so much easier.

MochaMixAZ

Every morning, but record only once a week. I don't sweat the daily fluctuations, but I find it makes me more mindful.

I've been known to weigh every morning and sometimes in the evening. Not sayin' that's a healthy thing. Heck, I've even weight myself pre and post-bathroom. I think the key is what you do with the numbers...

jofjltncb6

I weigh myself every day. Have nearly every day for many years now. I don't think the practice of weighing yourself daily is unhealthy, it's how you react to the numbers that may or may not be. You could weigh yourself weekly or monthly and still have an unhealthy relationship with it.

So that said, if you don't feel right doing it, then don't do it...but if you're okay with it, carry on.

ETA: Oh, and accept that there will be significant daily fluctuations. I've had as much as 6 pounds before with 2-3 often too. And weighing less frequently doesn't make this volatility disappear either. It's just another reason why scale weight is a crappy metric.

Ejourneys

I wrote the following on another thread:

I weigh myself daily but I take the long-term picture into account. I got into the habit of daily weighing in 2001-2002. During that weight loss I took a weekly average:



The averages give a smoother decrease than either daily or weekly numbers because the fluctuations are evened out.

These days I log only a decrease in weight. This shows my progress from Sept. 2012 to Feb. 2013:



The long stretches between diamonds represent plateaus and are where my scale numbers go up and down and up again for a while, until they continue to go down. I just make sure I'm doing the right things and remain patient.

joenolte

Here's what my wife and I (and several of our friends) do. We weigh ourselves once a week. We try to make it the same day of the week, at the same time of day, because your weight fluctuates throughout the day. We weigh in (and you should wear the same clothes--a sweater and jeans weighs more than a light towel) every Thursday morning (this may be TMI, but you asked!) after our "morning routine" before breakfast--again, equalizing for all variables, as the amount of food you eat or water you drink for breakfast can cause weight variations. I also learned the hard way that pain meds can cause a temporary weight loss. They can cause constipation, which means your waste is staying in your body (and thus not exiting, hence no weight loss, as it's still there). I travel a lot for work, so if I'm not home on Thursday morning, I try to weigh in on Wednesday or Friday (or occasionally Saturday if need be), but always with the same conditions as usual.

By the way, we often do step on the scale at other times, but we don't record the reading because we aren't controlling for the variables the way we normally do. We've just found that it's interesting to see how we fluctuate so that we have a better understanding of our bodies. Good luck with whatever you do!

bornleader79

EVERYDAY!

kgarcia1125

Wow I do the same

BrendaLee

I weigh myself most mornings. I like to analyze trends. It's only a problem if it makes you unhappy.

frizbeemom

I weigh myself every day, first thing in the morning after bathroom use and before water and coffee. It helps me stress out LESS by weighing every day because I can see the fluctuations of hormones and water weight more easily than once per week. I track it in a handy dandy spreadsheet along with my calories eaten, burned, macros, emotions, physical aspects, etc. It also keeps weight maintenance on my mind a bit better when I'm tempted to pig out, and I stay on top of true weight gains better. However, I record it in MFP once per week.

Do whatever works for you!

Ang108

Since I tend to get " scale fever " I have given my scale away and I weigh myself every two weeks at my health clinic.
I feel that is enough, because even though I am still new at this I have in 46 days not yet needed a cheat meal and have eaten 98% clean ( the 2% are a few Dorito chips here and there ) and never gone over my calories. I figure weighing myself more often is not going to speed up the process. It is what it is, no matter how often I step on the scale.....:o).
I also measure myself every two weeks during opposing Fridays and have noticed already an all over loss in inches also.

cowboy032587

I only do it once a week. Have a scale at home but don't use it cause i heard barometric pressure can effect digital scales. So I go over to my parents house once a week and use my granddads old doctor scales which are very accurate.

Wanttofeelsexyforonce

When ever I feel like it but only record once a week

crocop1891

I weigh myself on the first of every month. I try to concentrate on just getting through each day: eating well and exercising.

TheVimFuego

July

lillith1991

Once a week.
The scale is NOT your friend. You can have up to 6 pounds of water weight. Your weight will fluctuate and I hate seeing people getting discouraged because of this.

F the scale and get a measuring tape. Stick to measurements not necessarily weight. Remember a pound is a pound is a pound, muscle weighs THE SAME as fat BUT it takes up less space, hence...measurements.

This is what I plan on doing. I haven't truly started my journey yet but doing it more would stress me out too much.

P.s. I love the leopard gecko on your fitness scale! I have one and she is my baby.

ItLiesHeavy37

Every single day, probably about three times a day. I really need to work on that, because its just a compulsion to do it every time I see the scale and it is terribly annoying to see that I'm X pounds heavier which I know is just from daily variation or the food and water I've drank. My goal is to weigh myself only twice a week and count it once a week.

shadow2soul

Everyday. I like to see my weight fluctuations. What the scale reads doesn't bother me because it is only one small piece of the puzzle. I track measurements and BF% on a monthly basis.

I chart everything in excel, so that I can see exactly how I'm progressing.

Overall it really depends on how you react to the number. For me the scale is just one of the many tools to track progress.

celinarae94

Every day or every other day. I'm awful about it.

metacognition

I ignored the scale for weeks when I plateaued. I used it every few days when it started dropping again, out of curiosity. Now I'm in the position of being very close to goal, so I weigh myself every few days to make sure I don't drop weight too quickly or go below it. My goal is a BMI of 20 and I don't want to get too thin.

spaghetti93

doing it every day was stressing me out, now i go for about twice or three times a week. I've started paying more attention to how my clothes fit lately and less to the numbers as I get closer to my goal, though.