The Right Way To Weigh Yourself!

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K_Train450
K_Train450 Posts: 122 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone! Real quick and simple. Don't get discouraged when you habitually monitor your weight and the number is not on the steady decline. Here's some tips to get a more accurate window for your weight-
*Measure your weight around the same time of day.
*Be very cautious of sodium intake for the past 3 days-water retention can lead to a heavier recorded weight.
*In accordance with rule 1, the morning is the best time to get an accurate weight measurement(upon waking).
*Weighing yourself after intense cardio with perspiration will deduct the water weight factor from your true weight.
*Wear nothing when you weigh yourself, or wear light clothing.
*Make sure your scale is calibrated if manual, if digital- take 3 measurements and average them together.
*Do not weigh yourself until you have allowed your food and extra liquids to digest and excrete (3-6 hours).
*Never give up, one day of cheating or gaining doesn't mean your goals of being who you want to be are done and failed

Replies

  • cre8vecheryl
    cre8vecheryl Posts: 13
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    Thanks for the scoop!
  • K_Train450
    K_Train450 Posts: 122 Member
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    No prob!
  • Anna800
    Anna800 Posts: 637 Member
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    *Weighing yourself after intense cardio with perspiration will deduct the water weight factor from your true weight.
    I know someone who does this but I don't get it. I drink a ton of water when I workout.
  • HayleyAT
    HayleyAT Posts: 4
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    I used to get so discouraged about the scale until I learned all of this info from my dietician. It's very important to remember all of this so that you don't get down about it!
  • leafstucker16
    leafstucker16 Posts: 136 Member
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    Good tips, thanks buddy!
  • nadinab
    nadinab Posts: 124 Member
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    Thanks for all the great tips mate! I don't rely too much on the scale, even though I do weigh myself.. I get my motivation to keep going from my tape measure!
  • 126siany
    126siany Posts: 1,386 Member
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    *Weighing yourself after intense cardio with perspiration will deduct the water weight factor from your true weight.
    I know someone who does this but I don't get it. I drink a ton of water when I workout.

    When I lived in a warmer climate and ran outdoors frequently, I'd weigh myself pre- and post-run to get an estimate of how much water I needed to drink to make up for the sweating. Sometimes it was a 5 lb difference!

    *note, didn't use that number for weight management--only hydration estimates*
  • kellicci
    kellicci Posts: 409 Member
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    I don't kow if this makes a difference for anyone else but I have long heavy hair and if I wear it up I weigh more.

    So ladies (and guys with long hair) make sure that's the same every time too.
  • OfficiallySexyVal
    OfficiallySexyVal Posts: 492 Member
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    This is the only time I will weigh myself! Otherwise I tend to get discouraged easily!
  • Graceious1
    Graceious1 Posts: 716 Member
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    Great post. It just confirms what I thought I knew.
  • GeekGirl23
    GeekGirl23 Posts: 517 Member
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    very wise sir! Good things to note.

    Also to add.... if you weigh yourself daily you WILL get discouraged. Try to pick one day a week to do so. For me it's Saturday mornings before I get ready for my work out. I find that it's the most accurate and least discouraging for me. I also don't log on weeks in the month that I'm sick or bloated, because those are temporary.
  • melanie3900
    melanie3900 Posts: 28 Member
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    Awesome post! Thanks for sharing!!!!
  • jonnyuns
    jonnyuns Posts: 7
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    Bear in mind that if you have fancy scales that measure your fat content as well as weight then you shouldn't weigh yourself as soon as you get up in the morning. Lying down all night causes some of the fats in your body to re-settle / distribute and give a slightly spurious reading. If you can wait 30 mins after you get up, with the same amount of hydration each time ( eg none or 1 glass ), then you should at least get some reasonable comparative data even if the actual % isn't accurate.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    Also to add.... if you weigh yourself daily you WILL get discouraged.

    This is really only just an opinion, not a fact. I weigh myself daily and find myself much more motivated and diligent than when I weighed weekly. Switching to daily weighing also helped me to discover that a weekly cheat meal was not a functional thing for my body and my weight loss journey. Because by weighing daily, I saw that I would lose a few ounces each day of the week, then have a cheat meal, after which my weight would jump on the scale, and then I'd spend the week just losing that random increase from the cheat meal. So the weekly weighing just showed the same weight every week and I'd thought I was still just stuck in a plateau, but the daily weighing made me see what was happening and I was able to fix it and start seeing true losses on the scale.

    I think that as long as a person is grounded and has knowledge of basic body weight fluctuations (e.g. mine goes up after too much sodium, during TOM, or if I haven't been regular and goes down again as each of those things clear out) that daily weighing is no better or worse in the long run than weekly or monthly weighing. And the daily weighing is what helped me to get a clearer understanding of exactly those kinds of fluctuations and the relationships with what's going on.

    Yeah, for someone that's going to step on a scale and freak out because they're suddenly a pound heavier than they were the day before, it's probably not for them. But I've found it to be extremely valuable and I love the weeks that I see those little steps of ounces coming off and knowing that I'll have a loss to record on my "official" weigh-in day of Saturday.
  • quill16
    quill16 Posts: 373 Member
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    I have weighed myself before and after intense workout and actually lose 2-3 lb during my workout. I sweat THAT much.After my meal and rehydrate I gain back a pound or two and gain steadily throughout the day. I lose 1-2 lbs at night when I sleep.
  • K_Train450
    K_Train450 Posts: 122 Member
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    I am so glad all of you have benefited from reading my article!

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