Why do people weigh themselves so much?

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  • Leisarene
    Leisarene Posts: 9 Member
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    I have been weighing myself every morning after or before I shower but berfore I eat or drink anything. Hoping someone can
    give me some advice though. I have been watching my calories and exercise to get the intake down to 1200 or 1500 but I seem
    to not lose the weight. I never paid attention to the carbs until now and was shocked how much I have been taking in. Can someone help me that may be on a "low carb" plus watching the calories. How many carbs to you take in? And do you still excercise to get the calories to 1200 - 1500 since low carb has high calories? HELP!!!!! Thanks. Discouraged but not giving up!
  • conniehv40
    conniehv40 Posts: 442 Member
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    I weigh myself daily because.... I am a cheater. If I have gone down, I get excited and try hard not to cheat by snacking too much. If I have gone, not excited and want to try harder.

    If I don't weigh myself every day then I think-ah, who cares, I'll just eat whatever and pretend I won't gain...

    I also enter it daily because I use it as a motivator. When I get mad I gained 1.4 pounds this week, I look at where I was 360 days ago and feel better.
  • nokanjaijo
    nokanjaijo Posts: 466 Member
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    I'm a mathematician. I don't respond emotionally to the scale. I know it is one data point. It's just more data. I like a lot of data. I weigh myself at least twice a day. That way, I know what my trough is.
  • plynn54
    plynn54 Posts: 912 Member
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    I like to weigh myself at night and in the morning, I just find it intersting there can be a 5lb difference after some sleep lol, maybe I should sleep more lol
  • tootoop224
    tootoop224 Posts: 281 Member
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    Knowledge is power. I weigh in everyday, track it in a spreadsheet. Iunderstand how my food and exercises affect the scale and it helps me make better choices.
  • clubbybear
    clubbybear Posts: 30 Member
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    I like to weigh myself at night and in the morning, I just find it intersting there can be a 5lb difference after some sleep lol, maybe I should sleep more lol

    I do this also, usually have a 2 - 3 pound loss overnight. Always wonder where the weight goes during the night.
  • smitty24
    smitty24 Posts: 63
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    Whilst I record my weigh-ins only weekly, I like to keep a tab of how I'm tracking daily. Yes, it keeps me motivated and I like the science behind it, I like numbers, I like monitoring intake. I understand any fluctuations that may occur - it keeps me accountable and focused. And it confirms to me when I can make allowances ie. a reward every now and then. (if I so desire).
  • diane1223
    diane1223 Posts: 43 Member
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    Makes me more aware! If I go awhile without weighing, I usually have a gain because I've not been as careful!
  • MariaHammer750
    MariaHammer750 Posts: 86 Member
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    I have weighed myself daily as I suffer with IBS and knowing the fluctuations helped me. I will now weigh once a week on a Friday and will be better able to gauge any gains or loses depending on what my body is doing.


    ^^^^^^^^^I did the same because for me, its was good to know that the gain was not because I ate too many calories but because of the kind of food I ate. Now I know if I gain, it is because I ate beans or too many fibery foods the day before.
  • Kristina0202
    Kristina0202 Posts: 188 Member
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    It is mostly a bad habit for me. I try to hide the scale for a few days but then get anxious and put it back out again. Also, I like knowing where my weight is at all times. I don't want to weigh in once every week and be disappointed because it's the same is it was the week before.
  • Xiaolongbao
    Xiaolongbao Posts: 854 Member
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    I don't get it. I don't want to see the flucuations. They drive me crazy. Also, I would never weigh myself immediately after a bad day of eating. Why would you want to see a gain????? Your body has to have time to adjust. Maybe it's motivation for others but it seems insane to me.

    Why don't people understand that everyone's different? I love weighing myself repeatedly. I like to weigh myself, drink water, weigh myself again. If I feel the need for a giant poo I like to weigh myself before and afterwards. If I eat out I like to weigh myself the next morning to see what effect all the salt has had on my body. Seeing a gain doesn't bother me because I know it's all part of the normal up and down.

    I only record once a week and that's the number I judge off but I find it fascinating to see how different things affect my body.
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
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    Data freaks -- do you actually know the accuracy of your scale? I've tried to figure out the +\- accuracy of different scales on amazon, but they don't say. I kno digital readouts aren't always actually accurate to the decimals they read out (digital fever thermometers read to the nearest 0.1, but for charting basal temp they're only accurate to 0.2, which isn't good enough to detect trends...

    Are any of the home scales actually accurate to a tenth of a pound, or even a whole pound? Growing up, the spring scales everyone had were only accurate to the nearest 2 pounds (if expensive) or 5 pounds (if cheap)

    Digital scales that 'tare' every time you turn them on should be accurate + or - the greatest possible error. So my scale this morning said 165.4. The greatest possible error should be .05. So my weight as of right now is 165.4 +or- .05. Although since my scale only measures in increments of .2 it is actually more likely that it is + or - .1.

    Mine was maybe 20 bucks but it is the same measurement as when I go to the doctor and use their huge scale (minus a couple pounds for clothes).
  • Spartan_Maker
    Spartan_Maker Posts: 683 Member
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    Hey, tb. Data collection and analysis. A lot can be learned from the data, thereby alleviating the anxiety.
  • rachpetersen
    rachpetersen Posts: 265 Member
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    Also, I mentioned to my friends today how the scale LIES! I weighed myself as soon as I woke today and was a certain weight, then after the shower (dry hair, dry body, no food still) and gained a pound and a half in that 20 minutes :laugh: It reminds me that I shouldn't trust the scale and pay attention to my inches and my clothes :smile:

    you probably did gain weight in the shower...your hair would have been wet...adding at least a pound. so your scale probably is fairly reliable.
  • peacefulsong
    peacefulsong Posts: 223 Member
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    Since someone hared the existence of the Libra app the other day, I now weigh myself daily just so I can input a new number. It excites me!

    edit: Seriously, I get up, pee, get naked, weigh myself, and login to the app and update, lol :)

    haha that is me exactly. I do the same, and I looove the Libra app.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
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    I usually weigh daily and sometimes at different times of the day ... I don't stress over it. I only record at the beginning of the month and new lows. Probably the more accurate way would be to record only once per week and not according to new lows and such. I don't stress over the short term fluctuations... only when I see a trend.
  • NCchar130
    NCchar130 Posts: 955 Member
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    I don't get it. I don't want to see the flucuations. They drive me crazy. Also, I would never weigh myself immediately after a bad day of eating. Why would you want to see a gain????? Your body has to have time to adjust. Maybe it's motivation for others but it seems insane to me.

    I felt exactly this way at the beginning. I only weighed myself a couple times a month, actually, and I had to drive to my mom's house to do it.

    After about 3 months, I had no change over a couple of those weigh-ins and had no idea what was happening...if I was in a plateau or what. And I freaked out a little because I didn't know if I needed to lower my calories or what. Eventually I learned here on the forums that muscles retain water when they are extremely sore and it so happened that was the month I really upped the intensity of my workouts.

    Anyway, at that point, I decided I'd rather weigh more often so I bought a scale and started weighing daily. I've found it fascinating actually. I learned here that ibuprofen and other NSAIDS cause water retention. I knew of course about monthly hormone fluctuations and sodium. I find it fascinating instead of demotivating! I once gained 8 pounds overnight haha after eating Chinese food for lunch and pizza for dinner. Gone in 2 days (and another pound with it). I've learned from daily weighing that I'm not going to show a loss during 2 weeks of every month (hormones) and then I'll lose all that water and some additional weight in the week after. Popping a few Advil over the course of a day means 1-3 pounds up the next day. I just find it interesting, not sure why.

    One point that really has hit home from doing this is how many things affect that number other than body fat which has kind of freed me from caring so much about the dreaded number. Unlike that month I was talking about above, I now trust that whatever the scale says, if I'm meeting all my goals, I don't have anything to worry about. The weight is coming off, even if I can't measure it with the scale. When weighing only once or twice a month, if I happened to weigh during the wrong time of the month, or while retaining water for some other reason, thinking I'd had no progress for 3 weeks (!) was pretty discouraging.
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
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    I weigh myself almost every day, right when I get up in the morning and after I've used the bathroom. As someone who NEVER used a scale previously and had no idea what my weight was before I decided to lose some, the scale was at first a huge motivator. Seeing the scale move in the right direction on a regular basis made me want to keep going. In fact, not weighing (or measuring) myself during previous attempts to lose weight was probably the biggest reason I stopped trying. The inches and/or pounds may be coming off, but it can take our brains a long time to realize it by sight alone.

    Now that my weight loss is slowing down a bit, I weigh partly to stay on track and partly out of curiosity. I like being able to see how my body reacts to hormonal changes, workouts, water, sodium, food, etc. For me, knowledge is power. I don't just want to see the weight coming off - I also want to understand how and why! The daily variations don't freak me out, they actually make me feel better. :smile:
  • peacefulsong
    peacefulsong Posts: 223 Member
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    Data freaks -- do you actually know the accuracy of your scale? I've tried to figure out the +\- accuracy of different scales on amazon, but they don't say. I kno digital readouts aren't always actually accurate to the decimals they read out (digital fever thermometers read to the nearest 0.1, but for charting basal temp they're only accurate to 0.2, which isn't good enough to detect trends...

    Are any of the home scales actually accurate to a tenth of a pound, or even a whole pound? Growing up, the spring scales everyone had were only accurate to the nearest 2 pounds (if expensive) or 5 pounds (if cheap)

    We used to have a digital scale and I hated it. I could get on and off three times and have variations of as much as 2 or 3 pounds sometimes, depending on if I was standing slightly more off center or something. A few years ago as a birthday present to myself I got one of those eye level medical scales with the weights and I am so glad I did, it's great. It might not read to the tenth of a pound but I feel better about how accurate it is.

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