Why I weigh daily (repost)

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  • kaseymei
    kaseymei Posts: 164
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    Very interesting.. Thanks for sharing. Really helps put things in perspective!!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,663 Member
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    Nothing wrong with weighing daily as long as you're not living and dying by the numbers on the scale.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • SunnyH137
    SunnyH137 Posts: 1
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    Thanks for sharing this. I am very new to this site. I too weigh daily--sort of. I am blessed to be able to split my time between the city where I work half the week and the mountains on weekends. My city scale is very unreliable, sometimes showing a three pound loss when there isn't any. DH still likes it, so we keep it. In the country I have a newer and reliable scale and when I'm there I weigh every morning. While I was on WW I used to not enter in my weight if I gained. No more! Here I will enter the truth, and your post helped me to see how it will help rather than hurt.
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    too lazy to weight in every day,
    but I get your point :)
  • salladeve
    salladeve Posts: 1,053 Member
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    For me I weight daily because I can't trust that I actually lost unless I see the progression on a daily basis. I know that might not make sense, but if I get on the scale once a week and it said that I lost 2.6 lbs (like I did this week), I would not believe it, or log it because I would think it is the scale or something else, never that I actually lost (I know I have mental problems, LOL). If I'm weighing every day I see the progression even if it is just a fraction of a lb.

    I know this doesn't make sense but I have tried every crazy diet out there for over 40 years now and this is really the first time that I can say I don't FEEL like I'm on a diet, therefore it is always a shock when I get on the scale and it is down (even by a fraction).
  • DanIsACyclingFool
    DanIsACyclingFool Posts: 417 Member
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    I've said it before. It's precisely because your weight fluctuates hourly that you need to weigh MORE often, not less.

    If you are going to weigh yourself and use it as a metric of change you must weigh often and consistantly. Anything less and you are missing the data. My graph is steadily downward too but WAY more erratic than OPs and by several lbs. There is NO WAY weighing less often than daily will yield me useful information.I usually do twice a day. Oh, and record every weight, not just the losses, or losses that persist 3 days, or only on Fridays, etc.

    If my program isnt working I'll see it within 10 or 12 samples, maybe even take a few more to be sure before I go changing everything around. So maybe 14 days and I'll know whether or not I'm responding or not because I'll have a statistically significant sample. Weekly weighers won't know ANYTHING from their WEIGHT for at least 2 weeks, and won't be able to draw firm conclusions from their weight for something like 3 months. Monthly weighers need a year for the same validity. So they'll have to use something else...nsv's, inches, whatever to know whether their program is doing anything for them. But inches won't work on everyone, they don't work on me for example, because my fat distribution pattern is so spread out. I have to lose many lbs to see a change on a measuring tape. And the change is so subtle, I can't even be sure its not measurement error.

    If your body shows you your program is working in some other fashion, terrific. Weight is just a number for you. If you want to weigh for fun, general interest, giggles, fine, do it when you feel like it. If the scale triggers unhealthy behavior, I get it. Don't weigh! But if you're weighing for a reason, ie to gauge your progress, you NEED to weigh often. Anything less, and you are violating a fundemantal rule in signal sampling called the Nyquist limit and your data is aliased (ie it's a misleading respresentation of your true weight pattern).
  • BernerValet
    BernerValet Posts: 5
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    I also Daily Weigh and I agree 100%.. More numbers make it easier to establish an accurate trend line and moving average. More Data provides a more accurate picture over time - Just like tracking stock movements. All Data goes in The Moving Averages and Trend Lines smooth out the daily fluctuations - and the big picture appears.
  • pwittek10
    pwittek10 Posts: 723 Member
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    I weigh every morning and every night
    I just like to know where I stand
  • 257_Lag
    257_Lag Posts: 1,249 Member
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    What are all the vertical white lines on either side of the orange one supposed to indicate?

    The tips of the vertical lines are the daily weights. If it is above the orange line then it is the top of the vertical line that is the days weight. If it is below, then it is the bottom of the vertical line.

    The orange line is determined by the average of the past X number of days.

    To all my fellow Libra users, I only recently found a setting called "Smoothing Days" under settings-advanced settings that controls how much each days value affects the trend line. Play with it, very cool.
  • Daisyboohoo
    Daisyboohoo Posts: 84 Member
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    I also weigh daily! It really motivates me! If I loose I feel way to go - Yeah, and if I pick up I know I must be extra strict!
    Thanks for sharing...
  • gourmetgal77
    gourmetgal77 Posts: 73 Member
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    Right there with you! I was weighing myself every day and even though I knew the fluctuations were "normal" - that didn't mean they still weren't frustrating.... I now weigh myself every 4 - 6 weeks and look forward to weighing in to see how much better I am doing. I also pay attention to my clothes and how they are fitting. I have shirts last year that fit, but were a little tight on the upper arms, now they are not - must be doing something right!
    I used to weigh daily a few years back, because my mother told me I looked chubby, and I wasn't. This hurt my self-esteem severely. At the time, I was 5"2, and 115lbs. So I became obsessed. In my opinion its an unhealthy obsession, and it doesn't do anyone any good. Weight fluctuates generously throughout the day and you don't get a true number.

    I just look in the mirror and start paying attention to how my clothes fit. I weigh myself once a month. If there is no change, there is no change. As long as I am not gaining 'fat', I'm ok.

    Currently, I am 129lbs, I workout 4 times per week, eat relatively healthy, I'm on anti-seizure medications (that I'm not convinced are the culprit because I've been on them for years), and I've gained 14lbs. My body fat percentage is 28%. I am not THRILLED about my weight, especially because all this working out, and my inches have not changed and my weight keeps creeping up.

    Yet, I refuse to weigh myself every day. I won't ever get into that habit ever again. It wreaks havoc on self-esteem for me.
  • bobf279
    bobf279 Posts: 342 Member
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    I still only weigh and measure once a week but I concentrate more on other NSVs like my 5k parkrun time and how my clothes fit rather than if I've lost any weight. I'm only averaging 2lbs a month but my body shape and performance have changed quite a bit
  • barbaratrollman
    barbaratrollman Posts: 317 Member
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    I weigh each morning too, like you, after I pee and before my morning cup of coffee. I like begin aware of the normal fluctuations caused by water retention, weight training, sodium intake, etc...
  • Mareebzz
    Mareebzz Posts: 45 Member
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    I agree - I weigh daily. It works for ME. Of course it won't work for everyone, but I'd rather see a +.2 change in the scale rather than wait a week or two until my pants get tight and realize I've gained 3 or 4 lbs. I don't get upset when I see a 1 or 1.5 lb gain. I know it's temporary. Weighing weekly/bi-weekly NEVER worked for me.
  • jmyers1230
    jmyers1230 Posts: 67 Member
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    I weigh daily just out of curiosity. I'm also trying to notice trends in my weight based on the previous day (I weigh first thing in the morning after I use the restroom). I've noticed that my weight actually drops more when I was over my calories the day before. If I've had a really good week with my food but haven't lost anything, allowing myself to go a little over for one day usually is just enough to get my body to give up some extra weight.
  • gypsyrose64
    gypsyrose64 Posts: 271 Member
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    Another daily scale watcher here. I actually have a spreadsheet I plug numbers into daily.... so I guess I'm a bit of nerd, LOL

    My weight fluctuates like crazy depending on all the factors you mentioned. If I weighed less often, I'd be more neurotic than I am now. For instance my weight didn't change at ALL for June - yet I lost like 8" here and there.

    The tape measure is my other big equalizer. If I had not measured at the beginning of the month and end, I'd have been seriously depressed.

    I had not seen Libra before, and been using an app called "monitor your weight", but it doesn't trend. I had to create a spreadsheet for that, but now I'll download Libra instead.

    Bottom line, you can't take weigh in's or the tape measure too seriously from one day to the next. I've recently realized that drinking ANY beer blows me something awful. I'm talking 1-2/day over the holiday and I gained like 5 lbs of water(and it shows!). If I hadn't been weighing daily, I wouldn't have noticed that pattern. Now I'm watching other grain intake to see if it does the same.
  • iamkass
    iamkass Posts: 122 Member
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    In my opinion its an unhealthy obsession, and it doesn't do anyone any good.

    You're right! Unless it's not. Just because YOU were obsessed doesn't mean everybody who does it is or will become obsessed. That's like saying drinking makes everybody alcoholics.

    You need to be in the right state of mind, if you are insecure and have a history of body image issues and eating disorders.. probably shouldn't continue or start weighing daily. But if you can replace the panic of "OMG I gained 3 pounds because I ate a bag of salty chips" with the logic of "ha ha, ya.. I am retaining a lot of water today. But man those chips were good", why not? Why not educate yourself? The human body is a fascinating machine.

    ETA: Also, stop assuming that people who weigh daily don't also pay attention to things like measurements, how clothes fit and NSVs. We do.
  • zjpq
    zjpq Posts: 198 Member
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    I weigh daily too, it helps me see if what I am doing is working or not, if I need to cut back on salt, up the water etc etc
  • nboks
    nboks Posts: 41
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    i tend to check my weight very often every since i bought my new digital scale. It's kinda funny how i gain 0.2 lbs just by drinking a glass of water...

    when i weighed myself when i woke up today i was almost 3 lbs lighter than my last official weigh-in. i still haven't logged it yet tho since i'm not sure if that is really my true weight or i was just dehydrated or something.
  • cruzcrzyMarie
    cruzcrzyMarie Posts: 251 Member
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    Great post!
    I weigh daily, and that will never change. When we travel, we bring the scale and weigh daily. We record it on our daily calendar. My dh and I are both in maintenance. I am 50, he is 64. We walk daily for our exercise, and very rarely miss a day. Call me obsessed, I don't care. I am maintaining my weight over a year out now, and beating the odds of regain.

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