How often do you do a weigh in?

Stephanie199023
Stephanie199023 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Im not sure how often I should be doing weigh ins?
«1

Replies

  • joannagadzinski1
    joannagadzinski1 Posts: 12
    Once a week. Pick a day and when you wake up weigh yourself. If you weigh yourself too many times, you're just going to be disappointed with yourself considering the body fluctuates a lot.
  • MensEtSalvere2013
    MensEtSalvere2013 Posts: 230 Member
    Once a week in the AM :)
  • dehumanised1
    dehumanised1 Posts: 21 Member
    I do it every Monday, first thing. Wake up, take a leak, straight onto the scales. As has been said, do it too often and your natural fluctuation will cause weird results. Also, try not to eat anything (or at least, nothing heavy) just before bed the night before since the body will then struggle to metabolise the day's food and exercise and will leave you quite a bit heavier when you weigh in.

    Good luck =)
  • SapiensPisces
    SapiensPisces Posts: 992 Member
    I weigh daily, but I don't let daily fluctuations to get to me. I can fluctuate 3-5 lbs throughout the week, and that is very normal. If you are the type of person who has trouble dealing with this, then I'd suggest weighing weekly.

    As long as you do it consistently and in the same way, you should be able to see your progress.
  • Kegsey55
    Kegsey55 Posts: 28 Member
    Daily, first thing after going to the loo. I'm interested in seeing my daily fluctuations and I'd rather see them daily than not know if I've lost until the following week.
  • links_slayer
    links_slayer Posts: 1,151 Member
    for best results, at least hourly.
  • Dawn_Snowden
    Dawn_Snowden Posts: 111 Member
    Once a week. Same time each week. I usually weigh in Saturday mornings right before I jump in the shower. Other than that, I'm not on the scale AT ALL. Too much up and down each day really messes with your head.
  • happysherri
    happysherri Posts: 1,360 Member
    for best results, at least hourly.
    Love your humor!

    I was a daily weigher and would get discouraged. So, i did an experiment didnt weigh myself the whole month of September, i lost 3.5 lbs. It was tough. I agree with weekly.
  • redladywitch
    redladywitch Posts: 799 Member
    Once a month...
  • featherbrained
    featherbrained Posts: 155 Member
    I do 2 - 3 per week, but only log Friday mornings. I weigh after my fast day.

    My mid week weighs I typically do middle of the day, fully clothed. I'm familiar with my own fluctuations, so it just lets me know if I'm staying on track. My weekly logged weigh in I do after my morning walk but before eating anything.
  • guroprincess
    guroprincess Posts: 140
    Although I do it once a day, I think the best idea is to do it once a week.

    Once a month, imho, doesn't provide enough feedback. Personally, I'd go crazy not having any sort of motivation or log of the way I'm going.

    Once a day is too much for some people. If you decide to weigh once a day, you have to take into account that your weight will probably fluctuate. I've gotten used to my body's patterns and I know that if I hit a new low, it might be taken back again for the next couple of days just as a matter of the way your body works. But to me, it's worth having the feedback/data. I use new lows as motivation and don't get bummed about "gaining" a few pounds.

    Basically you can weigh in whenever you want so long as it's consistent and not messing up your psyche. :)
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Im not sure how often I should be doing weigh ins?

    It's entirely up to you and your goals and your fortitude.

    I weigh in twice a day - mornings 'for the record' and evenings to make sure something whacky didn't happen during the day.
  • Kevalicious99
    Kevalicious99 Posts: 1,131 Member
    I weigh myself .. in the morning and night. Morning cause that is really my real weight . . and night cause I want to see how much I have gained over the day (usually about 3-4 lbs). I find that I lose that weight overnight .. so my weight is usually pretty stable in the mornings. I do not care about the fluctuations .. they happen on a daily basis. I expect to see the weight go up and down.

    My official weigh in .. is Friday mornings. This is the weight that I use here at MFP.
  • Sherbog
    Sherbog Posts: 1,072 Member
    Every single morning! Weekly would drive me nuts. After getting off the scales I feel much more motivated.

    Shirley in Oregon..... GO DUCKS
  • loveanddestroyx
    loveanddestroyx Posts: 185 Member
    Once a week on Wednesday mornings :smile:
  • Love4fitnesslove4food2
    Love4fitnesslove4food2 Posts: 711 Member
    I do it once every 2-4 weeks. If I don't feel emotionally capable of accepting my weight on any given day then I won't weigh myself. When I feel better I weigh myself.
  • dreamer12151
    dreamer12151 Posts: 1,031 Member
    I weigh myself twice a week, once "officially" and once "un-officially".

    Monday am, I wake up, hit the loo, strip everything off & step right on the scale. Then I record my weight. That's my "official weigh in". Then I will not get back on the scale again until usually Friday morning, same way, as a kind of barometer to see how I'm doing and if I need to "tweak". I don't record anything then, as that's my "un-official" weigh in.

    Don't think I could to the daily thing...too much pressure.
  • Domane1963
    Domane1963 Posts: 85 Member
    Every morning. I write it down along with notes like whether it is a fast day or a gym or running day. I like lists and analysing so it suits me. I'm also sensible to know that my body has fluctuations so I don't go into a tailspin if my weight increases temporarily. My "official" weigh-in day is every Monday and that's when I note how much I have lost since the last week.
  • blueuniverse
    blueuniverse Posts: 13 Member
    I'm losing very slowly, so I weigh myself every 2 weeks
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
    I think your weigh in value, whether daily or weekly, is too noisy to be looked at on its own. On a chart with a moving average you can really see what's going on. Look at my last 4 weeks, and imagine I weighed in only on Sunday:

    4w.png

    Boy I'd be depressed! My weights would be: 211.3, 211.2, 207.1 207.9 (!! gain) ... it'd look to me like in the last 4 weeks, I'd barely managed to lose three pounds, and it sure wouldn't feel like steady progress. Now look at the chart above - the same 4 weeks - the trend line looks pretty straight, you can see how the weekends cause me difficulty but don't derail me, and I get positive feedback that I'm making progress pulling my trend down every single day.

    And that is what motivates me not to grab the free chips, chocolates, dried sugared fruit, or cheesecake that's at the office every day...

    Osric

    [edit: the chart above is from trendweight.com, totally free not even any ads. I also like Libra on Android.]
  • Caitu13
    Caitu13 Posts: 55 Member
    I "officially" weigh in once a week. I did do it on Monday but have found that more difficult so I now weigh in on Friday. I do still check myself throughout the week, but its not official until Friday.

    You should do what ever fits your body and schedule better!
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    I think your weigh in value, whether daily or weekly, is too noisy to be looked at on its own.

    On the flip side, using too long an average can hide problems for longer than they should be hidden. In that graph, if the MA is over a 2 week period, that trend line is about to flatten significantly, because there hasn't been any lose over the past two weeks.

    Not saying that there's necessarily a problem, just noting that every form of sampling and analysis has its blind spot.

    For myself, I use a 7-day average for body measurements and 14-day sliding window to back-calculate TDEE components.
  • CrazyWeightLady
    CrazyWeightLady Posts: 1
    I weigh in every morning right after I use the bathroom. Yes, there could be fluctuations, but it keeps me honest and aware.
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
    I think your weigh in value, whether daily or weekly, is too noisy to be looked at on its own.

    On the flip side, using too long an average can hide problems for longer than they should be hidden. In that graph, if the MA is over a 2 week period, that trend line is about to flatten significantly, because there hasn't been any lose over the past two weeks.

    trendweight.com does have the issue that you can't control how it calculates. It uses 10 day moving averages. I think this is probably a good value for most people, enables you to see progress in spite of stumbles, and any day with the diamond near the line is a warning day.

    Libra is fully configurable but I am not sure how many people can really choose the values well.

    Overall I like 10 days as a number that'll work for most people, and enable them to focus on the reality of how they're doing rather than water weight. Given water weight fluctuations are so extreme as to render total weight measures almost worthless, some sort of smoothing is needed to see the signal.

    In my specific case, if we imagine that I'm doing something that has made 205 or so my new 'maintenance level', I will see it in just under 3 weeks as the trend line starts to snake between my diamonds. I think that's plenty fast feedback on when to cut more calories or get more exercise, especially since setting it much tighter would probably cause me needless panic.

    [I do, however, have Libra set to 7 days at the moment, so I have a more alarmist graph as well as this one.]

    Osric

    P.S. If anyone cares, the full story can only be seen with the fat mass measures as well:

    4TdbObY.png

    but this (fat mass) chart won't update so it'll get increasingly out of sync with the updating weight chart above.
  • camiah
    camiah Posts: 146
    I've started to weigh daily, but only because I have a brand new wifi scale that I'm in love with. The fluctuations are fascinating too. So far the ups haven't been emotionally upsetting or cause me to get off course. If they do then I will reevaluate.
  • judilockwood
    judilockwood Posts: 134 Member
    Every morning as soon as I get up, have a pee and jump on the scales. I like to know the weight even if it goes up a little then I can take control. Especially good after my fast day because I can see if I'm maintaining ok - the fast tends to smooth out the daily fluctuations.
  • TheRealBruceWayne
    TheRealBruceWayne Posts: 22 Member
    I weigh in every two weeks. We all know that weight is too volatile to actually reflect fat loss if you weigh in too often.

    Personally, I think females should look at their weight in 1 month intervals because of their menstrual cycle effects it. If you feel the need to weigh in weekly you should really compare week 1 of a cycle to week 1 of a previous cycle to get a better idea of your progress.
  • BethAnnC448
    BethAnnC448 Posts: 45 Member
    My weigh in day for myself is Sunday mornings.
  • xoxolivia_
    xoxolivia_ Posts: 9
    I use to weigh myself everyday when I woke up, but now I'm doing it once a week. its hard once you're so use it but try staying busy when you would usually weigh yourself and don't weigh yourself after a workout
  • zorbaru
    zorbaru Posts: 1,077 Member
    monday mornings for me.

    also remember to always use the same scale.

    if you change scales remember there could be a difference between the 2 which can skew the results.

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