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MyFitnessPal Community

Addicted to the scales!

kailaani

I can't seem to stay off them! I am weighing myself daily and I know that I am heading for disaster with this. Each day so far (been doing MFP since Monday) I have lost a little every day. Last night I decided to have some popcorn (weighed and counted) and the scales say I have gained 1.5lbs!! Normally this would send me running for the ice cream but this time I am taking a calmer approach and I know that fluctuations will occur. BUT I just don't get how I could have gained 1.5lbs in one day by eating 1,400 kcals. The only thing that was different is that I have been trying not to eat at night and I ate the popcorn around 8pm. How often do you guys weigh yourselves, any wisdom regarding this would be greatly appreciated :happy:

Ali x

Replies

jenny24012014

was it salty popcorn?

bjg2993

If you can't help yourself, get rid of them.

You're setting yourself up nicely for failure or an obsession with numbers.

I personally don't have a set because of the latter, and I weigh myself every 2 weeks to 3 months depending on when I get access to a set (at a relative's house, the doctor's etc).

kailaani

It was sweet popcorn that I bought from the supermarket. I am off to visit my parents later on, will take the scales with me (and leave them there!) x

aethre

I weigh myself daily but record it weekly.... same time every day, first thing in the morning. It's just part of my routine. If somebody asked my directly, I'd tell them I weigh myself weekly because that's what I record, but I do it every day. My scales are ancient digital scales though, so they only show it to the nearest pound so I don't see the really small fluctuations.

If you feel like it's becoming a problem for you, I would take the scales and put them away somewhere inaccessible. Don't leave them on the floor so you see them every time you go into the bathroom or wherever and get reminded of them. Decide how often you will record your weight (weekly, monthly, whatever) and make sure you deal with it then and only then. You could even get rid of them completely or put them to a friend or relative's house.

Oh, and I'm seconding the query about whether the popcorn was salty....?

tnd1

I got to the point where i weighed myself every time i went to the bathroom - before and after 'relieving myself', shall we say!!
my weight was fluctuating throughout the day wether id eaten or not....
i became pretty obsessed with it, and ended up having to get rid of them!
i went a couple of months with no scales - and then bought some new ones....now i weigh myself twice a day - morning and night - and still my weight fluctuates...but i know its down to the food, time of day etc...
just try to be strong, put them in a place where they are not obviously in sight and just weigh yourself once a week maybe

aurorareigns

Its fine weighing yourself every day as long as the number changing doesn't freak you out. I weigh myself every day and I just find it interesting.

_Zardoz_

any wisdom regarding this would be greatly appreciated :happy:

Ali x

Stop weighing every day

Liftng4Lis

I weigh daily just to see what's going on. I only record once a week.

Megais

I get on the scales daily, a few times lol. but that said I don't pay any real attention to the fluctuation on a daily basis. I log my weight weekly but only if theres a change from the previous number

keefmac

Nothing wrong with weighing once in the morning, any more than that is getting ocd though..

riffraff2112

Totally personal preference. I like to have as much information as possible and weigh myself almost anytime I am in the bathroom. It has educated me about how jogging, weight lifting, over-eating, under-eating etc.. has an impact on my weight. I find these things have both an 'immediate' effect, and then a correcting effect follows it up a day or two later.

For instance I also noticed a huge gain after eating popcorn from the movies (who can resist?). I had a diet coke (pretty huge portion but not many calories) and popcorn. I gained 3 pounds that day, despite only slightly being over my caloric limit. The salt made me retain the 'water' for a day or two, and then....back to normal. The correcting effect often tends to drop me to a new low. (although now that I am in maintenance I generally just waver back and forth as much as five pounds throughout the week)

Even when I go for a run, I tend to see an immediate loss due to sweating, but then the next day I almost always gain a few pounds. The muscle soreness that follows up a workout is accompanied by weight gain due to the body repairing muscle damage. This of course goes back to normal a few days later.

Remember, true weight gain or loss occurs from consuming 3500 cals more/less than maintenance levels. Not impossible to eat that much in one day, but certainly doubtful.

If you cannot handle these ups and downs..get rid of the scale. It is but one way to measure success. Perhaps not even the best one.

Velum_cado

I don't own scales. I go to the doctor's office and use their BMI machine to weigh myself every 6 weeks or so. Doing it that way has been a major key to my success, I think.

Discoqueen77

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmrGUVbaaRs

wagglesworth

I have the same problem. Knowing I have that problem I have avoided my scale and only get weighed at the doctor's office each month and half when I have my scheduled appointments. I have been so tempted to get on the scale and weigh myself but I know that once I do I'll be on the scale more than 10 times a day, get fed up and quit just like I have with every other attempt and there have been many. Hide the scale, have someone else hide the scale if you can't break your habit. Please don't make yourself crazy like I did and derail.

Garrett1234

I didn't read the thread, but that daily scale thing is a problem for me. We go up and down a few pounds naturally I think (water, etc) so really the only way to make sense of the scale is over time. I only record once per week, usually Sunday. That way I can LOOK all I want, but I don't get wound up in the little fluctuations which happen. LONG TERM!

Ansin529

It is very easy to become obsessed with weighing yourself multiple times per day...

Try weighing yourself once a week and taking measurements at the same time...

Often times (especially when regiment includes exercise and or weightlifting) your scale will document little change, however a measurement of specific areas of your body will show a drastic change... The measurements never lie...

Stick to your diet and let the day of measurements be the thing you look forward to each day...

"Eating things with a high or moderate sodium content, will lead to your body retaining water... This will lead to an increase at the scale, especially if you consume large amounts of water..."

Mina_Inu

I weigh myself every morning just to see what's going on, but as far as recording....once a week.
If I find myself getting a bit too OCD about it, I put the scale somewhere a bit more difficult for me to access it, and that tends to make me calm down a bit and not weigh myself 3 or 4 times a day.
One of those 'Out of sight, out of mind' type deals with me I suppose.

evsplava

I weigh myself daily. The under 5 pound fluctuations don't bother me but the 10 pound ones irk me slightly

sabyx_is1

If you're in the UK, get yourself down to Boots and weigh yourself there on a regular basis (every 2 / 4 weeks) - they have a scale which also measures weight / height and body fat for 70p.

If you wear pretty much the same clothes every time you do it and you weigh in at about the same time, you should notice some consistency.

Docbanana2002

Like some of the others, I weigh daily and record weekly. It isn't a problem as long as you understand that fluctuations from day to day and week to week are normal and it is the long term trend that you should really take seriously.

To your specific point... yes, it is impossible to gain 1.5 pounds of fat in a day while eating 1400 calories. Utterly ridiculous in its impossibility.

Just like it is ridiculously impossible to gain a pound of muscle in a day after having a good aerobics class (I hear that kind of nonsense occasionally).

Here's what's quite normal: Water weight swings of up to several pounds in either direction in response to muscles healing from exercise, hormonal fluctuations, water intake, eating more/less sodium than usual, eating more/fewer calories than usual (carbs seem to especially affect my water weight), taking meds that make you bloat (or diuretics), plus a lot of other random factors that I can't always explain. It isn't a big deal to gain or lose this weight, as it is just your body's normal water levels going up and down as your body needs more or less water to carry out daily functions.

We also see variation in what I call "colon weight", based on the weight of the food that I ate in previous days that is still "in the hopper" being digested... and also how long it has been since a bowel movement. Again, this weight doesn't matter. It goes up and down from day to day based on the routine actions of your digestive system.

Fat loss is what you care about, and that isn't going to dramatically happen day by day. It is a slow steady burn that shows up over time, with the other kinds of weight creating "noise" in your data. Which is why some people only measure longer term weight changes (weekly, monthly, etc.) . I happen to enjoy watching/studying what is going on with my body weight daily, but I don't stress random ups and downs.

TyphonRex

I've found that weighing myself daily really helps me keep my health and weight loss efforts in the front of my mind. So, I'd say there's nothing wrong with it.

That said, the human body can be a funny thing, and it's not particularly odd for weight to fluctuate based on when you last ate, what you ate, and how much water and waste is in your system at any given time.

It's the ongoing moving average that's important.

The weird uptick in weight will resolve itself soon enough.

cdoesthehula

You understand yourself that the readings are not meaningful in the way you're using them. There is a lot of spurious precision, that is the figure on the display isn't necessarily your exact weight. Plus a lot of the factors that influence your weight are down to things like water.

You know these things yourself. So why give them any power inside your head? I don't believe it sets you up to have a problem, but I don't think it is particularly useful. So if it's worrying you, by all means move them to your parents.

nwright77

Oh my, this is so me :0

I admit I weigh myself on a daily basis, first thing in the morning after going to the bathroom. I'm happy when it goes down and not happy when it goes up! I only record my weight once a week though. I agree with TyphonRex in that seeing your weight on a daily basis keeps your weight loss in focus so not to fall off the wagon.

I have had several clusters of weeks where I had not lost nor gained any weight, even fluctuating up and down by a few pounds, and the frustration of trying to figure out where you are going wrong with what you are eating. In the end, it was what I was eating. By weighing myself daily as the weight goes down, I know that what I am eating is the way to go.

GoGoGirl1111

Hi, It's true, weighing every day is a disaster waiting to happen: I have just started and really want to hit those scales myself after just 2 days, but I wont, and will wait until the 7th day: That way I will get a wonderful surprise and some incentive....

It's also harder for women, we gain and drop so my fluid every couple of days:

My advice, weigh yourself naked at the same time every 7 days

Good luck

cw106

i waited weeks initially.
now im on a downward spiral i check every 2/3 days at the gym, and try to record a weigh in weekly.
hope this helps.