How often do you weigh?

jazzie_red
jazzie_red Posts: 180 Member
in Motivation and Support
I don't have a scale yet, and I am basing my weight on my last doctor's visit about a month ago.

I want to get a scale, and I think once a week is good. This is because I want want to monitor, but aslo want to avoid the day to day fluctuations that I feel can be discouraging.

What say you?

Replies

  • 115s
    115s Posts: 344 Member
    I check daily and take into account that, yes, the body can fluctuate a lot. I don't obsess over it if I gain, though.
    I only log the changes once a week. The daily weighing is just to see if the scale moves or not. More of a curiosity thing than anything.
  • krysty702
    krysty702 Posts: 25 Member
    Personally, I only weight and measure once a month. I do that because I get a bigger reward for my hard work. So for instance, in a month I lost 9 lbs and got a bigger reward from than instead of just 2 lbs a week. However, it might be good to weigh yourself weekly to "check yourself" if you have struggles with keeping on track.

    Also, my philosophy is this: my goal is not necessarily focused on weight loss, but developing a healthy lifestyle. Weight loss just happens to come along with that :-). As long as you are changing how you eat and how much you move your body, you will be successful. Good luck!
  • Cortneyrenee04
    Cortneyrenee04 Posts: 1,117 Member
    I've been taking measurements one a month since I joined mfp a year ago. I used to weigh daily but was very discouraged by the daily fluctuations, so I moved to weekly weigh ins. After I lost my first 20 pounds, things slowed down and I got off track. Weigh ins made me anxious so I stopped doing it!

    I know weighing helps most people stay on track, but I've found that NOT weighing in has helped me stay on track even more. (I've bought new -smaller- clothes, so I have measured progress that way.) After not weighing myself for the last few months, I'm getting ready to go back to monthly weigh ins.

    Weigh as often as you like as long as it doesn't become an obsession!
  • lessismoreohio
    lessismoreohio Posts: 910 Member
    Once, maybe twice, a week.
  • cookieinbk82
    cookieinbk82 Posts: 320 Member
    I weigh myself 2-5 times a day. I know thats excessive.
  • goldfinger88
    goldfinger88 Posts: 686 Member
    Even the experts disagree on this but I think "most" agree that at least once a week is good. Even that could be mere fluctuation but if you wait a month, you might be gaining weight when you could be taking action. Daily is a bit obsessive and is not really a gain or a loss.

    But even more importantly, measure yourself weekly and take your body fat monthly or every few months (it does not change often.) Regardless of when you weigh, do measure regularly because that's where your true numbers come in.
  • doodledaze
    doodledaze Posts: 33 Member
    I weigh every day, usually in the morning and evenings. I only enter my "official weight" once a week, always on Sunday mornings. For me, seeing my fluctuations on a daily basis keeps me trom getting as cranky if I happen to fluctuate up on a Sunday morning.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    Daily always. I just don't pay too much attention to fluctuations, water retention, etc. If I sustain a "gain" more than 3-4 days I'll REALLY watch my portions, pre plan more meals, etc. It always goes back down. If I sustain a "loss" for 3 days it gets logged as my new low.
  • mathandcats
    mathandcats Posts: 786 Member
    I weigh (and log it) every morning precisely because of fluctuations in weight. I know from past experience that if I weighed only once a week, and it happened to be a day where my weight fluctuated upwards, I would be discouraged. When I weigh every day, I don't have any sort of emotional response to an upwards fluctuation. I also like having more data points for looking at the trend.
  • DeeBerning
    DeeBerning Posts: 131 Member
    I weigh twice a week.... Monday and Thursday. It helps keep me accountable on the weekends.
  • jenEphur
    jenEphur Posts: 33 Member
    I weigh once a day. Salt and I don't mix together well, and if I eat something salty (i.e. order our a pizza/other bad food) I balloon up overnight between 2-5 pounds. Weighing every day, for me, helps keep me accountable. Even if I go up the next day, I don't really let it bother me. I do it more because 1) I'm just curious and 2) it helped me break my habit of ordering out every night. Might not work for everyone, but it sure works for me!

    I do measurements every two weeks because of a challenge that I'm in, but I would prefer to do them every month to see the progress more clearly.

    Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do.
  • desidieter
    desidieter Posts: 195
    Once a week or every two weeks. But my scale is currently broken, so I have to go out and get a new one.
  • bloodofareptile
    bloodofareptile Posts: 47 Member
    I weigh every morning. I've got a Withings scale, so it automatically synchs with everything.

    YM will certainly V, but I find it makes me /less/ crazy to do it every day. I like data and numbers (job hazard), so it's just something else I quantify about my life.

    I find it easier to watch the numbers bounce around and /know/ that it's going to move one way or the other than to weigh in once a week or month and have it maybe be the same, or to hit one of the less good days and have it be a gain when actually it'd been going down and I've just had a blip.

    Edit: I measure and take pictures once a month too!
  • Jim1960
    Jim1960 Posts: 194
    I weigh (and log it) every morning precisely because of fluctuations in weight. I know from past experience that if I weighed only once a week, and it happened to be a day where my weight fluctuated upwards, I would be discouraged. When I weigh every day, I don't have any sort of emotional response to an upwards fluctuation. I also like having more data points for looking at the trend.
    This, although I don't log it on MFP daily - I log it on days when one of the Challenge groups I'm in has a weigh in. I don't log it in MFP regularly because I don't want people to say "Good Job" when I just lost the 5 pounds I gained the day before. I'm following a ketogenic diet (or trying to) and if I see a big overnight spike I can pretty much figure I've fallen out of Ketosis and I'm holding onto water. Usually this will just reinforce the course correction I already knew had to happen.
  • mathandcats
    mathandcats Posts: 786 Member
    If you are going to log your weight in MFP daily, I would turn off the default setting that makes an update on your feed every time, lol.
  • carolineat111
    carolineat111 Posts: 97 Member
    Whatever YOU want. For me, weighing daily used to be an absolute must (hey I had 60lbs to lose and it was coming off fast enough I could do this). Now that I'm not losing weight so much as gaining muscle, I weigh once or twice a week when I feel like it.
    If it motivates you to see the weight daily, weigh daily.
    If you want to avoid daily frustration for small (unimportant) fluctuations weigh less often.
    There's no "right" way, just what works for you. :)
  • oarngesi
    oarngesi Posts: 73 Member
    Everytime i walk in the restroom. But i enjoy watching the variation like i usually weigh 3 pounds lighter when i wake up and gain anout 2 pounds after breakfast. But the only one i really pay attention is the new lowest number kind of like a high score in a video game.
  • drepublic
    drepublic Posts: 180 Member
    I would pick a morning and just weigh in once a week upon waking and using the restroom.
  • htrombleyl
    htrombleyl Posts: 63 Member
    I didn't buy a scale for almost a month and it slowly started making me crazy. I finally got one but I will only step on it once a week. Always first thing in the morning and after I go to the bathroom (I drink a lot of water). Then I do it 3 times just to make sure that it is accurate.
  • sm1zzle
    sm1zzle Posts: 920 Member
    Once per week.

    Sometimes twice just to make sure I'm on track.
  • ThinkInOregon
    ThinkInOregon Posts: 283
    I weigh myself 3-5 times daily... but document it about once a week. I have weighed myself like this since I hit HS, and it's one of the 'few' leftover disordered eating issues I still have. But I don't stress about it, but rather analyze if I consumed too much sodium the day before.

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