Do you weight yourself?

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brain328
brain328 Posts: 74 Member
in Motivation and Support
I have made a decision to no longer weigh myself. I feel that I am too dependent upon that number. I am eating right and working out and I am sick of being depressed because the numbers aren't moving the way I think they should, when I feel AMAZING. Thoughts? Do I really need to know how much I weigh?
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Replies

  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    Sounds like a good plan to me. Lots of people on here just go off of measurements. The scale can definitely be deceiving.
  • court_alacarte
    court_alacarte Posts: 219 Member
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    ugh YES! i completely know the feeling (just this morning i saw the scale move the other way). i know i'm not going crazy calorie-wise and i exercise 5-6 times a week and my stomach looks slimmer and clothes are fitting better so yeah, i'm having to get into that mindset as well. clothes give it to you straight, the scale... not so much.
  • anphi14
    anphi14 Posts: 57 Member
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    No I don't anymore...I think it can be very discouraging when you feel like you're working hard and then you step on and hardly see a difference.
  • shadowloss
    shadowloss Posts: 293 Member
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    I'm in the opposite camp. I weigh myself daily and track it. At first it was difficult to see the spikes and then have it take a week to get back down. However, after 4 months, I have a extremely helpful trend line that shows with the ups and downs there is a steady and progressive downward slope to my weight. So on those days when the numbers go up, I log them, just like I do my food, and then look at the big picture. For ME it is all the motivation I need to be successful today, every day!
  • kyta32
    kyta32 Posts: 670 Member
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    The numbers never go down fast enough, do they? There's a lot of people who go by how they look as far as deciding when to stop dieting. And, a lot of them have rocking avatar pics (a bunch of recompers in this category). If you need a more objective measurement, fitting into a smaller size feels great (and can can give you more choices and be easier on the wallet).

    I think some of it has to do with personality. I need to be obsessive to lose weight, so I'll weigh myself up to 5 times a day on insecure days, and measure myself a few times. For me it's having more data points and seeing trends that makes it easier to not get upset over the numbers ie. my weight doesn't go down as much the week before my period, but goes down more when I start, I tend to be 2-3 pounds heavier before bed than first thing in the morning, my measurements are bigger after exercise, and I can gain 2 inches in my my waist just from bloating (easy come, easy go).

    I really enjoy the scale victories, though. I've figured out all the 10% weight losses down to my goal (there's health advantages to losing 10% of original weight even if you aren't at goal weight yet). I consider every 5 pounds a victory. I'm about to hit 100 pounds (20 before joining MFP), 10 pounds in December, just went under 200 pounds for Christmas, and have almost lost 1/3 my original body weight. Seeing that weight loss is accountabilty, motivation, and a way of knowing how far you've come (even if sometimes it's just cyclical water weight).

    The best approach to losing fat is what works for you. Congratulations on deciding to make healthy changes in your life, and best of luck to you :)
  • pscarolina
    pscarolina Posts: 133 Member
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    Nope...not weighing very often anyway. Motivation ebbs & flows. I don't want to weigh myself on a day my motivation is low. I know I have a good plan, people are commenting on how much smaller I am, I feel great (decided to lose some pounds to see if it would help my knees during high impact exercise). I can't be tied to the number on the scale or the size of my jeans (although nice that has gone down too). I weigh about once a month. I also don't have a set goal weight. I will know it when I see it on my body, not the scale.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    All good plans. This is another case of "know thyself" (like keeping your favorite junk food in the house or not). I weigh daily for the most part. I am at maintenance, but I also weighed daily when I was losing. I was starting diet/nutrition from scratch, then, and weighing daily was good information for me. I could see what a sushi (soy sauce) dinner did for the scale. I could see what ovulation did (that was a surprise). I could see what PMS and ToM did...
    Now, in maintenance, weighing daily lets me see if my maintenance strategies are working. When the scale goes up a few and stays there, then I look at how I'm eating. If it goes down and stays there, I look at how I'm eating. Data. Data. Data.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
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    This may work great for some, but for me it's all about the numbers whether weighing daily or tracking every bite of food. For many years I refused to even own a scale & always went off how I felt, and unfortunately (?) I felt pretty great and could still stuff myself into the same clothing even though I gained a LOT of weight. So I guess I am sort of the opposite, I think of the number on the scale as a reassuring friend.
  • dale530
    dale530 Posts: 78
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    I weigh myself once a week. It's nice to track the progress. Any more often than that and it can be misleading (for me anyway). How my clothes fit seems to be the best way to measure progress.
  • beautifulwarrior18
    beautifulwarrior18 Posts: 914 Member
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    No you don't. I am only going to weigh myself once a month starting the first of the year. On the first of every month I will weigh myself and take my measurements. For the rest of the month I am going to work hard.
  • noelkm67
    noelkm67 Posts: 118
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    I do but not very often. Maybe once a month.
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
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    I weigh myself once a week. I don't see the point in doing it anymore often than that.
  • slucki01
    slucki01 Posts: 284 Member
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    There's an old saying "what gets measured gets done" and I believe it. I don't think it matters, in this case, weather you're measuring your body size or your weight but I do think it's important to have some data to measure. I find weighing once a week, and recording it, helps keep me motivated. If I have a week where the needle isn't moving in the right direction it just pushes me to be more digilent.
  • Out_of_Bubblegum
    Out_of_Bubblegum Posts: 2,220 Member
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    I weigh in once a week , and measure every 2 weeks. I expect to see some improvement on at least one of them (scale, or measurements) - if I don't see ANY improvement in either, it's time to re-evaluate what I'm doing and see if I need to change something.
  • cjames010
    cjames010 Posts: 91 Member
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    seltzermint wrote: »
    This may work great for some, but for me it's all about the numbers whether weighing daily or tracking every bite of food. For many years I refused to even own a scale & always went off how I felt, and unfortunately (?) I felt pretty great and could still stuff myself into the same clothing even though I gained a LOT of weight. So I guess I am sort of the opposite, I think of the number on the scale as a reassuring friend.
    ^^this
    I lost 60 pounds in 2011 and decided to stop logging calories.
    2013 I stopped weighing myself.
    I found out that I can gain 15 pounds and still fit into my clothes comfortably.
    I need to weigh every day, or every week at least.
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
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    shadowloss wrote: »
    I'm in the opposite camp. I weigh myself daily and track it. At first it was difficult to see the spikes and then have it take a week to get back down. However, after 4 months, I have a extremely helpful trend line that shows with the ups and downs there is a steady and progressive downward slope to my weight. So on those days when the numbers go up, I log them, just like I do my food, and then look at the big picture. For ME it is all the motivation I need to be successful today, every day!

    That trend line is very helpful.

    No matter how many times I tell myself that it's how my clothes fit that's a true measure, I do really care about the scale weight. Can't help it.

    I used to weigh every day and my whole day was made or ruined by what I saw. When I switched to once a week, it kept me really on goal all week, but if weigh day fell on one of those unexplainable up days, then I felt defeated and that all that work was for nothing.

    Now I weigh every day again, but I put it in the chart and the trend line is reassuring no matter what the scale says that day.

  • karyabc
    karyabc Posts: 830 Member
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    tuesday and fridays are my days, they work perfect for me ;)
  • suziepoo1984
    suziepoo1984 Posts: 915 Member
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    I weigh myself once every day in the morning. The numbers dont bother much that much, but i need this indicator. If i do not weigh myself, i feel great and end up gaining a couple of pounds easily lol. This happened on my 3 weeks vacation where i never tracked or weighed myself and gained 4 pounds. But the important this here is how you feel. If numbers bother you a lot, then reduce weighing to once a week or even month and go by measurements
  • LittleWarriorBee
    LittleWarriorBee Posts: 53 Member
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    I weigh myself everyday to stay in check. I am not losing as quickly as I want to but I am losing inches so it is all good. I am only a few months into this so maybe down the road I will weigh and measure less often.
  • kk1084
    kk1084 Posts: 51 Member
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    This is such an excellent plan, in my opinion.

    As a person recovering from eating disorders, I find it difficult to toss my scale, though I want to. I find it difficult NOT to weigh myself once (or more!) a day. This is my battle right now-- NOT weighing multiple times a day. I allow myself ONCE a day; that's it, no more at all. It seems so silly, but it IS a battle...

    I hope to get to the point where I am weighing once a week or, heck, maybe even not at all!

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