Weighing myself everyday

blondieluv2shop
blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
edited November 10 in Motivation and Support
I'm eating healthier. I'm also exercising. But, I have a horrible habit of weighing myself everyday! I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but if I've lost I'm in a great mood. However, if I've gained I get really discouraged. I have moved my scale out of the master bathroom hoping I can break this habit!
«1

Replies

  • Ishii19
    Ishii19 Posts: 109 Member
    Well good luck on breaking the habit - but if you want another option - I use an app called Happyscale. I weigh every day and enter it and the app trends it for me, so even if the recorded weight goes up a random day usually the "predicted" weight continues its downward slope :)
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    Weighing daily isn't a bad habit unless you let the number on the scale bother you. I'm the scientific type so I weigh daily, note the number and go on with my day. I also use a measuring tape every few weeks to gauge progress and put more stock in those numbers than the scale. Body weight fluctuates daily due to water retention, food ate, etc. Just drinking a 16 ounce glass of water makes you weigh one pound more! :wink: Also, I lift weights so my weight loss progress has been slow but the inches keep decreasing on the measuring tape so I know I'm making great progress.
  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    I am measuring once a month, and I like going by those numbers so much better! I lost 23 inches last year, and it's very encouraging seeing those numbers going down when the scale doesn't budge.
  • miqisha
    miqisha Posts: 1,534 Member
    I can't weight everyday, it would drive me crazy. If it affects your emotional state then I would work on minimizing to maybe once a week
  • Well I am the same way. And as others said I do not normally let it get to me. But some days are tougher than others. I'm the type of person who need to see results or I'll quit. This is my 2nd go round to getting healthy and losing weight so I know I can do it and the number on the scale shouldn't matter especially when the inches come off. :-)

    Ask someone in your home to hide the scale from you and only give it to you on Mondays. That's what I had to do.
  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    miqisha wrote: »
    I can't weight everyday, it would drive me crazy. If it affects your emotional state then I would work on minimizing to maybe once a week

    Exactly! I'm working on it!
  • Boobietrap1337
    Boobietrap1337 Posts: 195 Member
    I weigh myself every day, because I know I won't stick to my plan if I don't do it. This morning I saw that the scale went up .5 pounds. I told myself, hey, that's all new muscle! And went about my day. It all depends on how you handle the information. If mine goes up 3 pounds I buckle down instead of quitting. But I know this doesn't work for everyone.
  • AuroraD82
    AuroraD82 Posts: 56 Member
    I dislike weighing myself to the other end of the extreme where I've gone months without knowing. Currently I am trying once aweek or every few days even. My scale is in its box under the sink. I pull it out, quickly check and then put it back. Hope this helps. Want to be friends? :smile:
  • cyndit1
    cyndit1 Posts: 170 Member
    I just can't bring myself to get on the scale because of the whole if its down its great and if its up my world crashes down. I know its an issue and I will get there in addressing it but for now I'm going by how my clothing fits and that is working short term. but to keep the weight off once I have reached my goal, I know the scale once or twice a week is the way to go.
  • ThatMouse
    ThatMouse Posts: 229 Member
    I've actually begun to like weighing daily. I weigh as soon as I wake up before I head to the gym in the mornings.

    There's an app called Libra which records your weight loss and plots it on a graph to smooth out the dips and bumps which happen naturally regarding weight fluctuation. It's very handy for seeing what your general trend is and can make weighing in higher than yesterday easier to take.

    I've also found I find weighing daily is a neat way to figure out how certain foods or habits impact my weight and water weight. For example, Sunday I ate a whole bunch of desserts and didn't bother counting. Monday and Tuesday I stuck to my regular diet. I went from 130lbs (ish, can't remember) to 128.6lbs this morning. No way in all hell did I burn 4,900cal (the 1.4 difference) between then and now, so it must've been other weight that I dropped - likely, water weight from the carbs in the dessert and other... less pleasant... bodily functions.

    One thing I love doing is monitoring my weight multiple times a day after a big occasion with food, such as after Christmas Day. Last year, my weight fluctuated a total of 6 lbs in the two days after Christmas. Crazy to see those numbers, ha ha!

    When you look at weighing daily as a game or a scientific-esque experiment, it's easier to remove the emotional attachment you have to the number on the scale. From there, weighing becomes less difficult and less scary and more just another measure by which to track your successes and errors.
  • FarmallMom71
    FarmallMom71 Posts: 49 Member
    My weight goes up and down like a yo-yo but I weigh every day too. It helps me stay focused. I work that much harder to behave when it goes up.
  • Ishii19 wrote: »
    Well good luck on breaking the habit - but if you want another option - I use an app called Happyscale. I weigh every day and enter it and the app trends it for me, so even if the recorded weight goes up a random day usually the "predicted" weight continues its downward slope :)

    yeh, I weigh daily and plot the trend too. personally, if I weighed myself once a week and it hadn't changed/had gone up then I'd get discouraged, but weighing myself daily means I know what my daily fluctuations are like. so even if the scale does go up, I know it's just water retention or needing a BM lmao. it's all preference!

    if you find that weighing daily discourages you, then do it every 2/3 days or once a week. or maybe try plotting the trend and see if that helps. it means I no longer ~celebrate~ a weight on the scale because a low or high can easily just be a fluctuation. as long as the trend is pointing down, I'm happy.
  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    AuroraD82 wrote: »
    I dislike weighing myself to the other end of the extreme where I've gone months without knowing. Currently I am trying once aweek or every few days even. My scale is in its box under the sink. I pull it out, quickly check and then put it back. Hope this helps. Want to be friends? :smile:

    Good idea. Yes feel free to send FR
  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    Thanks everyone! Great suggestions, and also I'm glad I'm not the only one with scale issues.
  • ashzacher
    ashzacher Posts: 114 Member
    I'm an every day weigher. I used to weigh myself Sundays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays are usually my best because I am always really on track during the week. Sundays are harder because if I'm eating out on the weekends, it catches up with me Sunday! Like others said, it's hard to not weigh yourself every day but if you do, just don't analyze it too much. You could weigh yourself every day and then average it out every week to get an overall average. I know some days I'm 5 or 6 pounds heavier than the day before - it sucks!!
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    ,amy people measure daily. There is no right or wrong, just be consistent and understand the weaknesses.
    Make sure you are consistent, same time, after you have been to the loo, same amount of clothes, before eating next meal etc.

    Understand about fluctuations.
    If you are unable to deal with fluctuations, which are really just the way it is and natural, then weigh less frequently and use other measures.

    You may find it helps to chart it so you cna see the fluctuations.

    Id also suggest you also look at how you react to adversity and figure out how you will deal with some of the bumps that are going to happen along the way, so the discouragement doesnt have the impact you are letting it have (notwithstanding its just a natural fluctuation).
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
  • Lezavargas
    Lezavargas Posts: 223 Member
    Im a chronic weigher too. Ive started making sure that i weigh myself first thing when i get up, before eating or drinking anything. Then if i miss my opportunity in the morning i skip it till the next day. Its helped a little. Even though i know its not about the weight, its about feeling healthy and getting in shape....its hard not to let that number dictate your day. I try to look at it as a motivational tool. If i lose, well obviously thats motivational...and if i gain i think of something i an do that i didnt do the day before. Just remember, 9 times out of 10 those fluctuations are just water weight...and if you are doing strength training, muscle weighs more than fat, so you may actually gain a little
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
    It's not a horrible habit - it's a great one if you understand what the data are saying. Plot your weight, and keep a 7-10 day moving average. This moving average will give you a trend line that is more an indicator of your "real" weight than any single snapshot in time.

    What the scale says on any given day can vary wildly based on a variety of factors - but it mostly comes down to hydration state - if you drink your 8 cups of water a day, you are moving (minimally) 4 lbs of water through your body. Showing a scale weight that is a couple pounds up or down from yesterday's scale weight is a meaningless piece of information on its own.

    If you weigh every day, do the data analysis so the variations don't freak you out. If you don't want to take the time to do that, then don't weigh every day. Whichever works for you is the right answer ...
  • ashzacher wrote: »
    I'm an every day weigher. I used to weigh myself Sundays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays are usually my best because I am always really on track during the week. Sundays are harder because if I'm eating out on the weekends, it catches up with me Sunday! Like others said, it's hard to not weigh yourself every day but if you do, just don't analyze it too much. You could weigh yourself every day and then average it out every week to get an overall average. I know some days I'm 5 or 6 pounds heavier than the day before - it sucks!!

    this is the kind of thing that I'm always reminding people! like, to put on 6lbs you'd have to eat 21,000 calories over your maintenance. I'm not saying it's impossible, if you literally ate pure sugar for the 24hrs you might be able to do it, but then it wouldn't be a shock. bodies are funny like that - there's a lot going on! water retention, physically having food in your intestines waiting to come out, and time of day makes a lot of difference.

    whether you weigh daily, weekly, monthly or anywhere in between, changing your attitude toward the scale is important. if you're celebrating every shift downwards and berating yourself every time the scale is up, you're setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. learning not to have an emotional attachment to a number is the best thing you can do!
  • exstromn
    exstromn Posts: 176 Member
    If i see the scale I want to weigh myself. Right now I only allow myself to weigh once per week because I get too obssesive about it and my water weight fluctuates too much for a daily weigh to be correct or encouraging. I've even heard some people weigh only once per month so that they remained focused and spend their attention on making improvements. Friend or Foe? In my opinion you shouldn't attach too much emotion to the scale, you are bound to experience uneeded frustration and wasted energy. Good luck!
  • kn7hqq
    kn7hqq Posts: 14 Member
    I too weigh everyday at the same time, I want to know that I'm on the right track, if I gain then there is something that I'm not doing right and I take a look at my previous eating diary. I feel so good even if I'm down one ounce that's better than gaining.
  • kn7hqq wrote: »
    I too weigh everyday at the same time, I want to know that I'm on the right track, if I gain then there is something that I'm not doing right and I take a look at my previous eating diary. I feel so good even if I'm down one ounce that's better than gaining.

    see this isn't a good attitude to have! you can have a "perfect" day and still gain because of normal fluctuations so getting down about it is only going to cause problems. it can lead to restricting your intake even more when you were doing fine already, and make it more likely that you'll stop because you aren't getting immediate results every day.

    if you did have a bad day, it would take 2-3 days for your weight to settle before you'd even know if you've put on fat and not just water/food weight.
  • thismamarox
    thismamarox Posts: 105 Member
    I am a daily weigher... I do it not to be discouraged if I gain, but to see how much I fluctuate and see if I need to adjust my sodium levels, and carb intake. My ACTUAL weigh in is done on Friday mornings as soon as I wake up and use the restroom. I strip down and weigh. If that number goes up (except on week 4), then I know I am not doing what I need to be doing and I adjust. Usually though, I am down about a pound. I say week 4 because due to female monthly fluctuations, I usually GAIN on week 4. But because I track every week, I know why and I don't freak out about it. It ALWAYS comes off the next week.

    Some people become too obsessed with the numbers and can't weigh daily. It really is just what best works for YOU!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I weighed myself as little as I could get away with because my emotions ride the numbers. But I just finished weighing myself daily for about four weeks to get to the bottom of my fluctuating weight. I've confirmed that I lose on a monthly cycle that is closely tied to my...cycle. I have the Fitbit Aria that posts the numbers as soon as I stand on the scale, and I have it synced with WeightGrapher. The trend line is much more satisfying to me. WeightGrapher estimates I will have reached my goal weight by May of this year.

    JKTrendWeight.JPG

    My weight can fluctuate up to three pounds in a single day. An odd consequence of the Aria and MFP is that MFP will report the loss but not the gain (thanks, pal!). My friends congratulate me nearly every day as MFP reports another pound lost. But...it's the same pound. Up, down. Up, down.

    This little project has confirmed to me not to take the scale too seriously. I focus on behavior change instead.
  • here's an example:

    od6j1w80imcj.png

    I weighed myself 12 of the last 14 days and I'm not discouraged by the gains or overly encouraged by the losses because the trend paints a better picture of how I'm doing.
  • RachelEB64
    RachelEB64 Posts: 7 Member
    I weigh everyday it keeps me motivated even if I don't lose it. Ales me try even harder.
  • RachelEB64
    RachelEB64 Posts: 7 Member
    I am a daily weigher... I do it not to be discouraged if I gain, but to see how much I fluctuate and see if I need to adjust my sodium levels, and carb intake. My ACTUAL weigh in is done on Friday mornings as soon as I wake up and use the restroom. I strip down and weigh. If that number goes up (except on week 4), then I know I am not doing what I need to be doing and I adjust. Usually though, I am down about a pound. I say week 4 because due to female monthly fluctuations, I usually GAIN on week 4. But because I track every week, I know why and I don't freak out about it. It ALWAYS comes off the next week.

    Some people become too obsessed with the numbers and can't weigh daily. It really is just what best works for YOU!
    I totally agree with you, I do weigh everyday it keeps me motivated
  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    I weighed myself as little as I could get away with because my emotions ride the numbers. But I just finished weighing myself daily for about four weeks to get to the bottom of my fluctuating weight. I've confirmed that I lose on a monthly cycle that is closely tied to my...cycle. I have the Fitbit Aria that posts the numbers as soon as I stand on the scale, and I have it synced with WeightGrapher. The trend line is much more satisfying to me. WeightGrapher estimates I will have reached my goal weight by May of this year.
  • rachelamber_x
    rachelamber_x Posts: 104 Member
    cyndit1 wrote: »
    to keep the weight off once I have reached my goal, I know the scale once or twice a week is the way to go.

    Not necessarily, you could still go by your clothes if you prefer it. Just continue being careful with portion sizes and things, and if you notice your pants getting tighter cut back a bit.
    I prefer paying attention to my clothes than a number on the scale.

  • blondieluv2shop
    blondieluv2shop Posts: 86 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    I weighed myself as little as I could get away with because my emotions ride the numbers. But I just finished weighing myself daily for about four weeks to get to the bottom of my fluctuating weight. I've confirmed that I lose on a monthly cycle that is closely tied to my...cycle. I have the Fitbit Aria that posts the numbers as soon as I stand on the scale, and I have it synced with WeightGrapher. The trend line is much more satisfying to me. WeightGrapher estimates I will have reached my goal weight by May of this year.

    May give this a try. Thanks
This discussion has been closed.