When to listen to the scale?

Any kind of fluctuation in that time frame is almost always going to be water weight. Two to three weeks with out a loss, that's an indication there needs to be a modification, most likely to your calorie intake.

ceoverturf wrote: »

Don't worry so much about day-to-day fluctuations - track the overall trend over the long term. If it's working, great. If not, THEN make adjustments.

This is what I was going to say. If the trend over, say, a month (or longer) is going down, I'm not concerned if the scale fluctuates up or down by a few pounds day-to-day. I'd be concerned if I noticed an upward trend over time.

I am having the same issue, and am getting really discouraged. I admit over the holidays I was not as diligent as I should be. But, lately, I go down one day (usually Monday after my weekend of eating less, drinking less water and doing next to no activity).

Then when the work week starts, my weight is up and down between 2-3 pounds.

It is like this ALL the time. I cant get an idea on if I lost anything until after my TOM also. I weighed myself Jan 26 and was 176.8lbs. Logged this as it was a loss. Stayed there for 2 days. Then started up and down between 177-179lbs.

I go to the gym 3 days a week for 30 minute lunch workouts (this is week 5 of that)
I make sure I drink between 600-1200 ml of water during the week - more on workout days

This week is the PRE TOM - so I am up, and staying there, and will be up there until the day I am done or the day after. At that point, I will see if I am back to or lower than the 176.8 logged last time.

Until then I just see the scale telling me I gained. I almost feel like I could only weigh and log once a month because of this. I don't want to log the ups and downs for false posts on my wall.

I like to take daily measurements but to each their own. You just have to determine how often you want to concern yourself with seeing the number on the scale. I like many data points so I'm not waiting a week between weigh-ins. For me, one set point a week isn't often enough for my OCD

How often to weigh in is personal preference. I like to weigh in one day every week, Mondays. Everyday would make me too neurotic and a month would cause me to lose focus. It's totally up to you.

ceoverturf wrote: »

When to listen to the scale? You mean your scale talks to you??

J/K

Yeah, it's likely water weight or some other normal day-to -day fluctuation.

Increasing exercise tends to cause more water to be retained too.

Don't worry so much about day-to-day fluctuations - track the overall trend over the long term. If it's working, great. If not, THEN make adjustments.

Lol I was about to say the same.

Op- typically I wait a month. If after a month my weight hasn't shifted, I no longer contribute it to water weight and start to look at my intake/exercise output to see where I can make adjustments.

Same happening to me now.

I started off last Friday at 155, and all week I've fluctuated up gradually to 156.4 and today (almost a week later) I'm at 155.4. I'm still up a little from the previous week, so essentially no loss this week.

There's always room for error but I've tracked everything daily and exercised the same, so I'm assuming it's just water. I've been over on my sodium many days.

It's probably water for you too if you haven't eaten anything way out of the ordinary, and the closer you get to goal or a normal weight range this will likely be common.