scales yay or nay

If I went by my clothes, I wouldn't know that I've lost 20 lbs.

How often you weigh is up to you. Too frequent and you might lose your mind at every ounce of water weight you lose or gain. Weekly is good if you have a lot to lose and are making faster progress. If you only have 10 or 20 to go, progress will be slow, so maybe monthly.

Its personal taste and you are best using them according to your personality. Find out where you are.

Infrequent or non weighers do so because they can get obssessive, get demoralised and cannot deal with the constant movements, ive also seen it said some people find it motivating becayse longer periods allow them to have more of a weight loss and its claimed this motivates them.

If you cant deal with fluctuations, will get deterred or obssessive then weigh weekly , fornightly, monthly or not at all.

In contrast frequent weighers daily or more (assuming they are doing it correctly) find it motivates them because its data and it keeps them on track. They maximise consistency by same place same time of day (normally morning after the loo) and before breakfast. They dont get put off by a days reading and look for a trend (down).

I weigh daily, but I can deal with the fluctuations as its all data. I find them fascinating and it gives me peace of mind that my efforts arent going the other way, in which case I can do something about it. If I get a good number im encouraged, if im getting bad numbers, then i work harder. I stay on top of it, but I can imagine a run of bad numbers would upset some people and so they should weigh less frequently. the scales arent going to move as a trend unless you have eaten less or burned more.

Using how clothes fit is an ok test, just as in the mirror or tape measure is fine, just different. You should use several measure. I also use how I perform in the gym cardio and resistance and log all that information to show progress. It gives a more complete picture on how you are doing. Pick which suits you. You can always change.

Daily and the numbers get plugged in automatically into www.trendweight.com and www.weightgrapher.com for smoothing.

smileysarah66 wrote: »

Are scales a good idea or should I just go by my clothes. They only problem I have at the moment is that in different shops I am different sizes (which does drive me mad, don't see why they are not all the same)... In a huge debate is to get scales or not as I don't not want to become obsessive...anyone help...how often are you meant to weigh yourself? Etc... Thanks

I use scales to monitor progress, and clothing size to determine when I reach my ultimate goal.