Obsessed with weighing myself..

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AspenDan
AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So for a few weeks I've been eating better and doing cardio. I'm about 15lbs down, and I love the feeling I get when I lose a pound, or half a pound a day, weighing myself every morning. But the other day for whatever reason I'd gained a pound and some change, and got pretty down. It didn't effect how I'm doing with the approach to weight loss, but I think I need to just stop weighing myself daily...maybe go to weekly? what do yall suggest?
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Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    I'm not one for weighing myself daily. I weigh twice a week but only update here weekly.

    I prefer to go by how I feel and how my clothes feel.
    Just stick with it and the results will continue to come :)
    Try not to focus on the gains when they happen as that is natural, our bodies will store water at times depending on many many factors. Your doing well!
  • AspenDan
    AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
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    thanks for the advice!
  • hekla90
    hekla90 Posts: 595 Member
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    I try to weigh once a week so normal fluctuations due to fluids and such. Your weight will fluctuate
  • gemdood
    gemdood Posts: 20 Member
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    I was weighing daily, but it is a real downer if suddenly you put on a pound or two and don't understand why. I've taken to weighing weekly, same time, same day first thing.
  • runrascal
    runrascal Posts: 53 Member
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    Even if you are weight stable and not trying to lose your weight will fluctuate day to day by many pounds. Once a week is good, same time of day, naked if possible - but you might still hit a heavy day, don't despair.
  • charlieandcarol
    charlieandcarol Posts: 302 Member
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    If you weigh daily you have to accept the fluctuations. If you know you are eating within cals then you know its not real weight gain. Maybe using something like trendweight might be helpful if you aren't already? It gives you a trend line on a graph which kind of smooths out the fluctuations and shows if you are heading in the right direction or not.
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
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    I weigh everyday, it would drive me mad to weigh weekly. I weigh everyday precisely because of fluctuations - if you weigh once a week you could still weigh on a day when you're fluctuating, but because you're not weighing everyday you wouldn't know that you were 2lbs lighter the day before and the day after. You wouldn't know it was just a fluctuation. I've never really understood how weighing less often puts less emphasis on fluctuations, I can only see it making fluctuations seem worse, but it works for some people so if it would work better for you then go for it. But if you can accept that fluctuations happen then there's nothing wrong with weighing everyday.
  • milopacha
    milopacha Posts: 7 Member
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    daily weighing was depressing me so went to weekly, which works better to avoid being too moody about it!
  • chilledbeast
    chilledbeast Posts: 15 Member
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    I weigh daily, first thing. BUT, i compare my weekly averages.
  • tedioustrainingap
    tedioustrainingap Posts: 78 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I don't weigh myself except for 6 monthly check ups. For me, getting fit and healthy is the aim, with weight loss being a happy side effect. I look at how much better I've eaten, from one week to the next. I look at how much further I can swim or walk, since the week before. There's a clear and tangible improvement this way and I have faith that a healthier weight will follow. Looking at it like this avoids all of the stress of pound counting (which I would probably find stressful!).

    I don't actually own a set of scales. Never have and never will.
  • juleszephyr
    juleszephyr Posts: 442 Member
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    I track my weight daily in order NOT to be freaked out by the fluctuations... It takes a while to feel confident when the numbers bounce up and down but at least you can see its not real!! I only log my weight on MFP weekly on a Friday morning. I do however always weigh first thing in the morning before I eat or drink anything...
  • TheGoktor
    TheGoktor Posts: 1,138 Member
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    I weigh daily exactly so that I can understand how my body works, and how certain foods and exercise affect my weight. If I only weighed once a week, and the weigh day happened to be one where my weight was up because perhaps I'd had a sodium bomb the night before, I'd find it incredibly frustrating. However, because I weigh each morning, and log it on a spreadsheet and line graph, even if some days it appears that I have gained, I can look at the overall trend, and see that I am on a steady downward progression.

    It also means that I can spot potential trouble spots and do something about them before they take hold.

    I've lost 42lbs since the middle of January doing this, with no loss of motivation, so it definitely works well for me... but I tend to take a logical and scientific approach to everything in my life, and am pretty anally-retentive when it comes to metrics and stats - I realise that not everyone is like this! :lol:

    I say do what works for you, and if it no longer works, then find something else which does. And when that no longer works, change it again. I think problems happen when we keep flogging that same old dead horse, and get frustrated when it fails to get up, so to speak. Hope you find a way which works for you, Daniel.

    BTW, I'm a massive gamer too (as in I love to play games, not that I am actually massive in size - just y'know, bigger than I need to be!). Feel free to add me as a friend if you like.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    I've never really understood how weighing less often puts less emphasis on fluctuations, I can only see it making fluctuations seem worse, but it works for some people so if it would work better for you then go for it. But if you can accept that fluctuations happen then there's nothing wrong with weighing everyday.

    I think it works because of the downward trend overall. You might still get some fluctuations, sure, but the downward trend has more time to take effect.

    I've been weighing in weekly for over two months and have never once been higher than the week before. This week I tried weighing myself a few times, and I was up once. I prefer weekly, as you can imagine. :)
  • NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner
    NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner Posts: 1,018 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    I've never really understood how weighing less often puts less emphasis on fluctuations, I can only see it making fluctuations seem worse, but it works for some people so if it would work better for you then go for it. But if you can accept that fluctuations happen then there's nothing wrong with weighing everyday.

    I think it works because of the downward trend overall. You might still get some fluctuations, sure, but the downward trend has more time to take effect.

    I've been weighing in weekly for over two months and have never once been higher than the week before. This week I tried weighing myself a few times, and I was up once. I prefer weekly, as you can imagine. :)

    Yep same here. I weigh every 7-10 days and have never been "up". I much prefer NOT seeing fluctuations. I know they occur but when I don't see them, I don't get upset about them lol
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    NobodyPutsAmyInTheCorner wrote: »
    Orphia wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    I've never really understood how weighing less often puts less emphasis on fluctuations, I can only see it making fluctuations seem worse, but it works for some people so if it would work better for you then go for it. But if you can accept that fluctuations happen then there's nothing wrong with weighing everyday.

    I think it works because of the downward trend overall. You might still get some fluctuations, sure, but the downward trend has more time to take effect.

    I've been weighing in weekly for over two months and have never once been higher than the week before. This week I tried weighing myself a few times, and I was up once. I prefer weekly, as you can imagine. :)

    Yep same here. I weigh every 7-10 days and have never been "up". I much prefer NOT seeing fluctuations. I know they occur but when I don't see them, I don't get upset about them lol

    Sisters! :smile:
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    I've never really understood how weighing less often puts less emphasis on fluctuations, I can only see it making fluctuations seem worse, but it works for some people so if it would work better for you then go for it. But if you can accept that fluctuations happen then there's nothing wrong with weighing everyday.

    I think it works because of the downward trend overall. You might still get some fluctuations, sure, but the downward trend has more time to take effect.

    I've been weighing in weekly for over two months and have never once been higher than the week before. This week I tried weighing myself a few times, and I was up once. I prefer weekly, as you can imagine. :)

    But you get the downward trend with weighing daily, too. And you get to see a trend starting 7 times faster :P

    I can sort of see weighing weekly working if you're aiming to lose 2lbs/week, because fluctuations larger than that don't tend to happen as often. But when you're aiming for half a pound a week you don't need to fluctuate very much for that to completely disappear on a weekly weigh in. I weigh everyday hoping to see a new low, and don't get that very often - I'd be waiting even longer to see a new low if I was weighing weekly. And weighing weekly would put so much more emphasis on weight, I'd be so much more disappointed if I hadn't lost on a weekly weigh in, whereas if I expect not to lose on every daily weigh in and get excited when I have.
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I weigh every day, because I find it easier to make a habit if I'm doing it daily. I use TrendWeight to see the graph and predictions.

    I measure inches lost and take pictures (although I can't bear to look at them at the moment!), weekly - it's not so important at this stage to be meticulous regarding timeframes with that.
  • AspenDan
    AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I'm still trying to figure out how I went from 318 to 319.6.. I know that the day prior I'd had WAY too much to drink and also too much to eat (about 3000) calories...That's the only "bad" day I've had in the two weeks I've been tracking, and only like 500 extra calories (of my 2500 TDE) shouldn't have caused me to gain that much...any ideas?
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
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    danieltsmoke wrote: »
    I'm still trying to figure out how I went from 318 to 319.6.. I know that the day prior I'd had WAY too much to drink and also too much to eat (about 3000) calories...That's the only "bad" day I've had in the two weeks I've been tracking, and only like 500 extra calories (of my 2500 TDE) shouldn't have caused me to gain that much...any ideas?

    1.6lbs isn't huge for a fluctuation, it's fairly normal. If you'd eaten a lot of salty foods it makes your body retain water for a bit, so that could be a culprit. And eating more food will of course mean there's probably more food in your body that you haven't got rid of yet.

    To demonstrate that fluctuations are normal and nothing to worry about, here's the first few weeks of my weight loss, and the graph over several months:

    WcWgL2c.png
  • AspenDan
    AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
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    Wow that is super cool! Is that part of MFP or something else? I'd really like to check it!

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