Discussing how often to weigh yourself

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  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    So there are only two options? Guess I've been doing it wrong.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
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    I weigh daily, I like the data in HappyScale, I like knowing when I have light days in my cycle (two days before I gain 1lbs, and the day before I start is normally my lowest in about a week and it doesn't go back up once it starts), I like seeing the progress, and I'm impatient.

    I also like the scale telling me I've been slacking. Lately I've been getting lazy with my logging, so I was 204lbs for about three weeks, some days would drop down to 202lbs, some back up to 206lbs. So I knew I had to get serious, I don't have as big of a calorie deficit as I did 30lbs ago. If I weighed weekly, I might not have noticed this as much because my weigh in days might have been a 202lb day.

    I'm planning on going to weekly or bi-weekly weighing once I hit maintenance, however.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    I think people should do what they want.

    That being said, I tend to wish that more women would weigh daily for 3 months or so, just to learn how their weight fluctuates over the course of their menstrual cycles. Way too many women are under-educated about how their bodies work. It is strange to me that a girl will start menstruating at 8 to 15 years old and will then seem surprised, as a 25 or 30 or 35 year old, to find out that her weight fluctuates throughout the month due to the normal hormonal shifts involved in her cycle. But then again, way too many people are embarrassed to even talk to their daughter's about their periods (I know my mom was) so I shouldn't be surprised.

    Great point!
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    I think people should do what they want.

    That being said, I tend to wish that more women would weigh daily for 3 months or so, just to learn how their weight fluctuates over the course of their menstrual cycles. Way too many women are under-educated about how their bodies work. It is strange to me that a girl will start menstruating at 8 to 15 years old and will then seem surprised, as a 25 or 30 or 35 year old, to find out that her weight fluctuates throughout the month due to the normal hormonal shifts involved in her cycle. But then again, way too many people are embarrassed to even talk to their daughter's about their periods (I know my mom was) so I shouldn't be surprised.
    Maybe it helped that my mother was a nurse, and she was happy to talk about everything. There was nothing that was TMI.

    warning for possible disgusting stuff.
    That's one thing I dislike about nurses, especially if your eating, they are talking about everything from infected legs to pooing so much it comes out the front of adult nappies.
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
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    I like to weigh in daily to follow the trend. You get a graph that clearly shows where you are at, like this one:

    4w.png

    It's very clear, and very motivating, unlike the underlying scale data points, which are random and demotivating.

    Osric
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,389 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    So there are only two options? Guess I've been doing it wrong.

    Only two. Choose one, otherwise you are wrong! :)


    I've been using several methods over time, and agree with the "do what you want" method. Earlier in the year, I lost close to 20 pounds without stepping on a scale, logging food, logging exercise, or worrying much about food choices.

    A couple months back I joined MFP to use with my fitness app, just to give me a better overall picture, and mostly to track calories on days of heavier exercise.

    For me, getting on the scale daily does show me the ups and downs, and makes me comfortable with not seeing daily loss vs looking at a trend. I'm probably going to punch some numbers into Trendweight or a similar type thing, but that's more just the data hound nature of me at times.


    Do what works for you IMO. If you never stepped on a scale but were happier with how you looked and fit in your clothes, would the final number really matter?

  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
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    I weigh every day or two, but I generally only record once a week. Otherwise I just get way too obsessive with the numbers.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
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    I like to weigh daily. I log what I eat every day so Iike to match that with info about my weight every day. I keep my weight logged in a separate app but only log in MFP once a week.

    But I find weighing weekly demotivating. If I happen to weigh on the lower part of my range one week and then the higher part of my range the next, it can hide my progress and I find that much worse than daily fluctuations.
  • zikarra
    zikarra Posts: 16 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Sharkbite2016 wrote: »
    The other school of thought says that you should weigh yourself everyday in order to learn about your natural weight fluctuations and to become more acclimated with what makes you gain and lose weight over time, with more accuracy.

    I do this ... and it works very well for me. :)


    Weighing everyday makes me comfortable with all the little ups and downs. I can see patterns. There is a cause-and-effect. And overall, the trend is downward.



    So many people dont know about fluctuations! My friend put on 4 kilos (8lb) in 2 weeks because she was in italy and was enjoying the pizza and pasta,same happened to me - after a week of normal eating the 4kg were all gone and I actually had lost some weight on my holiday. I therefore told her not to worry because she mainly ate carbs which are stored with water and so on and she clearly didn't know that. I also don't get disheartened when I put on 800g from the day before because I know I had a lot of carbs and water. I only record my weight once I'm sure I dropped 1lb or 2 lb because my fluctuations are usually no more than 2lb.

    I wouldn't want to weigh myself once a week because I would like to know where the trend is going. If i weigh myself on a high peak then I`ll think oh no. If I know it's been going down I know that it's just fluctuations.
  • tlcopestake82
    tlcopestake82 Posts: 5 Member
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    when i first started changing my lifestyle, i weighed myself every friday (always first thing in the morning, stark naked). then when the first 30lbs. came off i switched to every 2 weeks, because the weight wasn't coming off as much and it was a bit disheartening.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    I weigh daily first thing in the morning, but log it once a week, plus take measurements. I have found that if I don't weigh daily, I tend to not be accountable. I used to (pre MFP) avoid the scale when I was eating poorly and "knew" the scale would be up. I just avoided the problem. This lead to weight creep, and I would slowly gain. Now if I see I'm up on the scale, I tend to tighten up my logging. That's just me, of course. Do what works. B)
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    ColinsMommaOC wrote: »
    I weigh daily. But I like data and seeing that yes, sometimes I just go up, is helpful to me. If I were to weigh weekly or bi-weekly and happen to be on an up day, I would probably be a lot more stressed out by weighing.

    This is exactly what happened to me. I'm a weekly weigher and I noticed that I 'only' lost .2lbs since last time I weighed. I'm going to switch to daily to track trends. :)
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I weigh daily, because it increases the chances of successful weight loss http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113164
  • Nightnurse33
    Nightnurse33 Posts: 30 Member
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    Every day,,, Naked.. yup, it helps me to start the day off right with my goal in mind.
  • misterdale67
    misterdale67 Posts: 171 Member
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    Every morning for me.
  • blueriotgirl
    blueriotgirl Posts: 151 Member
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    I weigh myself every morning but i only log loss on mfp getting congrats after i gained and lost 2lbs of water weight kinda gets annoying. I do log everyday in my hard journal so this way i can see my trends in weight fluctuation from day to day and month to month. I also keep track off inches lost every month so i dont get discouraged when i see ive gone up. What it comes down to is personal preference and what makes you happy some people like watching and learning trends others dont. There is no right/wrong way.
    When i discuss this with my friends they are like you should only way once a month otherwise you beat yourself up and it lowers your motivation in my opinion it works for me. It teaches me to look at what i am or am not eating that can be affecting it and what to tweak. If they continue i just tell them its like making a peanut butter snd jelly sandwhich just because i put my pb on the bottom and jelly on top and you flip yours doesn't make one way better then the other..it all ends up in the same place. So weighing daily vs weighing monthly either way you do it ultimately you are both reaching the same goals.

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