What is the best schedule to weigh yourself?

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kenziebell123
kenziebell123 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys.

This is the first, well second kind of, time that I am seriously buckling down and changing my poor eating habits. I was wondering, as I diet and work out, what is the best time to weigh yourself? I heard morning after you go to the bathroom since your body is not "full" of food. And if that is true, should I pick a day of the week to weigh, or should I go every other week?

Just wondering what has worked best for you all.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and reply if you do :)

Replies

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    edited February 2016
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    I use the iPhone app Happy Scale to chart my weight. (There is also a website called trendweight you can do the same thing with if you don't have an iPhone.)

    I log my weight first thing every day, after visiting the loo.

    Happy Scale charts my weight but smooths out the fluctuations to show the general trend. Here's a typical month:

    878C3ED6-22D4-44A6-8466-685189D77ED7.png_zpsc614zbc9.jpeg

    As you can see, your weight changes pretty much every day.

    I like logging my weight every day because I got too nervous weighing myself once a week.

    Now I just weigh, log and forget. I often can't remember my weight and need to check the app.

    The app reassures me that I'm making progress even if I'm up a kilo from DOMS, sodium, hormones etc.

    It also gives predictions based on your current rate of loss, and divides up your goal into mini-goals which are fun to achieve.

    I update MFP with my weight whenever I remember, but usually about once a week.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    kenziebell123 wrote: »
    Hey guys.

    This is the first, well second kind of, time that I am seriously buckling down and changing my poor eating habits. I was wondering, as I diet and work out, what is the best time to weigh yourself? I heard morning after you go to the bathroom since your body is not "full" of food. And if that is true, should I pick a day of the week to weigh, or should I go every other week?

    Just wondering what has worked best for you all.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this, and reply if you do :)

    The best practice is to do it under conditions as similar as possible every time. Same scale, same place on the floor, same clothes (or lack thereof), same hydration/feeding status, etc. Personally, I weigh every morning, naked, right after I get up and go pee, before I've eaten or drank anything. The more variables you allow to creep in, the less accurate a reflection of your true weight loss/gain it is. Something as simple as drinking a pint of liquid can make a one pound difference on the scale.

    As far as how often, it's entirely personal preference. Some people like to weigh daily, even knowing that weight can fluctuate several pounds from day to day for different reasons (water retention, sodium intake, food in the intestines, hormonal (period) issues, etc. Others can't deal with the fluctuations, it freaks them out, so they weigh less often - weekly, every two weeks, monthly, etc. Do whatever works best for you.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    First thing in the morning
  • dolliesdaughter
    dolliesdaughter Posts: 544 Member
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    I weight myself every Saturday morning between 6a-6:30a, naked, before I go on my long run.
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    edited February 2016
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    kenziebell123 wrote: »
    Hey guys.

    This is the first, well second kind of, time that I am seriously buckling down and changing my poor eating habits. I was wondering, as I diet and work out, what is the best time to weigh yourself? I heard morning after you go to the bathroom since your body is not "full" of food. And if that is true, should I pick a day of the week to weigh, or should I go every other week?

    Just wondering what has worked best for you all.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this, and reply if you do :)

    Every morning when you get up. Keep the routine simple. Go pee, step on scale and if you want to, you can record any changes right here at MFP by clicking on that little graphic next to your picture in your daily summary when you click on "My Home". You will then be able to go to "Reports" and see your progress for various time frames (7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, one year) and view it in chart from such as this...

    24886010861_f3a94dee59_o.jpg

    Monitoring your weight, your calories in vs. calories out are all things you can daily micro-manage to meet your longer term goals. Some prefer to step back and take a longer view and only check in with all of that more infrequently, but I'm a big believer in the daily. It takes a few seconds.

  • TaraTall
    TaraTall Posts: 339 Member
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    I do it weekly, Wednesday mornings right after I 'empty' haha. This way - it's not too close to the weekend to obsess over it one way or the other.
  • jesscran815
    jesscran815 Posts: 37 Member
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    I weigh myself every morning right after I go to the bathroom as I'm stepping in the shower. I know full well that sometimes it's higher. I only log it as a loss if I weigh in the same weight after a few days. I don't log my gains usually, unless they're prolonged, like when I moved back in December and the holidays were a killer!

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