What's with daily weigh-ins?

13

Replies

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    This is how I got over my hate relationship with the scale. For way too long, I let the number dictate how I felt. Now, I understand how much it fluctuates and it doesn't bother me if it's up a little, because it will be down again.

    Weighing daily (was a former weekly weigher--and OH! the routine I had!) has freed me from "Scale Stress!"
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    I used to weigh weekly. I just started weighing daily in January. I find that I prefer the daily weigh in because I like to see what's happening. I like seeing the trend. I also like being able to predict about how much weight I'll gain during my TOM.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited February 2016
    tomteboda wrote: »
    I honestly feel that NOT weighing myself very regularly contributed greatly to my gaining so much weight to start (over many, many years). I would freak out about the scale for a few hours, then ignore it until my next unfortunate encounter with a scale months, or years later.

    Now I weigh myself daily. I intend to continue this habit, along with honest logging of food, because I never want to go back to where I was again.
    Exactly this is my experience as well.

    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    Meh. I do lots of things daily that many may consider unhealthy. I look in the mirror, put on makeup, dress nicely (maybe change if I don't like it)... These could be symptoms of narcissism, but in my case they aren't as there are no other symptoms and I don't obsess over my looks the majority of the day.

    Same with daily weighing. Could be symptom of an unhealthy relationship with my weight, but due to how I use the knowledge, how much it affects my daily life and how little time it actually takes...I am leaning towards "not an unhealthy interest."
    Yes. Context is everything.

    tomteboda wrote: »
    I'm going to add that for the first several months I found regular weigh-ins very traumatic emotionally. It honestly is only as I've gotten more successful at managing my weight and eating habits that I've been able to become a lot more calm about them.
    Just precis. Eating right ensures a healthy weight; a healthy weight makes it painless to step on the scale; stepping on the scale regularly makes it easier to "remember" to eat right.
  • tkphotogirl
    tkphotogirl Posts: 245 Member
    It's just a habit. Get up, go to loo, stand on scale, get in shower. I don't attach any emotion to it, it just keeps me mindful of where I am. I log it when it goes down, ignore it when it goes up.
  • LeanFitLisa
    LeanFitLisa Posts: 36 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    Weight fluctuates throughout the day and from day today. I giant 2-5 pounds between 7am and noon every day! I've tested it only a couple of times, but I see it all the time when I weigh in with my trainer, later In the day than when I weigh at home. Obviously it's water weight not fat or muscle, but it's all the same to the scales.

  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    Like other folks on here I love the data.

    Also, if it's higher than I think it should be and I know I've been doing everything 'right' I use that day to make sure I get my workout in and drink plenty of water. Then I see the next day whether it was just water or something is off with my plan.
  • limetree683
    limetree683 Posts: 51 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.
  • karmelpopcorn
    karmelpopcorn Posts: 77 Member
    Keeps me accountable.
  • limetree683
    limetree683 Posts: 51 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.

    ah ok thanks. Do you use it weekly or daily? I'm guessing I need daily entries to make it useful but not sure!

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.

    ah ok thanks. Do you use it weekly or daily? I'm guessing I need daily entries to make it useful but not sure!

    I weigh daily and enter it into my free Fitbit account (maybe you can tell I'm cheap, lol) and it synchs with Trendweight AND Myfitnesspal. Trendweight
    estimates missing scale readings using linear interpolation
    Most people will want this enabled. If enabled, TrendWeight will fill in any missing scale readings (i.e. days that you didn't weight yourself) using linear interpolation . This will generally result in more a accurate trend line and statistics if you go a few days without weighing yourself (e.g. when you're traveling). Estimated weights will appear on your charts as light gray data points.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    I honestly feel that NOT weighing myself very regularly contributed greatly to my gaining so much weight to start (over many, many years). I would freak out about the scale for a few hours, then ignore it until my next unfortunate encounter with a scale months, or years later.

    Now I weigh myself daily. I intend to continue this habit, along with honest logging of food, because I never want to go back to where I was again.

    This is the same for me, and one reason it's important to me to teach myself not to get all freaked out by the scale (which I have mostly done, successfully), and to make weighing part of my day. For me postponing getting on the scale (I'd always decide to just lose weight first and then see the number) never worked and always seemed to coincide with deciding to postpone taking control of my weight, too.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    it is only unhealthy if you obsess over it and make different decisions based on every fluctuation in the data.

    I mean, if measuring something 1x/day was unhealthy than many jobs would be unhealthy. I mean I have databases full of information where varying things are sampled 1000's of times per day. Does that make my job unhealthy?

    I like to check the snow accumulation totals daily (when we are actually getting snow), is that unhealthy?
  • CollieFit
    CollieFit Posts: 1,683 Member
    edited February 2016
    In the past I used to weigh weekly and I would have been the first to think that daily weighing is OTT, but I found this thread really interesting and the tracking apps are really clever, so I synced my FitBit with 'WeightGrapher' and I'll weigh daily for a while as an interesting data experiment. Cheers. :)
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Hehe I used to think that weighing food was uber obsessive, same with daily weigh ins. But now i happily do both. I want as much data and accuracy as I can get.
  • limetree683
    limetree683 Posts: 51 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.

    ah ok thanks. Do you use it weekly or daily? I'm guessing I need daily entries to make it useful but not sure!

    I weigh daily and enter it into my free Fitbit account (maybe you can tell I'm cheap, lol) and it synchs with Trendweight AND Myfitnesspal. Trendweight
    estimates missing scale readings using linear interpolation
    Most people will want this enabled. If enabled, TrendWeight will fill in any missing scale readings (i.e. days that you didn't weight yourself) using linear interpolation . This will generally result in more a accurate trend line and statistics if you go a few days without weighing yourself (e.g. when you're traveling). Estimated weights will appear on your charts as light gray data points.

    That's really helpful to know, thanks! :)

  • smiles4jo
    smiles4jo Posts: 202 Member
    Yup! If I don't weigh daily I miss my "lowest weight" for the week. I could loose weight all week, eat something high in sodium and register a 2-3 pound gain in time for weigh in day. Without daily weighing, I would see no loss and get discouraged. By weighing daily I know the random 2-3 extra is just water bloat.

    This is me exactly!
  • olive1968
    olive1968 Posts: 148 Member
    I like it! I've never done it this way but started about 6 weeks ago. I'm finding it is helping me be more accountable to myself. Like someone else mentioned, it helps me not be so focused just on my Tuesday number. I'm enjoying watching the weight go up and down and NOT freaking out about it!

    I log in MFP weekly, and also any time I hit a new low. That becomes my new benchmark to try to beat.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    Only if you are overly emotionally attached to the numbers. For the majority of us, it's just a data point among many data points.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.

    Libra is also free, and you don't need a fitbit account or a supported digital scale. (If you have one or both of those already, Trendweight may make more sense.) Libra is available as an Android app; Happy Scale only works on IOS.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    If they seem like overkill/unhealthy to you, then they are . . . for you.

    To me, weight loss/weight management seems like a fun data-oriented science project. The more data, the more fun. I like understanding my fluctuations & how my body responds to different eating patterns. Really no emotion about it.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    I prefer to weigh weekly - but the idea of a nice graph sounds pretty good! Is it worth getting something like Libra for my weekly weigh-ins?

    Haven't tried Libra, but Trendweight is free.

    Libra is also free, and you don't need a fitbit account or a supported digital scale. (If you have one or both of those already, Trendweight may make more sense.) Libra is available as an Android app; Happy Scale only works on IOS.

    you can set up a fitbit.com account without owning any fitbit device. link that to mfp and never think about it again as weights logged in mfp will transfer automatically to trendweight
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
    I weigh in daily, because, I'm on Maintenance and fluctuations can be annoying. By weighing every day, I can get my average weight for the week, and that's the weight I use as my weight
  • soufauxgirl
    soufauxgirl Posts: 392 Member
    one phrase comes to mind after reading this thread....analysis paralysis.
    I understand and appreciate all the reasons, but I just cant imagine dedicating so much time to graphs and fluctuations and syncs..but power to you all if that's what you need to stay on track.
  • rnelson88
    rnelson88 Posts: 122 Member
    Depends on your body, diet, and activity level
  • FindingAmy77
    FindingAmy77 Posts: 1,268 Member
    yes your weight fluctuates daily and that can be discouraging when you see a gain or a stand still and can be a false celebration when you see a loss. I got into that habit many times before and I became obsessed. In my oppinion it's a little like watching the clock. Once a week is all I need to do and keep following the plan I made for myself. It will go down whether I watch it or not.
  • EmilyHughes801
    EmilyHughes801 Posts: 63 Member
    I used to weight myself almost every hour of the day, just to see how different clothes, activities, and foods do to the body weight wise. Some of my clothes add an extra 3 pounds.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    one phrase comes to mind after reading this thread....analysis paralysis.
    I understand and appreciate all the reasons, but I just cant imagine dedicating so much time to graphs and fluctuations and syncs..but power to you all if that's what you need to stay on track.

    For me it's maybe 30 seconds out of my day. I step on my scale, it automatically syncs to fitbit, MFP, & trendweight, and then I go about my business. I check trendweight every few weeks to make sure things are on track, which is another 30 seconds, maybe a minute. It takes me more time to check Facebook than to do any of this stuff.
  • KatherinePM
    KatherinePM Posts: 22 Member
    Yep I weigh twice a day in the morning and night. When I weighed in weekly it made me stressed. How it's just habit and I'd notice a 2kg increase and be able to tell what's happened, it's also interesting to see how much taking a wee effects your weight etc... Lol maybe I'm just weird that way.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    one phrase comes to mind after reading this thread....analysis paralysis.
    I understand and appreciate all the reasons, but I just cant imagine dedicating so much time to graphs and fluctuations and syncs..but power to you all if that's what you need to stay on track.

    So is weighing and logging every little thing one eats.
    But I weigh myself daily which then syncs to Trendweight, and weigh and log all my food. The more data I can accumulate, the better Imo.