How often should I be weighing myself for weight loss?

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jax_006
jax_006 Posts: 87 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What are you guys thoughts on this?
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  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    It's totally up to you. Some people like myself prefer daily weighing. I think it makes me more accountable and I just plain like data. Other people weigh weekly as they feel like they get freaked out by the (inevitable) daily variations. Others apparently like less-frequent weighings, say monthly.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily
  • jax_006
    jax_006 Posts: 87 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily

    Interesting. Do you mean if you have a slip/ a cheat day or meal?
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    jax_006 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily

    Interesting. Do you mean if you have a slip/ a cheat day or meal?

    If you are not trending downward, then there is something wrong with your intake/outtake. Your calculations are off. Catch it now or catch it in a month, you decide.
  • MzManiak
    MzManiak Posts: 1,361 Member
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    I like to log my weight daily becomes I'm a numbers freak and love graphs. Haha
    But also because I don't want to be surprised at the weekly/monthly weigh in when I haven't lost what I thought I did (either because I really haven't lost it, or because I ate a high sodium meal or worked out really hard the day before and am retaining water, etc.)
  • jax_006
    jax_006 Posts: 87 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    jax_006 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily

    Interesting. Do you mean if you have a slip/ a cheat day or meal?

    If you are not trending downward, then there is something wrong with your intake/outtake. Your calculations are off. Catch it now or catch it in a month, you decide.

    Great advice! I have always been scared to weigh everyday because I am a bit obsessive (in a bad way) when it comes to the number on the scale. I will give that a try since I feel I have stalled. Thanks! :)
  • jax_006
    jax_006 Posts: 87 Member
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    MzManiak wrote: »
    I like to log my weight daily becomes I'm a numbers freak and love graphs. Haha
    But also because I don't want to be surprised at the weekly/monthly weigh in when I haven't lost what I thought I did (either because I really haven't lost it, or because I ate a high sodium meal or worked out really hard the day before and am retaining water, etc.)

    Good info! I think I will give that a try!
  • robs_ready
    robs_ready Posts: 1,488 Member
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    Once a week, weighing yourself every day can have negative impact on your goals. Your body weightwill fluctuate daily, even more so for women. So it's important you don't become obsessed with the numbers and just weigh yourself once a week in the morning.
  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
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    I tend to weigh daily so I can keep track of general trends, like increasing or decreasing water weight. I think it would drive me nuts to weigh just once a week because I wouldn't know what exactly led to a particular weight at that point in time. Control freak, yes.
  • jamesabella
    jamesabella Posts: 3 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I believe it would depend on the individual and what you do with that info. If you use it to motivate you to do better and as purely a benchmark of how your doing I would think daily at the same time within your routine is fine. But if you obsess over your weight and it affects your mood perhaps weekly would be better suited.

    I use a withings scale and will sometimes switch it to weigh in Stones or Kg. so I don't really know what the number is until I reset it but it will still track and graph in whatever I want so I don't lose the data.

    My $.02
  • fochizzy87
    fochizzy87 Posts: 51 Member
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    I weigh daily but only record weekly. That way I can monitor how I am doing without being crazy about the fluxuations.
  • DaisyHamilton
    DaisyHamilton Posts: 575 Member
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    I check my weight 2-4 times a week, probably, but I only record it once a week. The non-logged ones are just out of curiosity honestly.
  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
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    Daily, unless I am on my period. Then I weigh myself the day after my period is over.

    I like the data and I enjoy watch it go down every day or two. Plus it keeps me accountable. If I am weighing myself every morning I feel less inclined to back-pedaling.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    I weigh daily and use Trendweight to track my trendline. It is harder to log the gains but the data and seeing the fluctuations and how they fit in the long term is pretty interesting. I only started making myself log gains and started using the trendweight app a few months ago and looking back over the past year's graph I really wish I had done it from the beginning.
  • Chiqui74
    Chiqui74 Posts: 72 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I weigh myself once a week, always first thing in the morning on the same days (Wednesday), for the sake of consistency. Your weight fluctuates from day to day, I think it's futile to weigh yourself every day. For me, it's also a carryover from over a decade ago when I did Weight Watchers for the first time because that's when my week started for the purpose of points.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    I weigh daily precisely because weight fluctuates so much day to day - it makes it easier to identify fluctuations AS fluctuations, and more data points means more accurate trending.
  • lmflorhy
    lmflorhy Posts: 19 Member
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    I would weigh monthly since you may also be gaining muscle if your lifting. At least see some results!
  • Mandingo15
    Mandingo15 Posts: 10 Member
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    If your goal is weight loss at least twice a week. Same exact time and situation. Keeps you motivated and accountable.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    jax_006 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily

    Interesting. Do you mean if you have a slip/ a cheat day or meal?

    If you are not trending downward, then there is something wrong with your intake/outtake. Your calculations are off. Catch it now or catch it in a month, you decide.

    Tracking a trend takes time; you don't learn much different from weighing daily or monthly. With daily, you still need time to see a trend. With monthly, you just take a snap shot of the trend.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    concordancia wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    jax_006 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    It's easier to correct your errors if you weigh daily

    Interesting. Do you mean if you have a slip/ a cheat day or meal?

    If you are not trending downward, then there is something wrong with your intake/outtake. Your calculations are off. Catch it now or catch it in a month, you decide.

    Tracking a trend takes time; you don't learn much different from weighing daily or monthly. With daily, you still need time to see a trend. With monthly, you just take a snap shot of the trend.

    You do see a trend faster if you log daily, or rather the trend reaches a given level of accuracy sooner.

    If you look at 3 weeks of data, a trend calculated from 21 data points is a lot more accurate than a trend from 3 data points. Each measurement still has "error" - in this case, the fluctuations due to non-fat weight - but as you include more data points, the error tends to cancel out to a much higher degree, so for a given length of time, you are more confident in the trend line with more data points.

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