Scale sabotage
traceyc83
Posts: 72 Member
My scale seems to be messing with me. I noticed after I lost my first 20lbs that my weight jumps all over the place. So I started googling to find out if it was normal to weigh yourself in the morning and weigh one thing and then weigh yourself an hour later and have there be a 2-4 pound difference. I'm working out almost every day, I don't eat junk food anymore and I try to drink enough water so I thought maybe it was my scale, so I bought a new one. Same thing happens. So I started experimenting, and this is what I found.
-I weigh more first thing in the morning.
-I weigh more when I don't drink enough water the day before.
-Hormones effect my weight A LOT.
I can't weigh myself during my period because it is extremely inaccurate. The scale tells me I've gained 3 lbs and then a day or two after its gone it tells me I've lost 5 lbs.
It's extremely frustrating because I never really know how much I weigh. I'm doing everything right so I don't know what's going on.
Does anyone else have this problem?
-I weigh more first thing in the morning.
-I weigh more when I don't drink enough water the day before.
-Hormones effect my weight A LOT.
I can't weigh myself during my period because it is extremely inaccurate. The scale tells me I've gained 3 lbs and then a day or two after its gone it tells me I've lost 5 lbs.
It's extremely frustrating because I never really know how much I weigh. I'm doing everything right so I don't know what's going on.
Does anyone else have this problem?
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Replies
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You may find it helpful to either restrict your use of the scales to once a month or set up an Excel spreadsheet that averages your last 10-14 days if you want to weigh everyday. The average allows you to see the trend in your weight.
The attached screenshot is my Excel sheet - I just fill in my morning weight-ins and the sheet fills in the rest.
The two week and four week trends are future projections.
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You may find it helpful to either restrict your use of the scales to once a month or set up an Excel spreadsheet that averages your last 10-14 days if you want to weigh everyday. The average allows you to see the trend in your weight.
The attached screenshot is my Excel sheet - I just fill in my morning weight-ins and the sheet fills in the rest.
The two week and four week trends are future projections.
LOVE your spreadsheet!! Did you find the template online or create it yourself?1 -
@codygish I'm so geekin' out at your spreadsheet. Inspired.
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YAAAS. I weigh myself in the mornings. I found that working out and then weighing myself doesn't really do justice because all the water I've drank during the day and the food that I've eaten. I hate scales and I think no matter what one you use (the doctor's office old-school scale to the new and improved digital that measure BF%) they are all flawed so I usually just give/take a couple pounds on what the scale says. One time I found the gym's scale in the locker room that said I was 190.....went home after workout and weighed 179. 11 pound loss within 1.5 hrs. Yeah, right.
Usually I weigh myself in the mornings after I use the bathroom. You're body is going through a fast, you've exhumed urine that built up in your bladder through the night, and you're taller since your spine spaces out.
Also with scales and posture, if your posture is...well, bad. it will affect your weight.1 -
You may find it helpful to either restrict your use of the scales to once a month or set up an Excel spreadsheet that averages your last 10-14 days if you want to weigh everyday. The average allows you to see the trend in your weight.
The attached screenshot is my Excel sheet - I just fill in my morning weight-ins and the sheet fills in the rest.
The two week and four week trends are future projections.
A geek after my own heart. When I first started getting control of my eating, I made a similar spreadsheet with all the weight watchers calculations - free weight watchers tracking
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mysticwryter wrote: »YAAAS. I weigh myself in the mornings. I found that working out and then weighing myself doesn't really do justice because all the water I've drank during the day and the food that I've eaten. I hate scales and I think no matter what one you use (the doctor's office old-school scale to the new and improved digital that measure BF%) they are all flawed so I usually just give/take a couple pounds on what the scale says. One time I found the gym's scale in the locker room that said I was 190.....went home after workout and weighed 179. 11 pound loss within 1.5 hrs. Yeah, right.
Usually I weigh myself in the mornings after I use the bathroom. You're body is going through a fast, you've exhumed urine that built up in your bladder through the night, and you're taller since your spine spaces out.
Also with scales and posture, if your posture is...well, bad. it will affect your weight.
I take a similar approach but I wait until after I workout. Nice to have that sweat loss show up. I figure it's still consistent as long as I always do it the same
I also don't weigh when I'm PMSing. Why add that stress to my life when I know it's a temporary thing?1 -
i weigh twice a day every day. I count the weight in the morning as accurate. I weigh at night just to see what it looks like. I can tell by what i weigh at night what i will weigh in the morning fairly accurately. For me its about information. I can see fluctuations, plateaus etc. I have digital scale and if floor is uneven or some bit of whatever under it or if battery is low it messes with me.0
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You may find it helpful to either restrict your use of the scales to once a month or set up an Excel spreadsheet that averages your last 10-14 days if you want to weigh everyday. The average allows you to see the trend in your weight.
The attached screenshot is my Excel sheet - I just fill in my morning weight-ins and the sheet fills in the rest.
The two week and four week trends are future projections.
This^^^. I don't have the 1 and 2 week projections, but I do enter the 5 week projection MFP gives me when I complete a diary entry to compare accuracy.0 -
I know that what I weigh first thing in the morning I will weigh 1.5-2lbs more hours later. Generally I can tell what I'll weigh in the morning by subtracting 2lbs from what I weigh right before bed, kind of cool really!1
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I use libra on my phone..same idea as trendweight but for android.0
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JessicaMcB wrote: »I know that what I weigh first thing in the morning I will weigh 1.5-2lbs more hours later. Generally I can tell what I'll weigh in the morning by subtracting 2lbs from what I weigh right before bed, kind of cool really!
That makes sense, but for me it's the opposite. I weigh more first thing in the morning than I do if I wait an hour to weigh myself. I don't get it.0 -
I weigh myself every day and only record when I am below the previous low. I'm always trying to beat my lowest weight. This seems to help because I'm not so devastated when it fluctuates.1
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LOVE your spreadsheet!! Did you find the template online or create it yourself?
I went looking for something that would track the metrics I was interested in, but I could not find it. So I took several examples I did find and combined/built on those to get to what I wanted.
It is interesting to watch the variations in weight due to food and exercise.0 -
I used to weigh every single day, sometimes more than once a day. It would completely stress me out when the scale would go up, and I wasn't consistently losing the weight. So, now I only weigh Monday morning and Friday morning. It has REALLY helped! Now, I just bust my butt all week making sure I stay under goal and exercise. Then on Friday, I get excited to see that I'm down! The stress throughout the week was really affecting my weight loss. I know different things work for different people, though. 2
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This^^^. I don't have the 1 and 2 week projections, but I do enter the 5 week projection MFP gives me when I complete a diary entry to compare accuracy.[/quote]
What's your finding on the MFP 5 week accuracy? I never recorded it but it generally seemed quite accurate for me during the weight loss phase (on normal eating days)0 -
In looking for MyFitness "friends" for exercise and healthy eating support0
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