weighing in

Ashlee,

I have seen it way too often here on MFP...cries of frustration and discouragement regarding ones weight not budging or even increasing after days or weeks into the journey.

It's understandable...we've embarked on a journey that is new to us in regards to eating and activities. We've made sacrifices by reducing or eliminating our favorite foods, activating muscles we never thought the human body had and of course all that comes with cravings, pain and soreness....not to mention the hit our social and family lives may have taken. So one morning, rubbing our hands together..."ok scale, it's payback time!....⏲ouch...wtf!!".

Here is how one should weigh themselves....

Weight is made up of fat, muscle, glycogen, water, food, etc. Expect it to fluctuate daily. Don't change your routines or let it affect your emotions when it's up or down a tad.

The most accurate way to weigh yourselves is every day at the same time, at the same moment in regards to daily activities, as long as you do it correctly...take the weekly average...and don’t let the daily fluctuations negatively affect you. But if you are the type of person who will turn it into an unhealthy obsession and respond poorly to seeing typical day-to-day changes in your weight, then you should probably avoid this option and weigh yourselves once per week. The problem with once per week...let’s say your once a week weigh-in happens to fall on a day when one of those normal weight fluctuations are taking place. Your progress (or lack thereof) is skewed and you’d have to wait until a week later to know for sure (unless of course next week’s weigh-in is skewed as well).

Ideally, weigh yourselves every day, then take the average at the end of the week.

If you have one of those portable digital scales that displays your weight to the decimal point, always place it at the same place on solid flooring (no shag carpets) because flexing of a wood floor (for example) or unevenness of tiles may skew the numbers when you're tracking tenths of a kilogram/pound.

To better track your progress, incorporate measurements, body fat percentage, pictures....and of course...the mirror.

My 2¢