Do you weigh yourself too often?

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Replies

  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
    Years ago I was obsessed with the scale. I was young and stupid and didn't realize how completely pointless it was to weigh multiple times a day. There are SO many reasons not to do that. Education is a wonderful thing.

    Fast forward a few decades and I needed to lose weight again. I lost it by weighing myself no more than once a week and often I went much longer than that between weigh ins. and then it was maintenance time and I debated how to approach that. I decided to try weighing daily. Once a day, first thing in the morning and using Happy Scale. And that's worked well for me now.

    Moral of that story--You have to find what works for you. But there is absolutely no point to or benefit from weighing multiple times a day. None at all. You get no useful information from doing that. Pick one set time (first thing in the morning is ideal, but it can be another time) and stick with it. Do it once a day, once a week, once a month -- whatever works for you.
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    I weigh twice a week - every monday and friday morning after using the bathroom and not eating/drinking anything.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Oops, I just realized I forgot to weigh in this morning, slightly different routine than usual. Darn!
  • Acrosno
    Acrosno Posts: 20 Member
    I have an Aria Scale and weigh daily. I like to see how my choices the day before affect my weight. Also, it's easier to correct a 0.2 lb mistake than it is to correct a 2-5 lb mistake (at least in my opinion) ... I like to catch upward trends early. But that's just me.

    It's whatever works for you ... but seriously, you are not a number ... you are an awesome person who is doing the best possible thing by investing in your health and fitness! Don't let a little spike in weight dim your shine... use it to approach tomorrow more aggressively
  • Ryann1983
    Ryann1983 Posts: 8 Member
    I just ordered a new scale and my plan is that I'll probably weigh myself daily but only record weekly weights.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    micayla75 wrote: »
    One of the problems I have when I start focusing on changing my lifestyle, including my eating and exercising habits, is that I begin to get a tad bit obsessive. This is not my normal personality as I am firmly in the type B camp and rarely waiver into anything that resembles obsessive behavior.

    As a result of the increased focus on my habits and my desire to lose weight (and of course look better as well), I weigh myself at least once a day and sometimes more. It wouldn't be an issue if I took the number with a grain of salt, but I don't. I let the number affect my mood.

    Any tips on curbing this obsessive scale watching?

    Yeah...the scale has very little to do with living a healthy lifestyle. When you live a healthy lifestyle and do the things that lean, healthy, and fit people do, things tend to take care of themselves over time.

    The scale is just one of many tools in the tool box and doesn't tell the whole story...people seem to think the scale is somehow measuring fat...it's measuring a lot of things...fat, muscle, bone, water, waste, etc...it shouldn't be your end all for "healthy living". And where weight loss (and weight management in general) is concerned, the trend over time is what is important...not the actual weigh in.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    I never understand this fear of the scale but I do try to learn why people feel that way because I am intensely curious about it. What about your scale weight scares you, how does that fear manifest, why do you think it is scary? Is it a cultural thing, is it some idea that you must be X weight to be a productive member of society or something? I mean the reality of it is your health has some connection with how much fat you have relative to lean mass (your body fat percentage) which is only very loosely tied to your scale weight. People who obsess over their scale weight often end up losing lean mass in a way that can be even detrimental to their health. Your scale weight is just a number, I'd focus more on your fitness if you can.
  • micayla75
    micayla75 Posts: 219 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    I never understand this fear of the scale but I do try to learn why people feel that way because I am intensely curious about it. What about your scale weight scares you, how does that fear manifest, why do you think it is scary? Is it a cultural thing, is it some idea that you must be X weight to be a productive member of society or something? I mean the reality of it is your health has some connection with how much fat you have relative to lean mass (your body fat percentage) which is only very loosely tied to your scale weight. People who obsess over their scale weight often end up losing lean mass in a way that can be even detrimental to their health. Your scale weight is just a number, I'd focus more on your fitness if you can.

    I think it is goal related. I am very competitive even with myself, so the scale is an easy way to see if I am "winning". I do think it is cultural as well. I remember being called fat in 7th grade for the first time. I went home and weighed myself (it was never a concern for me before this point) and I weighed 131. I was 5'4" and had already gone through puberty. I wasn't fat, but certainly curvy. However, my 7th grade brain figured I must be because the girls saying it were much thinner than I was. I have never forgotten that moment or the weight I was when I was "fat". It only got worse, in terms of cultural and societal influences, as I got older.

    I am truly working on being healthier and trying not to focus on the number, but I can't seem to let it go completely. I'm not concerned with losing muscle mass as I do a bootcamp every morning and I would much rather be muscle than skinny fat, which will never really happen with my body type anyway.
  • xtina315
    xtina315 Posts: 218 Member
    I weigh myself everyday. In all honesty, it's unhealthy because it makes me obsessed about the number and if it doesn't move it makes me upset. I've been stuck for two weeks at the same weight so it's been annoying. I recommend doing it once a week.
  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 433 Member
    Yep I weigh every morning. this morning I had a .8 weight gain. Haven't seen that in a few weeks. However I am eating nurtrisystem foods and ran out so I substituted my dinner with a frozen remade breaded chicken patty. I'm sure its way up there in sodium cause it tasted so good, lol. Tonight I find something different or drink more water.
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    Knowledge was the key for me to stop obsessing over weight fluctuations. Arm yourself with knowledge -- how water retention works, how glycogen stores fill and empty, how hormones affect weight from day to day, what average fluctuations look like. Once you know that stuff cold it's much, much easier not to fret over daily weight fluctuations, because you know for a certainty they are not overnight fat gains (and if you truly gain fat, you will easily be able to identify the cause).
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Yes, at least 5 times a day
  • PeachesNcreamgal
    PeachesNcreamgal Posts: 357 Member
    edited November 2016
    I weigh myself at least 15 times a day :'( but if I watch what I eat and prelog my food and stick to the plan then I don't get obsessed.
  • lallen7991
    lallen7991 Posts: 7 Member
    I weigh once a day, first thing in the morning. I've been doing it this way for almost 2 years. No matter what the scale reads I log it both in MFP app and the app that goes to my scale. I do keep in mind that you can fluctuate 3-4 pounds a day (I don't typically fluctuate that much maybe 1-2 pounds) depending on other outside forces. I do not let it get me down if I am up a little. I just look at what and when I ate to see if that could be part of the problem. I do know that my weight will be up if I consume too many carbs the day before. I do compare my prior Monday reading to the current Monday to see how I did over the week. That is how I decide if I really need to make changes for the current week. I also rely on how my clothes are fitting as a true measurement.

    I think I'm more OCD about logging on MFP than the number on the scale! OCD can be a good thing especially if it works for you!
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
    Daily fluctuations are normal so to me (and from what experts say. . .) there is no point in weighing daily.

    Some people like to weigh everyday and then average their loss or gain, but I don't feel the need to be that technical about it. I am looking for an overall trend (weight loss). I weigh myself on the same day of the week, I do not move my scale, I do not eat beforehand, and I try to be in my underwear or the nude.

    When I am losing weight I have never had a problem with my weight fluctuating and being up even though it really isn't on weigh in day unless it's that time of the month and even then I know that's what it is and I don't freak out about it. I also will notice if that happens then on my next weigh in day (a week later) I will be down some ridiculous amount like 5-6lbs which tells me the weigh in last week was not accurate.
  • Misssynth
    Misssynth Posts: 179 Member
    I definitely agree with the comments on using the data to work for you. I weigh myself every morning, and find it interesting to see the fluctuations, compare it to the food i've been eating and my excersize. I nearly always see a loss when I've been running and a slight gain when I've been doing weight training in the gym. The problem is letting it negatively effect your mood. Now I know my gain from lifting is part of getting stronger so I'm cool with that, and my loss from running is awesome motivation to keep going. I use a fitbit and their integrated scale, which also tracks the weekly average. I find mostly that my weight will fluctuate a lot through the week but the weekly average will go down a steady lb a week. It's all about using the information to make good changes. Also remember that women especially fluctuate a lot during certain times of the month etc, so letting it effect your mood when it's not to do with your lifestyle but just biology isn't productive in any way.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    I weigh daily, and put it in MFP. Couple times a week I complete my spreadsheet. I just like numbers. Some days it goes up and most it goes down. It doesn't change my approach to eating and exercise so daily weighing is not an issue for me. If it is an issue, try once or twice a week. Everyone is different.
  • U2R2
    U2R2 Posts: 260 Member
    edited November 2016
    I log my weight along with temperature and blood pressure glucose and oxygen levels each morning.

    Average systolic down six points with 26 lbs lost. Yay, data. :)
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