Weight & Scale

I personally am in the daily group, I like to see the fluctuations base on diet and think it helps "smooth" things I know if I gained/lost 2-3 lbs over night, its mostly water/salt/carbs/hormones and it will come back off. I don't get discouraged by a high/low number because I expect certain fluctuations but if I see a consistent gain (or loss) I know I need to change my calorie intake.

HOWEVER I know several people I work with who simply CANNOT handle seeing their weight go up and down every day. A weight gain, no matter how small is totally devastating and the will compensate by cutting calories further than they need to or getting discouraged and giving up. For these people, as long as they are staying consistent with their diet/exercise they are better weighing once a week or less. I have one co worker who only weighs at her monthly doctors appointment because she knows she cant handle it without becoming discouraged/obsessed.

Everyone is different and just like workouts, what works for one does not work for another. I know when I was working on loosing and weighing weekly, I would get a bit frustrated if there was a gain, but weighing daily helped me to see trends and "settle down." Once I moved away from tracking, I would step on the scale a couple times a month just to see where I was. Now that I am back to tracking my food intake (need to cut carbs due to abnormal blood sugar levels) I am weighing daily to make sure that I don't loose too much. I dropped 4 lbs pretty quick that have mostly stayed off (100% water) but I am now only 5 lbs from what I consider my "minimum healthy weight (145lbs)" (different from what BMI says 138) so I need to keep a closer eye on weight and calorie intake.

I can't weigh daily, I am wayyyyyy too obsessed with the numbers. I get fristrated with weight gain and tend to sabotage everything by seeing a pound up. Its crazy, I know, but it's how my brain works.

I weigh in once a week to keep track.

1) have their own relationship with the scale that is different from daily weighers

2) they just do not want to see the day to day fluctuations as they are content with the fact the real trend in weight is seen over 3-4 weeks.

I weight daily. I worry (perhaps irrationally) that if I don't keep track, I might gain. The daily fluctuations don't bother me, in fact I find them interesting, because I generally know what causes them.

I am weighing daily also and doing so to look for trends in my weight fluctuations. What I am seeing is that if I eat out at a restaurant, my weight is up the next day and back down a day or two after that. It doesn't even matter what it is. I am one of those people who need to be kept accountable by the scale. It just keeps me in line. If it does go up, it's sort of a wake up call for me to reign it in. Now that I am menopausal, I do not have NEARLY the weight fluctuations that I used to when I was younger. Most fluctuations are now directly related to my food intake. Last night I went to a "really healthy" place for dinner and got a salad of supergreens and romaine, one protein (grilled chicken), some yogurt based dressings that were pretty low cal, with a lot of toppings like tomato and carrots and cabbage slaw. I then "treated" myself to a Fage crossover which was pushing 200 calories. I am up 2 lbs this morning. Bums me out, but I know what caused it.

PAV8888 wrote: »

I think the Op, correctly, points out that the lack of data points can create for the weekly/monthly weigh ins the exact issue of devastation they seek to avoid.

There have been multiple times while losing 122 lbs that I've weighed the same OR MORE at specific points of time that were 7, 15, 21 or even 30 days apart. Yet I was losing weight and my trending weight was showing it.

If the weight loss is in the half lb a week range it is trivial for it to be obscured by hormonal weight fluctuations.

Even at a 1lb a week rate, 2 lbs for hormones, 1lb for sodium content and 1lb for exercise (which are all non maximal values) and there goes a whole month's work and people are now ready to give up.

I do get the upset. I just think that desensitizing people to the upset is a better long term plan.

You're absolutely correct and that's one reason I use the weight tracking report in MFP to look at the overall loss. That has really helped to put it into perspective.

I weigh once a week because it suits me. It is part of my routine or ritual on that day.
I do not want my focus to be on the scale number so much. I step on the scale every Sunday morning, record it and move on with my life. I am not devastated.
I also understand weight fluctuations. My diet is pretty consistant. I only eat out 1 meal a week. I track my period so know when I might retain water.
I really trust what I am doing will manage my weight long term and I am happy with my progress weighing just once a week.
My view is that you lose weight if you stick to your calorie goal consistantly. If your weight doesn't go down as expected after 3-4 weekly weigh ins then you need to make an adjustment to your logging or calorie goal.
It isn't worse than daily weighing just personal preference.

llbrixon wrote: »

Ok. I can understand the emotional aspect of not wanting to weigh daily because of not wanting to be obsessed with the scale and not be able to deal with weight ups and downs.... I just feel if you have the weight data during the week then the weight recorded will be more accurate.

Your thoughts...

I just don't care if my weight data is absolutely accurate beyond weighing on the same scale, same time of day, same conditions. The level of accuarcy from a daily or hourly weight reading isn't important to me. I don't want to know what I weigh at 1 PM on a Tuesday. I'm not anxious about the idea I might weigh a pound more one day versus the next. The reading I take once a week is enough data for me to check my progress over time and I have lost over 20 lbs doing it this way.
Why would weighing myself daily help me?
Would it change my calorie goal or logging? No.
Would I feel better about myself? No.
Would I lose more weight? No.

Obsession with the scale is destructive. It's the over all trend that matters.

llbrixon wrote: »

I weigh just about daily or every few days or so basically to keep me accountable. I know all about the weight fluctuations with the salt retentation.

Weight can vary pounds within a few hours due to water retention. My debate is with others who only weigh 1x week or even worse, only 1x month.

I use a weight trend app that will guide me whether the trend of weight is either increasing or decreasing.

I have seen my weight with a 7 pound increase one day and 2 days later the extra weight is gone. I have seen a pound difference within an hour. I use all the weight data as a tool to keep my weight stable.

Help me to understand the reasoning for weighing 1x week or monthly.

llbrixon wrote: »

When I see folks post a half pound weight loss for the week, I feel this loss could not be accurate because of all the fluctuations in weight during the day. I would tend to accept a half a pound week loss if.....that half pound weight loss has be measured for several days.

Your opinion...

Why do you care what other people do? Why do you need to judge whether their losses are accurate?

I only weigh once a week because it's often enough to keep an eye on the trends. I don't need to be bothered with tracking daily fluctuations. If I weigh 1/2 pound less when I wake up after I use the toilet this Saturday than I did last Saturday, using the same scale both times, I don't see how that is inaccurate. I average my four or five weekly readings each month to get a monthly average. I don't see what benefit I would gain from collecting 30 data points a month and using a graphing app to see the trend, rather than just collecting four or five data points and eyeballing the trend. I'm in year four of tracking my calories daily and my weight weekly. I don't see that weighing weekly has harmed my loss or maintenance.

But it doesn't bother me if you or anybody else wants to weigh daily or multiple times a week.

I weigh most days, but only log it officially on Tuesday mornings. The fluctuations don't bother me, and I have even seen 5lbs up in the evening disappear by morning (I love sleeping the fat away). It's not obsessive for me, bit sometimes I play with macros and I see how that plays out.

biggsterjackster wrote: »

I weigh daily because I am obsessed with my weight that I try to maintain. If I see the weight go up I take extreme measurements the next day to get it right back down.

That's not a good thing. Daily fluctuations happen. You have to learn to accept that.