The Scale Debate

I weigh once a week only! I mean you can tell you're losing by your clothes but I like the scale once a week personally!

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I weigh daily, first thing in the morning, in my birthday suit, after using the bathroom & before eating/drinking, and record the number in my weight tracking app. Before the app, I put it on graph paper. I've done this for years, even before trying to lose weight. (No, I'm not obsessive; I'm a data geek - in other ways besides this).

When I got around to trying to lose weight, I found that that history helped me understand the daily fluctuations I'd see in my weight, and why they happen. For me, that knowledge took all the drama and emotion out of it.

What the scale says is not an estimate of one's worth as a human being. It's just a neutral piece of data that's one part of the weight management puzzle.

Pretty much this word for word. My weight changes a lot day by day, so weighing once a week - if I weighed on my high day - would make me think I wasnt working hard enough.

I follow the trends. I don't worry too much about the spikes, and just look for it to go down.

So far, it seems to be working.

I was scale obsessed but had to hide it. My new scale is clothes that I couldn't fit into but now can. Like AnnPT77 said it's part of a weight management puzzle. It will drive you crazy if you allow it to so I was done with it. My next weigh in is June lol

Be aware if your weight in the scales effect your metal attitude to weight loss don't have any
I've been 100% all week on plan and I lost 3.5 lbs restart week but on Saturday 2 days ago I was lighter and have been weighing measuring everything I consume
Now 3.5 is good but it would be 5.5 which was fab but it's totm coming up I gather that's the 2lbs more
But if I let the scales effect me I'd be now off plan

Thing is they can get addictive but we all know in a healthy lifestyle plan we only lose 0.5-2 lbs most weeks some 0 so scales can be a curse if you allow them to

As you've noticed there are 3 camps here:
1. Every day (my preference): Good because you can log your weight daily, and see the daily changes. You can also make a 'science' out of it, so you have a better idea how your body reacts to certain factors from the day before. Bad if you let the number on the scale affect your mood every day.

2. Weekly: Good because, since you're weighing less often, you're more likely to see consistent losses. I honestly can't think of any negatives.

3. Never: Good because you can "feel" progress, independent of the scale. You come to rely on the way your clothes fit, compliments you receive from others, reduced body measurements (which I definitely recommend if you don't weigh yourself). Remember though: non-scale victories (NSVs) are great, but I wouldn't sell the scale short if your goal is weight loss.

I found that wrong daily actually stopped my obsession with the numbers...when you see THAT many fluctuations you have no choice but to follow the trend

I always weight my self once a week on the same day at the same time

I am a daily weigher as well, I like to see the trends and fluctuations that occur. Keeps me from stressing if I see my weight week over week has increased (Thursday is check point) but the rest of the week was fine than I know its just a blip on the screen.
I like to see the data, and as someone else said I log my food daily so this is just an extension of that practice of being accountable.
However, it weighing daily starts to stress you on and put pressure on you than do not do it.
Your weight loss, your choice on weigh ins.

I weigh myself every week I have always done it since I was a child

Daily as well. It works for me but doesn't for everyone. Find what works for you.

I've been on both sides of this debate.. and now I weigh myself every day. Why? because i lie to myself.. waste weeks and months of "dieting" and "working out" without results. How am i ever going to learn what is working for me if I don't weigh myself. I'm doing it every day and it is a real slap in the face.. .but i think it will lead me to success in the long run.

BDonjon wrote: »

As you've noticed there are 3 camps here:
1. Every day (my preference): Good because you can log your weight daily, and see the daily changes. You can also make a 'science' out of it, so you have a better idea how your body reacts to certain factors from the day before. Bad if you let the number on the scale affect your mood every day.

2. Weekly: Good because, since you're weighing less often, you're more likely to see consistent losses. I honestly can't think of any negatives.

3. Never: Good because you can "feel" progress, independent of the scale. You come to rely on the way your clothes fit, compliments you receive from others, reduced body measurements (which I definitely recommend if you don't weigh yourself). Remember though: non-scale victories (NSVs) are great, but I wouldn't sell the scale short if your goal is weight loss.

Great post!

If one weighs weekly because it's too stressful to weigh daily, I think one potential downside is that without the insight into routine daily fluctuations, one could accidentally hit a higher weight fluctuation day for a weigh-in, and be even more distressed about being up a couple of pounds. If you know you routinely fluctuate that much and more, it wouldn't be as stressful.

Personally, I think one of the underlying problems is that people somehow believe they have "one true weight". We don't.

Drink some water, go up a pound immediately. Eat some extra salt, go up a pound the next day. Get in a sweaty workout, go down half a pound. Eat some large amount of high-fiber low-cal food, be up half a pound for literally days until it processes out of our digestive tract. And that's all independent of the "big deal" issues we're focusing on, fat loss and possibly muscle gain (slow, slow muscle gain ).

Even in a calorie deficit, our bodies are using and storing fat routinely during a day, storing and losing water, taking on and excreting food and food residue. We have, at best, an approximate weight. We can take a snapshot at any given time, and see a number.

But what's important to us when we're losing weight is not the view in a snapshot . . . what's important is the plot of the movie: Are we on a losing trend, a gaining trend, or holding steady, over a period of time?

midpath wrote: »

I would either shoot for weighing once a day so you could record fluctuations...or maybe once every two weeks. I have friends who weigh once a month even because you can definitely see if there's been progress.

Nope, you can't *definitely* see progress.

Pretend you are achieving 250 Cal a day.

This comes to just over 2lbs in a month.

Now considered how many situations can result in a 2lb or greater water weight change on an overnight basis.

Whether mentally someone can handle daily weigh ins recorded in a weight trend app remains an open question.

What is not an open question is that daily weigh ins under "identical" conditions recorded in a weight trend app paint a more accurate picture of what your weight is doing.

And it still doesn't tell you what that weight change consists off :-)

quitquit14 wrote: »

I understand that having a scale at home can be handy for weighing in regularly and staying on top of weight loss/gaining goals. But having a home scale also opens the door for "number obsession". I am considering buying one to help me stay focused on reaching my weight loss goal, any of you pals got ideas or input for me?

I weigh every single morning. Have done so since 2004. I need it for discipline. Others don't. I can't imagine not having a scale in my home though.