How often do you update your weight??

Once a week, Sunday mornings after using the washroom. As far as goals, I've got MFP set to have me lose 1 lb/week. I'm actually losing something like 1.5 (I eat back 50% of my exercise calories). Not a concern right now, since I've got just under 60 lbs to lose and between 50 and 75, 1.5 is acceptable. However, as the weight comes off, the rate of loss is going to slow down. I'll readjust at that point. (I'm short and currently on 1380 calories before exercise. It's getting a little tight and I don't see a point in adjusting it downward when the weight's coming off.)

Be aware that fast weight changes aren't fat (which isn't fast lost or gained).
So water weight.

And if it comes off fast - it'll go back on fast too. Higher sodium meal, good workout, stress in life, extra carbs, ect.

That can appear and be discouraging to some that can't separate a stat and what it is actually reflecting, from what they think it means.

Besides which - it is actually just noise if the goal is to lose fat - why log noise?

Weekly at best. Knowing your metabolism literally changes through the month, so really a monthly figure is what you can start discerning something from.

Or use trend weight for the daily stuff, MFP for when it changes enough to matter.

MsHarryWinston wrote: »

Every time I see a drop. I know that weight fluctuates and why (for me), so right now all I care about tracking is my drops. This keeps my numbers clean and lets me more quickly calculate if I'm losing at my expected rate of loss.

I do this too. I know gains are just normal fluctuations, but I find it very discouraging to see the little line go up on my graph. Also, this way it is easy to see where each dip is and how long it took to get there so I can establish a pattern and change things up if I need to.

I get on the scales no more than once a month, and tweak the calories then. I believe you cant make short term changes, changing your calorie intake from day to day wont change much, consistency is the key to achieving your goals.

I weigh every day, I log every time I see a couple of day trend (because I'm too impatient to wait for logging on my weigh in day) so if I'm down half a pound and still down the next day I log, same if it goes up. Kind of eliminates some of the water weight fluctuations, for example I might have gone 500-1000 cals over maintenance at the weekend eating pizza but the scale may well be up a couple of pounds the next day, I'll give it a day before I'll log a gain. Same if I've had a particularly good day and I've lost more than expected I'll give it an extra day to make sure it wasn't just dehydration.

This also stops people congratulating me too often on my feed for losing and gaining the same pound

At the end of the day do whatever works for you it's just data, as long as you're aware you're looking for long term trends rather than daily fluctuations, (water weight fluctuations seem to really get people down) I tend to log often but look at my monthly progress for perspective.

In short: The minimum you need to do is to update your weight periodically. What 'periodically' is is up to you: monthly ought to be enough if you really don't like weighing yourself. As for other goals (weekly goal for weight loss/gain, goal weight) you may never have to change these, but they are your goals and so I think you should change them if you want.

In more detail: MFP needs a fairly accurate and recent weight if it is to give you a sensible daily goal for calorie intake. As your weight changes, your calorie intake ought to change too. MFP will make the change automatically when it realises you have gained/lost 10 lbs (about 4.5 kg). It probably takes a month or more to change weight as much as that, so while MFP recommends weekly weighing, monthly weighings ought to update things enough to use the product successfully. There are arguments for weighing more often (something to do if you like that; data to collect if you like that; MFP updates immediately you cross the 10 lb line; you get used to the meaningless small short-term day-t-day changes in weight). But you don't have to weigh often if that's difficult for you (e.g. hard to get access to scales, or you know that you are at risk of getting upset or obsessive about your scale weight).
here's a link to the article about how the calorie goal reset works: MFP portal: will my goals change if my weight changes?

If you're happy with the weekly goal for weight change and the final goal weight, then you can leave those alone. But if I found my weekly goal was too tough I would change it to an easier one without embarrassment - better to change weight more slowly than to be miserable all the time, or set an impossible challenge and give up. The goal weight is something MFP suggests by calculation. It isn't magic and might not be exactly right - you may find that you're happier and feel better at a slightly different weight. link to a good article on Greatist.com discussing this

I use the Libra app to track trendweight so I put in figures there daily, but I typically log it in MFP Fridays and sometimes I randomly do it too. I don't really have a set schedule.

I log my weight daily in the Happy Scale app, and on Mondays I update MFP based on my Happy Scale trend weight

I weigh every morning. Fluctuations don't bother me, and a chart that only goes one direction without any little bumps is boring.