How often do you update your weight??

1ocean1girl
1ocean1girl Posts: 197 Member
edited November 19 in Health and Weight Loss
Lately I have steadily been losing weight and am not sure when to update my goals?
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Replies

  • Muana1005
    Muana1005 Posts: 172 Member
    Everyday because I want to track the fluctuations.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    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.)

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    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.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    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 the same. I know I'm not gaining on about 1600 gross calories, and my weight fluctuates as much as seven pounds in a day due to water weight, so I only record my current low. If I don't see a new low every few days, and there's not a reasonable explanation (such as sodium or sleep schedule), I tweak something. Sometimes a drop will be temporary, but eventually my new low is my old high.
  • caileag26
    caileag26 Posts: 29 Member
    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.
  • caileag26
    caileag26 Posts: 29 Member
    Lately I have steadily been losing weight and am not sure when to update my goals?

    I'm not sure if there's a time when you're supposed to. I figure I'll do it when my weight loss slows down.
  • udebear
    udebear Posts: 39 Member
    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.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    I track my weight every morning before the shower using Libra. Every Monday I enter the trending weight on here. Hopefully it will be much less once I have figured out how many calories I need for maintenance.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    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.

  • chunkytfg
    chunkytfg Posts: 339 Member
    I log it whenever I have a weigh in sprung on me as I dont know when they are coming the OH decides when I should do it and then I cant plan my cheating
  • CopperB73
    CopperB73 Posts: 39 Member
    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
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    Lately I have steadily been losing weight and am not sure when to update my goals?

    My goal has always been the same.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    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.
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
    When I was losing weight, once a month. In maintenance now, I weigh every day and track on the Libra app, but I leave MFP set with my UGW.
  • Kida_Johnson
    Kida_Johnson Posts: 33 Member
    I log my weight daily in the Happy Scale app, and on Mondays I update MFP based on my Happy Scale trend weight
  • myfightsong88
    myfightsong88 Posts: 20 Member
    Every Saturday morning, gain or loss.
  • Mezzie1024
    Mezzie1024 Posts: 380 Member
    I weigh every morning. Fluctuations don't bother me, and a chart that only goes one direction without any little bumps is boring.

  • MsHarryWinston
    MsHarryWinston Posts: 1,027 Member
    caileag26 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.

    Yup! With my new workout schedule and Fitbit I wasn't sure how my loss rate would be effected. For a while I felt like I was still losing too slowly since I wasn't eating back my exercise calories for the info gathering period. But once I had a few weeks of pure drop info logged I discovered that my big drops are on about a 9 day cycle. And the rate when compared to calorie burn was about for 2/3 of my exercise calories. So I can eat up to 2/3 of my workout calories. Though my math could be a bit spotty.
    It would have taken SO MUCH LONGER to figure this out if I had to sift through all the extra data points to pull out the drops.
  • merekins
    merekins Posts: 228 Member
    Every day in Happy Scale. It evens out the highs and lows and reduces my anxiety over fluctuations.
  • Dr__Girlfriend
    Dr__Girlfriend Posts: 100 Member
    edited June 2017
    I threw out my scale a long time ago tbh. Seeing it go up or down would change how I felt about my progress. I measure my progress through measurements and photos as my weight doesn't change much but I lose inches etc
  • FreyasRebirth
    FreyasRebirth Posts: 514 Member
    When I feel like it. That used to be daily. Now I weigh 2-5x per week but don't get around to logging it as often.
  • Yaranak
    Yaranak Posts: 10 Member
    I weigh myself every Saturday morning, because I know I'll get the most accurate reading only once a week.
  • SafioraLinnea
    SafioraLinnea Posts: 628 Member
    Daily on happy scale and when I lose on MFP. Fluctuations matter very little to me so weighing daily doesn't phase me. I adjust my goals when I lose manually because MFP doesn't do it for me.
  • thewindandthework
    thewindandthework Posts: 531 Member
    I weigh daily and log it in MFP every morning. When it's a new low weight, I have MFP recalculate my calorie goal. Usually it doesn't change, but once in a while there's a decrease of 10 calories.

    I'd much rather do it that way than have bigger reductions less frequently.
  • markswife1992
    markswife1992 Posts: 262 Member
    I weigh every day and log my weight every day BUT I do not change my fitness goals until I have lost (or gained) 5 lbs, then I will reevaluate to see if I need to change calorie goals, etc.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I weigh every 1-2 days, then i log the weight in Fitbit which automatically syncs to Trendweight and MFP.
  • ekim2016
    ekim2016 Posts: 1,198 Member
    I weigh every morning right after the am evacuation. Then log my weight change usually every few weeks if it changes...
  • shandy82165
    shandy82165 Posts: 184 Member
    Every time I weigh in, which works out to every two to three weeks, depending on if I can access the scale in the health office at work.

    I'm currently losing at a rate of 1.5 pounds a week on 1600-1700 cals with no exercise, so I think i'll adjust that when the weight loss slows. Or add daily walk.
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