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Thoughts on daily weigh in
Angie_au
Posts: 42 Member
Hi,
I have been struggling with understanding my weight fluctuations on the scale. I have been weighing myself weekly on a Sunday (before food and drink and after bowel movements). But Yesterday I weighed myself and I weighed 73.5 and today 73.1, so that’s 0.4kg lost in a day! But in total, I have only lost 0.5 kg from when I started a month ago (73.6kg). At my lowest I was 72.4kg, 2 weeks ago. I am disappointed with the result as I thought I was eating within my calorie limit. But at the same time the scale seems to fluctuate quite a lot with salt intake, menstrual cycle etc so I was thinking of weighing I daily to see how these affect my weight and then look at whether I’m losing weight over a period of time eg if the trend is going down. I’ve downloaded the happy scale app which calculates the moving average of my weight daily which seems to be more accurate. What are people’s thoughts of weighing in daily? Vs weekly or monthly?
I have been struggling with understanding my weight fluctuations on the scale. I have been weighing myself weekly on a Sunday (before food and drink and after bowel movements). But Yesterday I weighed myself and I weighed 73.5 and today 73.1, so that’s 0.4kg lost in a day! But in total, I have only lost 0.5 kg from when I started a month ago (73.6kg). At my lowest I was 72.4kg, 2 weeks ago. I am disappointed with the result as I thought I was eating within my calorie limit. But at the same time the scale seems to fluctuate quite a lot with salt intake, menstrual cycle etc so I was thinking of weighing I daily to see how these affect my weight and then look at whether I’m losing weight over a period of time eg if the trend is going down. I’ve downloaded the happy scale app which calculates the moving average of my weight daily which seems to be more accurate. What are people’s thoughts of weighing in daily? Vs weekly or monthly?
1
Replies
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When I weigh daily, I stay in track. I think it is because I don’t stress when it fluctuates and I see my trends. When I weigh weekly, I fall off the wagon10
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Yea I think I’m the same! So I want to try daily weigh ins so I can see all the spikes and peaks and look at the overall smoothened trend1
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I like weighing daily, some don't. I think it all comes down to preference and what doesn't make you crazy. Though you say "I thought I was eating within my calorie limit", as long as you're weighing everything you eat you should have a clear idea of how much you're eating.1
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I weigh in daily but am used to the zig zag. I never expect weight loss to be linear. Keep sticking to your calorie/exercise goals and everything will fall in line.3
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Stick with Happy Scale. The more data you feed it the more accurate it can be. I used to be super against weighing myself daily because of the fluctuations- and still don’t like seeing a higher number than the day before - but now at least I know my rate of loss can still increase with those small fluctuations7
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Ok, yep am going to give happy scale a go. Excited to see how this goes!2
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I think as long as weighing daily doesn't make you feel bad or cause stress then why not.
I'd also recommend taking some measurements and checking those occasionally, as scale weight might not change much but inches might.2 -
The more semi valid and consistent with each other data points the more meaningful your trend. multiple data points in a day=useless. Same time/same conditions/multiple days + happy scale = figuring out what is happening over time.
As you correctly inferred hormonal cycle, exercise, food in system, sodium and a host of other issues obscure your long term weight change trend.
Apps such as Happy Scale (iphone) and Libra (android) and websites such as trendweight.com and weightgrapher.com help you see the bigger picture.
Are these apps always accurate? They actually CAN and DO lag a tiny bit; but they seem to be quite good at identifying our longer term weight trend and any inflection points, even if they do so with a very slight delay.
And they are MUCH MUCH better than any random scale weight. Including the once a week or once a month measurement variety, if you're striving for accuracy.
Emotional and mental well being, of course, trumps accuracy. Consequently, the more accurate options may not be available to all of us ;-)3 -
For years I would do this. I no longer own a scale and would weigh myself once a month using a friend's scale.
I have been more successful at losing and keeping weight off, but I don't think it has to do with weighing in daily.
I also go by how my clothes fit. Inches lost vs. Number on scale.
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I seem to "stress" less about daily weigh in's than weekly ones. I use the Libra app, and like the accountability of it.1
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I’ve started daily weighing using happy scale app. I can tell with clothes too. For me daily accountability means less stress compared with skipping a week or two weigh in... a week or two became 18 months of skipping & putting 21lb back on!4
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Its a personal preference, just no that if you weigh daily your weight will fluctuate a lot more. I was weekly when I first started, then when I got close and the lbs came off a little slower I didn't care anymore what the scale said and was more concerned with how I felt, looked, and how the clothes fit. Now that I have changed up my workouts for different goals I only weigh when I feel like it, could be 2 weeks, could be a month.1
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Just my two cents on stress of weigh ins... I actually used that stress to help keep me on track as I stressed so much that I didn't want to fail it kept me on the straight and narrow.1
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Weighing daily helps me stay focused and not freak out. I'm learning what to expect of my body during certain times of the month and also learning what foods might be causing some water retention. I thought daily weigh ins would make me obsessed but it's actually been very empowering!3
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I weight daily and log weekly.
I like seeing the oz go down and they keep me on track.
Some people hate it. My instructor told me to get rid of my scales but when I stopped using them, found myself losing motivation.
I use if for accountability.4 -
Daily is really the only way. While losing, weighing once a week gives you a really fuzzy view of what's going on.1
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Daily - if I see a weightgain I am more careful the next day...1
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I weigh myself daily but only log my weights once a week, sometimes twice. I used to weigh myself at the gym at night after a workout, but I think I'm going to start doing it in the mornings before I leave for work.3
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i do beginning of week and end of week flux affects me too much to do daily..although if my coworker sells me or aria scale i might go back to daily lol1
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I think you have a great plan, OP. The problem with weekly weigh-ins is that the same fluctuations that can skew your day-to-day numbers can hit you on your weigh-in day and then, instead of seeing it self-correct in a day or two, you basically are sitting 2 weeks without an accurate view of your progress, and it can be discouraging. The only problem with daily weigh-ins is when people are obsessive or uneducated about how the body works and think a .5 lb gain on the scale overnight means they have done something wrong and need to slash calories.5
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