How often should I update my weight?

System
System Posts: 1,919 MFP Staff
This discussion was created from replies split from: Nominate Posts for Announcement Status - Stickies.

Replies

  • angelarg
    angelarg Posts: 1 Member
    How often should I update my weigh in? I lost 5 pounds in about 1 week. I noticed that the calorie suggestion changes along with the weight lost. Should I stay at a certain calorie level for an x amount of time or keep changing my weight as I lose it?
  • Debgreasby2018
    Debgreasby2018 Posts: 30 Member
    edited September 2018
    I update mine weekly and check calorie allowance changes every 5 lb lost.
  • 12Sarah2015
    12Sarah2015 Posts: 1,117 Member
    Weekly
  • funjen1972
    funjen1972 Posts: 949 Member
    When I was losing I weighed everyday but only recorded to losses in MFP. Sometimes I recorded 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes a had to wait a month.
  • Slowfaster
    Slowfaster Posts: 186 Member
    I weigh and update on MFP once a month. I only lose about a pound a week and I tend to get discouraged if there's no change, so weighing once a month ensures that I'll see a loss of three or four pounds. Weighing monthly also takes care of the cycles of water retention that discourage some women.
  • stej5639
    stej5639 Posts: 57 Member
    I try to weigh myself every day, at about the same time. Some days ill forget but i try to update it daily. This lets me see the variations over a week and work out an average. Just a personal preference, as im trying to gain weight but dont want to gain too quickly.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    Enter your weight into MFP as often as you'd like. Calories don't automatically update (in my experience) so about every 10 pounds or so I would recalculate my goals to force it to update. If you have a lot to lose, you might not need to as often as that at first.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,420 Member
    The amount that it changes is a good thing, and it should only change at every ten pounds lost.

    As you get smaller your calorie needs do change, so it's good to stay on top of that and adjust slowly.
  • Stockholm_Andy
    Stockholm_Andy Posts: 803 Member
    It's entirely up to you. I weigh myself several times per week and update the app when I do.
  • DaveGoodfellow
    DaveGoodfellow Posts: 1 Member
    Every day, first thing after a pee is easiest and has least variation. Accept the fact you will not see a difference everyday. Accept the fact that it may go up (esp water retention). The graph will track the trend. It is the trend you should look at. This is better than once a week as what if one week it is a.light day and the next week a heavy day, you think nothing has happened all week. The more data points the more accurate the trend.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    As often as you feel comfortable with. I update on MFP once a week, I have a simple app that just tracks weight and I update that daily.

    The MFP updating is more for overall progress, the daily one is to be aware of my normal fluctuations. If my day is fairly normal and I gain 2lbs overnight, my TOM is starting within 24 hours (like clockwork - every time and always right about 2lbs), so I know to put away the nice underwear and bust out the period panties.
  • erinlouise55
    erinlouise55 Posts: 50 Member
    Its hard to not weigh yourself all the time when you are getting progress but I aim to update weekly!
  • thisPGHlife
    thisPGHlife Posts: 440 Member
    I weigh every day, sometimes I miss occasionally but no more than twice a week. I use a separate weight tracking app called Libra that shoes the trend for my weight loss and let's me see that, despite weight loss not being linear, I'm still headed in the right direction. Sometimes that's hard to see when you have two weeks of gaining and losing the same 2 pounds.

    I enter into MFP once a week. Every five to ten pounds I "reset" my goals to force it to recalculate my calories to see if I need to be eating less. Also, this gives me a data set that's easier to look at when I'm determining if I'm losing weight at the pace I want to be. While Libra tells you what your weight loss rate is, I found that's it's somewhat skewed. If you look at my total data set I am losing at about half a pound per week higher than what Libra calculates. If you look at for weeks and eight weeks it's almost 1 pounds off. I still haven't figured out what the app uses as the time frame to calculate my loss rate so I use the weekly weigh ins on MFP to figure it out.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Its up to you, I enter my weight here once a week but as a daily weigher I use a trending weight app so log it there every day.