Checking progress too often?

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insideoutsocks7
insideoutsocks7 Posts: 24 Member
in Motivation and Support
How often should I check progress? Im down to to 1410 calories and count everything - individual bites of food, breath mints.... And my weight does seem to be changing at all after a few weeks. Feeling a bit discouraged. How often should I weigh myself?

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  • elysiannn
    elysiannn Posts: 9 Member
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    I try (try being the operative word here) to only check progress once a week. Sometimes the scale doesn't move, and it's not necessarily because you're not getting anywhere. It can fluctuate - or stay stalled - for a NUMBER of reasons, and getting caught up on that number can be self-sabotage. At least in my experience!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    insideoutsocks7 wrote: »
    How often should I check progress? Im down to to 1410 calories and count everything - individual bites of food, breath mints.... And my weight does seem to be changing at all after a few weeks. Feeling a bit discouraged. How often should I weigh myself?

    Daily/weekly/monthly, it's personal preference, but you need to look at a trend of at least 6 weeks worth of data to look for 'progress'. Pictures or measurements are also useful instead of relying on just scale weight.
  • quotin1
    quotin1 Posts: 5 Member
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    I force myself to weigh in only once a month. Being a female, there are variables that can be frustrating and it's no way to live, obsessing over a scale
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    I feel that daily weighing helped me learn my body’s patterns and normal fluctuations and took the drama out of the number on the scale.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    It's up to you how often you want to weigh yourself. Some people, like myself, prefer to weigh daily and track trends, others don't. There are many other ways to measure progress, don't just limit yourself to the scale. Progress photos, measurements, how clothes fit, gym performance, etc.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    I check at my lightest (first thing in the AM after using the washroom) and heaviest (last thing at night before getting into the bath), but the only time that "counts" is Sunday AM. Everything else is just helping me see how the week is going, the impact of the latest increase to my strength-training program, where I am in my cycle, etc. Like @lorrpb, I find it helps me deal with the drama.
  • Running2Fit
    Running2Fit Posts: 702 Member
    edited December 2018
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    I weigh daily. First thing in the morning (well, after going to the bathroom). I use the app Happy Scale to give me a moving average of my weight and I feel like it's given me a much healthier perspective on the scale. Honestly, I'm much less obsessed/worried/stressed out about the scale when I weigh daily than when I used to weigh less often.
  • dreinecke94
    dreinecke94 Posts: 33 Member
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    @Running2Fit I too use Happy Scale! I find going by the average helps me to not focus on the actual number on the scale. Plus, I love their predictions! I do log once on the weekend my weight in MFP, but it’s purely to keep my calorie goals in line.
  • sarahlucindac
    sarahlucindac Posts: 235 Member
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    I also use happy scale and log my weight pretty much daily. I’ve found that I have basically become desensitized to the number on the scale because it’s just routine now, it’s not scary anymore. I can clearly see just how much my weight fluctuates from day to day and it’s no big deal when I’m having an “up day” or even an “up week”. You have to look at the trend over the long term.
  • nk9o
    nk9o Posts: 60 Member
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    sardelsa wrote: »
    It's up to you how often you want to weigh yourself. Some people, like myself, prefer to weigh daily and track trends, others don't. There are many other ways to measure progress, don't just limit yourself to the scale. Progress photos, measurements, how clothes fit, gym performance, etc.

    the benefit of tracking daily is the immediate feedback to correct and formulate discipline when you do slip. Better than letting yourself go for days or weeks before again checking your progress.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited December 2018
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    nk9o wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    It's up to you how often you want to weigh yourself. Some people, like myself, prefer to weigh daily and track trends, others don't. There are many other ways to measure progress, don't just limit yourself to the scale. Progress photos, measurements, how clothes fit, gym performance, etc.

    the benefit of tracking daily is the immediate feedback to correct and formulate discipline when you do slip. Better than letting yourself go for days or weeks before again checking your progress.

    The only "immediate feedback" a scale gives is if you had an unusual amount of sodium, if you have extra volume of food or waste in your body, if your muscles are retaining water after a particularly intense workout, or if you are a woman, what stage of your cycle you might be in, none of which have anything to do with fat gain/loss, which happens over many days & weeks, not hours.

    That being said, OP, many like to weigh daily because they become acquainted with the natural (water) weight fluctuations of their body and/or they enjoy finding the trends in the data. Weighing weekly or monthly is fine too, although there is the danger of hitting a day when your body is holding extra water due to one of the reasons mentioned above. Then you have to live with skewed numbers until your next weigh in. Whatever a person is comfortable with is fine, as long as they realize the true trend only becomes apparent with time.

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