Weight trends and Weighing every day
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Please explain 16 variables aside from pregnancy that can change body mass so much so that tape-measuring is so inaccurate to measure success? Body mass doesn’t change over night like water weight, your arms thighs aren’t changing unless you lose the fat.
Wow. So many logic fails in two sentences. Where do I even start?
Tape measuring measures volume, not mass. You know how you measure mass? By weighing.
Please explain how it is possible to store several pounds of water without any change in volume? I would like to use this trick to store another hundred books without buying a new bookcase.
My thigh measurement changes depending on whether I have the tape measure a few millimetres above or below where I had it last time, how level I managed to get it at the back, how tight I pulled it; and, oh yes, whether I'm retaining water or not.11 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »Even experts agree that weighing yourself daily is not accurate. For the best accuracy, use a tape measure instead, not a scale.
Once a week at the same time of day on the same scale will give you a more consistent result.
Also realize that most "consumer" scales can be off by as much as 2-5 lbs!
In my experience people who weigh themselves daily are usually in a hurry to lose weight and will almost always gain it all back. Sustained weight loss takes a lot of time and effort and is a lifestyle change, not a diet!
I’m fascinated. Where do you find this kind of drivel so consistently? Is there a special part of the Internet?
What experts?
Using a tape measure introduces about 16 more levels of variability. Who thinks that’s a better idea?
How is doing some less often more consistent?
And what now? That’s like a flying leap over a flaming ravine of bad logic. One false sentence followed by an entirely unrelated sentence does not make a cohesive argument.
In my experience, apples aren’t for vegetarians. A good roof keeps your house dry in a rainstorm.
Please explain 16 variables aside from pregnancy that can change body mass so much so that tape-measuring is so inaccurate to measure success? Body mass doesn’t change over night like water weight, your arms thighs aren’t changing unless you lose the fat.
Please see my post right above this.
I can pull the tape tighter or not
I can have the tape positioned just slightly higher/lower/different angle (which can lead to wildly different measurements).
I can get a number of different measurements for the exact same body part at the same time if I just measure it a few times.
And you know how that water weight gets you all bloated and your jeans are uncomfortably tight? What do you think is happening to your measurements to make that happen?
Measuring is fine. It should be part of an Arsenal of metrics used to measure progress.
It is absolutely not any more accurate than weighing.
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Weighing yourself daily is only beneficial to cardiac patients, people monitoring blood pressure or people with diabetes and some athletes like wrestling. Weight can flectuate due to carb intake, hormones, exercise, certain medication...lots of stuff so it’s not accurate for a newb trying to lose weight, it benefits you not. Even if someone wants to look at trends it’s not accurate, too many variables. What it will do is discourage you, that’s 100% true. Measure yourself monthly, weigh in once a week, in morning to get more accurate results, but really the tape measurement isn’t going to lie.
Wow, I'm really glad that there's someone (you!) who knows what's good for absolutely all of us!
I wonder what to do about my deluded perception that daily weight was a fine and useful tool in a multi-piece toolset (that included a trend app), as I lost around 50 pounds, and have stayed at a healthy weight for nearly 3 years since?
I hope I don't have to become a cardiac patient in compensation, because that's going to be tougher now, what with my BP and cholesterol so much healthier and all.
<eye roll>9 -
I’ve noticed on a few post people talking about weight trends. Would anyone be able to explain what exactly this is? It’s probably what it says on the tin but I’m a little confused!
From what I’ve read people weigh themselves daily and use an app like Happy scales to log it?
I always though weighing yourself every day. What’s the reason behind doing it daily?
Thanks for any advice.
Whether you weigh daily, a couple times per week, or weekly, or monthly, the trend is what you want to look at. Weighing in more often just gives you more data points. At this point, I only weigh in once per week...sometimes twice.
The blue is the individual weigh ins...as you can see, the fluctuate up and down quite a bit. The red is the overall trend and the trend is what is important.
5 -
I’m absolutely amazed at the human ability to take what is a very useful and simple statistical trend and turn it into such nonsense.
I have like 800 weigh ins over a major first cut and two bulk and cuts and tracking my 7 day moving average has been instrumental in dialing in my calorie needs and progress10 -
Weighing yourself daily is only beneficial to cardiac patients, people monitoring blood pressure or people with diabetes and some athletes like wrestling. Weight can flectuate due to carb intake, hormones, exercise, certain medication...lots of stuff so it’s not accurate for a newb trying to lose weight, it benefits you not. Even if someone wants to look at trends it’s not accurate, too many variables. What it will do is discourage you, that’s 100% true. Measure yourself monthly, weigh in once a week, in morning to get more accurate results, but really the tape measurement isn’t going to lie.
Sure it can. Water weight can bloat a waist measurement, not having the tape measure in the exact same spot, etc. Plus it can take 6-8 weeks to notice a difference. Sometimes longer; it took over 6 months to lose an inch each on my waist and hips despite dropping over 20lbs. (Got great legs, arms and shoulders, though.)3 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I’ve noticed on a few post people talking about weight trends. Would anyone be able to explain what exactly this is? It’s probably what it says on the tin but I’m a little confused!
From what I’ve read people weigh themselves daily and use an app like Happy scales to log it?
I always though weighing yourself every day. What’s the reason behind doing it daily?
Thanks for any advice.
Whether you weigh daily, a couple times per week, or weekly, or monthly, the trend is what you want to look at. Weighing in more often just gives you more data points. At this point, I only weigh in once per week...sometimes twice.
The blue is the individual weigh ins...as you can see, the fluctuate up and down quite a bit. The red is the overall trend and the trend is what is important.
What app is this? Looks way better than libra0 -
Even experts agree that weighing yourself daily is not accurate. For the best accuracy, use a tape measure instead, not a scale.
Once a week at the same time of day on the same scale will give you a more consistent result.
Also realize that most "consumer" scales can be off by as much as 2-5 lbs!
In my experience people who weigh themselves daily are usually in a hurry to lose weight and will almost always gain it all back. Sustained weight loss takes a lot of time and effort and is a lifestyle change, not a diet!
Actually, that's not true at all. Recent studies have come out that show that daily weighing is actually helpful in losses and maintaining those losses.5 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I’ve noticed on a few post people talking about weight trends. Would anyone be able to explain what exactly this is? It’s probably what it says on the tin but I’m a little confused!
From what I’ve read people weigh themselves daily and use an app like Happy scales to log it?
I always though weighing yourself every day. What’s the reason behind doing it daily?
Thanks for any advice.
Whether you weigh daily, a couple times per week, or weekly, or monthly, the trend is what you want to look at. Weighing in more often just gives you more data points. At this point, I only weigh in once per week...sometimes twice.
The blue is the individual weigh ins...as you can see, the fluctuate up and down quite a bit. The red is the overall trend and the trend is what is important.
What app is this? Looks way better than libra
No idea, it's just a stock picture from the internet.1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »I’ve noticed on a few post people talking about weight trends. Would anyone be able to explain what exactly this is? It’s probably what it says on the tin but I’m a little confused!
From what I’ve read people weigh themselves daily and use an app like Happy scales to log it?
I always though weighing yourself every day. What’s the reason behind doing it daily?
Thanks for any advice.
Whether you weigh daily, a couple times per week, or weekly, or monthly, the trend is what you want to look at. Weighing in more often just gives you more data points. At this point, I only weigh in once per week...sometimes twice.
The blue is the individual weigh ins...as you can see, the fluctuate up and down quite a bit. The red is the overall trend and the trend is what is important.
What app is this? Looks way better than libra
No idea, it's just a stock picture from the internet.
Awe
poo 1 -
I'm hard pressed to imagine a situation wherein more data is less accurate than less data. Maybe I lack imagination. I'm also not a scientist by trade. It seems to me, though, that the more measurements you have of anything, the more accurate the picture those measurements illustrate will be. I see no reason why weight management would be any different.6
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Even experts agree that weighing yourself daily is not accurate. For the best accuracy, use a tape measure instead, not a scale.
Once a week at the same time of day on the same scale will give you a more consistent result.
Also realize that most "consumer" scales can be off by as much as 2-5 lbs!
In my experience people who weigh themselves daily are usually in a hurry to lose weight and will almost always gain it all back. Sustained weight loss takes a lot of time and effort and is a lifestyle change, not a diet!
Sorry, you are incorrect. There are plenty of experts who agree that weighing daily is fine (for some, it's mandatory); some others say 2-4x per week. I've personally worked with coaches who expect/demand weight to be logged daily (and please note these aren't the "coaches" who got their certifications from an online course that took them a few hours to complete and they do not train novices who don't know their arses from their elbows). If you really want to push this point, I'll be more than happy to provide citations by people with degrees, up to and including PhD's.
I've also validated my "consumer" scale to be accurate within less than 0.2 lbs (compared to a scale that has been state-certified for trade purposes, meaning its margin of error is within less than one gram).2 -
I'm happy to provide links to literature regarding why body-tape measurements are often inaccurate/misleading. It's easier to manipulate a tape than a scale.
But please, continue to impart your vast knowledge on us all...we're all very impressed and humbled by your wisdom so far...2 -
-salt intake
-high simple carb intake
-where in my cycle I am
-hydration
-did I poop yet
-am I sick or well
-did I do a long run or heavy workout
-did I eat late last evening
Any one of these could cause a fluctuation on the scale of a pound or two and a combo even more. If I have been through this before and know that the scale is up 4lbs Wednesday because I did a long run and splurged on a cheeseburger then I’m not going to panic and cut my calories or throw in the towel and give up running “because it’s not working.”7 -
Also, it doesn't matter how much a consumer scale is "out" by if you consistently use the same scale. Every measurement on that scale will be "out" by the same amount.
For example, I changed scales in the summer from an inaccurate analog scale that measured in 2lb increments to a digital scale that measures to 1/10 of a lb. The new digital scale told me I weighed 8lbs more than the old analog scale right from the get-go but I didn't magically gain 8lbs by changing scales; I established a new baseline that is 8lbs heavier than my old baseline. I could have shopped around until I found a digital scale that said I was 8lbs lighter than my analog scale but to what end? I wouldn't have magically shed 8lbs by buying that scale instead.6 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »-salt intake
-high simple carb intake
-where in my cycle I am
-hydration
-did I poop yet
-am I sick or well
-did I do a long run or heavy workout
-did I eat late last evening
Any one of these could cause a fluctuation on the scale of a pound or two and a combo even more. If I have been through this before and know that the scale is up 4lbs Wednesday because I did a long run and splurged on a cheeseburger then I’m not going to panic and cut my calories or throw in the towel and give up running “because it’s not working.”
Yup, weighing daily taught me that I retain water when I ovulate, as well as premenstrually.
Also, when I was doing the VA TeleMOVE program, I was required to weigh daily. I had much better success then than when I weigh sporadically.5
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