Considering putting the scale away and weighing in on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. Thoughts?

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  • Sunshine_And_Sand
    Sunshine_And_Sand Posts: 1,320 Member
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    I've flopped back and forth between daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and just whenever I feel like it weigh-ins depending on my motivations at the time.
    All have advantages and disadvantages and which is right for you can really vary from person to person or for the same person depending on how you are feeling at the time.
    Do what works for you when it works for you.
  • echmain3
    echmain3 Posts: 231 Member
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    echmain3 wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    echmain3 wrote: »
    Dreadful idea.

    A daily weight check is a great way to make sure you’re on the right track.

    Weighing in at long intervals is bad because you could be weighing on two “spike” days which will give you a very wrong indication of your progress.

    That isn’t enough data points.

    Daily (once per day, at the same time in your daily routine) is the only way to go.


    Except there's no one best way, or in your words "only way to go" for most things, including monitoring your weight. If stepping on the scale every day is the catalyst for making poor decisions, then it's not a good idea. I personally think it's a dreadful idea to continue to do something that is both unnecessary and causing someone a large amount of stress. If someone is in a calorie deficit, they will lose weight. A scale isn't going to cause them to do so. It might help them notice when they've stepped out of that deficit, but if they've managed to continuously lose weight (which it sounds like is happening for the OP) then what's the point in weighing oneself other than for their own curiosity.


    On any day in you life your weight has a value whether you weigh yourself or not.

    Willfully ignoring that value is buying into “ignorance is bliss.”

    Especially since it takes just a few seconds to step on the scale.


    But that's *your* belief system. That's not the universal key to success. Yes, people who daily weigh may have greater successes with loss, but that doesn't mean that those who don't weigh are "willfully ignoring that value" and "buying into ignorance is bliss."

    I don't have a scale at home. I weigh at my gym, and try to *only* weigh at the gym. Which means in the nicer weather, when I'm running outside, I can go weeks between going to the gym (I have barbells, plates, bench, and a rack, and lift at home). And it certainly would take more time than just a few seconds to go to the gym, go to the locker room, and step on the scale.

    Guess what? I still lose exactly as my deficit says I should. I don't need that magical home scale and daily weighing to still lose. And I suspect that when I'm ready for maintenance, I won't need that magical mythical daily weighing to stay in maintenance, considering I'll be logging and weighing my food just as I always have.

    The fact that your body has a specific, measurable weight every day is not a “belief system”.