When to weigh

amandacradduck wrote: »

Lots of people on here seem to say they weigh everyday in the morning after using the bathroom. But I would encourage you to only weigh yourself once a week. Or twice a week. When you weigh in everyday it can discourage you because most days will be close to the same number because most people will only lose a pound or two a week after awhile. But if u do it only once a week on Fridays mornings (or whatever day/days you pick) you will constantly see the numbers going down

While I will acknowledge that this works for people who cannot mentally handle daily fluctuations, I have to address what you say because it provides incorrect information.

Weekly and even monthly weigh-ins are also subject to water weight fluctuations.

I can look at my trendweight.com graph and easily cherry-pick spots during my weight loss that are a week apart or a month apart where the second value was the same or higher than the first while I was still meeting my weight loss goals!

And this is without contending with several pounds of hormonal water retention.

What matters is the overall weight trend over time and not a particular daily weigh-in.

Your argument is that one can better determine the overall day to day weight trend by using fewer data points that are spaced further apart.

Objectively, daily data points are going to provide more accurate information

The secret is to not freak out at the daily value but to evaluate progress based on the trend over a sufficient period of time.