Daily weighing, your take?

JohnDaConqueror
JohnDaConqueror Posts: 52 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Good Afternoon,

I was curious about how many of you guys daily weigh and do you guys find it more motivating when you do it. When I started on May 11th, 2019, I decided to weigh and track my progress in the iPhone notes app daily, and I've found it motivating and rewarding in my own opinion. But, I'm currently deciding whether to stop daily weighing after this Sunday and start weekly weighing. My thoughts of doing this are waiting to see that big jump in weight loss instead of pound by pound over the span of a week. I'm intrigued by what you guys do; let me know! If that's daily weighing, weekly, or even monthly, let me know your reason as well!

Thank You.

zsgstbojb9ti.jpg
«1

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I like daily weighing. It helped me learn how different things affect my body, like excess sodium or carbs, sore muscles, sunburn, alcohol, travel, etc, etc.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
  • Melh1969
    Melh1969 Posts: 29 Member
    I find that I need as much accountability as possible to keep me on track. By skipping things like logging my food and weighing in daily, it gets a little to easy to backslide. These are habits that I have built into my day and take up so little time that its no big deal, but it keeps me honest with myself and keeps my goals always in the forefront of my mind.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,092 Member
    I've done both. I like to weigh every day for the most part, though it was disturbing at first to see the scale going up. I like the data. I plateaued for all of April and stopped weighing every day and went to weekly. I've gone back to weighing every day now that the scale is moving again. I use a weight trend app that shows the trend of going down. It helps to see it on gain days.
  • JohnDaConqueror
    JohnDaConqueror Posts: 52 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    I've done both. I like to weigh every day for the most part, though it was disturbing at first to see the scale going up. I like the data. I plateaued for all of April and stopped weighing every day and went to weekly. I've gone back to weighing every day now that the scale is moving again. I use a weight trend app that shows the trend of going down. It helps to see it on gain days.

    Thanks for the reply. Do you mind giving me the name of the app?
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    It's just habit for me. I am a data geek anyways.
  • deetails26
    deetails26 Posts: 108 Member
    I weigh daily so instead of weekly seeing an occasional bump and thinking I was so good all week and how could that be, etc. I can see how certain things affect me on a daily basis. Oh the scale went up a lb? Well I had a lot of sodium yesterday or something along that line and it should come off tomorrow. Its a lot easier to re-focus when I see it as a daily fix, rather than a weekly one, if that makes sense. In other words, it's just easier for me to stay focused that way and not get discouraged.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I tried it and it stressed me out. I found if I gained a little the rest of the day I couldn't stay on track. I know lots of folks do it and swear it helps but I guess I'm just too paranoid. I weigh weekly though no excuses.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    edited May 2019
    JonathanB0360 wrote: »
    Good Afternoon,

    I was curious about how many of you guys daily weigh and do you guys find it more motivating when you do it. When I started on May 11th, 2019, I decided to weigh and track my progress in the iPhone notes app daily, and I've found it motivating and rewarding in my own opinion. But, I'm currently deciding whether to stop daily weighing after this Sunday and start weekly weighing. My thoughts of doing this are waiting to see that big jump in weight loss instead of pound by pound over the span of a week. I'm intrigued by what you guys do; let me know! If that's daily weighing, weekly, or even monthly, let me know your reason as well!

    Thank You.

    zsgstbojb9ti.jpg

    Download libra! You will love it! (It's a weight trend app)
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    I like to weigh daily, I feel like it helps me keep accountable to myself. I do so with the full understanding that weight loss is not linear, and sometimes my weight will go up and sometimes down and sometimes will even stay the same, but as long as the overall trend is going down, then I am okay with it.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    I weigh every morning, naked, after bathroom, before food or drink. It removes as many variables as possible. Then I add the number to my weight trend app, libra so that I can focus on the overall trend that my weight is on rather than today's weird fluctuation. I don't get too fussed about any one measurement and I find that the more often and accurately I measure, the better I am able to predict the consequences of my actions.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    I like to weigh daily to stay accountable to myself. I tried weekly weighing, but sometimes I would be caught off guard by the number going up or staying the same. Daily weighing helps me better anticipate my "official" Friday weight and also better understand daily fluctuations and everything that feeds into those. I use Happy Scale on iOS to see the overall trend.
  • emmies_123
    emmies_123 Posts: 513 Member
    I used to weigh weekly, had to switch to daily. Weekly you may be taking your measurement during an outlier and not realize, and thus mask/exaggerate your progress. I found this annoyed me too much, so I switched to daily weigh, then record the weekly average on MFP check-in.

    I weigh daily, after morning workout, after bathroom trip, but before I eat or drink. I have found that on weekends I weigh less than weekdays. I'm thinking this is because I wake up later and thus more time between final meal the night before and the time I weigh in, but who knows.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    DanOutdoors wrote: »
    I think you should drop it, daily weigh ins can fluctuate with things that are beyond your control. Water retention, time of day, bowel movements etc all these things will affect the results.
    Weekly you get a better picture of actual loses and gains

    Not necessarily. What if your weigh in day happens to be a day when you are experiencing a fluctuation of some sort? Water retention or whatever..

    Personally, I weigh in 3 or 4 times per week at the gym under the same circumstances for the most part. If one weighs in daily or multiple times per week, it helps to do this without emotional attachment to the results. This is where a weight trending app comes in handy. Log the data and let it go. Check your overall trend every couple of weeks and take a longer view.

    A person can be doing everything right and still see fluctuations with daily weigh-ins or weekly weigh- ins. It's not what happens on the scale in a day or a week that matters. It is the trend over time.
  • nchrty
    nchrty Posts: 57 Member
    I weigh every day and log food every day. Keeps me accountable. I am at my goal weight and have been for many years. It is because I weigh and log every day. I started out at 189 lbs 10 years ago so I know how bad things can get if I don't keep a close eye on myself.
  • HollyPFlax
    HollyPFlax Posts: 79 Member
    Weighing daily produces a larger set of data points, making it more accurate. I find that this works well for me because I have cut my emotional ties to my weight during my years of weight loss. I now know that I can lose weight easily if the scale weight starts trending up too quickly.

    Seeing the daily water weight fluctuation can be very upsetting for some people. In that case, I would recommend doing it less often and trusting the calorie deficit process.
  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    I must say, its been a real eye opener for me reading some of the posts on here that daily weighing can help you overcome the anxiety about the ups and downs that all bodies have.

    As a life long dieter and as a life long person who is and has been always overweight, one of the difficulties is the high experienced when weight loss is seen (which has a tendency to make me overeat in either celebration or complacency) and then the low when weight gain is seen (which has a tendency to make me overeat as its all gone wrong or its not worth it, its never going to work blah blah blah)

    I have found it really interesting about the swings in weight that 'normal weight' people experience, either after exercise, injury, flights, water absence, water overload etc etc, whatever the cause.

    Im not brave enough yet to do daily weighing. We got back from a holiday last sunday where I went 3.5k calories over my maintenance for the week and have chosen to give it 2 weeks after getting back to normal to get rid of the water weight (which was substantial as i couldnt get my shoes on) and any weight I might have genuinely put on.

    We also did a lot of cycling (for me) while we were away which we are not accustomed to and I suspect that where all my joints and back were sore was probably more water weight if what I have read about muscle repair is accurate.

    So next weigh in 9th June (I nearly gave in today) and then I might see if I can over come this anxiety by daily weighing.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    I think daily weighing can be very useful to get a better understanding of scale fluctuations and what causes them in your body. I don't personally do them because it's one more thing to track and my brain still has that knee-jerk reaction to not like an increase, even when I'm trending down. I weigh monthly, but that requires really trusting the process of logging and being honest about everything you're eating and any exercise you're doing. There's no "check" early on that would show you're heading off track, whereas a daily weigh would start to show that trend earlier (after a couple weeks to establish a trend.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    edited May 2019
    Daily weighing and using a trend weight app (Libra) has been an absolute game changer for me. I love it. I do it because it is easier to see my progress and since I don't track/log my intake I need something to tell me what is going on over time and how to make necessary adjustments.
  • SoaringOccamy
    SoaringOccamy Posts: 57 Member
    I am in the camp of weighing every day. I find that if I am doing well, I like the affirmation of seeing it on the scale every day. If I am not doing so well, it is not as crushing to see a little fluctuation every day as it is to see 5 lbs come on over a week.

    I used to weigh weekly, but the pain of working my butt off and seeing no change after a week of hard work is just too much to bear sometimes. It makes me just want to say frick it. Even knowing full well that there is a chance that I might just be retaining water on my weigh day. Whereas if I have weighed every day and I see a sudden large gain, I can be certain that it is just water. It is just not enough information to go on.
  • texasredreb
    texasredreb Posts: 541 Member
    I weigh first thing every morning.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    DanOutdoors wrote: »
    I think you should drop it, daily weigh ins can fluctuate with things that are beyond your control. Water retention, time of day, bowel movements etc all these things will affect the results.
    Weekly you get a better picture of actual loses and gains

    Unless you happen to hit a relative low day one week (random-fluctuation-wise) and a high one the following week. We see people here freaking out about that kind of scenario, when odds are good that it's not meaningful. (This is particularly true for premenopausal women just starting out on weight loss, BTW. It looks like OP is male, but other readers may not be.)

    Different routines fit different people. I like daily weighing, because it helps me understand the random fluctuations, and not be stressed by short-term weight changes.
  • Dove0804
    Dove0804 Posts: 213 Member
    When I was heavier and the weight came off more quickly, daily weighing was a good motivator and it really helped me understand normal fluctuations, water weight, etc.

    Now I've been sticking to somewhere around once a week, because I know my day can be thrown off if I'm a little heavier one day.

    As I get closer to goal I anticipate weighing about once/month. With 0.5lb/week loss rate anticipated at that point, I think weighing once a month will give me a better idea of how I'll be doing.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,092 Member
    JonathanB0360 wrote: »
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    I've done both. I like to weigh every day for the most part, though it was disturbing at first to see the scale going up. I like the data. I plateaued for all of April and stopped weighing every day and went to weekly. I've gone back to weighing every day now that the scale is moving again. I use a weight trend app that shows the trend of going down. It helps to see it on gain days.

    Thanks for the reply. Do you mind giving me the name of the app?

    It's Libra. I have,an Android phone if that matters.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    cheryldumais wrote: »
    I tried it and it stressed me out. I found if I gained a little the rest of the day I couldn't stay on track. I know lots of folks do it and swear it helps but I guess I'm just too paranoid. I weigh weekly though no excuses.

    I'm more or less with you on this one. I now weight every day (more or less), but it does nothing to curb any less than positive emotions related to weight fluctuations. Emotions not really being known to respond to logic and all that. Right now I'm in a place emotionally where I'm able to weigh myself almost every day without being negatively affected by the fluctuations. There was, however, a very long time when that wasn't the case.

    This is also part of why I like having a wifi connected scale. It's much more easier for me to forget about numbers when I don't have to manually enter them in.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    I weigh daily to track my hydration levels and to track my net CICO.
  • snuff15ee
    snuff15ee Posts: 99 Member
    I weighed myself every Monday morning for the first three months to build of picture of my actual TDEE because those online calculators are only so accurate.
  • lindamtuck2018
    lindamtuck2018 Posts: 9,838 Member
    I weigh daily. I love how I can look at the data and see the fluctuations. I use the Happy Scale app and it works with apple products.

Categories