Daily weigh-ins? Yes! What are your thoughts?

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Replies

  • raleighgirl09
    raleighgirl09 Posts: 687 Member
    I weigh daily, but only update my stats Sunday morning

    Me too - weigh daily right now as it is a tool in my complete tool belt of things that help me focus. But I am sporadic on adding it to MFP stats.

    When I achieved the big loss years ago, I got to the point that I stopped weighing and used my cloths as the judge and I did that for a long time. The drawback was, when I stopped maintaining and started gaining again, not weighing made it very easy to turn a blind eye to what was happening on the clothes end.
  • SallyLuvsFitness
    SallyLuvsFitness Posts: 13,724 Member
    Yes! Daily weigh ins help me stay motivated. I don’t obsess over it; however, I was at my goal weight three years ago and stopped weighing even weekly and was going that my clothes fit...well! Surprise, I allowed unwanted pounds creep up on me.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    smaerose wrote: »
    If you are weighing more than once a day, that moves into obsession territory. Once a day, on a regular basis, similar circumstances each time, that is scientific measurement. If weighing every day makes you obsess, do not do it. If it helps you focus, it is a great idea.

    Even then, the reasons (and attitude toward it) matter. I've sometimes weighed myself a second time in a day, for example, to make sure I'm hydrating properly during outdoor exercise when the weather is hot. It's still just useful data, not an obsession.
  • slijmbal
    slijmbal Posts: 1 Member
    Daily as weight is a 'noisy' number in that its daily variation can be quite large compared to its underlying movement. Weight can easily vary by a kg or 2 in a short period. I log the weight in a spreadsheet and graph it and add a trend of a 7 day moving average as I'm looking for a week on week trend. In my professional life I work in data analysis and it's a common technique to using moving averages for 'noisy' data to spot underlying trends but it's also important to measure such noisy data quite frequently.
  • babel95
    babel95 Posts: 44 Member
    I enjoy weighing daily because if its up I get motivated to have a healthy day and if its down I get motivated to continue my healthy choices. If I go away for a weekend or sleep-in I don’t really worry about it!
  • SeeShelle3
    SeeShelle3 Posts: 22 Member
    I've done alot of different strategies; weight in daily, weekly, every two weeks, monthly or not at all. I seem to stay on track with weighing myself everyday and don't feel as bummed when it doesn't go down every day. I think there is more expectation of loss when you wait a week or more and if there is isn't on that specific day - it breaks my healthy stride and I say "why bother".
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Absolutely. Face the music every day or your brain will begin to play tricks on you. You can enter into sharky waters quickly without any strong data points. I believe in letting the data points speak for themselves. They tell no lies without a hint of imaginary thinking that all is fine and well. I bought into 'the scales are not important' dieting dogma about 5 years ago. That was the biggest lie of all.

    That's only true for someone who's never ever had a problem with food in their entire lifetime. They need to be coached to eat because they forget about eating. For those who've struggled with obesity...the scales are important with the daily data point.
  • SallyLuvsFitness
    SallyLuvsFitness Posts: 13,724 Member
    Daily equals motivation for me. ❤️ Healthy Scale App!
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    I weigh daily and log it daily because it keeps me involved in the process. ☺
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,302 Member
    Diatonic12 wrote: »
    Absolutely. Face the music every day or your brain will begin to play tricks on you. You can enter into sharky waters quickly without any strong data points. I believe in letting the data points speak for themselves. They tell no lies without a hint of imaginary thinking that all is fine and well. I bought into 'the scales are not important' dieting dogma about 5 years ago. That was the biggest lie of all.

    That's only true for someone who's never ever had a problem with food in their entire lifetime. They need to be coached to eat because they forget about eating. For those who've struggled with obesity...the scales are important with the daily data point.

    Maybe for you.

    Many people, myself included do just fine on weekly weighing. Did that throughout and didn't enter any 'sharky waters'
  • floofyschmoofer
    floofyschmoofer Posts: 209 Member
    I like it because I can confirm how certain favorite foods make me retain water and I think it's cool to find the balance.

    (I'm a sucker for anything in vinegar-- cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet onion,-- but I notice the morning after having some that all that salt definitely causes the scale to go up a pound or in the case of this morning, 3. It's cool to know that stuff about my body and it's responses 'cause then I don't beat myself up thinking I somehow gained three pounds of fat and can see the natural fluctuations human bodies do.)
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,085 Member
    edited June 2019
    I'm a daily weigh-er, and now use a trending app, prior to that I'd record daily weights and take the weekly average. I found that FAR more useful than less frequent weigh ins, plus i can nearly always predict a high weigh in day now as I know the trends my body has.

    The trend app is good, but I may still track weekly averages again as I'm trying hard to go through a dedicated loss phase here again now, and the app doesn't quite give me the info I fully want, but still helps keep me honest.
  • littlesallyracket
    littlesallyracket Posts: 2 Member
    I slimmed down a lot a few years ago and I used to weigh myself every day then but recently I realised it was pretty meaningless for me. Absolutely fine if it helps other people but all it did for me was make me stressed and give me a false impression of how I was doing, given that I can easily 'lose' or 'gain' 3lbs overnight depending on how much water I drank that day or whether my meals had a lot of salt in them. Also, when I got to a point where I was gaining muscle and then getting disheartened because I wasn't losing weight - even though I was losing fat, and inches.

    I now see a personal trainer and he has pretty much banned me from weighing myself at all. I get weighed and my body fat monitored once a month, and the goals I've set are for body fat percentage and bust/waist/hip measurements, rather than weight loss. If I went back to weighing myself I'd do it once a week at the absolute most.

    But everyone's different - whatever you find motivating and helpful is the right way for you.
  • Aalps
    Aalps Posts: 20 Member
    I weigh daily on a withings scale but only stand on it long enough to actually record and send the weight if it's gone down! That way I know what the reality is, but I don't get the negative feelings if I look at the stats in fitbit/MFP/Healthmate. Kind of a cheat but it works for me.
  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 19,145 Member
    I weigh daily as I like the extra data, and it keeps me on track. I use Happy Scale app to track trends.

    I used to stress over the scale, but weighing daily and tracking trends has removed that dread.
  • 7rainbow
    7rainbow Posts: 161 Member
    Personally, I'm not for daily weigh ins, just because I find it can be discouraging when really you might have only gained water weight, plus it can lead to more obsessive habits. Also it makes it feel like the pounds are taking forever to shred off. It's more exciting and motivating to see that you lost a pound at the end of a week than seeing such a miniscule progression. If you are doing daily weigh ins, do them in the morning before you eat or do anything so it is the most accurate. That's just my opinion though! Enjoy your journey of becoming healthy, not just the number!
  • Sweatspiration
    Sweatspiration Posts: 33 Member
    Daily weigh-ins into Happy Scale. It's super cool watching the patterns develop, especially around my TOM. Good way to get a heads up on when my period's gonna happen, too.
  • SallyLuvsFitness
    SallyLuvsFitness Posts: 13,724 Member
    Happy scale app win win for me! Daily!
  • RubyRed427
    RubyRed427 Posts: 4,410 Member
    I weigh daily - it’s keeps me more on track - when I go up , I know to be careful.
  • SallyLuvsFitness
    SallyLuvsFitness Posts: 13,724 Member
    Yes! It really helps me stay on track!
  • no44s4me
    no44s4me Posts: 73 Member
    Daily and Happy Scale, I'm more focused on the trend and my caloric intake on it.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    I prefer the accountability of a daily morning weigh-in, and it does wonders for keeping me from snacking the previous night, because I always want the best possible weigh-in. I've probably lost 10 lbs just in food-not-eaten from trying to set up a good next weigh-in.

    I used to skip weigh-ins after off days, but now I've concluded that weigh-ins after the off days are crucially important. My Achilles heel with diets has always been letting one off day expand into two and then a week, month, year. Getting on that scale the next morning is like a reckoning for me -- "face it, own it, move on". It's like a ritual cleansing -- acknowledge the number, suck it up, and get back on track.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,024 Member
    Daily weigh-in for me...not because I'm obsessed about it, I just like to know how my diet, sodium intake affect my weight. Mine can fluctuate a couple lbs easily due to holding excess water. the main thing is knowing my overall trend is DOWN not up!
  • SallyLuvsFitness
    SallyLuvsFitness Posts: 13,724 Member
    I am back to daily weigh-ins. I don’t obsess over it, however, it really keeps me on track! 🙌👍💫
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    Been weighing myself daily for over 3.5 yrs since I started my current wt loss & maintenance journey.

    Track w/MFP and Libra and also use to use Excel to do wt/cal correlations but stopped doing that. Just use MFP for raw data and Libra for trend data.
  • FireyChimera
    FireyChimera Posts: 155 Member
    I don't weight myself daily, or even weekly or monthly. The only time I ever get weighed is when I am at the doctor. If I weight myself I get obsessed with it and it takes control of my mood/ day and causes me to restrict food which isn't good. :) My best advice is to do what makes you feel comfortable without getting obsessed/ stressed over it
  • merekins
    merekins Posts: 228 Member
    They work for me.
  • CaitlinELaird
    CaitlinELaird Posts: 106 Member
    I weigh every day, only because I am curious about my fluctuations as I am trying to learn more about my body and love it as it is in all its weirdness. I have started to notice large changes as a signal of my period coming on, etc.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    Just returned from a short one week vacation during which I didn’t weigh myself in the morning like I had done EVERY day since last August 31st, 2018 when beginning my current fitness, health and wellness journey.

    Today I was back in familiar surroundings and weighed myself in the morning. Despite eating more and burning fewer exercise calories, my morning weight was 0.5 lb. higher than 7 days earlier. I erred on the side of guessing calories eaten but did log all my meals. This erring helped get the job done of not coming back with vacation weight gain.

    Next morning weigh-in is in about 9 hours. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. For me, morning weigh-in is here to stay.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Took me a long time to face up to this, but:
    - weigh in everyday and log every calorie = stay on track, avoid nighttime snacking (to get a good weigh in in the a.m.)
    - don't weigh in everyday or log every calorie = start slipping within days.

    My wife never gets on a scale. Just doesn't need it. People are different. Everyone needs to find what works for them.
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