How often to weigh in maintenance
Jubee13
Posts: 132 Member
I have always weighed once a week. I did try to weigh every day and look at the trend, but the fluctuations really messed with my mind. I on,y did it for about a week. However, I was considering “forcing myself” to weigh every day for the month of September just to see if that would take away the effect that number has on me. What are thought and options on weighing every day? Does the panic of seeing the scale go up (from normal fluctuations) ever go away?
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Replies
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I refused to weigh all of August and instead set performance based goals and it was liberating8
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Weigh if you want to. Don't weigh if you don't want to. Losing, gaining, maintenance, whatever stage of the journey you're at. Do what works for you.10
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What are thought and options on weighing every day?
Works for me - that it doesn't work for others is obvious but also a total irrelevance to my choice.
Does the panic of seeing the scale go up (from normal fluctuations) ever go away?
Never had any panic - to me it's just data. Occasionally that data is a disappointment or an encouragement. Mostly it has no emotion attached to it at all. I fully expect my weight to fluctuate day to day (or even intraday) as that's normal.
To me the big issue you should consider addressing is your overreaction rather than frequency of getting on the scales. "Panic" should be reserved for the situations where it's appropriate.
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I find it helps me to take note of the causes of fluctuations. If I’m down after running in the heat, if I’m up after eating sodium filled food, if I’m up because I didn’t get good sleep - I know now what I should expect, and if the scale is climbing for no obvious reason I can be fairly confident it’s a fat gain and not a temporary fluctuation. Then I can jump right on it and start paying attention to what I’m doing wrong - usually it’s something such as taking exercise estimates at face value, or not weighing calorie dense foods.
There’s no need to panic, in any case. You lost weight once and you have the tools to do it again if you start regaining.8 -
I guess I shouldn’t have said “panic”, but I do feel my reaction to the scale going up - even when I know it’s just a normal fluctuation - isn’t reasonable. It’s more of a worry that I’m eating too much than a “panic”. I would like to see the scale just as data, but I feel that number holds too much meaning for me, and I thought maybe weighing daily would lesson the importance of the number.1
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I am sort of the same way. So I just don't weigh every day. I do log and keep track of cals. I will weigh maybe once a week or at a min once a month to make sure I am not kidding myself but as long as I stay in range I don't feel the need to weigh every day. It's one of the perks of maintenance for me that I don't have to have my day influenced by some random #. I started that this year and so far it seems to be working for me. I don't really need the daily data and it's once less thing to clutter my mind with.3
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I just started maintenance and am weighing every day until I am certain what my maintenance calories are.9
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I'm weighing every day because I'm used to weighing every day. I've done it for the better part of 7 years, so I don't see why I would stop now. Fluctuations don't bother me at all and the act of weighing primes me for a day where I'm more aware of the actions that affect my weight. The only time I was bothered by water weight was when I had long stretches of water retention which messed with my trend. I don't like when data is inaccurate and not much I can do about it.
Try forcing yourself for a couple of weeks and see if it makes it easier for you. If it doesn't, there is no harm in continuing to do it weekly or even monthly. See how it goes and find your best fit.5 -
Every day for me, but I am a data junkie.3
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Some times everyday (out of routine because the scale is right there looking at me), others few times a week, and never on vacation. Maintaining for 9 years so I have a pretty good idea of what and how much to eat, and how my body responds to changes. At my age water fluctuations are minimal, except when traveling.
I don't take measurements too often either, maybe once or twice a year at the most. I trust my feelings, and my clothing.4 -
Not weighing every day in maintenance is why I'm currently trying to lose 19lbs.
I just pretended it was fine, and threw pants to the back of the closet when they didn't fit.14 -
I weigh every day now that I have reached maintenance, and I use Happy Scale. I do find that seeing the trend line helps me feel confident and I am reaching the point where I am more comfortable with days that my weight is up a bit, because I can see my history and know that’s just what my body does. Maintenance seems to be all about figuring out what works for you, not just in regard to your weight, but also your mental wellness.
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I guess I shouldn’t have said “panic”, but I do feel my reaction to the scale going up - even when I know it’s just a normal fluctuation - isn’t reasonable. It’s more of a worry that I’m eating too much than a “panic”. I would like to see the scale just as data, but I feel that number holds too much meaning for me, and I thought maybe weighing daily would lesson the importance of the number.
Well - the easiest ways to know if you're eating too much is to either keep a food log or to weigh yourself. I find doing both is the best because then I KNOW if I've eaten too much, and I know it before it causes a change in my weight.
I like to weigh every day. I don't do it, but I like it the best. I do log my food, though. I've been logging food long enough to be able to fairly accurately guess my weight on any given day, so there is that. :flowerforyou:2 -
amckholmes wrote: »I weigh every day now that I have reached maintenance, and I use Happy Scale. I do find that seeing the trend line helps me feel confident and I am reaching the point where I am more comfortable with days that my weight is up a bit, because I can see my history and know that’s just what my body does. Maintenance seems to be all about figuring out what works for you, not just in regard to your weight, but also your mental wellness.[/quote]
You nail it!!!0 -
I still weigh once a week, same as when I was losing. I think if I weighed every day I would drive myself crazy about it lol3
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I weigh every morning after I brush my teeth. It's going to fluctuate - I know that. I look at new lows and new highs. If I weighed once a week I'd start fretting about variations. Now, I expect them.5
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I guess I shouldn’t have said “panic”, but I do feel my reaction to the scale going up - even when I know it’s just a normal fluctuation - isn’t reasonable. It’s more of a worry that I’m eating too much than a “panic”. I would like to see the scale just as data, but I feel that number holds too much meaning for me, and I thought maybe weighing daily would lesson the importance of the number.
Really only you know where this falls in the balance, for you.
If you can weigh daily for a month, not be too stressed about it, and look at it as an experimental way to begin to understand what causes your personal weight fluctuations, then it could possibly help you reduce anxious feelings about the number (because you begin to understand viscerally that certain changes are sodium, or new exercise, or a monthly menstrual cycle if you're female/right age, or a minor virus/infection/injury with inflammation or conjection or swelling, or some other such thing). If that self-learning could happen, it might help you move toward treating the number as "just data".
If you're following a sensible eating plan, even if not weighing/logging food, there is no way a sudden unexpected scale jump of a pound or more is all fat gain (you'd notice if you'd eaten the extra 3500 calories over maintenance that you'd need to gain one pound, right - let alone more?). Fat gain, in that scenario, would show up as a very slow upward creep of scale weight over a period of weeks.
So, if it isn't fat gain, you know it's water weight or extra digestive system contents, and you can think about why (it won't always be obvious, but often will). Water weight and digestive contents aren't worth stressing over.
On the other hand, if you can't weigh daily without increasing anxiety and hindering your happiness, then there's really no good reason you need to do it.
Only you know where your feelings fall, between finding it a little scary but tolerable, or having it cause anxiety to the point of unhappiness.
One thing for sure: Whatever number shows up on the scale, it's only telling you a simple fact about the relationship between your body and gravity. It's telling you nothing about your worth as a human being! :flowerforyou:
Best wishes!23 -
I guess I shouldn’t have said “panic”, but I do feel my reaction to the scale going up - even when I know it’s just a normal fluctuation - isn’t reasonable. It’s more of a worry that I’m eating too much than a “panic”. I would like to see the scale just as data, but I feel that number holds too much meaning for me, and I thought maybe weighing daily would lesson the importance of the number.
Do the math. If the scale jumps up a couple pounds overnight, the math will tell you that it's not fat. I'm pretty sure you'll know it if you eat 3500 calories over maintenance.2 -
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Normally once a day when I get up and use the bathroon but, since I started IF, I've been weighing myself at various times b4 I start eating again; ususlly after my daily 5k row and just b4 I start eating again.
Started doing that out of curiosity but started to do it regularly because I have found that I can lose an additional 1-2# between the time I get up (usually around 7) and when I start eating again (usually around 1). And, I chg my wt to the lowest # b4 I go off the fast, which I think is the most accurate way to gauge the effect of IF on my wt.0 -
Daily on wake up. The weight tells me how much I'm going to eat and exercise that day. Hey, I bought another scale to see if my old one was wacked. They never agree; always .5-1.5 pounds off. They take turns being the heavy. I take turns believing the light one.
That said, this NFL player I met at his friend's public gym told me his waist size is what he personally thinks is the most important. No, he doesn't play center...3 -
I have always weighed once a week. I did try to weigh every day and look at the trend, but the fluctuations really messed with my mind. I on,y did it for about a week. However, I was considering “forcing myself” to weigh every day for the month of September just to see if that would take away the effect that number has on me. What are thought and options on weighing every day? Does the panic of seeing the scale go up (from normal fluctuations) ever go away?
Yes. For me daily weighing gave me data rather than emotion and taught me how my body responds. For example, when I gain water Wright from travel, I learned how long it takes me to lose it.
Weigh ins became a little bit of a game, guessing if I thought I’d be up, down, or the same based on what I’d eaten and how my body felt.7 -
I used to weigh only Friday mornings during active weight loss. I’d let that scale number control me. My mood. My opinion of how I worked that week. Gave it too much of me. I am smart. I knew I was not eating over maintenance and I knew I couldn’t be gaining fat. But if that number was ever up by even a tenth I’d be so upset with myself.
I’ve been in and out of maintenance about 8 years. I recently decided to go for my last 10 vanity pounds. So In April I was done with letting the scale control me. I read about happy scale here and decided to take the plunge while I was hard core logging. I’ve weighed almost everyday since April 5th. It has done for me what I feel like you want it to do for you. It no longer has that hold on me. Now it’s just a number. I get on it sometimes and if it’s up by 2 pounds in one day I just smile and laugh. As I’m logging the weight into the app I’m already going over what my body has been through the last 24 hours and what could have caused it. Now I will tell you during August I was eating just a bit too much and I watched the trend go up just a teeny bit week after week. I said yeah yeah I get it. Step up the exercise! I really like having 5 months of history. I can go back and look at a month and compare it to my food diary and exercise log and really understand where I was at and how much I was eating at that time etc.
Sorry for the novel. I just wanted you to know that it can happen. I step on the scale every morning now after I use the bathroom. Just a normal part of my routine. I see it. Log it. And move on with my day. That number doesn’t get to decide for me how I feel about my body or all my hard work. It’s just data for me to see later on 👍11 -
I’ve weighed myself daily since 1/1/16.
I have no plans to stop because I know how fast I can fall off delicately balances Maintenance Train.
I weigh daily to keep me conscious.
And yes, as others have said it’s data & having that data along with foods eaten & exercise helps me problem solve.
In almost 4 years, I’ve only been surprised twice. And each time I’m glad I saw it right away.10 -
It varies for me. Sometimes it's every day, sometimes once a week. I just weighed myself this morning for the first time in 3 weeks and I was down about 4 pounds, which isn't surprising as I've had a cold for 2 weeks that has messed with my appetite. I have another 2 pounds in my maintenance range--if I dip below that it's time to break out the peanut butter.4
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Using "happy scale" to note trends has been really helpful - those normal pounds fluctuations smoothed out over weeks and months helped me identify when I needed to tighten up a bit - and I can see with a year's data now that I have been "maintaining." It's more useful if I have more data points and so I weigh in a few times a week.3
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For me, when I weighed in once a week if the weight was higher I'd get very discouraged; it seemed too long to wait for the next weigh in. So now I weigh every day and log it on Libra and when it's been a few days of higher weight I rein in my eating.
Sigh, so now a rant about maintenance. It doesn't seem to get easier, at least not for me. My body just wants to weight ten pounds more, and I have to be in a constant state of awareness. Yes, I will let myself indulge in occasional celebrations, but then always return to vigilence. My stats: female, 62 years old, height 5'7",current weight fluctuating between 155 and 157. I want to maintain under 155. (and I did for a very short while) I follow a good exercise plan.3 -
Every day shortly after I get out of bed. Close to the same time every day under similar conditions. Then enter daily data to a spreadsheet that calculates a moving average to even out the inevitable daily spikes. I also use a website that does a weighted moving average which I like better because it assigns a higher value to measurements in the recent past versus farther in the past (about ten days).
I have seen many times when, if I had been only weighing once a week, the scale would have told me something that I would have completely misinterpreted. Weighing every day that I am near my scale works great for me. All that said, I haven't COMPLETELY disassociated my emotional response from the number I see each day. It's still a little bit of a challenge. But I KNOW in my head what it is, and I try to convince my heart (or liver depending on where you think emotions come from ) that it's just a number, and then look at my TREND. I'm a recovering scientist, so data are my friend.
As an example, here's the graph of the last six months from Trendweight:
As an example, if I weighed myself on Sundays, my scale weight between September 1-8 went up four pounds, but the weighted moving average went DOWN a third of a pound. Conversely, between August 18-25, my scale weight went down 1.8 pounds, but my trend was UP 1.3 pounds. It's the trend that's most important. I will continue to work on disconnecting from the daily readings because without taking the daily readings, the trend is less accurate.
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I weigh daily & have for over 760 days. It’s a habit that I developed because the other times I lost weight & if I gained during maintenance, I’d not weigh myself & then I gained back.
I also, like @mtaratoot , use a trend app (Happy Scale). Averages are all that matter.
I also look at data on AppleHealth & compare to a year ago.
One of the things I remind myself...every day I am Keeping Off 70-75 lbs. That’s a less food (and more exercise) every single day. That’s an AMAZING accomplishment.
Avg wt 2015 ~228
2016 ~216
2017 202.6
2018 168.4
2019 (so far) 154.72
My monkey brain used to tell me I was still fat. These averages (and BMI numbers) and Time helped me realize I’m not. In the past that monkey brain got the upper hand, and I regained all back.
So as the scale bounces around 1/2 lb-2 lbs daily, I work to keep the big picture in mind. That’s what matters!
Health❣️10 -
Every day shortly after I get out of bed. Close to the same time every day under similar conditions. Then enter daily data to a spreadsheet that calculates a moving average to even out the inevitable daily spikes. I also use a website that does a weighted moving average which I like better because it assigns a higher value to measurements in the recent past versus farther in the past (about ten days).
I have seen many times when, if I had been only weighing once a week, the scale would have told me something that I would have completely misinterpreted. Weighing every day that I am near my scale works great for me. All that said, I haven't COMPLETELY disassociated my emotional response from the number I see each day. It's still a little bit of a challenge. But I KNOW in my head what it is, and I try to convince my heart (or liver depending on where you think emotions come from ) that it's just a number, and then look at my TREND. I'm a recovering scientist, so data are my friend.
As an example, here's the graph of the last six months from Trendweight:
As an example, if I weighed myself on Sundays, my scale weight between September 1-8 went up four pounds, but the weighted moving average went DOWN a third of a pound. Conversely, between August 18-25, my scale weight went down 1.8 pounds, but my trend was UP 1.3 pounds. It's the trend that's most important. I will continue to work on disconnecting from the daily readings because without taking the daily readings, the trend is less accurate.
A recovering scientist.... I am a recovering electrical engineer. Totally get it.3
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