How often to weigh in maintenance
Replies
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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 -
Every day for me for the last 7 years, 5 of them in maintenance. It took a while for me not to freak at the number and Happy Scale helps with that. But when you are in maintenance for a while, you learn what works for you and how to handle numbers.7
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I find my weight changes throughout the day. It can vary by up to 5lbs!
If I get up to use the bathroom during the night, I check my weight on the digital scale, and miraculously the number drops throughout the duration of the night. Just depends how dehydrated I am. I live in USA/Southwest and keeping hydrated is a never-ending battle.3 -
I find my weight changes throughout the day. It can vary by up to 5lbs!
If I get up to use the bathroom during the night, I check my weight on the digital scale, and miraculously the number drops throughout the duration of the night. Just depends how dehydrated I am. I live in USA/Southwest and keeping hydrated is a never-ending battle.
Not just (de)hydration. Around 80% of the fat we lose leaves our body via exhaled gases, the rest as water (some of which is also exhaled, because breath is higher humidity).
When asleep, we have no food or water intake (normally
), and the percent of calories we're burning from fat is higher than for many, many other things we do. (We're not burning numerically many calories; I'm not saying we don't burn more pounds of fat at other times, I'm saying the small number of calories being burned are coming significantly from fat, when sleeping).
Unless we're sleeping in the open rain with mouth open or something, we're going to get lighter over night during sleep, not heavier or steady. Between water & fat, it's usually enough to show up on the scale.
Bodies are weird.
Consumer-friendly overview at:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/16/371210831/when-you-burn-off-that-fat-where-does-it-go7 -
I personally find it useful to weigh daily. As much as anything, it's a reminder - I'm sure if I changed to weekly, I'd end up forgetting. It's easier to have it as part of a morning routine, along with taking my medication, brushing my teeth, etc!1
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Personally, I have to weigh in almost every day. Otherwise I start to relapse back into gaining. Weighing in keeps me honest, so even in maintenance, I weigh in daily. But that's just me, because I KNOW what will happen if I don't. 2
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BreezyWerner wrote: »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.
It comes from a dieting book by a programmer, The Hacker's Diet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet). The guy who put up and maintains TrendWeight based the algorithm on the one that John Walker, the programmer, describes in his book.
If you're a geek and have the time and the interest the book is free and an interesting read. It's linked in the aforementioned Wikipedia entry.2 -
Daily and one time only.
Five years ago, I bought into that dieting theology that the scales don't really matter, neither do calories or your BMI. The scales are only one data point. So I gave up the scales and CICO and that was exactly the recipe for eating it all back. Worst mistake I've ever made as far as weight stability goes.
I'm a long time follower of the lasting and long term weight stability maintainers here. Not one of them said any of those things above. They practice due diligence and stay right on top of their data points. All of them. They weigh themselves and face their reality and music every day. Isn't that the way?8 -
I stopped weighing myself. My clothes and the mirror are my metrics I use now.4
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I’ve been in maintenance for years and only started weighing myself now as I’m trying to bulk. If I feel I’ve gained weight by looking in the mirror I’ll eat less, if I feel I’ve overindulged for a few days or a week I’ll have a few healthy days (no sweet snacks). I find this works for me but then again I only tend to gain a few pounds and lose a few pounds through the year so it equals itself out.0
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More recently I have eased up on the weigh ins, think hormones are changing the way my body holds on to water (seem to spend 3 weeks of each cycle now 3lbs up), so find it better to go by how my clothes feel and the mirror. Don't get me wrong I still step on them every week but instead of being fixated on the number I prefer to go by how I feel and look.3
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