Stepping on the scale throughout the day?
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missysippy930 wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »I don’t understand the disagrees. Really, what is the purpose of weighing several times per day? What does it tell you? Please explain. To me, it seems a bit obsessive, actually, quite a bit.
It doesn’t hurt anything to do it and it satisfies some people’s love for numbers and science, like me. What’s wrong with that?
Nothing wrong with it, for you. I’m curious, what curiosity about numbers and science does it satisfy?
For some people it could be very stressful, even detrimental, and it really doesn’t tell you anything but that weight fluctuates throughout the day., and that it’s normal. Doesn’t indicate a thing.
At no point have I advocated for others to do this; I've simply asked if I was the only one to do it more than once a day on occasion. And... clearly I am not. If it’s detrimental to a person to do this on a mental level, well, they shouldn’t do it... and probably also work on strengthening their mind. After all, weight is just a measurement, not something to base ones value or self-worth on.
Judgemental. Not everyone is the same, and compassion for others insecurities may benefit.
Would you mind answering my question about what curiosity about numbers and science it satisfies? I can’t imagine what that might satisfy.
That was my question as well. It is like wondering if you weigh more with shoes on. I guess if you didn't know your shoes had mass and weight maybe you have learned something new.
I have just had 16 oz of coffee. I don't really need the scale to tell me I weigh a pound more.
For me weighing at all simply takes some of the guess work out of the process. I have had to downshift my weight loss because I do not have that much left to lose. I need to be losing no more than a 1 to 1.25 pounds per week now. At the same time my activity level has increased but I am not 100 percent sure by how much. Weighing allows me to find my numbers faster so I do not end up losing weight too fast and risking LBM loss.
Weighing daily allows me to capture my next lowest weight when it happens. I can then compare to my running lowest weight track in my spreadsheet that deducts my loss by deficit each day. When they get close or match it is another possible data point that things are on track. It is only a possible data point because it is not wise to ignore that weight fluctuations can create an coincidental match. Otherwise I would have no reason to even weigh daily. I love numbers that provide usable data. Numbers for the sake of numbers are not that interesting.4 -
justanotherguy2020 wrote: »stormcrow2 wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »The funny thing is... our body always has a weight. There always a “number”... like continuously. When we “weigh in”, we are just peeking for a second. That’s all. Stepping on the scale does nothing... whether it frequent or seldom so long as you have the right mindset on it.
Then why bother doing it multiple times a day?
Why bother doing it daily? Or weekly? Or monthly? What makes 24 hours the correct frequency to weigh ones self versus 72 hours or 2 hours?
Because the point of weighing for the vast majority of people is to track fat loss/gain. In order to do that, you need to find a frequency that is often enough to catch trends, without being so often that random fluctuations muddy the waters. You don't lose or gain fat fast enough to see that on the scale from hour to hour, even the largest possible fat change would be covered up by water and digestive fluctuations. Even weighing daily involves a certain amount of effort to separate fat loss/gain from normal weight fluctuations, but if someone has the right mindset to take that roller coaster ride, they can see a fat loss trend emerge. For those who are more patient, weighing weekly even further minimizes the "noise" of normal body weight fluctuates to make fat loss/gain trend more clear (though it doesn't eliminate it entirely).
So for the vast majority of people who are weighing themselves to moderate their fat level, weighing multiple times per day is completely useless. If someone is just fascinated by the way different activities affect their total weight and understand that the fluctuations they are seeing are almost certainly either water or digestive contents, then go for it.
I am a numbers geek myself, but since there is no way to know exactly why my weight went up 2 lbs in the last 2 hours, or put that information to any possible use, I don't think multiple weigh-ins would be interesting. I guess I am more specifically a useful-numbers geek. I do see how those interested in an activity's affect on their hydration could find multiple weigh-ins useful to measure that sort of thing on an occasional basis.
I admit I haven't read the thread before I posted, so didn't see that. The reason that 24 hours is the "right" frequency is simple: it controls for certain variables and helps establish a trend. A weekly or monthly trend is too infrequent for a weight loss trend (if a trend is what you want) because you would need many many weeks or months in order to dial in your calories successfully. A daily trend under the same conditions (same time, same food/water and possibly waste states, same clothes...etc) is more helpful than weighing under different conditions and states throughout the day. You could, theoretically, take in 5 weigh ins a day and average them to establish a daily weight, but why do more when you can do less with better results?
I get curious sometimes about how much things weigh, like how much water I lose with exercise, how different my exercise thirst winter vs summer in numbers, how much I pee (just because), but like I said earlier, the inconvenience prevents me from listening to every one of my curiosity whims.2 -
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In all the chit chat, there question has been asked again and again why one a day and not one a week or multiple times a day.
When we weigh (while trying to lose fat) we are trying to establish our underlying fat level change: a line or path.
Once a week or once a month means that collecting enough dots to clearly establish the line is going to take a while. A long while.
So people will operate under the assumption that their dots ARE on the line and often make wrong inferences based on "local lows" or "local highs" that are often influenced by the usual culprits: time of the month, sodium intake, amount of food in the gut, recent exercise, etc.
There were many a month where my week to week or month to month data points showed a weight increase; yet I was losing anywhere from 1.5 to 0.25 lbs a week, consistently, over the year.
So a daily weigh in helps you fill in data points to have confidence in the trend you see much faster than one a week.
What do multiple points a day do? In a way they may be more accurate as to your actual average weight throughout the day if you take dozens of observations each and every day. Sounds like a lot of work and commitment in order to basically tack on an extra lb of non fat to my daily weight number.
It is funny, but most of us seem to want to record our weight as the lowest valid weight of the day. Is it just vanity?
Actually both is and is not. "water weight" moves the fastest, and therefore the lowest points of the day are likely to have the least water weight. And weighting at similar points in your daily routine again are likely to generate less water weight confounding.
If you're allowing your intra day variation to influence your behaviour regarding eating and exercise you're on a slope.
Ideally food supports exercise; not the other way around.
Even though a lot of us on mfp do it to some degree (how many shorter older females say that they use activity and exercise to raise their TDEE to an acceptable to them level?) , it is probably a good idea to recognize that it is a slope and slipping on it would not be good.
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In all the chit chat, there question has been asked again and again why one a day and not one a week or multiple times a day.
When we weigh (while trying to lose fat) we are trying to establish our underlying fat level change: a line or path.
Once a week or once a month means that collecting enough dots to clearly establish the line is going to take a while. A long while.
So people will operate under the assumption that their dots ARE on the line and often make wrong inferences based on "local lows" or "local highs" that are often influenced by the usual culprits: time of the month, sodium intake, amount of food in the gut, recent exercise, etc.
There were many a month where my week to week or month to month data points showed a weight increase; yet I was losing anywhere from 1.5 to 0.25 lbs a week, consistently, over the year.
So a daily weigh in helps you fill in data points to have confidence in the trend you see much faster than one a week.
What do multiple points a day do? In a way they may be more accurate as to your actual average weight throughout the day if you take dozens of observations each and every day. Sounds like a lot of work and commitment in order to basically tack on an extra lb of non fat to my daily weight number.
It is funny, but most of us seem to want to record our weight as the lowest valid weight of the day. Is it just vanity?
Actually both is and is not. "water weight" moves the fastest, and therefore the lowest points of the day are likely to have the least water weight. And weighting at similar points in your daily routine again are likely to generate less water weight confounding.
If you're allowing your intra day variation to influence your behaviour regarding eating and exercise you're on a slope.
Ideally food supports exercise; not the other way around.
Even though a lot of us on mfp do it to some degree (how many shorter older females say that they use activity and exercise to raise their TDEE to an acceptable to them level?) , it is probably a good idea to recognize that it is a slope and slipping on it would not be good.
In general, I agree with you.
Even more generally, I think that people tend to adopt practices that they think are "best", which pretty much definitionally makes other practices "not as good", and encourages us to argue that others should do what we personally do. I think there are some cognitive traps, of various sorts, in that kind of thinking.
IMO, that kind of thinking is in play, a bit, in this thread. 
To the bolded:
I do occasionally weigh myself at times other than my "official" daily first thing in the morning weigh-in that I put in Libra. Sometimes it's for a reason (like checking exercise/hyrdration in hot weather), sometimes it's for no particular reason except random curiosity before a shower or something, when I'm standing there next to the scale in a state of undress.
I've observed that it's not unusual for my lowest weight of the day to be in late afternoon, which I find interesting and kind of surprising. If I wanted to find out why that was so, I'd weigh myself even more frequently for a while, to see if that was a false pattern (such as that I only weigh less in late afternoon rarely, and happened to catch those times) or to find out why that pattern occurs (which would require weighing after theoretically-relevant events for a while, so quite a few times a day).
I haven't been curious enough to buckle down and do that, but that's a reason - I think a perfectly valid one - that someone might weigh much more frequently out of curiosity. It's not fraught with deep psychological over/undertones, nor IMO part of a slippery slope to anywhere. It doesn't bother me or stress me in any way, it's just potentially interesting and maybe even insight-provoking. (It would be a Bad Plan for anyone who is stressed by scale weight, or for whom the practice could become obsessive.)
I do, and would regardless, still weigh first thing in the morning as my routine, because I think that's likely to produce the most consistent weights (less variation in underlying conditions). That's what I personally want in Libra for trending purposes: The most probably consistent weights, not the lowest.
Bringing it back to my second paragraph: I could therefore argue that anyone who's even at the slightest of pains to record their lowest daily weight is on a slippery slope to someplace bad, but I wouldn't, because it would be silly (as a generality). 2 -
sometimes, because I find it interesting how much weight fluctuates throughout the day. Like yesterday I lost 1.4lbs after a 3 mile run, and that was even after eating.2
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Even though a lot of us on mfp do it to some degree (how many shorter older females say that they use activity and exercise to raise their TDEE to an acceptable to them level?) , it is probably a good idea to recognize that it is a slope and slipping on it would not be good.
To this, and just because it doesn't read QUITE as I intended, I am also definitely including many of us who are not shorter and older females!
Specifically I believe I have made it clear in the past that increased activity was both the starting point for myself, and an integral part in making the weight loss process sustainable for me.
And yes, not sliding into the trap that exercise can outrun my fork is an integral part of successful ongoing maintenance for me.
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amusedmonkey wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »stormcrow2 wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »The funny thing is... our body always has a weight. There always a “number”... like continuously. When we “weigh in”, we are just peeking for a second. That’s all. Stepping on the scale does nothing... whether it frequent or seldom so long as you have the right mindset on it.
Then why bother doing it multiple times a day?
Why bother doing it daily? Or weekly? Or monthly? What makes 24 hours the correct frequency to weigh ones self versus 72 hours or 2 hours?
Because the point of weighing for the vast majority of people is to track fat loss/gain. In order to do that, you need to find a frequency that is often enough to catch trends, without being so often that random fluctuations muddy the waters. You don't lose or gain fat fast enough to see that on the scale from hour to hour, even the largest possible fat change would be covered up by water and digestive fluctuations. Even weighing daily involves a certain amount of effort to separate fat loss/gain from normal weight fluctuations, but if someone has the right mindset to take that roller coaster ride, they can see a fat loss trend emerge. For those who are more patient, weighing weekly even further minimizes the "noise" of normal body weight fluctuates to make fat loss/gain trend more clear (though it doesn't eliminate it entirely).
So for the vast majority of people who are weighing themselves to moderate their fat level, weighing multiple times per day is completely useless. If someone is just fascinated by the way different activities affect their total weight and understand that the fluctuations they are seeing are almost certainly either water or digestive contents, then go for it.
I am a numbers geek myself, but since there is no way to know exactly why my weight went up 2 lbs in the last 2 hours, or put that information to any possible use, I don't think multiple weigh-ins would be interesting. I guess I am more specifically a useful-numbers geek. I do see how those interested in an activity's affect on their hydration could find multiple weigh-ins useful to measure that sort of thing on an occasional basis.
I admit I haven't read the thread before I posted, so didn't see that. The reason that 24 hours is the "right" frequency is simple: it controls for certain variables and helps establish a trend. A weekly or monthly trend is too infrequent for a weight loss trend (if a trend is what you want) because you would need many many weeks or months in order to dial in your calories successfully. A daily trend under the same conditions (same time, same food/water and possibly waste states, same clothes...etc) is more helpful than weighing under different conditions and states throughout the day. You could, theoretically, take in 5 weigh ins a day and average them to establish a daily weight, but why do more when you can do less with better results?
I get curious sometimes about how much things weigh, like how much water I lose with exercise, how different my exercise thirst winter vs summer in numbers, how much I pee (just because), but like I said earlier, the inconvenience prevents me from listening to every one of my curiosity whims.
A weekly weigh-in has worked just fine for me for more than six years to observe trends, without any need for adding another app to my life to graph a line to the data.2 -
justanotherguy2020 wrote: »I should add that I am a scientist / computer scientist, so... I love numbers. I log my weight daily (first thing in the morning always).
I weigh throughout the day. I am a mathematician, and teach High school math, so I like to see the trends. I also only log my morning weight.2 -
justanotherguy2020 wrote: »I should add that I am a scientist / computer scientist, so... I love numbers. I log my weight daily (first thing in the morning always).
I weigh throughout the day. I am a mathematician, and teach High school math, so I like to see the trends. I also only log my morning weight.
As far as I am concerned, the high school math teacher has spoken. This issue is formally put to rest
Which math subjects do you teach?1 -
justanotherguy2020 wrote: »justanotherguy2020 wrote: »I should add that I am a scientist / computer scientist, so... I love numbers. I log my weight daily (first thing in the morning always).
I weigh throughout the day. I am a mathematician, and teach High school math, so I like to see the trends. I also only log my morning weight.
As far as I am concerned, the high school math teacher has spoken. This issue is formally put to rest
Which math subjects do you teach?
Haha! I teach Algebra, PreCalculus Dual Enrollment and AP Calculus. I do love it!2 -
angmarie28 wrote: »sometimes, because I find it interesting how much weight fluctuates throughout the day. Like yesterday I lost 1.4lbs after a 3 mile run, and that was even after eating.
Dehydration.2
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