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Is it a good idea to weigh yourself every day?
JessBbody
Posts: 523 Member
in Debate Club
I've seen countless threads where people are checking in with their weight on a daily basis.
I feel like every article, every book, and every piece of anecdotal advice I've heard or read about fitness has said that it's a terrible idea to weigh yourself every day. They say you should only weigh yourself one a week or even less, and on the same day, first thing in the morning, naked.
Reason being, from what I gather, is that weight fluctuates wildly day to day depending on the food you eat, how much water you're retaining, how bloated you are, if you're on your period, etc.
It seems like you could be 0.2lbs lighter tomorrow and 0.4 lbs heavier the following day, especially if you weigh yourself at a different time of day, after you've eaten, etc.
It makes more sense to me to do it once a week to see if you've made any real progress over the course of the week. Seems like it would be healthier mentally, too, because you would be less obsessive about the number on the scale and less likely to beat yourself up if the scale shows you gained a little (probably because of sodium or water or carbs).
Admittedly I only get weighed once a month, and that's not enough. I think seeing a little progress after one or even two weeks would give me a huge motivation boost.
What do you think about daily weigh-ins?
I feel like every article, every book, and every piece of anecdotal advice I've heard or read about fitness has said that it's a terrible idea to weigh yourself every day. They say you should only weigh yourself one a week or even less, and on the same day, first thing in the morning, naked.
Reason being, from what I gather, is that weight fluctuates wildly day to day depending on the food you eat, how much water you're retaining, how bloated you are, if you're on your period, etc.
It seems like you could be 0.2lbs lighter tomorrow and 0.4 lbs heavier the following day, especially if you weigh yourself at a different time of day, after you've eaten, etc.
It makes more sense to me to do it once a week to see if you've made any real progress over the course of the week. Seems like it would be healthier mentally, too, because you would be less obsessive about the number on the scale and less likely to beat yourself up if the scale shows you gained a little (probably because of sodium or water or carbs).
Admittedly I only get weighed once a month, and that's not enough. I think seeing a little progress after one or even two weeks would give me a huge motivation boost.
What do you think about daily weigh-ins?
4
Replies
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I do it every day and log it.9
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More data = more better. The issue is not the data but the interpretation and reaction.
Know yourself, if you jump to conclusions and over react measure weekly. Also the scale is great for knowing mass but calipers and tape is really the truth about your fitness looks and strength and endurance is the truth on fitness development.22 -
Yes, for me it is critical. It gives me accountability and motivation. I see trends and immediate feedback. I'm able to plan accordingly. I also use a Withings scale to give me biometrics and keep a tape close at hand. I track and reflect on results. Each of us is different...so important to determine what strategy is best for you.8
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I weigh every day and it does fluctuate but if I dont it doesn't give me the opportunity to check myself ,I had a period when I didn't to try something different and during this period I put a stone on very easily
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I weigh daily and look at the general trend. When weighing weekly, that weekly weigh-in could happen to be your highest weight of the week, or your lowest, or in between: you have no way of knowing unless you weigh daily.
The more often you weigh (no more than daily, and in similar circumstances), the easier it is to spot the trend. The key is to not be too attached to individual weigh-ins.
I've become desensitized, but for people who have a hard time staying motivated when seeing the fluctuations, it might be better to weigh less often.17 -
I do it most days, plug it into a trend weight app and it sorts through the fluctuations. Over time the swings don't bother me as I know when to expect them.10
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https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/experts-debate-should-you-weigh-yourself-every-day/
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/should-you-weigh-yourself-3-signs-to-step-off-the-scale/
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10466870/should-you-weigh-yourself-everyday
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10751304/how-often-do-should-you-weigh-yourself
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I've started to weight myself daily so I can see the trend for the week. Monday seems to be my heaviest day after the weekend.6
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I weigh daily and look at the general trend. When weighing weekly, that weekly weigh-in could happen to be your highest weight of the week, or your lowest, or in between: you have no way of knowing unless you weigh daily.
The more often you weigh (no more than daily, and in similar circumstances), the easier it is to spot the trend. The key is to not be too attached to individual weigh-ins.
I've become desensitized, but for people who have a hard time staying motivated when seeing the fluctuations, it might be better to weigh less often.
So much agree with this.
For more in depth analysis of this, check out The Hacker's Diet, especially the section on Signal and Noise.
There are lots of apps and sites that will take your daily data and show you just such a weighted moving average. You can alternately just create a spreadsheet and have it show a trend even if it's a simply average over a number of days. The advantage of a weighted moving average is that more recent measurements are considered more than those from, say, eight or ten days ago. They still count, but not as much.
I like the output from WeigtGrapher. The only thing I don't like is you can't enter weight directly. It will sync with a fitbit, or you can create a fitbit account and enter your weight there. That's what I do. An example of what six months looks like is below.
Crazy wild fluctuations, but it's that red line that's important. It can be difficult to "ignore" the daily weights, but you can develop that approach over time. It took me a while, but I knew it happened last week when I had one day eating almost 150% of my calories, and the scale responded the next day by going up four pounds. It came down two the day after, and another half the day after than. Used to be the initial bump up would trouble me. I have FINALLY got past that. You can too. Like losing weight, it's simple, but not necessarily easy.3 -
Right now I weigh once a week. I think it really relies on your goals. If you have a lot to lose, I think once a week is more than enough. If you only have 5-10 to lose, or trying to maintain, daily data can be good. If you use an app like Libra, it will show you a trend. Which will take in to account daily fluctuations.4
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I like to weigh daily because it makes me much less emotionally attached to any one weigh-in. As said above, there is nothing preventing your weekly weigh-in from being your highest weight of the week. For me personally, only weighing once a week and seeing the number go up or stay the same when I don't think it should is really frustrating and will bother for the entire following week. Weighing daily helps me more easily see the fluctuations. It also helps me more easily see trends and course correct. With weekly weighing, I may delude myself that I'm not going in the wrong direction because it is still just a single number and could be high for xyz reasons. But weighing daily may show me otherwise. A weight trending app really helps too.7
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Reason being, from what I gather, is that weight fluctuates wildly day to day depending on the food you eat, how much water you're retaining, how bloated you are, if you're on your period, etc.
It seems like you could be 0.2lbs lighter tomorrow and 0.4 lbs heavier the following day, especially if you weigh yourself at a different time of day, after you've eaten, etc.
And when you weigh yourself every day those wild fluctuations are expected, normal and understood so why would someone who understands that weight fluctuates for many reasons freak out when they see exactly that fact reflected on the bathroom scales?
What the weigh weekly advice doesn't seem to realise is that both last week's and this week's weigh in could be on days when your weight movement is out of line with calories. "Oh noes!!! A whole week wasted!! But I've done everything right for a week!! Why is this so hard? CICO doesn't work for me......
Don't invest so much emotional energy in individual weigh ins and track the trend instead and all this angst goes away. Fix your emotional response rather than try to avoid triggering it perhaps? Data should be processed by the logical part of our brains not the emotional part.
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The issue I have with a weekly weigh-in is that what you eat the day before the weigh-in (and also your physical activity) could have a significant effect on the scale weight.
As an example, if I were to weigh my self Monday and I get X, Tuesday I get Y and Wednesday I get Z (all about the same or trending down), then Wednesday night I have a heavily salted take-out meal (and even tho I stay within calories) my weight on Thursday is up 3 lbs because of water retained from the salt. By having the daily value, I have the opportunity to look at what I did for the week and realize that the Thursday weight is a blip and not part of the general downward trend that the rest of the week's data indicated.
You can also 'game' the once a week weigh-in value by purposefully eating light or drinking less water the day before so that the number on the scale is less (yes, people really do things like this - ask any WW coach who has been in the business for awhile). It is really difficult to try and 'game' the system with daily weigh-ins.
By weighing myself every day and recording the info in a trending app, I know the trend is downwards and is (to me at least) a much more meaningful data set than once a week weigh-ins. The curve on the daily trend is more precise than the curve on a weekly weigh-in.9 -
I like having more data. Using a trend weight app (like Libra or Happy Scale) deals with the issue of the daily fluctuations.
It's not a problem "mentally" if you don't take it too seriously. It's just one day worth of data.
When I weighed less often, it was actually harder (for me) because if I didn't meet my weekly goal I felt like I had wasted a week and I needed to wait for another week to see any results. Now if I have a day where I'm above what I think I should be, I don't even worry about it until a trend begins to show.6 -
@sijomial That's the ticket to long term weight stability. When you cross over into logic and reason you can move away from immediate gratification and emotional eating. That's the authentic definition of freedom with food.3
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Unless you are overweight enough that your weekly weight loss is expected to surpass normal daily fluctuations, there's a good chance that some of those weekly weigh-ins will be higher than the week before even if you are losing weight. IMO, that is WAY more likely to F* with someone's head than seeing a mere daily number go up.11
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(As like others above, I weigh daily and look at the trend).4
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I weigh daily and only log the lowest weight here. I also record each day in a little planner so I can see the overall picture. It works for me and it's also a daily reminder to stick with the program.2
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I think daily can be good if you expect the fluctuations or are happy to deal with calculating the mean weight for the week. It may make a really cool and interesting looking graph, too.
I weight in weekly as described by OP. I know me and know if I did it differentlyntly I may develope an unhealthy fixactukn with the scale, weighing several times a day.
I think getting a clearer picture of more data points may be one thing I'll use if/when I hit a plateau.0 -
I've seen countless threads where people are checking in with their weight on a daily basis.
I feel like every article, every book, and every piece of anecdotal advice I've heard or read about fitness has said that it's a terrible idea to weigh yourself every day. They say you should only weigh yourself one a week or even less, and on the same day, first thing in the morning, naked.
Reason being, from what I gather, is that weight fluctuates wildly day to day depending on the food you eat, how much water you're retaining, how bloated you are, if you're on your period, etc.
It seems like you could be 0.2lbs lighter tomorrow and 0.4 lbs heavier the following day, especially if you weigh yourself at a different time of day, after you've eaten, etc.
It makes more sense to me to do it once a week to see if you've made any real progress over the course of the week. Seems like it would be healthier mentally, too, because you would be less obsessive about the number on the scale and less likely to beat yourself up if the scale shows you gained a little (probably because of sodium or water or carbs).
Admittedly I only get weighed once a month, and that's not enough. I think seeing a little progress after one or even two weeks would give me a huge motivation boost.
What do you think about daily weigh-ins?
It really just depends on how it affects you psychologically. Also, normal weight fluctuations are also going to show up when you weigh in weekly...weekly doesn't necessarily give you a better measure of progress. Long term trends give you your measure of progress.6 -
Some people can't cope with the natural daily fluctuations and a natural gain fluctuation sends some people into a tizzy and they spend the day severely undereating or overexercising, some others may just give up. They've yet to understand that its the long term trend that is important not the daily ups and downs.
4 -
The issue I have with a weekly weigh-in is that what you eat the day before the weigh-in (and also your physical activity) could have a significant effect on the scale weight.
As an example, if I were to weigh my self Monday and I get X, Tuesday I get Y and Wednesday I get Z (all about the same or trending down), then Wednesday night I have a heavily salted take-out meal (and even tho I stay within calories) my weight on Thursday is up 3 lbs because of water retained from the salt. By having the daily value, I have the opportunity to look at what I did for the week and realize that the Thursday weight is a blip and not part of the general downward trend that the rest of the week's data indicated.
You can also 'game' the once a week weigh-in value by purposefully eating light or drinking less water the day before so that the number on the scale is less (yes, people really do things like this - ask any WW coach who has been in the business for awhile). It is really difficult to try and 'game' the system with daily weigh-ins.
By weighing myself every day and recording the info in a trending app, I know the trend is downwards and is (to me at least) a much more meaningful data set than once a week weigh-ins. The curve on the daily trend is more precise than the curve on a weekly weigh-in.
I weigh myself Saturday morning first thing. My week is very stringent when it comes to my caloric intake, and I exercise every day. The weekends I eat what I want within reason. So I would never weigh myself on Sunday or Monday for the reason of water retention. I have had one week out of six where I was up one pound, instead of my normal two pound loss.1 -
I didn't read all the comments but I bet I know pretty much what they said. I do weigh every day, but do it at the same time in the same conditions. After potty and before food. Otherwise, like you said it ranges all over the place during the day based on what you eat. My weight goes up and down 5 pounds during the day but settles back to "normal" first thing in the morning. That's the only way to get your "true" weight.6
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Like others stated, I do weigh myself daily at this point because more data points gives me a better idea of my fluctuations and more points for trend analysis. Even when I was doing weekly, weight fluctuations could mask progress when losing weight at a slower pace when closer to goal weight. It would take several months of staying the course and watching the long term trend to see the results and determine any potential adjustment.
My daily weight can swing by a pretty decent amount.
edit: This graph is weighing first thing in the morning each day. Swings throughout the day can be just as large.
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I've seen countless threads where people are checking in with their weight on a daily basis.
I feel like every article, every book, and every piece of anecdotal advice I've heard or read about fitness has said that it's a terrible idea to weigh yourself every day. They say you should only weigh yourself one a week or even less, and on the same day, first thing in the morning, naked.
Reason being, from what I gather, is that weight fluctuates wildly day to day depending on the food you eat, how much water you're retaining, how bloated you are, if you're on your period, etc.
It seems like you could be 0.2lbs lighter tomorrow and 0.4 lbs heavier the following day, especially if you weigh yourself at a different time of day, after you've eaten, etc.
It makes more sense to me to do it once a week to see if you've made any real progress over the course of the week. Seems like it would be healthier mentally, too, because you would be less obsessive about the number on the scale and less likely to beat yourself up if the scale shows you gained a little (probably because of sodium or water or carbs).
Admittedly I only get weighed once a month, and that's not enough. I think seeing a little progress after one or even two weeks would give me a huge motivation boost.
What do you think about daily weigh-ins?
See, the problem with this theory is that weight does fluctuate every day, sometimes by several pounds, due to waste, water, etc. If you weigh yourself one week after a good night’s sleep, rest, and poop, after a day of running when you are slightly dehydrated, a week before your period, and the next week when constipated, retaining water from a big bowl of low calorie but high sodium soup, retaining water in your muscles from a strength workout, having had only six hours of sleep, and right before your period you might think you have gained four pounds, when in fact you had LOST a pound of fat! Weigh every day, have some sense about it, and you will learn what makes you fluctuate and get a picture of what’s really going on. Four data points in a month isn’t really enough to know what’s up.
A problem happens when some people insist on believing that every little scale fluctuation means something. However, weighing only once a week and trying to control for circumstances doesn’t prevent scale fluctuations. It just limits the pointless freakout to one day a week.13 -
I think if you have a good understanding of how weight fluctuates in response to differing hydration levels and the weight of food/waste in your digestive system, either daily or weekly should work fine for you.
I think if you don't have a good understanding of those things and tend to react emotionally to fluctuations, neither daily nor weekly will work that great for you. It's about the person's understanding and reactions; it's not about the method.
Edited to correct a typo.2 -
I've always weighed weekly, usually on a sun evening.
This works fine for me and doesn't cause any freak outs. It's quite enough to know what is happening for me.
I don't think there is a right or wrong to this but I do see some smugness or self superiority from some daily weighers - as If nobody could weigh weekly and manage fine on that.8 -
paperpudding wrote: »I've always weighed weekly, usually on a sun evening.
This works fine for me and doesn't cause any freak outs. It's quite enough to know what is happening for me.
I don't think there is a right or wrong to this but I do see some smugness or self superiority from some daily weighers - as If nobody could weigh weekly and manage fine on that.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as smug. And I imagine if your weight or rate of loss is mostly steady and predictable one day a week would work. There are even people out there who naturally go from year to year without gaining or losing weight and can probably manage with a yearly weigh-in at the doctor’s office! I still don’t agree that weighing once a week will prevent people who freak out over every little fluctuation from freaking out, since they will still fluctuate, only with far less insight into why. That’s specifically the situation I meant to address.5 -
yes freaking out could happen with any system if you dont understand fluctuations and the concept of downward trends.
I just think some people love minutiae of data and others, like me, are happy with knowing the general gist of what is happening.
No right or wrong.
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paperpudding wrote: »I've always weighed weekly, usually on a sun evening.
This works fine for me and doesn't cause any freak outs. It's quite enough to know what is happening for me.
I don't think there is a right or wrong to this but I do see some smugness or self superiority from some daily weighers - as If nobody could weigh weekly and manage fine on that.
If someone is weighing weekly and is happy with that amount of data, I see no reason why they should change. It's all about what works best for someone in managing their weight.
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