How often do you weigh?

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  • rewair
    rewair Posts: 2 Member
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    If you're just starting out you should weigh every day, ideally in the morning. This way you can figure out how many calories you need for loss, maintenance etc... If you do this you will know exactly how many calories you need after a month or so. Write it down along side your calorie intake. OT- for newbies to this. I find that BMR calculators are usually too high. For example. My weight, height, activity level on calculators say I need 2700 calories a day to maintain, my actual maintenance calories are 2200 to 2300. BMR calculators are a reference point, nothing more.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Heh. Calorie calculators are pretty consistently about 300 calories too LOW for me. Definitely need to do some experimentation to figure out what exactly your calorie needs are. That said, so many things impact your daily energy use and it is so inconsistent day to day (for most) that even then you're going to be doing an awful lot of rough estimating and guessing for quite a long while.

    And that's ok.
  • Bella_Figura
    Bella_Figura Posts: 3,979 Member
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    Daily, but only because I'm confident that my mood won't be affected by what I see on the scale. I'm a data geek, so I like to track the daily fluctuations, to see the impact of different foods/activities/sodium intake etc on my daily weight. It makes me comfortable with seeing my weight go up as well as down, as is only natural. If I knew my mood and motivation were affected by the result I'd switch to weekly or even monthly weighing, because I wouln't want the daily mood swings.
  • Janatki
    Janatki Posts: 730 Member
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    rewair wrote: »
    If you're just starting out you should weigh every day, ideally in the morning. This way you can figure out how many calories you need for loss, maintenance etc... If you do this you will know exactly how many calories you need after a month or so. Write it down along side your calorie intake. OT- for newbies to this. I find that BMR calculators are usually too high. For example. My weight, height, activity level on calculators say I need 2700 calories a day to maintain, my actual maintenance calories are 2200 to 2300. BMR calculators are a reference point, nothing more.

    This is interesting as a relative newbie... but for me, I would find the daily weigh ins too stressful... and the fluctuations potentially triggering to give up! I know that daily fluctuations are part & parcel of biology, but I get (yes, ridiculously!) upset when the scale moves back up! 🥴🙄🤪

  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    daily works for me for last 2 years, before I woud gain as much as 20 lbs and I didnt weigh regulary so it lets me see where I am at, not burying my head in the sand.
  • Sonicmojo
    Sonicmojo Posts: 13 Member
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    I recently nabbed a new scale and have been going daily for two weeks (which is very new for me). The trends are astounding once I found an accurate scale. The first shock was to see I was about 8 pounds heavier than the old mechnical scale I had been using. Then the next data point is that my weight has been steadily increasing even after logging every single thing in MFP ( to my current calculated daily max of exactly 1934).

    For a guy that is 202 pounds - I should be seeing some slow loss at this daily cal amount. I am doing at least 30 mins of exercise of some sort twice per day but I do not understand what is happening - it makes no sense.
  • Sonicmojo
    Sonicmojo Posts: 13 Member
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    rewair wrote: »
    OT- for newbies to this. I find that BMR calculators are usually too high. For example. My weight, height, activity level on calculators say I need 2700 calories a day to maintain, my actual maintenance calories are 2200 to 2300. BMR calculators are a reference point, nothing more.

    True that. I have been messing around with a variety of online calculators for the last year or so and have found (After I got a new accurate scale) that my "maintenance" cals are drastically lower than any online calculator. Almost every online one I found pointed me to somewhere around 2300 (with exercise 3 days a week) but my own data here shows it to be more like 2050.

    These online cals do not specify what constitutes "exercise" either. There is a vast difference in walking around the neighborhood listening to Spotify vs spending an hour in a gym lifting hard steel.

    Cheers

    Sonic.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Sonicmojo wrote: »
    rewair wrote: »
    OT- for newbies to this. I find that BMR calculators are usually too high. For example. My weight, height, activity level on calculators say I need 2700 calories a day to maintain, my actual maintenance calories are 2200 to 2300. BMR calculators are a reference point, nothing more.

    True that. I have been messing around with a variety of online calculators for the last year or so and have found (After I got a new accurate scale) that my "maintenance" cals are drastically lower than any online calculator. Almost every online one I found pointed me to somewhere around 2300 (with exercise 3 days a week) but my own data here shows it to be more like 2050.

    These online cals do not specify what constitutes "exercise" either. There is a vast difference in walking around the neighborhood listening to Spotify vs spending an hour in a gym lifting hard steel.

    Cheers

    Sonic.

    Well. No. Lifting weights doesn't actually burn all that many calories. Neither does walking.
  • brtgl
    brtgl Posts: 129 Member
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    I weigh daily. The more data, the better.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    "Sonicmojo wrote:

    These online cals do not specify what constitutes "exercise" either. There is a vast difference in walking around the neighborhood listening to Spotify vs spending an hour in a gym lifting hard steel.

    Cheers

    Sonic.

    @Sonicmojo

    That's one of the advantages of MyFitnessPal - you know what exercise you have done and for what duration rather than guessing an average volume and type of exercise in advance.
    BTW, the calorie difference between walking and weight lifting is probably a much smaller difference that you think. Lifting is one of those things that feels much harder than the modest calories burned. Net calories for walking 3.5 miles in an hour or an hour of strength training aren't going to be much different.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    I weigh daily and log it in a trend app. I like having the data and the trend weight keeps everything in perspective. For me, this is the best way because I tend towards larger day to day swings.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,263 Member
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    4x/year while I'm losing. I'm losing at a really slow rate. I want to take off 20 pounds that came on over several years, but I'm giving myself a year to get it off. So every 3 months, I weigh for 4-5 days straight and take an average. I think once I am in maintenance, I'll probably keep a tighter eye on the scale, weighing every six weeks or so.
  • charmmeth
    charmmeth Posts: 936 Member
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    Sonicmojo wrote: »
    I recently nabbed a new scale and have been going daily for two weeks (which is very new for me). The trends are astounding once I found an accurate scale. The first shock was to see I was about 8 pounds heavier than the old mechnical scale I had been using. Then the next data point is that my weight has been steadily increasing even after logging every single thing in MFP ( to my current calculated daily max of exactly 1934).

    For a guy that is 202 pounds - I should be seeing some slow loss at this daily cal amount. I am doing at least 30 mins of exercise of some sort twice per day but I do not understand what is happening - it makes no sense.

    I won't comment on your lack of weight loss; you don't give enough information about what you are eating for that to make any sense. What I will say is that electronic scales are very individualistic. We have two here and they always weigh 0.6-0.8 kgs (so over 1 lb - nearly 2 lbs) difference. I use the heavier one as my guide because it's closer to the values I get from a third set of scales I have where I live for work (in normal times...). I have learned form this not to try to compare scales but to track on one set of scales and define my goals according to the data I get from them.

    For me a daily weigh-in works (in the morning after exercise and before breakfast), but what I am most interested in is my monthly average weight.
  • Sonicmojo
    Sonicmojo Posts: 13 Member
    edited May 2021
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    charmmeth wrote: »
    I won't comment on your lack of weight loss; you don't give enough information about what you are eating for that to make any sense.

    I could certainly post my specifics but to keep it easy - let's just say that I really try to toe the line daily. I limit everything that is clearly not going to help and get plenty of what I need to stay healthy. Think fruits, veggies, lots of natural, non packaged fresh food - with of course a glass of wine now and then along with the occasional Friday night pizza or burger. I have been an 85/15 kinda guy for years now.

    But more specifically - at least since I picked up the new scale - I have been conducting a hard core experiment just to see the impact and have been logging like madman for the past two weeks - trying to hit every macro, calorie and gram. Still - the scale continues to trend upwards - even in this so called "deficit" . Maybe it's not a deficit at all - but if I move down to a calorie ceiling in the 1800's - I am probably going to be cranky....
    charmmeth wrote: »
    What I will say is that electronic scales are very individualistic. We have two here and they always weigh 0.6-0.8 kgs (so over 1 lb - nearly 2 lbs) difference.

    I have seen some strange stuff with scales as well - first I run with basic science and take the "me" out of the equation. For this new digital scale - I fired it up and placed one of my exact weight kettlebells on it - if the screen says exactly 5.00 pounds - the scale is ready to go.

    Oddly - if I put the same kettlebell on the mechanical scale (same one I see in my doctors office) and zero it out - and then step on - like your observations - my weight is not the same as the digital scale.

    Sonic.

  • sweetdaisy13
    sweetdaisy13 Posts: 357 Member
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    I used to weigh daily, but now that I'm in maintenance I weigh twice a week - Wednesday's and Saturday's.
  • avanderbur
    avanderbur Posts: 2 Member
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    Once a week on Monday the end of my work week.
  • R1rainbows
    R1rainbows Posts: 129 Member
    edited May 2021
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    Honestly?? I used to weigh every week, but it was really messing with my mind state and mentally messing me up.. so now, I actually never weigh in... just go on how my clothes are feeling... for me personally, this has worked out much better
  • Godlord1488
    Godlord1488 Posts: 37 Member
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    tbh...never. my partner doesnt keep a scale at his house when i visit and i dont use one at the gym. but my measuring tape is a godsend. i often take my bust and waist and thigh measurements 1 or 2 x a month. any waist larger than 26".....i know i gotta cut back. mothersday offered me 2 nutrisystem ice cream sandies and key lime pie filling.....no measuring post week after😝

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