Eating light before weigh in
roseym10
Posts: 107 Member
Does anyone who is a weekly weigher eat lighter the day before to see a drop on the scale? I weigh weekly on Saturdays and typically I will eat a very light dinner on Friday and avoid restaurant food, salty food and any other food that will affect the reading on the scale. I will sometimes just have some eggs for dinner. I get really demotivated if I see the slightest bit of water weight affect my weigh in. If you do this, what are other go-to meals you have just for this?
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Replies
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I understand what you are saying, but you realise that the goal is to lose fat over an extended and healthy period of time, not to artificially reduce the scale number. Why not use a weight trend app and your logging numbers over a number of months to dig in to how your body works.
I’m not meaning to sound harsh, but I think this is possibly disordered thinking about weight loss. What happens if you see an increase on the scale during weigh in, how does that affect you mentally when you know you are logging and eating as per your long term goal?15 -
I understand what you are saying, but you realise that the goal is to lose fat over an extended and healthy period of time, not to artificially reduce the scale number. Why not use a weight trend app and your logging numbers over a number of months to dig in to how your body works.
I’m not meaning to sound harsh, but I think this is possibly disordered thinking about weight loss. What happens if you see an increase on the scale during weigh in, how does that affect you mentally when you know you are logging and eating as per your long term goal?
I agree, I'm not sure what this accomplishes in the long run. It seems just a small step away from taking diuretics to see a lower weigh-in or other more disordered behaviors.
Manipulating water weight and food waste in your system is not how weight is lost long-term.
I weigh myself daily and look at the trend, not individual weigh-ins. Perhaps you could try that, to desensitize yourself to the fluctuations.
Or perhaps focus on other ways to measure your progress: measurements, the way clothes fit.9 -
Thanks for the replies. I honestly think this behavior is left over from my weight watchers days and the negative or positive feedback I would receive from the WW counselor that did the weigh ins.15
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To what others have said (with which I agree) I'd add this:
Someday, you'll reach goal weight, and you'll want to maintain that weight. It's physically not possible to maintain at the same exact body weight day after day, so realistically, the scale will bounce up and down. (It's more realistic to think of maintaining as a small range of weights that encompasses meaningless day to day fluctuation in water retention and digestive contents.)
In that context, how will maintaining feel, emotionally? Like others, I'd encourage you to work at understanding and embracing the way a healthy body fluctuates in weight, look at the longer term trend over multiple weeks as a more useful indicator of losing/maintaining/gaining.
There are weight trending apps that can help visualize the trend by doing time-weighted averages and statistical projections, but even they can mislead sometimes. (Happy Scale for iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others.) If weighing daily is stressful for you, you needn't do it, but it can be educational. No matter what, your weigh-in is just a momentary snapshot of your body's relationship with gravity, not a gauge of your success or worth as a human.
Best wishes for continuing success, up to and including happy maintenance!10 -
I honestly think this behavior is left over from my weight watchers days and the negative or positive feedback I would receive from the WW counselor that did the weigh ins.
I understand. Years ago I tried WW and they made such a big deal about drinking all your water and eating all your meals. I did just that before attending an early evening meeting right after dinner AND drinking water. No surprise, the scale showed a small gain. The counsellor tsk tsk'ed my 'failure' and said I wasn't diligently sticking to the program.
Buh-bye WW!
While I don't play scale games, I only weigh in the morning immediately after elimination. I don't weigh in after those rare higher calorie days or during deficit breaks.
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I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)3
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rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one but as an update, I started thinking about @KevHex comment that this may be a disordered thinking about weight loss, so I made a decision to eat a normal dinner yesterday evening and I was down 1 lb this morning! Thank you for the feedback. I just need to accept slow and steady. I have 20 lbs to lose and I know that makes it much harder. I love coming to this site and getting guidance!7 -
rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.3 -
penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.2 -
I weigh in every day, not because daily change matters, but to avoid the temptation to hold back on food and drink before a weigh in. And, I only pay attention to weight changes that persist over the entire week. In constant maintenance now, my weight each day typically looks like this: 176, 175.2, 177, 175.5 177.2, 176, 175.8 . I've been as low as 174.2 and as high as 177.8. That is the range I have experienced over the last year (down 70 pounds) and keeping to my goal of 1720 calories per day.5
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penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
I actually ended up setting lower calorie goals for weekdays to give me extra room on weekend days for this exact reason. So I'm still on plan, my plan is just different on the weekends.
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penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
Usually on weekdays I eat as usual and work out and only on Friday I have only breakfast and lunch and for dinner I have a glass of water
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larrysmit808 wrote: »penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
Usually on weekdays I eat as usual and work out and only on Friday I have only breakfast and lunch and for dinner I have glass of water.
Well that is fine if it is some balanced intermittent fasting thing - pointless if just to get artifcially low scale reading on one day.3 -
paperpudding wrote: »larrysmit808 wrote: »penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
Usually on weekdays I eat as usual and work out and only on Friday I have only breakfast and lunch and for dinner I have glass of water.
Well that is fine if it is some balanced intermittent fasting thing - pointless if just to get artifcially low scale reading on one day.
I do IF by skipping breakfast. Maybe I should reverse it and skip dinner the day before my weigh in?0 -
paperpudding wrote: »larrysmit808 wrote: »penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
Usually on weekdays I eat as usual and work out and only on Friday I have only breakfast and lunch and for dinner I have glass of water.
Well that is fine if it is some balanced intermittent fasting thing - pointless if just to get artifcially low scale reading on one day.
I do IF by skipping breakfast. Maybe I should reverse it and skip dinner the day before my weigh in?
I hope that isnt a serious question rosey, I'm not sure - but if so, you have been missing point of replies.4 -
If you're doing the SAME THING each Friday before weigh in Saturday, then the scale reflects your trend. There's no magic. If you gorged on Saturday morning, and then weighed Sunday and was up a pound, did the light eating really matter? CICO for the win.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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paperpudding wrote: »larrysmit808 wrote: »penguinmama87 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I kinda do it the other way around: I typically eat fairly light on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I weigh Thursday morning :-)
I'm like this, too - Friday mornings are my weigh-in day because my weekdays are fairly stable. Weird stuff is most likely to happen on the weekends. It's not that I'm trying to trick the scale into giving me the lowest weight possible, but I figure it's going to give me a more accurate read on what I'm actually doing, since the weekend is the most likely to feature logging approximations, unusual activity, etc. I don't deliberately not eat on Thursday evening, but I will admit there are times when I have 100 calories left over and I decide to just leave them be because I'm not actually hungry. But if I was hungry, I'd eat 'em.
This is why I weigh in on Fridays. My weekends are typically where I'm less restrictive. I need to work on that however because sometimes I go a little too much off my eating plan.
Usually on weekdays I eat as usual and work out and only on Friday I have only breakfast and lunch and for dinner I have glass of water.
Well that is fine if it is some balanced intermittent fasting thing - pointless if just to get artifcially low scale reading on one day.
I do IF by skipping breakfast. Maybe I should reverse it and skip dinner the day before my weigh in?
What we're saying is that there's no reason to game, manipulate or trick your bodyweight before your weigh ins, and doing so makes it sound like you're giving that number too much emotional impact, letting it cause you anxiety.
Your weight at one weigh in is just a single meaningless datapoint. What matters for weight management is the trend of weigh-ins over weeks and months. If you want to lose fat weight, what matters is seeing the trend across many weigh-ins be a gradual decline in weight, even though there may (probably will) be occasional small ups and downs along the way. Taking unusual steps to make your weigh in lower than your average days, or what your weight will be later that same day, is not changing the realities, so is not helpful or meaningful in that context.
Neither the single number nor the trend are a measurement of your worth.6 -
Get libra or happy scale and weigh in EVERY morning after using the restroom in your birthday suit pick a day of the week and record that day as MFP weigh in. See you can't cheat fitness or weightloss results it's pointless. Even if the scale malfunctioned and showed you a 10lb loss in 2days you know when you're getting smaller. It's best to use it as a measuring tool. If you want to obsess over weightloss and use disordered eating techniques revolving around weigh ins you still see an acurate trend if you follow the same method every week. It's important to get comfy with weigh ins even ones you don't like and with happy scale or libra scale it shows you a trend slope that's a lot more positive than a lot of regular weigh in methods. Your worth isn't tied to a number on the scale and the scale cannot judge you it's not alive. This is a walk towards being your healthiest self and you just stroll through the pathway step after step without criticism or shame. Eat the right amount and keep it mostly healthy while also adding exercise. Do it day after day and eventually you reach your goals. Who cares if it takes a year when you've got this body for your entire life. There's no end date, it's not a test you can fail... just chip away at the stone until the sculpture appears. You've got this.3
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