Weigh ins.

satchel2008 · January 2022

So I'm on day 6 into this and I'm doing good. But I've decided that I will only be doing monthly weigh ins. In the past when I had tried to do this journey I tend to get a little scale obsessed, to the point I will weigh myself 8-10 times a day and if it goes up at all (which I know is totally normal) I will freak out and beat myself up and well ,eventually quit. I don't want to do that this time. The hardest thing for me has been recognizing that this is going to take a long time! In the past I would always go so crazy and think I could loose like 80 pound in 2 months and well we all know that's just not how this works. Plus I don't want this to just be another diet I want to change my life style and my habits, it's not about a number on a scale. I know most people do at least weekly weigh ins to make sure they are on track and make changes if it reflects that maybe something isn't working, and that's great but given my history of becoming consumed by it I think I should avoid it till I'm farther into it and my life style changes are now habit. What do you guys think? Not sure why I'm posting this here guess cause I don't really have anyone in my life to talk to about these kinda things lol.

yirara · January 2022

Yes, why not? How much do you have to lose? If it's not a lot then please also keep in mind that weight fluctuations can present over a month as well, and say you're trying to lose 0.5lbs per week. That's 2lbs per month. A bit more waterweight then, say from menstrual cycle, from having a little cold, new exercise, any reason really can mask the weightloss.

cmriverside · January 2022

I tried it your way too, but I agree with yirara...I believe it was more helpful for me to weigh daily than weekly or monthly because I never knew when I'd be up or down some large amount due to sleep, hydration, salt, hormones, stress, heat, sickness, etc. There are a lot of variables to weight and it's good to see those happen in real time.

Even though I use a food scale and my food logging is spot-on, when I'm trying to lose I want daily accountability.

I'm glad I got "over" my fear of the scale. Weight fluctuates, that's a good thing to learn and I now have very little emotional attachment to the actual number, but I do feel the accountability is important so I can make small adjustments instead of getting big changes I didn't know were happening. I can do a lot of damage in a month.

Creating the routine of weighing myself has given me the gift of 14 years of weight Maintenance.

sijomial · January 2022

The principle of not repeating past mistakes is sensible and experimentation to make your weight loss easier rather than harder is a positive move.

But there's a choice to be made between avoiding the issues and confronting the issues - only you know which option to try. Some people smash down barriers, some skirt round them, some defer the confrontation until they feel stronger.
Issues plural as it's not just scale obsession but also linked to unhelpful expectations of fast and/or linear weight loss. Maybe the first goes away if you resolve the second?

The issues with long time periods between weigh ins is that:
It takes longer to see the real trend due to fewer data points.
The emotional impact of a false high or false low weigh in is exaggerated the longer the gap between measurements. ("I've invested a whole month.....")
You aren't really learning your non-calorie related reasons for weight fluctuations, if you understand them and expect them they become normal rather than a big drama. I expect to weigh more tomorrow morning than I did today, it won't be a surprise, it won't mean I'm not on course, it won't have any impact on my motivation.

sbelletti · January 2022

I totally get where you're coming from. You might also consider a few other options.

Honesty pants/dress: something with no stretch you can't fit into now. Try it on once a month to see how it changes. Sometimes my weight hasn't moved in a week yet clothes fit better.

Have someone else weigh you daily or weekly but keep the data hidden from you. Then you have the data to look back on later if you want it.

Use measuments along with weigh-in, especially if you're adding in strength training and trading fat for muscle. The scale may not move in a month, but your body comp has changed.

kshama2001 · January 2022

I know from experience that monthly weigh-ins do not work for me. But that's not to say they may not work for you.

I do think there is middle ground between weighing 8-10 times per day and monthly.

For me, every AM is best. I like the feedback and my weight trending app happy scale appreciates the data points.

I wouldn't weigh after I start drinking and eating, because there are enough fluctuations without adding in the weight of food and drink.

cwolfman13 · January 2022

It's good to experiment with different approaches, but I'd caution against weighing in only once per month. A lot of what I do for a living is data analysis and the problem with monthly numbers I look at is that it can be very difficult to make any kind of meaningful analysis as to what is going on until I have at least 3-4 months worth of data.

As weight loss goes, that's a lot of time to invest with very little data to look at where more data in between could allow for making needed tweaks here or there. With monthly data points, you are also more likely to see a fluke high or fluke low for which you really don't have any other data to compare it to.

Conversely, weighing in multiple times per day isn't giving you any meaningful data as your weight is going to be all over the place because you're consuming foods and beverages and sweating and going to the bathroom, and everything else you do day to day. For meaningful analysis, I would suggest at least once per week on the same day, in the morning after you've gone to the bathroom and before you've consumed food or beverage. I used to do daily, but for me, that was overkill...I typically weigh in 3x per week on Tues, Wed, and Thurs and take the average as my weight that week. I plot those on a trend app and as I collect more data week to week, a clear trend appears and is shown on a trend line that blocks out the noise of the stand alone data points.

paperpudding · January 2022

Weighing weekly works for me.

Perhaps try weekly first.

Compromise between multi daily and monthly

Definitely not 8 -10 times per day - that is telling you nothing

AnnPT77 · January 2022

I think personalizing one's tactics is key to success. If weighing less often works best for you, do that.

I'm a daily weigher myself, first thing in AM after bathroom before food/drink. Biased by that, I do share others' (possibly naive?) belief that it would be useful if you could desensitize yourself so each individual data point is only important in context of a trend. It did provide me useful - and eventually calming - insight into what causes meaningless fluctuations for me personally, how long they're likely to last, and that sort of thing.

But you know whether you might be able to be desensitized, or not. I don't.

I'd like to suggest another alternative to you, that I don't see above (unless I missed it). It's a varaition on having someone else record your weigh-ins.

Perhaps you could get one of those wireless internet scales that connects to a recording or trending app. Step on it in the morning, don't look. Probably you could even mask the display, so you can't look. Once a month, or whatever, fire up the app, review the past month (or the whole history). You'd have the benefit of all the datapoints, so if you happened to hit a random high water retention at the end of a month, you'd see that you'd been lighter earlier, had ups and downs, that the downs were trending, etc.

Just a thought.

MarieBuch10 · January 2022

I’ve just started weighing daily (used to be once every few months and was successful with that for several years). I’ve gained 15-20 lbs since working from home, even while tracking calories and continuing daily movement. Since I don’t have the structure of being in an office (and having to dress up daily), I’ve found that it’s a good source of accountability that I’ve been needing.

I’ve had a very troubled past with the scale, but desperate times call for desperate measures - that’s how I feel about the scale lol. I know that I need something other than just counting calories and slowly outgrowing my clothes to keep me in check.

Seeing the new, higher number on the scale for the first time was a huge ouch. Since weighing daily, it’s a smaller ouch every morning that helps me stay focused on my goals.

I’m glad I kept tracking my calories (very loosely apparently), because even though I gained weight, if I hadn’t tracked I’m sure it would’ve been closer to a 50lb gain rather than 15-20. I just wish I’d had the courage to start daily weigh-ins sooner. But lesson learned! Everyone has to learn from their own experiences. Good luck to you

ETA: I’ve also learned from weighing daily, that weekly weigh-ins wouldn’t work for me. Week-to-week my weight is never consistently up or down on the same days. The way my weight fluctuates is so unpredictable, so seeing the number every day (once a day in the morning before eating/drinking) really is helpful in monitoring whether the changes I’m making are working or not.

GinLee61 · January 2022

I am with you! I'm sick of the scale and how it affects my attitude about myself. I have been tracking using MFP for 3 weeks now and have been exercising 5 to 6 days per week. I have not weighed myself yet and don't intend too until at least mid-February. At that point I will be about 6 weeks in. However, I can tell that I have lost inches because my jeans are no longer too tight and when I zip my winter jacket it is no longer tight across my hips. My short term non-scale goal is for the seatbelt on the airplane to fit more comfortably when I go to visit my sister in Florida on February 23rd.

satchel2008 · January 2022

@ginray1979 ya that's my thing to there are so many ways to tell you are loosing other then the scale. Like for me I'm only 6 days into this but I know I've lost, and ya it maybe water weight but I still feel better about myself. Like the other day I was brushing my teeth and noticed in the mirror that my neck seemed way slimmer then before. So to put it to the test I went and got my choker ( I love my chokers and own like 150 of them lol) prior to starting I had out grown them and had to but extension chains so they would fit around my neck. So I went and got my favorite one and I no longer need the extension chain to wear them! Plus I can actually feel my collar bone again lol been a min since I could really feel it. All those small non scale victory's make me feel so good and if I got on the scale right now and it said it had barley moved I would feel aweful. But I'll wait at least another week before I weigh myself.

paperpudding · January 2022

Losing inches in 3 weeks and neck being way slimmer in 6 days??

sorry to be wet blanket but I dont think changes happen that quickly.

ETA unless posters meant they had been losing weight for a while by some other method and had only been using MFP for those short periods of time.
Apologies if I misunderstood.

JolieSvelte · January 2022

I remember having a discourse about this in late 2020 when I successfully lost 20 pounds in four months using MFP. A lot of people tried to convince me that daily weigh-ins were a good idea because of the data points. That didn’t make sense to me at the time because I was too influenced by the fluctuations of the scale and, psychologically, it wasn’t good for me if I didn’t lose weight between one day and the following day, even though I knew it was illogical because of all the other reasons weight can change or not change.

Also, if I did gain weight from one day to the next, I didn’t see how it would help me to say, “oh, I ate a really salty meal yesterday and drank a lot of water - that’s why I’m heavier.” That kind of information seemed irrelevant to me personally. But I found that weekly works for me best, like others said, on the same day each week in the morning after you’ve use the bathroom and before you’ve had food. With eating at or under my calorie budget almost every day during that four months, and exercising 5 to 6 times a week, I was lucky in that I dropped weight between each weekly weigh in. If I happened to be on my period during weigh in day, I waited until the following week to weigh in. This was a huge boost to my motivation to continue logging calories, eating less and working out, even though these things were difficult.

Seeing the number on the scale go down was a great motivator. For me, having to wait an entire month to watch the scale go down wouldn’t have been as motivating to keep me going with the dieting and the exercise.

karahm78 · January 2022

One other idea is using a weight trending app like Happy Scale (iPhone) or Libra (Android). I used to be stressed by the ups and downs of the scale but I now weigh daily in the morning, naked, after using the restroom so conditions are as consistent as possible. I then look at the TREND vs changes from last weight. Long as I’m in the green I’m good. This REALLY made a difference in my mentality and freed me from that stress.

kshama2001 · January 2022

karahm78 wrote: »

One other idea is using a weight trending app like Happy Scale (iPhone) or Libra (Android). I used to be stressed by the ups and downs of the scale but I now weigh daily in the morning, naked, after using the restroom so conditions are as consistent as possible. I then look at the TREND vs changes from last weight. Long as I’m in the green I’m good. This REALLY made a difference in my mentality and freed me from that stress.

Yes, I am a daily weigher and last year I'd have weeks when I didn't lose weight, but the yearly trend in Happy Scale was in the green, so I was happy.

GinLee61 · January 2022

@paperpudding
No offense meant and none taken by me but yes, you can lose inches in just 3 weeks.

paperpudding · January 2022

for almost everybody losing inches in 3 weeks is not going to happen.

Unrealistic expectation of fat loss.

yirara · January 2022

ginray1979 wrote: »

@paperpudding
No offense meant and none taken by me but yes, you can lose inches in just 3 weeks.

So say you have your calories set to 1lbs loss per week. In 3 weeks you'd have lost 3lbs. It's quite possible that a larger part of that is from the neck so that it actually shows up on the tape measure, right? Would likely not happen for the majority of people, but lets just assume it does for someone. The surface area of the neck seems to be about 2% of the body surface area; for an average woman the surface area would be 1.6m^2. 2% of 1.6m^2 is 0.032m^2. 1lbs occupies a volume of 0,000494 m3, or 494cm^3, smeared out over a surface area of 320cm^2. That's ... something. It's unlikely to happen though as you lose fat everywhere. Plus I'd guess people that lose weight can be more body conscious, have a better posture, stand more upright. Stand like a bag of potatoes and measure your neck. Then stretch your self as long as possible and measure again. Notice the difference?

AnnPT77 · January 2022

While I'm generally on the side of it being improbable (not impossible) to lose enough fat in 6 days to see significant changes in inches, I'd observe that if someone shifted from a salty, carb-intense way of eating to a more balanced way of eating (let alone going all the way to low carb/keto), the loss of water retention (not fat) will potentially contribute to changes in tape measurements, and those may vary individually.

I note that PP - the one who mentioned quick changes in size - said "it maybe water weight but I still feel better about myself."

I wouldn't encourage other people to expect major changes in inches in a short time period - that mostly doesn't happen, and patience is a more productive posture - but I'm not personally as inclined to question PP's fairly specific personal report as an n=1.

But that's just me.

makinlifehappen · January 2022

I do daily weigh ins just for the motivation. Well and accountability.

Weigh ins.

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