How Often Do You Weigh Yourself?

caylapal888
caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How Often Do You Weigh Yourself?

I prefer to weigh in daily, typically every morning. I think it helps me to stay on track and makes it easier for me track weight loss/gain.

I could see how weighing in everyday could not be good for someone's mental health. So I am curious of what everyone here prefers to do.

I just prefer to because some weight gain is water but it can still be discouraging to see the scale go up a pound or two when you know you are doing everything right even if it goes up for only a few days. That's why I like tracking everyday.

Do you prefer to weigh in daily, weekly, monthly, or longer?
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Answers

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,874 Member
    I'm a daily weigh-in fan - I track my weight in Libra to see the trend. I've never been bothered by the fluctuations, I just figure daily weigh-ins give more data to spot the trend 🙂 it can even be interesting to see what causes fluctuations.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,012 Member
    I'm trying to GAIN weight in a slow, controlled manner, so once a week for me.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,766 Member
    I hope people aren't tired of my broken record.
    The only place I have to put my scales Is in the kitchen, right in front of an often used cabinet. So I weigh several times a day. For a while it was interesting to see how much it changed when I changed clothes, put on shoes, had a drink, went to the bathroom, washed my hair. (Up 5 pounds when my long thick hair was wet).
    But now, once a day, out of bed, straight to short bathroom break, straight to weigh, straight to take blood pressure, take early pill, write it all down. All without thinking. About once a week or so, I review and look for the trend, plan next week accordingly.
  • ehju0901
    ehju0901 Posts: 394 Member
    Daily here. I enjoy seeing the data and fluctuations. I look at my monthly average if I truly want to see my progress.
  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    edited June 7
    Corina1143 wrote: »
    I hope people aren't tired of my broken record.
    The only place I have to put my scales Is in the kitchen, right in front of an often used cabinet. So I weigh several times a day. For a while it was interesting to see how much it changed when I changed clothes, put on shoes, had a drink, went to the bathroom, washed my hair. (Up 5 pounds when my long thick hair was wet).
    But now, once a day, out of bed, straight to short bathroom break, straight to weigh, straight to take blood pressure, take early pill, write it all down. All without thinking. About once a week or so, I review and look for the trend, plan next week accordingly.

    @Corina1143 I used to obsessively weigh myself. I realized that could turn into a problem for me but like you said it is pretty cool to see how different things cause weight fluctuations. Now I just weigh in naked every morning before eating or drinking.
  • lisakatz2
    lisakatz2 Posts: 564 Member
    I weigh weekly. If I weighed myself daily, I'd see all sorts of fluctuations that would mess with my head.

    I'm trying to lose a pound a week and so far, I've been successful.
  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    lisakatz2 wrote: »
    I weigh weekly. If I weighed myself daily, I'd see all sorts of fluctuations that would mess with my head.

    I'm trying to lose a pound a week and so far, I've been successful.

    @lisakatz2 Yeah, I understand that. Some days weighing myself is hard but personally it would bother me more if I weighed in once a week and ate something that had a good bit of sodium in it then the scale says I gained two pounds when it's my body holding on to more water.

    I think once I hit my final goal and I am just maintaining I will weigh in less.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,997 Member
    A couple years back I was weighing myself every morning.

    Then I hit a plateau and didn’t think to just hold the line. I cracked. Stopped tracking. And gained.

    Now I’m back on the MFP wagon. I weighed myself twice so far in the last 3 months. Once when I began (so I know how much I gained. Bad but nowhere near my starting weight) and once just to check.

    I haven’t logged either weight. I’m not going to log a weight again until the scale shows a number below where I was when I hit the plateau. And I’m not going to even step on the scale until July.

    At this point I’m tracking my progress by comparing how some clothing fits.

  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,189 Member
    When I remember :'(
    I am in maintenance (14 years and counting) so daily or weekly weighting is not that relevant for me at the present time. How my clothes fit is more important.
    But in the loosing stages, I was doing weekly.
  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    MargaretYakoda wrote: »
    A couple years back I was weighing myself every morning.

    Then I hit a plateau and didn’t think to just hold the line. I cracked. Stopped tracking. And gained.

    Now I’m back on the MFP wagon. I weighed myself twice so far in the last 3 months. Once when I began (so I know how much I gained. Bad but nowhere near my starting weight) and once just to check.

    I haven’t logged either weight. I’m not going to log a weight again until the scale shows a number below where I was when I hit the plateau. And I’m not going to even step on the scale until July.

    At this point I’m tracking my progress by comparing how some clothing fits.

    @MargaretYakoda Wow, thanks so much for sharing that. That is what I am afraid of because once you stop tracking and being mindful it is so easy to slip back into old habits. As much as I don't want to step on the scale daily I feel like in a way it's self care. I worked too hard to back track.

    I had a fear of the scale especially trauma from growing up in early 2000s diet culture. I think weighing myself everyday is actually helping me work through that.
  • Adventurista
    Adventurista Posts: 2,071 Member
    edited June 8
    I am focused on stable eating and actions like movement, sleep, de-stressing, mental strengthening. Put the scale away and only weigh-in at docs quarterly or semi-annual appoints.
    -- it was a complete shift in mindset from results to actions. Working well.
  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    I am enjoying our chat in this forum. I am not looking for advice or to give advice to anyone on this matter. I just like hearing everyone's perspective on this and knowing what works for all of us as individuals.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,997 Member
    caylapal888 wrote: »
    I am enjoying our chat in this forum. I am not looking for advice or to give advice to anyone on this matter. I just like hearing everyone's perspective on this and knowing what works for all of us as individuals.

    The key is to do what works for you.
    Always.
    (One caveat: don’t eat less than your body needs to function)

    And don’t be afraid of backsliding. If it happens, be gentle with yourself and just get back on track when you can.

    This whole thing is a long process. Habits take time to build. And they need to be something you can live with.

    You got this.


  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    MargaretYakoda wrote: »
    caylapal888 wrote: »
    I am enjoying our chat in this forum. I am not looking for advice or to give advice to anyone on this matter. I just like hearing everyone's perspective on this and knowing what works for all of us as individuals.

    The key is to do what works for you.
    Always.
    (One caveat: don’t eat less than your body needs to function)

    And don’t be afraid of backsliding. If it happens, be gentle with yourself and just get back on track when you can.

    This whole thing is a long process. Habits take time to build. And they need to be something you can live with.

    You got this.


    @MargaretYakoda You are right fitness is not always linear. I appreciate the encouragement! And thanks for the caveat (:
  • slade51
    slade51 Posts: 188 Member
    Once a day, as soon as I wake up. Then use your 7-day moving average to make decisions.
    You can fluctuate a pound or two with water weight daily, especially if you’ve had a meal with a lot of sodium.

    Use the mirror as well as the scale to gauge progress.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,367 Member
    Daily in the morning before eating or drinking anything. Then I kind of ignore the number and put it in a spreadsheet and pay attention to the trends. I can gain or lose several pounds in one day. Yesterday I was three pounds heavier than the day before. Today I'm back where I was a couple days ago. Fluctuations happen. Weighing daily helps me keep them in context.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,540 Member
    I'm in camp "weigh daily" for myself: First thing in AM, after bathroom, before eating/drinking, in same state of (un-)dress every time. I skip it if I travel, do it when at home (other than the rare off-routine morning when I forget!) It was a habit long before I got serious about losing weight. (Not bodyweight obsessed, just a data geek in various ways.)

    It's never been an emotional thing for me, during those many years, just a snapshot of my body's momentary relationship with gravity, not (to me) a measure of my worth as a human being.

    These days, I put the daily weight into Libra (weight trending app for Android). In maintenance, whether my jeans are getting snug is more of a check on regain than the scale weight (because I hate to clothes-shop :D ). In the long-ago years, I put a dot on graph paper daily, date on the X axis, weight on the Y axis. (Repeat: Data geek!)

    Once in a while, I weigh during the day, such as to check weight change for hydration after long or hard outdoor exercise on a warm day.

    I think this is a totally individual decision. What's right for me isn't right for everyone. Details given above to say specifics about why it's right for me.

    . . . fitness is not always linear.

    Unfairly quoted out of context, to add another caveat: Fitness and healthy body weight are not necessarily synonyms, even though both are really good things IME. ;)
  • caylapal888
    caylapal888 Posts: 50 Member
    "..Fitness and healthy body weight are not necessarily synonyms.." @AnnPT77

    Yeah, I definitely didn't say that. Per the conversation, we were talking about backtracking in general including calorie consumption and working out not just a number on a scale. But thanks for sharing what personally works for you.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,242 Member
    When I feel my clothes fitting differently I weigh myself to see what’s going on. If I’m in fat loss mode and clothes not fitting differently no need to weigh.
  • JamesArthur3933
    JamesArthur3933 Posts: 9 Member
    I weighed myself at the gym on 27th April. I'd quite like to step on those scales again but I might be disappointed by the resulsts it gives. For now, I'm happy leaving the scales until later, in a month or two even. There's hard work ahead, a holiday coming up too, scales can wait :)
  • pawsrbabies239
    pawsrbabies239 Posts: 19 Member
    I weigh in daily & allow me to explain why as I know this is an ongoing debate with the diet community. May 2022 I was 285 pounds & my PCP said it must come off, ALL my numbers were bad & I felt miserable physically & mentally. My A1C was right there so with that number & BMI high, the nasty word obese, she was able to put me on Ozempic + my health insurance at the time paid for the Virta Community. Between a great PCP who cared, Ozempic & Virta, I lost 90 pounds between June 2022 - September 2023 at
    which time we moved from NC to NH. In July my insurance stopped paying for Ozempic as my A1C had gone down but I was still with Virta. While on Virta, I had to submit daily my weight & glucose & every 3 months go for blood work. Upon move to NH in September, I lost my great PCP & health plan which was paying for the Virta and I stopped weighing in daily. We visited with family every weekend, friends every weekend. And I gained back 30 pounds I had lost. This was entirely MY FAULT but I 100% feel had I remained faithful with my weighing in daily I would not taking off 30 pounds a 2nd time. Yes, I knew I was putting it on as I could tell but I my emotions were not the best either during these last few months. I’m back on “the scale” 😊 and lost 5 pounds of the 30. Firm believer of daily weigh in but each person must do what works for you personally on this journey.
  • doreen0502
    doreen0502 Posts: 2 Member
    I weigh in daily. Wake up, bathroom, undressed. Same routine daily. I know when I slip up on the scale, I have to make changes immediately, My weight tends to sneak up on me fast and before you know it, BAM, 15 lbs. gained.

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