how often should you weigh yourself?

I to do every Friday in the morning, that way if I lose weight I can enjoy my weekend a bit more. If I want a drink on a Sat. night and I have lost I don't feel as bad about it. I used to weigh myself every day or every other day too and it drove me insane. I actually had to throw my scale out and weigh myself at the gym becuase it made me so crazy.

I do it every 3-4 days though I think it should be once a week.

Your weight changes a lot throughout a single day due to eating, water intake, exercise, sweating and other factors. Therefore, I do weigh every morning, but I really only take stock in my weekly weigh in on Sunday mornings before eating and everything. It's kind of a weekly progress report I guess!

Every morning after my visit to the bathroom but before breakfast when i am at my lightest! My weight loss so far has been quite rapid and daily weigh-ins are quite motivating. I would not be able to wait a week!

I think do whatever makes you happiest. I got my scale when I started on here and am enjoying it fully. I weigh morning and night and write the weights on a calendar nearby.

Well you ask how often you SHOULD weigh in and the answer to that is no more often than once a week.

The main reason is water. Water intake both drunk and through food, water loss through sweat, tears or just talking and water retention all have a dramatic and rapid effect on weight. Water levels are so easily affected by things like salt intake, activity, alcohol, protein levels, stress, and lots of others.
If you weigh in too often you will thus get unrepresentative readings. This can also have a psychological impact. If you weigh quite low one day, then eat well and exercise, you could still go up the next day due to these fluctuations. That is pretty demoralising.
The same can happen if you've had a day where you didn't drink enough or had a few beers etc. You might find you lost weight only to go back up when your body corrects it's water levels.

Weighing in weekly (or less) will even out these factors. Ideally weigh in once a week, on the same day of the week, do it in the morning before breakfast and wearing the same thing (nothing or underwear is easiest).

I think you should weigh yourself daily in the morning because it will keep you focus on what to eat everyday. Dont be mad or discouraged with a bad number every now and then also. If you are truly commited you should be where you wanna be by the end of journey and reach your goals!!

weigh lol

Hi, I have a question. How often should i weigh myself. in the past i used to weigh everyday and i would get discouraged. this time i said once a week. but its hard to wait. what do you think?

I think you've answered your own question. I'm a daily weigher, first thing every morning, but I don't have an issue with daily fluctuation and I find a daily weigh-in keeps me on track (I don't record my weight on here every day, this is purely for my own personal tracking purposes - I simply record a loss of 1lb or more as and when). If you used to weigh every day and got discouraged then you're obviously more suited to a weekly weigh-in, I'm sure you'll soon get into a routine and stop getting impatient. I don't believe there's any right, wrong or 'should' about it - it's your life, do whatever you feel comfortable with!

I weigh myself daily, mostly because I'm a geek and a track trends and averages. I track it all on another app. I only weigh in on MFP on a tuesday morning though.

I would be so upset if on my weigh in day it just happened to be a peak then I'd find that demoralising feeling like I hadnt lost in a week when I could have lost 3lbs but put it back on from 1 salty meal the day before or a heavy weights workout.

Really its all personal preference. I find it very easy to weigh in daily and not take the number to heart, whatever it is I can usually account for it. I know it'll be up if I had lots of sodium or it'll be down if I didnt hit my calorie goal. so long as the peaks are getting lower and the general trend is downwards then I'm happy. For example, I had a pretty bad weekend and yesterday I weighed 156lbs again and if that had been my weekly weigh in I'd have been devastated, this morning I was back down to 152 so in reality I've lost 1lb this week.

I am sure I should weigh weekly, but it does not happen like that. Official weigh day was Monday morning, but found that this was effected too much by the weekend, probably salt and water, so switched to Tuesday. The problem is that I still tend to weigh in Mon and Tue expecting Mon to be high and to drop down again on Tue. Then I sneak a peek on Friday... Just to see how the week is going you know, thats ok surely.

I love the numbers and the changes you can see. I like graphs :blushing: Still how am I going to cope with maintenance? Maybe only weigh monthly.... now there is a thought to blow my mind.

I weigh myself everyday. Sometimes multiple times per day. I find that it keeps me on track. Though, I only log Friday mornings weight. Its all about finding what you like best.

Well you ask how often you SHOULD weigh in and the answer to that is no more often than once a week.

The main reason is water. Water intake both drunk and through food, water loss through sweat, tears or just talking and water retention all have a dramatic and rapid effect on weight. Water levels are so easily affected by things like salt intake, activity, alcohol, protein levels, stress, and lots of others.
If you weigh in too often you will thus get unrepresentative readings. This can also have a psychological impact. If you weigh quite low one day, then eat well and exercise, you could still go up the next day due to these fluctuations. That is pretty demoralising.
The same can happen if you've had a day where you didn't drink enough or had a few beers etc. You might find you lost weight only to go back up when your body corrects it's water levels.

Weighing in weekly (or less) will even out these factors. Ideally weigh in once a week, on the same day of the week, do it in the morning before breakfast and wearing the same thing (nothing or underwear is easiest).

While I agree with the fluctuations and such, what happens if the day you pick to weigh one week happens to be a day when you're a little heavier than average for the week? Wouldn't that be discouraging?


I weigh every day and put it in a spreadsheet to graph it. I'm more looking at weekly averages than what the daily weight is.

Well you ask how often you SHOULD weigh in and the answer to that is no more often than once a week.

The main reason is water. Water intake both drunk and through food, water loss through sweat, tears or just talking and water retention all have a dramatic and rapid effect on weight. Water levels are so easily affected by things like salt intake, activity, alcohol, protein levels, stress, and lots of others.
If you weigh in too often you will thus get unrepresentative readings. This can also have a psychological impact. If you weigh quite low one day, then eat well and exercise, you could still go up the next day due to these fluctuations. That is pretty demoralising.
The same can happen if you've had a day where you didn't drink enough or had a few beers etc. You might find you lost weight only to go back up when your body corrects it's water levels.

Weighing in weekly (or less) will even out these factors. Ideally weigh in once a week, on the same day of the week, do it in the morning before breakfast and wearing the same thing (nothing or underwear is easiest).

^^^ definately this....weight changes soooo much daily, its just no point weighing daily!!!!

That is why it's important, if you want to get an accurate weight, to weigh yourself daily. Weighing yourself weekly is not accurate.

I weigh myself everyday. Sometimes multiple times per day. I find that it keeps me on track. Though, I only log Friday mornings weight. Its all about finding what you like best.

This is pretty much what I do. The amount you fluctuate a day is insane. But then if you think about it one cup of coffee is about 1/4 of a litre. 1 kilo is defined as 1 litre of water. So every time you have a cup of coffee you immediately gain half a lb. You lose it again obviously throughout the day sweating and breathing going to the loo and just being...But until that process takes place in the immediate aftermath of drinking it your weight goes up. I find it interesting weighing myself through the day. And it informs my choices through the week. I had a massive steak on my birthday last thursday which has meant my weight has been elevated since, but because I knew I was on track to not lose this week I have adapted slightly and should (fingers crossed) still lose this week.