daily weigh ins make me want to smash things like Hulk.

I've been on this journey since mid March and at first I was weighing in daily. You know how it goes at first, the weight just seems to fall off when you find something that works. A month or so goes by and the weight is not coming off as fast. This is to be expected but still kind of sucks.

So. It's morning. I'm standing on the scale, staring at the calendar where I record my weight every day, crossing my fingers, holding my breath aaaaaand here comes the readout. dammit. I weigh one more pound than I did yesterday. I'm trying not to be disappointed because I know within the span of the week my weight does not steadily go down. sometimes it goes up sometimes it stays the same but I still see progress from week to week. I mean, how did I get to a point in my life where one-pound can be the difference between the start of a great day and a Day when I want to punch somebody in the face?

My question is this for those of you who weigh yourself daily: do you have a similar experience? Do you have days where inexplicably your weight will go up and then a day when it will suddenly drop?

Are there people out there who weight simply decreases over time without these odd spikes?

For those of you who do not weigh your self daily how often do you weigh yourself? How do you resist the siren call of this stupid scale?

Replies

logicman69 wrote: »

I do daily weigh ins, but I don't really take stock in most of them. I use them to evaluate my food choices and see how different things affect my body (sodium, carbs, etc). I only use my Friday numbers for tracking.

I do the same, except Saturday is my tracking day. I think it's fun to see the variations. Had tacos last night and I'm up 1 pound from yesterday. Didn't realize it was THAT salty, lol!

I track my weight every day I weigh, up or down. MFP will give you a nice graph which will give you an idea of how the fluctuations make a trend. After a few months it even makes it easy to tell when TOM is approaching. I try not to think about the number, just log it and see how it fits on my graph. I also track measurements, fitness goals, and take weekly pictures, which helps take more focus off of the number on the scale and put it onto my goal of being better than last week/month/year.

i use happy scale. if daily fluctuations drive you crazy, weigh in once a week.

Weight fluctuates, get used to it or stop weighing daily.

then dont weigh daily?

Sometimes I can gain 2 or 3lb between days. Sometimes it takes 4 days for a half lb gain to come back off. That's just the way it goes but if fluctuations upset you that much I think you need to stop daily weigh ins

hydrocooled wrote: »

For those of you who do not weigh your self daily how often do you weigh yourself? How do you resist the siren call of this stupid scale?

I weigh myself once a week, record whatever it says and put the scale away for a week out of sight. I don't get emotional over the number. It is just information.
I take measurements and a photo once a month. I try on my test jeans once a month.
The most important numbers are my daily/weekly calorie count.
Other than that, I focus on all the positive changes in my life. I am in less pain. I have more energy. I can do more exercise. My flexibility is improving. No matter what the number on the scale says this week my life is better than it was when I started.

i only weigh once a week. sometimes im up sometimes im down on that one day. all i care about is if the average for the month is down.

My weight fluctuations can cause me issues, but I only want to punch people in the face (or a good throat punch) based on their behavior...not my weight! ;-)

I weigh when I can remember to. At the moment it seems to be every 9-14 days. It's not a big issue for me any more as I know I'm in a calorie deficit and I can SEE the changes my body is going through. I don't want to become a slave to the scale forever and a day.

I am only weighing once a month.. Instead I am just focusing on my calorie deficit and working out... The weight will come off based off focusing on those two things...

If weighing daily is making you angry, weigh in once a week. I actually do weigh myself everyday and ignore the up unless it is up for 3 days, then I check what I have been doing.

For me weighing everyday is the opposite, it keeps me focused! I don't want to smash, just get more focused.

I love data and statistics so I'm obsessed with weighing in daily lately. I see the trend in the long run, and I can also more accurately compare my calorie intake to my weight over a longer period to see how much I lost from eating how much, and in that sense I'm working on finding out my TDEE.

I just need a few more weeks of data before I will trust the numbers though.

Anyway, I suppose I kinda see it as data more than as weight when looking at the scale, and instead I see it as weight when looking at my trend graph, if that makes sense.

I weigh almost every day to get an idea of how much my weight can fluctuate. Even after 7 months it is still a mystery. Over the last 2 weeks I have been anywhere from 199-204, and was getting fed up, but decided to keep doing what got me this far. I weighed in at 204 on Saturday and this morning it finally dropped to 196. Obviously I did't lose 8 pounds of fat in two days, it was just delayed on the scale. As long as you know you are logging correctly, just give it some time and it should come.

hydrocooled wrote: »

My question is this for those of you who weigh yourself daily: do you have a similar experience? Do you have days where inexplicably your weight will go up and then a day when it will suddenly drop?

I weigh myself everyday and log it. The last time I checked the standard deviation was 1.44 pounds centered around a mean of about -0.20 pounds.

I do not give a rats if the scale reads higher from one day to the next. They are just data points and I am confident enough in my game plan know it's working.

my weight is constantly fluctuating 1-4 sometimes 6 pounds up and down

if you cant deal with it dont weigh every day

Yes I weigh daily. Yes my weight goes up and down. It's the overall trend that is important.

Here is the last 4 weeks:

My scale weights would make a nice roller coaster ride, but my trend is much smoother line.

LOL Yes! I know people say not to do it but it worries me if I don't I also record my food journey and weight on my calender. Some days its great to see the numbers go down others day yeah I feel like the HULK, especially when I eat "good"

I weigh every day. I trust the CICO process so fluctuations do not drive me crazy.

Now this past weekend, I gained 6 pounds. 6 pounds... did I eat 21,000 calories above maintenance? Nope. It can't be fat. It is water retention. My fingers are puffy. My legs are swollen . It's a clue for me to watch my sodium and get some rest (my heart is a little wonky).

I really looked at my logging accuracy to make sure I'm not in denial.Anyway, I have to weigh daily or I will totally lie to myself. It's not for everyone but it makes the most sense for me.

I think you need to understand yourself and your personality. Are you more obsessive? Or are you more likely to get into denial? If you are obsessive, you might do better with a weekly weighing schedule, and absolutely don't let yourself weigh more than once a day. If you are more avoidant/in denial type, I think weighing daily is a good idea.

If you want to weigh daily, it can help to really learn all the reasons our weight goes up and down. That would be due to hormonal changes (usually related to the cycle), after increased exercise as part of the muscle repair process, when under a lot of stress you may retain more water, if you don't get enough sleep or are weighing earlier than usual, or you just haven't pooped out as much (lol). You need at least 3 time points to have any sense of a trend, and because of cycling you also need to really look over the whole month to have a good idea of your overall direction.

Also remember, the goal isn't to avoid negative feelings. Maybe you do feel a little bit frustrated or negative when weighing. I certainly do feel dissapointed if I've worked hard and did not go down, or if I overdid it and the scale went up I may feel down as well. It's OK to have the negative feelings as long as you keep making the good overall choices for yourself.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links