How often do you get on a scale?

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  • I am recently "back on the wagon" and am thrilled if I can stay on plan for1-2 days in a row. I am trying to weigh myself once a week so I can allow for slips and corrections.
    My first week in I lost two pounds. (that weight was mon) Yesterday I didn't eat breakfast or lunch and at 1:30 gobbled my kids holiday treats while I was carefully doling them out! Planning is a rough one for me.
    So today I weighed myself knowing it might not be so good and found myself up 3/4 Lb. from the lower number. I knew it was prob not a good idea as I have the potential to throw all caution to the wind with disappointment. But maybe it will help me get back to reason.

    Soo--
    1)what do you do
    2)how should I change my ticker.. 2 or 1 pound lost-

    thanks in advance for feedback!
  • I weigh once a week and only then because I am participating in a challenge. I'll go to weighing myself once or twice a month when the challenge is over.

    If you want to be accurate in the ticker, have it reflect what you weigh. It's up to you. In reality, you probably didn't "gain" 3/4 a pound overnight.

    I think that a lot of people play games with the scale and that makes me sad. I wish women weren't such slaves to the scale. That being said, it can be a useful tool for some. It's an issue that troubles a lot of us though.

    Just keep on plan, you can do this!
  • Hi, I'm new here, but I've battled with my weight since I was 14... I've done both, weigh everyday, weigh once a week etc. During my successful attempts I was weighing myself every Sunday morning... I weighed only once a week because when I weighed every day I found myself letting the 'numbers' influence my entire day, if I was down, I would feel great, If I were up, I felt defeated by 7am... So.. I guess my vote is for once a week. Obtw... I had to remove the scale from the bathroom and put it somewhere difficult to reach... at one point I was putting it in a box and taping it closed...
  • Gobbling a handful of treats yesterday is not going to cause you to gain 3/4 of a lb today. It simply isn't that linear and does't work that way. For you to have gained the weight from what you ate yesterday, you would have had to consume an extra 2625 calories over what your base level of calories is, and your body would have had to process them and convert them to fat by this morning already.

    Most people psych themselves out this way - weighing themselves and basing what they see on what they ate 12 hours ago.

    What you weigh is affected by so many other things - what you ate last week, what you ate last night, what your hormones are doing, what the weather is like (seriously - barometric pressure affects your weight), how much salt you've had, how much water you're retaining ... etc.

    Here's what I do. I weigh once a day, every morning, right after my shower. I change my ticker on Mondays if there's something to change. My ticker weight is *always* based on my most recent Monday weight - whatever that might be, up or down. That way my ticker weight doesn't get affected by daily fluctuation (and besides I just don't have time to change my ticker every time I retain water or whatever! ), but I still keep an eye on where I am daily.

    .
  • You are setting yourself up for failure when you don't plan ahead and when you weigh every day. If I have a menu written up, I stick to it. When I fly by the seat of my pants I eat anything and everything and too large portions.
  • Your weight will change through out the week depending on many things. Water intake and TOM are just two that can mess up that weight.

    For me I use to weigh in everyday and it just didn't help me at all. My weight changes daily and if I only weigh in once a week then I know whether or not my weight went down OVERALL for that week. Everyday drives me nuts.

    It's all a matter of personal preference.

    As for the two pound loss... GO YOU!

  • thanks everyone!

    I'll change the ticker with next monday's weigh in. Then I'll continue with a weekly ticker change no matter what the in-betweens are.... if I have any
  • Quote:
    thanks everyone!

    I'll change the ticker with next monday's weigh in. Then I'll continue with a weekly ticker change no matter what the in-betweens are.... if I have any
    Sounds like a good plan.

    Another school of thought says it's okay to weigh daily and then average those weights and call that 'the weekly number'.

    Just remember that the scale is only one measurement of how you are doing on this journey to better health and fitness. The way your clothes fit and the way you feel are also good guidelines.
  • Hi Kitty!!

    I weigh every morning, first thing, naked, after peeing.

    I avoided the scale for too many years. Ignorance is not bliss for me. I see it fluctuate and I know that it will and it doesn't bother me. It is the overall trend that I am interested in, as well as the daily accountability to my body, my health and my plan.

    There are many ways to measure progress, and like Mandalinn's sig says, the scale may not be the best one, just the most convenient (paraphrasing here!).

    Knowing about the fluctuations also helps when the scale spikes or whatever. It is a blip and will go back to downward trend as long as I am working my plan.

    But, Kitty! Eat breakfast and lunch and that will help you avoid indiscretions with treats.

    Stick with it! It's what we do most of the time that shapes our bodies.
  • I weigh daily, only because I find the ups/down interesting. I've been working with weights more in the last week or so and I see that (usual) pound jump the next day, and the day after it's back off. This is giving me an idea that my muscles are good with every other day for lifting. I only count the Sunday weights (and change my ticker accordingly). In the end though it's the monthly weights that mean more. I can be up a little, down a little, holding steady, or down a lot each week. As long as at the end of each month I'm down overall that's what counts.
  • I weigh 2x daily-- once in the AM, right before I shower, and then once when I get home at night, before dinner. I started doing this to chart my weight for my doctor, right before I was diagnosed hypothyroid, and just never stopped.

    At night, I generally weigh 2 lbs more than I did in the AM. But, as Midwife mentions, I don't care too much about the daily number, just the weekly trend.

    And as stupid as this sounds, weighing at night always makes me feel better, because I know that when I weigh in the next morning, it will almost always (almost always!) be less than when I went to bed. I have no idea why, but I find that helpful mentally.

    Accountability to the scale is good for me, but it doesn't work for everyone.
  • i prefer to weigh in once a week, on Mondays. after going to the bathroom once or twice after waking up, wearing just my undies. doing it daily used to drive me nuts...i hope to get a ticker in my siggy after my 30 days here after joining
  • Weekly. Friday mornings after breakfast (after because that's when my initial weigh-in was. I eat the same thing every morning anyway, lol). If I get on the scale daily, the numbers tend to fluctuate.
  • I weigh myself literally any time I'm in the bathroom and it's easy to shed my clothes...

    (Usually in the morning and at night, when I'm only wearing a nightshirt)...

    BUT I only take down the weight on Wednesday mornings. That''s just my official weigh-in day.
  • I weight once a week, mainly because mentally I can't handle the fluctuations that come with weighing daily. And if I'm "not feeling it" on weigh-in day, I may skip a week.

    Yes, I let the scale psyche me out too much, but what can I say..