When do you weigh?
 

Hello Fellow 20-Somethings. I have a question for you all. When do you weigh yourself? I know some weigh once a day, once a week, or whenever...

I, probably unlike many of you, weigh myself throughout the day for a few reasons...

1. I always wake up swollen and bloated in the morning
2. I want to see how water and food intake may skew the scale
3. Just plain curiosity
4. To torture myself?? :(

So my question: When do you weigh?

When I wake up, I am always very swollen. My hands, feet, face, stomach always feel like they are huge! Once I get up, I have my coffee, water, shake for breakfast, etc... And I usually weigh about 1-2 pounds less after this routine.

Is this normal, in your opinions? Does anyone else go through this? Do you know of a way to avoid waking up so swollen and miserable? Or do you just wait a while to weigh in the morning? Your suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I weigh first thing in the morning in my skivvies, after I let the dog out and go to the bathroom.

Swollen? Probably an obvious question here but how is your sodium intake?

I think it's so funny you feel swollen in the morning! I always feel like a million bucks in the am - barring the bad hair and the badder breath- because my body feels firmer, skin softer and tummy is the flattest it will be all day :D

I weigh the least first thing in the morning. I know my weight will increase by as much as 5lbs during the day. I like the smaller number! ha ha.

I really don't know about the sodium, to be honest. I am a carb-counter, and that is pretty much the only thing I pay attention to... anything else would just be too much counting and probably deter me :)

But I have noticed for two weeks now a continuing pattern. I will hit a record low, then gain 4-5 pounds, and then lose 5-6 to put me at another low. I get excited for the lows, but I just know the scale will creep upward again... just to get all excited. It's been quite the roller coaster ride.

I weigh myself in my underwear first thing in the morning, after peeing but before eating, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I used to weigh myself multiple times per day, but eventually I realized that for my mental health I needed to only weigh myself a few times per week. Three times per week works great for me because it's frequent enough to keep track of trends, but not so frequent that you see all the little stalls, gains and fluctuations due to water rentention and stuff that you see on the scale if you weigh yourself every day or several times per day. Sometimes I'll see a 1.5 lb loss from my Monday weigh-in to my Thursday weigh-in which is super encouraging. If I weighed myself Tuesday morning too, I might see like a 0.4 loss or something like that, but it's more encouraging for me to wait until Thursday and see the bigger number.

I don't wake up bloated unless its my TOM or soon to be my TOM. I would also have to wonder what your sodium is like? Diet sodas and artificial sweetners can make a lot of people swollen and bloated too. If neither of those are factors though, it might be worth speaking to a doctor too because I don't think it's normal to be really swollen in the morning.

I weigh myself after going #2 in the morning and before eating or drinking anything. There are some mornings I don't bother if I'm feeling really blocked up though..or if I binged and don't want to know how badly I screwed up lol.

As for being swollen, I think yhahmd may be right about thinking about your sodium intake. I've noticed I'll wake up swollen if I'm dehydrated and had a bit too much salt the day before (and also when I've done a lot of physical activity the day/night before).

I like your idea alicia89. I just don't know if I have the will-power to weigh-in every few days. I am at home all day (currently unemployed but actively seeking). But I may have to try it...

ilidawn, I thought about your suggestion too, but yesterday I had over 100oz of water. I understand retention, but as you can imagine, with that much water intake I was peeing like crazy! It has to be sodium, I suppose.

Have you all tried the Diurex (sp?) pill that helps with this issue? I was considering it, but do not know if it is a safe alternative. Perhaps there is a more natural method... I thought the coffee would help...

If you want to go the route of diuretics, I would incorporate a portion of a natural diuretic like asparagus or cranberries into your dinner the night before your weigh-in. Much safer than taking an unnatural diuretic pill which could potentially dehydrate you. This article mentions some other foods too: http://www.nutralegacy.com/blog/gene...ould-remember/

Regarding the sodium, you really don't need to count it obsessively, but just be generally aware of the amounts of processed foods you eat and which foods are high in sodium. Canned foods, most processed foods, and frozen meals are all extremely high in sodium. A lot of "low-fat" versions of things like salad dressings, low-fat cheese and other condiments that dieters often eat have high sodium too because extra salt has been added to make up for the removed fat. I don't really count my sodium (although technically fitday keeps track of it for me), but I'm just generally aware of roughly how much salt I eat throughout the day. For example, if I eat a frozen dinner for lunch, which usually have like 50-75% of recommended daily sodium, then I'll just remember that I ate that for lunch and I'll make sure my dinner is something lower on sodium like an omlette or a salad.

lol yeah upping the water intake usually results in peeing like crazy XD I've noticed too when I add coffee to the day it's worse but the coffee's sooo good lol

My sister in law uses Diurex but honestly we've all been concerned about HOW she stays rail thin. She's always running to the bathroom to pee so I know the pills work to get rid of excess water but I have no real personal experience using them. Coffee works just fine for me :)

I just went and did a little research. I know very little about sodium (this is probably my main problem here). But I looked at some of the nutritional facts of what I have been eating over the last few days and came to some surprising conclusions!

My husband BBQ'd the other day. Chicken (he's an amazing grill master). It was so good!! I made chicken salad for lunch the last few days. Little did I know that the seasoning he used on the chicken was LOADED with sodium!!!

I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing that when it comes pre-seasoned and you add over 220g of sodium, you should probably just lay down and call an ambulance... I had no idea. And like I said, I've eaten since Sunday as leftovers... And I've woken up swollen and bloated since Monday morning...

Maybe I should pay a little needed attention to my sodium. Needless to say, I'm sure I took in much more than this over the last few days (I am curious the next time I am at the store to look at the Pork Chop Seasoning I have been getting).

Thanks everyone for your input! I am definitely going to have to be more conscious of my sodium intake. I just can't believe I never read this stuff before! Seems kind-of like DUH....... I know.

I weigh first thing in the morning right after using the restroom and before eating. I would only weigh once a week before but lately I've been weighing-in daily, but my official weigh-in day is on Sunday mornings.

Weight calender
 

I keep a weight calender on excel. I weight every day, record the numbers from every other day and have an official goal vs actual weight weigh-in on saturday when I wake up.

I work graveyards, so I weigh in when I wake up (4pm) after using the facilities and naked.