I don't have a set schedule for measuring. Sometimes if I feel skinny I'll do it, sometimes if it's on my mind that morning I will. Just depends.
I used to measure daily during a period of time when I wasn't losing any weight but I was dropping inches. Now I seem to be doing the reverse.
So here's what I found throughout all that:
- Time of day matters, especially when it comes to your waist. It's always best to measure first thing in the morning. Post-workout and after a big meal are by far the worst times.
- Bloating CAN and DOES happen. TOM is notorious for this as well as certain foods (beans, beans the magical fruit...)
- Human error is certainly part of it. I only realized recently that it's better to measure my upper arm laying flat against my body vs. in a 90 position from me (because DUH then it's flexed). Also it's hard to get the same point around any part of your body AND it's hard to always get the tape measurer parallel to the floor AND have the same tightness every time.
- Sometimes your measurements go up. It's true and it's not always fat. Sometimes I'll lose inches on one part and "gain" elsewhere.
For whatever reason my body just did that for that day, who knows?
So what do you get from this. Measurements DO change over time but I personally don't count measurements that are less than the inch range because I vary so much. Also, I try to measure everywhere because at the moment I seem to be losing everywhere but the big 3 (bust, waist, hips).