I have just begun this calorie counting thing and it is going very well. For the first time I feel like I have changed my lifestyle and I'm not just "dieting." I have only been CC for about 2 weeks and am down 8 pounds. I have been weighing every day, which is new for me. But, in the past, waiting a week to weigh allowed me to cheat for a few days. Not now. What do you do?
I am on week 2 and feel the same as you as far as telling myself I am NOT dieting and that I just have a new lifestyle. I am choosing life instead of slow death. I don't weigh everyday as that would make me crazy. I am weighing once a week - Wednesdays - since I started on a Wednesday.
I also just started, and I also weigh everyday. I agree that without it one small cheat would turn into three days of cheating. I think that once I've been in the swing of this for a while I'll try to wean myself to only once or twice a week, but for now it helps me to feel like I'm keeping tabs on myself.
I've just recently come back to 3fc and counting again, and when I did it before I also weighed myself everyday. I got used to seeing minor ups without getting too worried- too much salt the day before or almost ToM, or whatever. You just have to remember not to stress over every little gain, but be looking to the bigger trend.
No more than once a month, and when I started, waited 72 days. It was very important to me to stick to my plan regardless of what the scale said BUT my plan tracks my calorie deficit so that gave me the numeric accountability that most folks get from the scale.
It's been interesting that now that I've visibly lost so much, I'm often asked how I'm doing it and the item in my plan that gets the most "I could NEVER do that" is the staying away from the scale part.
I weigh myself daily. I have to or I cheat. Maybe when this new lifestyle has really sunk in and become a habit and not a diet I won't feel the need to weigh daily, but right now I weigh myself daily, sometimes three or more times a day.
For one thing I think it helps me get in touch with my body and helps me see what fluctuations I'm having. If I'm gaining water (salt) weight, the difference between a full bladder and an empty bladder, the difference between my morning weight, my noon weight and my night weight (as much as 3 lbs) and when not to freak out.
This is what's working for me right now. I've got to do it this way or there's not accountability for me. I also track all my food in calorie counter and my weight, but for me that's not accountibility. The scale does not let me delude myself into thinking a bad day is okay.
I try to weigh weekly to see how I am doing. I consider my month end weight as the final marker. I live in a truck, so in order to weigh, I have to drag my scale into a truckstop restroom and strip down and weigh.....I try to wait until we take a shower to do that, but I have used the handicap stall. Glad I am not up to trying that on a daily basis! lol.
I weigh myself every day in the buff in the morning after I've gone to the rest room. I think the only way to do this and keep your sanity though is to realize your body fluctuates weight with so many factors - food, waste, water retention, etc.. So if I'm up weight I don't sweat it so much unless I'm showing a steady increase. I might switch to weighing once a weak once my body slows with weight loss but for now I find weighing myself every day to be very encouraging.
Just remember to do what works for you and makes you successful!
I weigh daily, and it has been really working for me. I have been able to accept daily fluctuations without it making me crazy. Basically, I track the range of my fluctuations. Right now I'm bouncing between 140.0 and 141.4. Next week I'll most likely be bouncing around between 139.0 and 141.5. I just look for the new lows and wait to stop seeing the high fluctuations.
I started out as a weekly weigher, and while I was losing steadily, it allowed too much room for cheating. The night of my weigh in, I'd usually go way over calories because shoot, I didn't have to weigh again for another week! Then I'd stay really on plan for the day or two before WI day. It worked for awhile, but I stalled at 150 and had to get more consistant with my eating to keep losing. Daily weigh in helps me do that.
Before getting on chicks, I always thought that weighing everyday was obsessive and counterproductive. Weight can fluctuate wildly depending upon time of day, month, water intake etc. So I would ascribe to either go by fit of cloths (also vairable to bloat and water retention) or weigh no more than once a week. I've chanhged my mind. First of all one of my best friends, who is thin and in incredible shape, ascribes to weighing daily. "Maybe she's a bit obsessed.." I thought. And secondly alot of successful women on here weigh daily. Now I wouldn't do it different. It's only been a week or so, but I can definately see correlations between my water, eating and excercise habits, and the number on the scale. For me, knowing tomorrow I will have to get out of bed and before hopping in the shower face the music, has definately helped me out alot. I know that sometimes the scale wont make sense, but I be ready to be ok with it. Also if the scale starts causeing self deprieciating behavior, then I will stop daily weigh-ins. I think it depends on the person. If it motivates you. DO IT! If it depresses you or makes your success wain. Find another way to be accounatble.
At school I weigh in on Sunday mornings only (and I have to be super stealthy, sneak my scale out of my room and into a shower stall in the bathroom, just so I can weigh in naked. I have two roommates so weighing in my room is not an option unless they are VERY FAR AWAY). I started off as a sporadic weigher, checking whenever I wanted and whenever I could. This could mean during the day or at night, it never gave me a particularly clear reading, but the downward trend was there. I then changed to official weigh-ins on Sundays and then two check-ins on Tuesdays and Thursdays between class when I had the room to myself. A few weeks ago I cut those extra two out and decided to stick with Sunday only.
When I go home for the summer I will be an every morning weigher, though. I like being able to track progress and need the accountability.
I OFFICIALLY weigh weekly on Friday morning. I say officially because that's on the WiiFit and it records my weight in "stone." I don't want daily ups and downs showing there.
However, we have a schizophrenic bathroom scale that weighs 3-6 pounds heavier than the wii fit. So I weigh on it every morning knowing that it's just a loose measure. I trust the wii fit better. Plus it's what I started weighing on in the beginning.
I was doing it daily, and then I thought I might do better if I weigh once a week so I put my scale away... well three days of not weighing nearly drove me INSANE so I pulled it back out, and I think I'll stick with once a day, first thing in the morning.
How often do you weigh??
