[nikki thumb]

Hello! My name's nikki and i decided that one of the easiest ways i was ever going to lose weight was to find people who i was able to relate to.
I've been overweight for most of my life and now I've finally decided to properly do something about it.
I need some advice getting started though, like how often/when to weigh myself?
i'd prefer to have a set time to weigh myself so i knew when I had to do it.
And do you give yourself goals for weigh-ins? I've found that on previous diets having weekly goals helps but recently these goals appear to let me down and cause me to lapse and I end up going backwards!
sorry if this seems to be a bit long and life-story like, i appear to have an inability to stop talking to strangers these days and an increasing inability to be able to talk to friends!

[JayEll]

Hey there! Glad you dropped in!

Some people weigh every day, some weigh once a week, some less than that. I weight when I go to the Y where I exercise, and that's usually every day. Best time to weigh is in the morning, but whenever it is, always try to do it at roughly the same time. I think there's no point in weighing more than once a day, unless you just want to watch the scale go up and down.

A good rate of weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. Now, in my case, my weight can vary by 3 pounds just from water retention, so as you can see, it's better for me to compare one week to the next week to see progress, no matter how often I weigh.

A lot of people use the FitDay tracker, which is a computer tool that you can use to keep track of calories eaten and activities done. It gives you daily goals for calories, which is better for some than weekly ones. There are many different trackers online--you can do a search and see what you find. FitDay is www.fitday.com. You can use it online or you can pay to download it.

Good luck! And check out the other resources here on 3FC.

Jay