How often do you weigh yourself?
 

I have weighed everyday for past 3 1/2 weeks. I kind of use it as a gauge as to how well I am following the plan. Does anyone else do this?? I don't freak out when it goes up a pound or so. I just like to keep track. Should I slow down? I am looking for opinions. BTW 3 1/2 wks and 14.5lbs gone :cheer:

I also weigh every day. I know we should only weigh once a week, but I've never been able to do that while dieting. Heck, if I weighed myself everday all the time, I wouldn't have gained this weight in the first place!

I weigh every day too I just can't help it! I'm going to try and only weigh once a week so I don't get discouraged when I don't see a loss everytime :)
michelle

I weigh every day, too. If I don't, I can gain 5-7 pounds in one week without knowing it.
It motivates me. Besides... I've found that when I weigh once a week, it can appear that I've lost NOTHING when I've been doing really well. I might just be retaining water on the "weigh day", and it can be really discouraging to see no change in the scale.

Someone is going to jump in any minute and tell us not to weigh everyday. :lol:

When I first read that some people weigh frequently PER DAy, i was like, "what a nut"

Until I caught myself doing it.

I weigh everyday, sometimes 3x a day [before I get in the shower and after my morning business, so it's my true weight without entaglements -- then when I get home usually and then before bed].

I'm becomming a scale whore...

almost 7 lbs down now -- although still bloated. I expect it will be closer to 8 or 9 come Friday if I continue to stay on course.

i weigh every single day. morning, when i come home from work and before i go to bed. cause what if you lose in the week and then weigh in day you have a water weight day. as long as you don't get too caught up in the daily fluctuations i don't see anything wrong with weighing daily! besides if you see progress during the week it keeps you more motivated! or if you don't see progress you know to step it up a notch. :)

Weighing every day is fine if it doesn't cause problems with your mental game. However, weighing more than once per day is POINTLESS. You have to weigh at the same time every day (or week, or whatever) under the same conditions for the numbers to mean anything at all. Otherwise you're comparing hamburgers to oranges (not even apples to oranges!).

For more info on a sane approach to the scale, check out this article:

Why the Scale Lies

If you understand what the scale can and can't do, and if you don't find those numbers DEmotivating, weigh away. But, my personal opinion is if you start saying things like, "I can't help it," then scale-hopping multiple times per day, or even daily, is just another compulsive behavior, and you'd do well to put the scale away for a few weeks to break the compulsion.

When I started my current journey, I knew those numbers always hurt more than they helped, so my counselor weighed me weekly but I didn't even see the numbers for 6 months! That freed me to concentrate on my BEHAVIORS rather than "weight loss" and it really reinforced the "this ain't a diet, but a way of life" approach. It was an invaluable experience.

I agree funnie -- but I like to weigh. Especially in the beginning of this. I am sure it will subside, but if I weigh in at night at only 2 lbs. over my lowest weight, I get excited to expect a loss and don't much for the rest of the night.

That is my mental game. It's not about comparing yesterday to today, but comparing today to tomorrow. If that makes sense to you.

Well it is nice to know that I am not the only odd ball in the bunch. I have been hiding this addiction for some time. :s: I am a scale junkie :goodscale I find it helps me stay on track.

That's an excellent article, Funnygrrl, but I don't consider weighing daily to be a "battle with the scale". And if someone wants to weigh more than once a day, that's okay. We all do lots of pointless things, but we're here to provide support for each other. And to judge ourselves, not others.

I have an idea! :idea: Let's all weigh as frequently/infrequently as we want to! :D

I ditto Ellis! Good article! I'm a weigher! Had I kept a scale and stayed a weigher I would not have gained all this weight back again. Or atleast I don't think I would have. So yes I weigh almost everyday to make sure it does not find me in the night! haha

I didn't say what I said to be "judging." I just wanted to point out the FACTS about what the scale can and can't show, and to say that you should evaluate whether scale-hopping is helping you or hurting you. Using the scale as a measure of success, or to determine how you are going to feel about yourself, is such an ingrained concept to most women that they have no idea that the behavior might be compulsive, harmful, or just plain pointless, and that there might be another way to approach it.

I found success in losing weight for the first time in my life when it finally dawned on me that the scale was always a saboteur, not a helper. By letting go of it, I was able to finally get a handle on reshaping my attitudes about a lot of things. I just wanted to share that there WAS another way, and that we should always be on the lookout for compulsive behaviors that do more harm than good.

I think that is plenty good support.

I weigh myself every day, sometimes a couple of times a day. Just out of curiosity really. I find I am at my lowest weight first thing in the morning and about 2kg (which is about 4lb) heavier by the end of the day. It must all be water weight because it is gone by the following morning. If I fall off the wagon and eat a huge rice based meal or something I bloat up by about 1-2kg and lose about .5kg per day so it is obviously water retention.

Yes, you've offered some good support, Funniegrrl. Certainly some obsessive compulsive behaviour can become damaging. However, this
has offended some people.
And "putting the scale away for a few weeks to end the compulsion" has obviously not worked for some of us here.

Hey, Grace! Congratulations on the loss!! :hat:

I'm a weigher...
 

I do it every morning. If I would have done that 16 years ago, I wouldn't have been where I am. I don't let the scales determine how happy I'm going to be, I just like seeing numbers I haven't seen for 15+ years.

I'm going in the right direction and that's what it's all about for me. All of the other issues that come with being overweight are resolving as I'm finding out about the new me.

I'm with funniegrrl on this one. The scale is definitely my enemy. I can only handle the stress once a week. But I think that's because of MY obsessiveness. Funnie - we're the type to think about that one pound and where it came from ALL DAY LONG!! :tired: Now, people like you and I can hardly imagine, but some don't even think about it and are able to accept it as part of dieting!

Once again, to each their own! :balloons:

I have been weighing everyday for the last five years!

I weigh every morning right after I potty....lol

And sometimes I do weigh more than once a day just b/c I want to :)

Oh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one . . . I always weigh at least 2X a day . . .sometimes more. I think seeing the actual # - and my scale is digital - reminds me of the reality, which sorta scares me into sticking to the diet. I don't like seeing that number - the one that starts with a 2 !

But I do like funniegirl's idea of freeing yourself from the scale & focusing on behaviors. . . .keep sharing the non-scale victories, they're important too!!

Yeah, I weigh everyday too. I find it very motivating....it motivates me to get up in the morning. I find it easy to stay OP(OK OK don't throw things at me) so if the scale doesn't stay put, it goes down, and it gives me a real lift that lasts..........Jo

I weigh once a week. Every Wednesday morning, before kickboxing class on their scale. I try never to weigh at home, because every scale is different. I find I look forward to Wednesday mornings to see how I'm doing. So far the scale has gone down every week since Jan. 12th, sometimes only 1/2 lb....sometimes 2 1/2 lbs.

I weigh only at home - my doc accepts my figures. I weigh every morning and realize weight fluctuates so I average for the week. I've been weighing every morning since 1960 - must be some kind of record!

I'm so relieved that me "dirty" little secret is out. :D

I have been doing the daily weigh-ins for quite a while. Unfortunately it hasn't kept me from putting the pounds on but it certainly is a reality check for me.

Glad to know that I am a member of such an esteemed group! :dancer:

No need for us to be shy about this. It's not really obsessive - just a personal care habit like cleaning your teeth every day or using your deodorant!

I think for some it *can* be obsessive but it depends on your personality. If we are replacing one obsession with another--and yes the scale CAN become an obsession--then it is an unhealthy option. Some people have addictive personalities, they over did it on the eating and when they realized they had to lose weight, they overdo it on the eating well and exercise. Both ends of the spectrum can be deemed unhealthy even if the weight loss is a healthy reason. For me, I don't mind weighing everyday but I will not weigh in more than that because of daily fluctuations that may get me down, whether we think it will or not. I weigh once in the morning at my real true weight and leave it at that. Everyone is different but to say that it is like brushing your teeth etc is in my opinion not the greatest comparison.

Well, it all happens to me at the same time which is why I used that as a comparison. I do agree that weighing more than once a day can be discouraging as weight goes up and down during the day. I used to weigh myself after a middle of the night pee - nopt THAT was obsessive! :lol:

Yes I was doing the same thing, every TIME I had to pee which obviously was a lot with the consumption of water we've become accustomed to. That was horrible as well, but I have weaned myself off of that. :-)

We need a life! :lol:

Now, now, girls. :lol:

You know, if this were the Eating Disorder Support Thread (there is one if you need it, darlings), I'd be concerned about people weighing too often, but the issue here is that we're struggling to lose weight because we're ummm... hefty. We're unhealthily overweight. Some of us are close to our goals, but a fair number of us have a LOT of weight to lose, myself included. I think if any of us were REALLY obsessive about the scale, we wouldn't be as heavy as we are. I don't think any of us here are weighing and purging. If that were the case, I'd be sending you right over to the EDS thread. ;)
I'm like you Amanda, Bamie, and RNMom... if I'd continued weighing on a regular basis, I would never have allowed myself to reach the weight I'm at now. I never seemed to acknowledge that I was aging, that I was slowing down, and that I was eating more than I needed.
Damn, I'm hungry!

I just put my scale in the bathroom cabinet. It got to where I was weighing every day, and that wasn't good. I started out weighing once a week, and then started doing it more often. Last week I had a very bad time when I weighed in & discovered I'd managed to gain, even though I was pretty careful with my eating. I've made a pact with myself to only weigh in monthly, but goodness it is tempting to pull that scale out & see how I'm doing! But I recognize that I'm starting to obsess over it, and that's not a good idea. I like myself a lot more when I'm not looking at the scale. With the blasted thing out of sight, I'm a lot more likely to look in the mirror and realize how baggy my pants are getting (what an ego boost that was!) rather than beating myself up because I'm not at 185 anymore. I mean, it's nuts to me, to step on the scale one day and have it be below 190 and the next day step on and see it over 190, and my clothes fit the same! I didn't like what I was becoming with all this weighing, so I've closed away the scale, and though I'm tempted, I feel so much better about myself!

How often do you weigh yourself?
 

Since I'm fairly new here, this may have been bounced around before, but I'm curious. How often do you weigh yourself? Prevention Magazine said that the most successful weight lossers are people who weigh themselves every day. Of course there are lots of reasons not to do this and the findings were toned down because its a well accepted fact that weighing yourself is not really good for you. Maybe its only not good for you in the weight loss part of the journey and maintainace it is. I was wondering what you lovely chickies thought.

Personally, I go through phases. I tend to get on the scale every morning. Of course I then end up going nuts after a while and have my hubby hide it so that I can only weigh once a week. :o And so the cycle begins again.

What about you?

I weigh in on Sunday mornings,, Remember this is not ONLY about losing weight. the way I look at it, is this,, I am changing my life to make better and healthier decisions, the weight loss is the bonus.. I have only been on one other diet in my life, I lost 100 lbs on it, BUT the only reason I chose to diet was to lose weight not to change. so when I lost my weight ,, I did not know what to do next. So with out further ado. I failed the plan, It did not fail me, so this time round. Weight loss is not the total aggenda, learning to live and eat healthy for the rest of my life is my goal... Good Luck

I agree, it's all about being healthy, what ever that means to you. I personally had also lost over 100 with the wrong ideas. Since then I have learned that there are mutiple reasons why my weight changes day to day.

I would drive myself insane if I weighed every day. Numbers seem to do a mental "job" on me. Once a week is enough for me, but if you can reason logically, (not excuses when you really messed up) about the changes and it does nothing to your sense of being then it's probably not a problem. That's always your choice. ;)

I weigh every day. I don't think it is that important, really, when you are losing weight to do that - I just can't help myself.;) ;)

It is really important, at least for me, to weigh every day when maintaining weight. I have a range - say 125-130 - which allows for normal weight fluctuations. When I get towards the upper end of that range, I really buckle down for a few days or a week until I am heading back down.

After getting pregnant 3 times in 4 years and having soooo much weight to lose, it really is much easier to lose 4 or 5 pounds than 10 or more (or 50!).

Just my 2 cents.

Well I disagree that there are "lots of reasons not to do this" :) But people do have different reactions to it so my theory is weigh as often as YOU want to! I weigh every day when I am at work since that is where the scales are. I don't see any big advantage to NOT doing so and I want to know my progress and where I stand. :)

I weigh daily. I know weight fluctuates and do this because weighing once a week might hit the day my weight is up! :yikes: The best thing to do is average if you weigh daily.

Good point, Ruth. I too would get discouraged if I weighed once a WEEK and it was up! On the daily stuff I expect it and it is a nice surprise when I drop a pound or two! :) Plus I don't let the scale control my moods!

Phase 1 - how often do you weigh yourself?
 

I started Phase 1 on Monday. So far this is fairly easy. I did eat two bites of some french bread without even realizing it. But other than that I have been on plan and feeling satisfied.

Yesterday (day 4) I was down 3 lbs. Today I am back up 1/2 lb. I am making myself crazy but I like the discipline of weighing myself to keep me accountable.

Should I step away from the scale?

I generally only weigh in once a week.... but I too am in phase 1 (day 11 to be exact!) and have stepped on the scale more often than that. The first week was frustrating b/c I didn't think the weight was coming off as quickly as I would have liked for how hard I was working, but now I'm making up for it. I've been checking the scale every 3rd day or so, but promised myself yesterday that I would stay off of it until Saturday, my "official" weigh in day. Those little 1/2 pound fluctuations are so frustrating, so that's why I'm trying to stay away from the scale.

So....clear as mud, right? I think most experts recommend once a week but I guess it's better to cheat by stepping on the scale every few days than by sneaking some ice cream ;)

Good luck on the Beach :)

This morning the 1/2 lb is gone. So, Yippee!! At this rate I am not going to get to the 8 to 12 lbs in Phase 1 but I don't mind. I am feeling good and I am down 3 lbs. I am starting to think I can do this.

I only weigh once a week, but now I am curious...I may have to weigh myself just to check it out...fingers crossed :)