Hi--

I've seen different answers on this forum to this question:

How many days after your TOM's over before you can weigh yourself and get a more accurate reading of how much you weigh (if you're trying to lose weight) than during TOM?

Two days? Three days?

thanks!

~ tea

IMO you just follow whatever weighing schedule you're on. If it's once a week, and the day is in the middle of your period, you just weigh. If it's every day, you just weigh. The point is, there is no such thing as your exact weight. It goes up and down. Looked at another way, your exact weight at any moment is whatever the scale says when you step on it. That's why tracking over time is important. You want the results over time to be a lower number than at the start.

So that's kind of a non-answer, but you get the idea. Two days, three days, fifteen days, whatever! It varies from woman to woman anyway...

Jay

While I was losing weight, I weighed myself every single day. Before, during and after TOM. You weigh what you weigh. You get to see a pattern and that's that. If you are one who gains 5 lbs during your TOM, well then, keep that in mind when you're stepping on that scale. We all have different patterns.

But I'm in total agreement with Jay. Our bodies fluctuate from day to day, heck from hour to hour. You could jot down TOM next to your weigh in and see what happens the next time you weigh. You can then jot down 1 week after TOM. And so on and so on. Start recognizing your own patterns. Don't be afraid of the scale. The scale is not the enemy. It's a helpful tool in determing, umm, what we - weigh.

Yep....what Robin and Jay said!

If you want to notice tha patterns your body goes through, then weigh everyday.

I was going to say exactly what Jay and Robin said! Our weight fluctuates for all kinds of reasons. Part of the problem is that our scales don't measure what we want to measure -- FAT loss. They measure all the parts of us: water, bone, skin, fat, etc.

So, when the scale goes UP, you don't know if it's fat or water or muscle, and the same when the scale goes DOWN. The scale is the best tool we have for the job, so use it as a general guideline and don't worry so much about the little fluctuations!

Yeah, its such a crazy thing how it fluctuates. I use my regular weigh-in day and then a day or two after TOM just to see. But, nothing is definitive unless its the same time each day (for me once a week).

I weighed every day during my weight loss and continue to weigh every day now that I'm in maintenance. I track my weight every morning with a little dot on a chart I keep in my bathroom. I found that weighing every morning made me less obsessive rather than more obsessive about the scale...because I saw the patterns that emerged over time and didn't just get a snapshot -- I got used to the ups and downs. TOM is just an expected 3 lb. increase for around a week -- a few days before and a couple of days after it starts...then it all comes off over a day or two.

I read, I think on the Mayo Clinic site, that one of the main keys to long term maintenance, was that most successful, long term maintainers weigh every day...so they are on top pf their body's patterns and never let weight creep back on. I have a red zone I stay in...for me the 130's...if I leave it, up or down, I will change me plan accordingly for a couple of weeks...instead of having to do this again for six months.