Daily weighing and exercise

  • Hi guys!
    So I weigh myself daily because it seems the best way to keep myself accountable. The issue I'm having is that it seems I not only don't lose any the mornings after days I don't exercise, but I most always gain.

    Exercising has never been the problem for me, its the diet part. I've been a long distance runner since I was in middle school so my gym routines are 60 minutes on the treadmill. I usually make it 6 days a week because I'm a student with a flexible schedule.

    So as a result I get really anxious if I can't make it to the gym (as I did last night because of a snow storm...yuck), because it seems missing one day is like three step backwards. Does anyone else feel this way?? Perhaps its just an issue of water weight, because I know I don't actually lose 2 pounds of fat from running...I lose 2 pounds of water because I'm a sweaty beast haha. But still it doesn't seem right because I know some people lose weight based on diet alone.
  • It very well could be an issue with your diet. What is your diet like? What is your daily caloric intake, etc...

    Above all though, if there is a general downward trend on the scale, don't let one day of being "up" mean anything.
  • That happens to me too. For me, its water weight and my metabolism kind of stalls if I don't exercise. I wouldn't worry about it. I just try to drink lots of water and eat a few less calories on the day I can't exercise. I also watch my sodium intake and try to eat more fruits/veggies as opposed to protein.
  • stop weighing yourself everyday. that's just redic and it WILL drive you crazy! If you want to hold yourself accountable then start yelling at yourself when you eat something you shouldn't, NOT by whatever number a scale decides to throw at you!!
  • I weigh myself every day also. It really helps me keep myself in check so I can think about what I am ding right and wrong. Just don't let everyday weighing become an unhealthy issue. Only weigh once a day right when you get up.

    If you are good on exercise than I would look at your diet. What are you eating? How many calories? You said you were a student, do you have access to a health center where you can get free nutritional counseling? I did that when I started losing weight, my school has a women's center that offered services like that for FREE.

    Maybe you should mix up your exercise. Lift weights or do the elliptical. Sometimes our bodies get used to the same kinds of exercise and they adjust to it. Do some different things to keep everything efficient. A lot of schools offer fitness classes like kickboxing, spin, and pilates. I go to a lot of classes and it keeps things different and interesting for me.

    Thats my 2 cents!
  • I echo what Stellarose said. Sometimes there is just no good reason. But you CAN turn it around. I had a minor carb fest yesterday and ended my day with a hard cardio session and a light dinner. I think I thwarted the potential gain. I also watch my sodium as she said. And drink that water!

    I do know that weighing daily can be very helpful to a lot of people. I know that if I don't weigh daily I will eventually begin to avoid the scale- especially after a bad day. A lot of our maintainers are daily weighers For some folks it's just part of the daily routine, like brushing their teeth.
  • I think I mentioned it here before, but I also weigh on a daily basis. I am a bit of a math nerd so I have a bunch of excel formulas that i derive from my weight loss. One of them calculated my average daily weight loss then forecasts if i maintain that average when I will hit goal weights.

    However, one of the main reasons I weigh daily is to add one more reason to work out. I don't own a scale, so I have to go to the gym to weigh in.
  • Yeah, I also weigh daily and input it into trend charting formulas from The Hacker's Diet Online. I follow my own plan, but the daily charting software has been a total blessing in terms of giving me real information from my weight data.

    http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html
  • Hacker's diet is one of the ones I use too! The overall chart is my desktop background and I update it each day. I am weird. :P

    I also use True Weight app for Iphone which is essentially the same thing as hacker's diet.