I don't weigh every day, but most days out of the week. I chose wednesday as my official day. Today I weighed in and I'm at my monthly goal and this is my 11th day. One good thing about being big. I hope wednesday's weight is good !!!
I weigh myself everyday but don't really look at the daily number. Instead, I calculate a 14 day rolling average. I find that the rolling average number is a better indicator of general trends in my weight. A single day's fluctuation will not have a big effect but if it starts creeping up or down slowly the rolling average will show it.
i also always count my low but for me i only really fluctuate ounces a day not pounds unless my "cousin" come to visit in which case i gain 3 to 4 pounds but a couple of days later its gone like it was never there
I count each new low, and don't worry about any bounce backs.
My theory is this:
Any fluctuation upwards, provided I've stuck to Plan, is a fluid increase, which is not my fault, which is not fat, which is not 'real' weight.
A bounce downwards can't be a random fluid decrease, it has to be reall weightloss.
The only time I don't count each new low is if I'm ill and not eating, or if I'm ill and not drinking. If I'm on plan, each new low really happened, that's my weight.
When it comes to my 3fc ticker, I don't record my weight until I get to xxx.4 of the particular pound (3fc tickers don't record parts of a lb). So if I'm 159.9, 159.8, 159.7, 159.6, 159.5, I'm still 160. When I get to 159.4, I'm 159. I figure that once I get to less than half a pound, I'm into the new weight; plus, when I started I was 215.6, which showed up as 215 on the ticker. I claim that point 6 loss!
Thank you Rosinante for your wonderful explanation! I totally agree
I did weigh in every day for a while, and noticed some massive fluctuations, which I suppose is common for a guy as large as I am who drinks a gallon of water or a little more a day... Now I only weigh myself under a few self set conditions, when I have legitimately not drank or eaten any water or food for 8 hours or more due to sleep, and when I more or less feel hungry, and I know that I likely expelled a good portion of waste before I weigh myself.
Needless to say I sometimes take upwards of a week to get an accurate weigh in.
I weigh every morning, and count that weight as my weight. It doesn't matter if it is higher or lower from the day before. I count it even if it is most likely water weight. I know my body, and I know that I have never had a problem with the scale going up randomly. If I stay on my points, I lose weight. Always. Every single morning that the scale is up, it is because I did something wrong the day before. I guess that is just the way my body works.
Around TOM, my weight will plateau, but it never actually goes up unless I am cheating.
I'm using an old analog spring type scale. I may get a digital one at some point, but for now I put up with the variation. I usually take 2 or 3 weighings and average them together.
If I tap my hand on it while unused, it will land anywhere between zero and four pounds. So... there might be about two pounds of safety margin underlying my measurements. I shrug this off, on the theory that maybe the scale isn't that accurate anyway as it gets into the 200s. If it's wrong, I'd rather it be two pounds wrong in my favor.
I weigh daily and record my weight in an online database, but I only move my ticker by whatever my Monday weight happens to be. In my head I use my lows as my weight, but on paper it's easier and more consistent to just adjust the ticker weekly.
I'm a daily weigher but a weekly poster. I use my home scale for official data but I also weigh at the gym which goes to the thousandth of a pound! I usually see the new number at the gym and its flirting with me. I must have more flirting at home before I get excited and enthused and motivated and proud. However it is not official until I see on Monday. However, sometimes the number that was flirting is exceeding by a number I didn't even know was possible!
I don't really see any number as "my weight." The number is just a hint at progress.
For me, I use a sticker chart (looks a bit like a bingo card), with two numbers in each box. The number of pounds lost, and my weight at that pound (For example, my next box has 305 in the upper left corner, and 89 lbs in the lower right corner).
I give myself a sticker the moment I hit the weight of the next empty box. If I regain, I don't peel off the sticker, I just keep working until I can put a sticker in the next empty box.
As for my ticker here, I also change as soon as I lose, but I don't do the same for upward gains. For gains, unless they're large and last for more than a week, I leave the ticker alone. I feel just guilty enough for it's inaccuracy to work a little harder to make it true again as quickly as possible. When I change the ticker right away, I don't know why I just feel like I'm accepting the weight gain.
As for my sticker chart, I give myself a small reward to celebrate every 5 lb. I'll write down the reward, so I know what I'm working for. Say it's a specific book I want. My rule is I can't buy that book until I lose the 5 lbs. If I don't get to the bookstore on that day and I regain before I can buy the reward, I still look at it as having "earned" the reward, but don't "cash it in" until my weight is back to that point.
For me, celebrating and emphasizing the losses, and de-emphasizing the backtracking makes me feel more successful - and the more successful I feel, the more success I acheive.
It may be a mind game to see my losses as "permanent and real" and my gains as "temporary fluctuations" but it's what works for me.
When I punish the gains more than I celebrate the losses, I feel like a failure and give up. Even if it's a delusion, it's one that is working better than anything I've ever done before, so I'll stick with it until it stops working.
I don't count the loss until it is sustained for 2 days in a row.
Very seldom do I have bounce backs this way. It is all mental for me and bounce backs depress me.
This is exactly what I do as well.
Sometimes my ticker seems to move...sooooo...sloooowly compared to other people's that it frustrates me, but then I realize I only move it down when I see the same number two days in a row and it makes me feel a bit better.
So while my ticker here may say 214 for a week, I may actually have seen 213.8 once, 213.6 the next day, then 214.2 the next day (after exercise) and will still leave it at 214 on the ticker here.
Moving my ticker up is something I refuse to let happen.
I weigh daily and record the number in my training log. The daily number is doesn't really bother me because I've seen how volatile it is. The number I count as my weight on my ticker is my Friday weigh in. That number doesn't really get me down either since I know it is just a random snapshot of where I'm at. As long as the overall trend is downwards, I'm happy.