I weigh in every morning before eating or drinking anything, but I only record my weight on Fridays.
Weighing in keeps me accountable, and on several occasions it has actually prevented me from losing complete control and stuffing myself silly some nights.
By recording weekly I can see the downward trend, so when my weight bumps up one day I don't see a need to freak out. When I look at it week by week it's obvious that I'm still losing.
Well I was a daily weighed ,Heck I sometime jumped on the scale 2 or more times.
So funny cuz before starting on a diet I avoided the Scale and Mirrors Like they Were Toxic Waste.
Now I probably weigh once a week.
I am trying to focus on how my clothes fit and not be Obsessed about What a Scale says!
I really don't feel there is a right or a wrong answer about how often you should get on the scale unless you are following a specific program that has a weigh in
Component.
I think don't do anything that makes the process of getting to goal more stressful.
We all have different ways of viewing things and that 's OK .....whatever you feel makes it easier for you to stay with the program I say go for it.
You are the Best judge what works for you.. And what works for you this month might not work 6 months down the road.
Good Luck,Roo2
Generally, I'm a daily weigher. And like others, my daily weight (up or down from the day before) affects my mood. However, I like to know what my body is doing from day to day. I am not fond of weekly surprises.
However, to combat the downward mood swings, I've started avoiding the scale if I feel my body retaining water when I wake (I'm a morning weigher). I have been dealing with major water retention lately and I can feel it in my feet and hands. Anyway, avoiding the scale on those mornings helps me and keeps me a bit sane. Just a bit, though.
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One reason that I weigh 4-5 times a week now is that my weight does fluctuate some and I like to see that. If you only weigh once a week, what if that ends up being on that one high day you've had that week? You may never know that you were really 2-3 pounds lighter than that for the majority of the week. My redline is only 5 pounds higher than my normal weight; I don't want to spend a week trying to lose some weight that isn't really even there.
If you're trying to lose, and putting a lot of effort into it, then worrying and obsessing about the scale is perfectly normal. If you were working that hard at something else in your life, you'd want to know if you were getting results, wouldn't you? Of course you would. I think a lot of times, it's obsessing about whether we're obsessing that becomes the obsession and not the number itself.
Great post, Robin! I completely agree. There was a period of about 4 weeks where my weight was super low on every day except for the day I officially log it (Thursday). If I wasn't a daily weigher, I'd have been extremely frustrated. But, i knew my body was doing its normal song and dance so I didn't get upset over it. I think my body likes to tease me a little. LOL
The first week or two, I got weighed every day, even multiple times just out of curiosity! I quickly learned that other than my weigh in first thing in the morning, before any food/drink, my weight just keeps going up throughout the day. So I got bored with doing that. Then the difference day to day wasn't that great, so I got bored of checking it so regularly.
Now I just weigh in once a week officially first thing in the morning and record that. If I'm interested in progress I might do the occasional check during the week.
Honestly, at the moment, I'm following my plan best I can. That's all I really can do, so I'll lose weight at whatever speed it happens, and weigh whatever I weigh. I might even reduce myself to monthly weighing, if I keep feeling so blasé about checking up on it.
I have enjoyed reading this thread. As a long-time dieter, sometimes successful and sometimes not, I have weighed on different schedules. I have weighed weekly. I have weighed monthly. I have weighed daily.
For me, the daily weigh-in seems to be a good motivator. (Who really wants to step on the scale in the morning after binging the night before?) I seem to deal with the fluctuations OK and I know that a slight gain usually means a nice loss within the next few days.
I will stick with daily - but I encourage anyone who gets emotionally derailed by a gain to go with less frequent weigh-ins.
Thank you so much for your responses, everyone. I really appreciate the feedback and ideas presented! I love the idea Mozzy put forward about 'graphing'. I think I should look into that! I appreciate you guys sharing about focusing more on clothes as well. I feel blue again today and even though it's work related, I'm wondering if maybe I am letting the scale contribute to my overall mood more than is healthy. Hmmm loads to think about
I followed Mozzy's lead a while back and graphed my weightloss just to see it on paper. I backdated every week's loss which was a pain in the neck to do but I wanted to see it all in black and white.
It makes me giddy with excitement to look at it. I attached a copy of mine so you can see a sample. Maybe if you do one too you will see just how far you have come and the awesome downward trend you have.
You have done amazing on your weightloss, it makes me sad to know you are blue.
Elvislover...this is awesome. I might think about doing this. Except for when I fell off the diet train and during my initial weight loss in 2006 (we only weighed every 6 weeks), I generally weigh every morning. For a while I did an average for the week...that was helpful too. But I am a very visual person and I like the idea of doing a graph.
I'm so lazy I went out and bought a WiFi scale, so when I hop on it I don't have to bother writing anything down or even remembering the the number for that matter since the result is sent directly to my phone and iPad... where I can just look at it later and go over the various trends... as well as looking at in graph form which I like too... It really helps to put all the various day to day fluctuations into perspective for me...
The wifi scale sounds awesome. I took your advice guys, and made a graph. Thanks for sharing yours with me. I know it's stupid- if any one of you had a graph like this and was sad, I'd be all "COME ON, GIRL POWER! YOU GOT THIS IN THE BAG!" lol it's more of a fear of failure thing. When the scale doesn't move, I think "Damn it...is this as far as I go? But I'm not done yet!" But, the graph definitely helps. I told myself to be prepared for stalls, plateaus (lol i know it's just been 3 days. i mean in general!), fluctuations, etc., as it's practice for maintenance. The only way through...IS THROUGH! Love you guys <3
Last edited by NorthernChick13; 03-27-2013 at 05:03 PM.
