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How often do you weigh yourself?

How often do you weigh yourself?

Old Apr 4, 2011, 7:37 am
  #1  
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How often do you weigh yourself?

I hadn't been weighing myself much, not even once a week. Weight Watchers wants you to log your weight once a week, but I weighed myself on Friday, Sunday, and Monday. Should I stop and just follow the once a week guideline, or is weighing myself once a day going to have more benefit in the long-term? Right now, I think it's just confusing me, but is there value to weighing myself every day?
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 7:50 am
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Conventional wisdom is to weigh yourself once a week.

That's one convention I don't follow. I weigh myself, if not every day, at least every couple of days. Always first thing in the morning after I shower so I do follow that convention.

And doing so I have learned a few things:

1) Water matters. I am a pound or so lighter if I am thirsty than if I am not.

2) Weight lags. When I have a great workout day and a healthy calorie deficit, I know that won't be reflected in the next morning's weigh in. It will be reflected the morning AFTER that weigh-in. So I have learned not to freak out if, after a great healthy day, I get on the scale the next morning and stay the same or even go up. "Weight lags," I say to myself and don't get discouraged.

3) It's just a number. I used to let that number affect my mood. Not any more. Tracking weight is a tool, not a goal.

4) I'm lighter in Europe. Although it is possible that I just suck at math and conversions from stone/kilos....
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 8:11 am
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I weigh myself daily, sometimes a couple of times a day. I find that it's easier to see the trends in my weight and understand the variations if I know all the ways my weight can change. ie: I know I weigh less in the morning than at the end of the day. I know I lose aproximately 2 lbs overnight by sleeping and using the bathroom when I wake up. I know it takes about 2 days to work off a night of overeating/bad eating. And I know it takes about a week to work off a weekend of overeating/bad eating.

All of these things help me each time I weigh myself so I can accurately track my progress and curb any upward trends I might see. I'll also know if it's a temporary upward trend or a progressively upward trend (same with downward trends) and have an idea of what is working and what is not.

It may seem a little obsessive, but I also find that daily weighing just helps keep me on track.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 8:31 am
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Basically, once per week, usually Monday morning. But I'll also weigh myself at other times, just to monitor what's going on.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 8:42 am
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I'm confused, in part because I weighed myself on Friday, then on Sunday, I was up a pound, which I expected, given my weekend plans. I weighed myself this morning and was down 2 pounds from Sunday, which was down a pound from Friday.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 10:22 am
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Originally Posted by kipper
I'm confused, in part because I weighed myself on Friday, then on Sunday, I was up a pound, which I expected, given my weekend plans. I weighed myself this morning and was down 2 pounds from Sunday, which was down a pound from Friday.
One answer may be alcohol.

IME, alcohol bloats you and artificially balloons your weight then dehydrates you and artificially lowers it. After a weekend of drinking it typically takes until Tuesday morning for me to get back to equilibrium.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 10:25 am
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
One answer may be alcohol.

IME, alcohol bloats you and artificially balloons your weight then dehydrates you and artificially lowers it. After a weekend of drinking it typically takes until Tuesday morning for me to get back to equilibrium.
So, I'll probably see a more accurate weight tomorrow?
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 10:29 am
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Originally Posted by kipper
So, I'll probably see a more accurate weight tomorrow?
In my experience, yes. On my excel spreadsheet chart drinking weekends are always pretty apparent. It goes sharp up then sharp down then back up to the trend line.

One other thought, as noted above, IME weight lags. So if you had some poor workout/calorie deficit days early last week then some great ones late last week then you may have been seeing the delayed result/benefit over the weekend. That why I track my weight daily in Excel: I'm far more interested in the overall trend line than in the number on any given day.

Last edited by kokonutz; Apr 4, 2011 at 10:35 am
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 11:28 am
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Weigh yourself when ever you please but only "count" the ones under the same conditions. As far as WW goes try to weigh yourself the at the same time every week (like Sunday right 8AM or Monday 4PM).

Weight varies dramatically over a normal day. Most days you'll be lighter in the morning than in the evening because you will have consumed food/water over the day and you lost water over the night. I can vary as many as 2 lbs from bedtime to wake-up.

I actually used to play a little game with myself when I first was on WW. If I was going to be home all day I would weigh myself first thing. Then do a task and see if my weight changed. Over the course of a summer (I work from home then) I'd do any of a variety of things from a housework task to eating to exercising to using the restroom. I found most single tasks (with the exception of consumption) had little effect on my weight. But if I were to do several of them over the day my weight would change greatly (sometimes up and sometimes down). In the end I decided what was really changing my weight over the day was not real weightloss or weight gain. It was taking on food/water and losing water. Oddly enough I think that breathing out water vapor is the single biggest loss effect on daily weight. Please don't ask me how I know.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 11:34 am
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Since we got a digital weight scale, I've started to weigh myself every morning. It's kinda fun to see the changes over time and also through the day. I've found that I can range from 2-3 pounds up and down during the day depending on how much I eat / drink and time of day. So don't put too much weight in the number but it does help to get to know the fluctuations if you do it more often than once a week.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 11:46 am
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Originally Posted by It'sHip2B^2
Weigh yourself when ever you please but only "count" the ones under the same conditions. As far as WW goes try to weigh yourself the at the same time every week (like Sunday right 8AM or Monday 4PM).
I'm trying (for the most part) to weigh myself in the morning, after I shower.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 12:19 pm
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My official weigh in time is first thing Wednesday morning. I like to keep all the variables as neutral as possible. My weight fluctuates throughout the day and is usually high after a salty meal which is usually due to eating out on the weekend. It doesn't hurt to weight more often but if you are following Weight Watchers or trying to keep a log, pick one day a week to make "official".

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Old Apr 4, 2011, 12:41 pm
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
One answer may be alcohol.

IME, alcohol bloats you and artificially balloons your weight then dehydrates you and artificially lowers it. After a weekend of drinking it typically takes until Tuesday morning for me to get back to equilibrium.
This is especially true for beer, IME, which is why I generally stick to white wine - wine is low in carbs and beer high.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 12:59 pm
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Ok, so how many typos am I going to have in thread titles today? Yikes!
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 5:03 pm
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I have a Withings scale, and usually weigh myself on it 1-2 times a week. Occasionally I'll weigh myself on the scale at the gym after I shower.

The nice thing about the Withings scale is that it gives the weight, body fat (if you stand in bare feet), and BMI (I think I had to enter some other measurements at some point). Then it automatically uploads everything to their website (via the home network), graphs everything out. I can even look at it through an iPhone app if I want.

Since I've been running, I notice that I'm typically lightest just after my long run (usually Sunday morning), regardless of how much fluid I drink while running. For kicks, I've done a couple of before/after weigh-ins, and the difference can be staggering, especially in July/Aug (and I even start my run at 5-6am to try to beat the heat). Over the course of a week, my weight can vary 6-10 pounds.
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