How often should I weigh in?

[Tizmelanie]

How often should I weigh in?

[madmaxxmad]

I would agree the body fat percentage doesn't seem correct.  However I'm not sure how you would get more accurate with that type of system without the hand sensors as well. 

Have you tried that weigh in where they put you in water?  That is supposed to be really accurate.

I like the web update of weight.

[lgu230]

I agree with you abb123!  All I wanted was a digital scale just to weigh myself as well as my wife and we winded up buying the Aria scale which I am not that happy with.  I really don't need to know my body mass or anything else, all I want to know is how much do I weigh.

Like you say, could've save about $130 bucks and bought a digital scale for about $30 bucks.  Got to live with it now.

Leo

[Dominique]

---

@abb123 wrote:

The body fat % measurement is completely bogus, I see fluctuations of 7-10% daily.  While I didn't expect it to give me an accurate measurement, I was hoping for consistency.

---

FWIW, I've never seen that kind of fluctuations even during the entire 7 months I've owned my Aria. In my case, fluctuation over a 2-3 week period is about 2% at most. You can see my measurement history from Jan-9 to Jan-25 in this post.

I have no idea how accurate the Aria's body fat % measurements are in absolute terms (I have nothing to compare them against), but I can't blame it for lack of consistency.

[madmaxxmad]

I'm not sure I'm seeing the same results as you guys in regards to flucuation.  Although I do know that the type of body fat percentage method the scale uses is usally more accurate whent he scale has bare feet.  Also that method on the doctors office ones also have hand sensors you hold so it does something between your hands and feet.

I love my Aria scale, I use it every single day.  I'm reviewing my logs right now and I seem to be the lowest in the last few months was 25.3 however most of them are between 29.7 and 31.1  This doesn't seem like too much variance at least on mine.

[madmaxxmad]

Measurement History

Today at 5:40AM Delete Measurement 226 lbs 30.1% fat

Friday, Jan 31 at 11:02AM Delete Measurement 225.4 lbs 30.1% fat

Friday, Jan 31 at 6:50AM Delete Measurement 225.8 lbs 30.1% fat

Thursday, Jan 30 at 6:47AM Delete Measurement 225.1 lbs 30.3% fat

Wednesday, Jan 29 Delete Measurement 225.8 lbs

Wednesday, Jan 29 at 9:14AM Delete Measurement 225.8 lbs 30.4% fat

Wednesday, Jan 29 at 6:24AM Delete Measurement 227.1 lbs 31.2% fat

Tuesday, Jan 28 at 5:57AM Delete Measurement 230.3 lbs 30.3% fat

Monday, Jan 27 at 8:34AM Delete Measurement 232.1 lbs 30.1% fat

Sunday, Jan 26 at 8:40AM Delete Measurement 227.6 lbs 30.4% fat

[gerrymcd]

In an Aria - or any similar bathroom scale - a harmless electrical current is passed through your body and the resistance measured. They don't actually measure fat, they measure body density and 'predict' your % fat. This calculation doesn't take account of factors such as ethnicity, body size, athleticism, etc. All of which can have a significant effect on the calculated value. Moreover, since they scales measure resistance they reading is heavily influenced by many factors such as sweat on feet, how recently you drank water or worked out.

Basically, these devices are a useful guide but may not be close to accurate, and can give readings that vary significantly throughout the day, or after exercise/shower/drinking water.

[Haymitch]

On mine, the body fat % has been 24.7% on one day and 29.1% the next day.  I've taken the Olympic judging approach to determining what to do with that information and I generally toss out the highest and lowest reading and find that the bulk of them cluster around what is likely the most representative number, assuming that there's any validity to it.  In other news, what matters to me is waist size and that's been dropping, so I'm happy, whatever the body fat % shows.  I bought some new pants in December since my old ones were all way too loose.  Now the replacement pants are falling off me.  Woo hoo.

[lgu230]

Congratulations Haymitch on your weight loss!  Keep up the good work.  As for me, I also don't pay much attention to the body fat % on the scale cause it never goes down.  I am supposed to be at 24% but I can't seem to lower it more than 31% since I got my Aria scale in December.  I am not going to worry about it cause I have lost 26 pounds since December 2, 2013 and my goal is to lose another 14 pounds and I will be at my ideal weight.

I am on a roll and there is no turning back for me!

Leo   

[MoodyFoody]

I weigh daily in the am and try to adjust eating if it is going up.  Helps me not gain back the weight I have worked so hard to lose.  I have not done this in the past and ended up gaining it all back through creeping gain and big gains after vacations or parties.  Just need it to stay focused and aware.

[Sappi]

I. Weigh every day first thing in morning. Which keeps check on myself.

[Pjoe]

    For most people who've lost weight on a program there are 3 things they do/have.  One is a home gym (bad weather conditions, limited time to get to an outside gym) Fitbit can be a gym in a way, weighing daily, and I forget the 3rd.

    Weighing daily has the same reason that the Fitbit is so successful is motivation.  Monitoring your daily steps helps keep you on target.  You can increase or decrease you daily steps  to meet your goals.  (I am finding that greater than 13,000 steps a day exhausts me for that day.  Between 10k-13k I feel pretty good.  Daily weighing increases you awareness of food/caloric intake for any day.  You can increase or decrease food intake to maintain satiation.  To much and your sluggish.  To little and your hungry, hungry, hungry.  When I've lost a lb. or 2 it gets me excited.  Daily weighing makes me aware of what I've eaten and how many steps I've taken in the last day/2/3, thereby motivating me to be more conscious of what I'm doing.

  The best time to weigh yourself is when you've awaken and after your 1st dump into the toilet.

[JetV]

I weigh myself every morning if I can. That way I find that I am more aware of what I do, how much I eat etc.

I think the 'should' in the topic name is a bit misleading - everyone 'should' do the best for themselves and what works for me will not necessarily work for someone else. Whether you weigh daily, weekly, never or however often you do it, decide for yourself which you prefer. I put all my data in a spread sheet and then I can produce graphs of daily variations over the month, weekly variations (for example, every Wednesday) and monthly variations on the 1st of every month. I have printed a few of these graphs and find that if I stick them on my fridge door or kitchen cupboard, it works well for me to encourage me to keep going.

Each to his/her own and good luck to us all.

May we all succeed and fulfill our dreams

[SuzyA]

Every morning for me too.  When I wasn't working out/walking and knew I was gaining tons of weight, I kept away from the scale.  Finally, I took my head out of the sand and decided it was time to deal with it.  I realize some days I may gain a pound or two, but if it continues, I know I need to change something.  Daily weigh ins keep me disciplined and aware.  🙂

[techman001]

I weigh in first thing every morning on my Fitbit Aria scales and on my industrial digital scales. The industrial scales are more accurate and I have been logging my weight on a spreadsheet since  September 2013 but the Fitbit Aria scales were only bought in January 2014, so I continue with both. The Fitbit Aria WiFI scales are infinitely more convenient but do read about 0.5kg more than the calibrated industrial scales.

Scale accuracy really isn't important as long as the scales are constant, and your weight is going down if you're overweight, in my opinion 🙂

Last September I weighed 126 kg, today I weigh 111.6 kg, but I should weigh 79kg. I'm a 59 year old male with a very sedentary lifestyle, as I spend long hours behind a desk working for myself.

Since Jan 30 I have lost weight on all but one day, and I follow these rules:-

* I don't exceed my daily calorie limit of 1000

* I burn off around 500 calories at the gym at least every second day. Half hour rowing machine, 1/2 hour treadmill walking at 3kph on a 15 degree incline.

* I don't eat anything after tea and tea is less than 20% of my daily calories.

* I eat only fresh fruit and vegies

* my proportions of fat, carbs and protein are in the suggested range on my Fitbit premium food report.

Because I use a spreadsheet for my weight, you can easily see what I mean here:-

http://www.portertech.org/test/tp-weight/tp-weight-2014.jpg

The one day flat-line on Feb 03 was caused by eating a donner kebab with around 150grams of beef, that blew out my calorie limit.

Anyway, that's my experience, and why I weigh daily.

Cheers

Terry

[ClydeRae]

I weigh myself every single morning after I get up and use the bathroom!  Scale Obsessed?  I guess.  I like to think of it as a reminder as to how I need to watch what I eat and how much fat contact the food I eat has in it!!  So, whether you weigh-in every day or once a week, it is up to you.  I have to know what I'm doing day to day.  Go for whatever fits your goal and your needs for mental information!

Good Luck to everybody regardless if your goal is 1/2 lb to 2lbs per week!  Go for it!!

[stephjhawk]

the aria is their scale.. you sign into it through your fitbit account and the first time you step on it it will sync that to your account.. so every time you step on it from then on it recognizes you displays your initials after your weight and body fat percentage % and will automatically show up on your log!! 

[BrittanyG94]

Once a week i weigh in every sunday and the amount of weight loss in that time is soo worth the wait and it gives you something to look forward to.

[MrsColorsmith]

I weigh in daily, but I'm tracking how I react to different foods.  According to my doctor, anything +/- 5 pounds is water and an be affected by the foods you're eating.  So far I have found that I react to potatoes and milk as major contributors to water retention and affecting my glucose levels as well.

[nyborn2014]

I weigh in each morning before I walk 3 miles and I weigh in an hour after I get back. I was told that you are heavier just after walking, thus I wait an hour. It keeps me focued as well and allows me to challenge myself.

[nyborn2014]

Check out Costco or Walmart. I'm sure they have scales that are cheaper. The key is to make sure you use the same sacle exactly on the same loction on your floor each time. Ir really doesn;t matter how accurate it is, just need to know whether your weight is going up or going down. Good luck.