how often do you weigh yourself?

[sammy79]

Hi! I got my fitbit for Xmas and love it! Just wondering how often you weigh in? I have been weighing every day but this morning I saw a 2.25lb gain...in a day? How is this possible, or is it normal? Ate my allowed calories yesterday..in fact was a few under budget.
Help!

[MZ2015]

Really you should weigh yourself once a week.

Select a time and day and make that your weigh in time, each week, same time.

Daily is inaccurate and creates undue stress.

[SunsetRunner]

@sammy79 

Several factors can affect weight / body fat measurement:

• Hydration;
• Eaten more than usual the previous day due having done lots of exercise?;
• Not having been to the toilet yet?;
• Eaten to much sodium (salt= water retention) (when going to the toilet and noticing the water is dark instead of clear / bright = possible to drink a bit more water);
• Keep the scale clean and your precious feet;
• When the scale has been moved, it takes several measurements to re-calibrate (choose a place where it's easy to weigh but it doesn't need to be moved away constantly);

When exercising muscles get stronger and the weight can stay the same or increase a bit, best to keep a eye onto a decrease in body fat percentage instead of the total weight itself.

Personally weigh in daily, the scale doesn't reflect changes instantly. Weigh can be up and down, such as body fat.. even when weighing at the same time even when having eaten the allowed calories.

Keep a eye onto where the weight / body fat / lean mass,.. trend goes instead of the daily measurements,.. personally use trendweight which can be linked to the fitbit account.

https://trendweight.com/

[TMCGEE]

@sammy79 

I would have to say I agree with the answers given so far.

I have tried losing weight before and weighing myself everyday and you end up killing your motivation.

Pick a good day that you can weigh yourself and stear clear of the scale on days you dont need to weigh in.

Also make sure that if you have a "cheat day" that you weight in day is at least a few days seperate.

[SunsetRunner]

And to add one more point to @SunsetRunner post.  The intensity/frequency of your workouts easily affects what the scale shows:

2. A lot of factors can influence your weight—including your workouts.
Have you ever noticed that right after (or even a day or two after) an intense workout the scale goes up? That's normal, and it doesn't mean you've put on ‘weight,' Dolgan says.

"A person's scale mass is a combination of muscle, fat, bone, the brain and neural tract, connective tissue, blood, lymph, intestinal gas, urine, and the air that we carry in our lungs. Immediately after a workout routine, the percentage of mass in each of these categories can shift as much as 15 percent." Intense workouts cause variability on the scale due to factors like hydration status, inflammation from muscle damage repair (we call this delayed onset muscle soreness), even the amount of intestinal by-product or urine and blood volume, Dolgan says.

For the full article use this link.

[Norma-m]

Despite what everyone says, I do weigh myself every morning right after I get out of the shower. Depending on what's on the scale, I either eat like I have sense or I splurge & not feel guilty about it.

[Stephen1227]

First, welcome to the Fitbit family Sammy, and to the forums!  So glad you are here wth us! 

If I were trying to lose weight, personally, I would weigh in every week. I think weighing in daily could potentially be discouraging, and not necessarily accurate.  For example, maybe you took in or retained more water than you normally do.  Or perhaps, you more bloated than normal due to what you ate.  Just a thought. Best wishes to you in the year ahead! 

[SunsetRunner]

I weigh myself every morning at 7am.
i find it to be a big motivator for me. It keeps me accountable and on track. It also helps me adjust things that may bot he working.

[yldthng]

I weigh myself first thing every morning after using the restroom and before eating or drinking anything.

[sammy79]

Hi everyone! Thank you for the replies. I have been weighing daily and initially saw losses but then appeared to gain 2lbs overnight!

I guess its a case of seeing what works best but I will definitely pay more attention to water and sodium levels etc.

Thanks again!
Sammy 🙂

[Caramammal]

every morning for me, it keeps me motivated and i like to build up the trend. If i've been completely on track but see an increase in weight i just assume my body is doing some adjusting with water etc and sure enough it'll drop over the next few days. By weighing every day, i've found that sometimes it takes me 8 or 9 days to see a loss rather than every 7, so if i weighed only once a week there could be times i'd think i hadn't lost anything, when in fact it just takes a day or so longer to register.

[PaleoCrossfit]

Here's the thing, your weight varies 7-9 pounds in a single day. What you're wearing, what you've eaten, what you've had to drink, how much sodium you've had, etc. all factor into your weight.

I haven't weighed myself in probably 6 months.

Rather than weighing yourself, measure yourself.

Personally, I probably weigh 15-20 pounds more than I did 5 years ago (I weighed about 125-130 in college), but I look about 3 sizes smaller. It's all in how you feel, how much muscle you have, etc.

Don't become obsessed with the scale. There was a point in my life where I weighed myself probably 10 times a day. I was absolutely obsessed with every single ounce.  It ruled my life.

A scale will never tell you how beautiful you are. It's literally just a number.

[LewWagner]

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@sammy79 wrote:
Hi! I got my fitbit for Xmas and love it! Just wondering how often you weigh in? I have been weighing every day but this morning I saw a 2.25lb gain...in a day? How is this possible, or is it normal? Ate my allowed calories yesterday..in fact was a few under budget.
Help!

---

I weight daily each morning first thing.  Go to the bathroom and then on the medical weight scales.

I record this weight into a spreadsheet and then look at the trends over time.  You might go up in a day if you're holding water or poop.  But, generally, if you are burning more calories than taking in AND doig proper exercise and nutrition, then you will see a downward trend in weight.

[Maura-CA]

I agree completely!  I weigh once a week at Weight Watchers, at the same time.  But I have been known to jump on the scale mid-week for a check-in, to see how I am doing.

[Sweetgimmo]

@PaleoCrossfit

Hello PaleoCrossfit

I have to compliment you on your response.  Well said!.....I seem to have an obsession with the scale, and I work out every single day about 70 mins a day, try and eat healthily, but weighing myself every day and not seeing my weight go down, but rather up is very discouraging. I am going to try hard to do this every week instead, and not be so hard on myself.  It's difficult because I suffer from clinical depression and am on permanent disability.  I did belong to a gym, but my anxiety has kept me home.  I turned a new leaf about 2-3 months ago, and with the long winter, have been doing walking videos, and make sure that I complete 5 miles every day.  So when I don't see I have lost weight, yes it does bother me.  But I appreciate the way you worded your response and wanted to say Thank You.  Oh and it says I'm a Jogger and I'm not.  Does anyone know how I change this please?

[Esya]

@Sweetgimmo

Jogger is just your rank here on the forums. It will change depending on how active you are. It is not linked to your FitBit account.

For your weight I suggest using trendweight.com. You can login with your FitBit account and it helps filtering the fluctuations out. For trendweight it might be better to weigh yourself daily (same moment each day, after the bathroom visit in the morning is best), but it helps to shift focus from that daily number to the overall trend.

[Dominique]

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@PaleoCrossfit wrote:

Personally, I probably weigh 15-20 pounds more than I did 5 years ago (I weighed about 125-130 in college), but I look about 3 sizes smaller. It's all in how you feel, how much muscle you have, etc.

---

Let me comment on the above post from two years ago: for a female starting at 130 pounds (= can’t carry that much fat at such a weight) to lose so much fat and gain so much muscle as to end at 145 pounds 3 sizes smaller is a truly amazing transformation. If she had before and after pictures, she could probably get paid very good money for them. The diet (presumably paleo) and the exercising (presumably crossfit) must be amazing too, if just eating that way and exercising that way, without ever stepping on a scale, can elicit such results.

[y2kcrash]

Daily here. 

Same time every morning just before I sit down for breakfast.

Research is starting to indicate that Daily may be best for overall around better results.

Understanding the reasons for the fluctuations can be quite beneficial long term .

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/01/03/weight-loss-scales-daily/77584478/

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=55489

http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/how-often-you-should-weigh-yourself-for-weight-loss

But like everything in life I say  too each their own.

But what you have to ask yourself constantly to stay on track no matter what your reasons are for your own weight management goals are.

 What are the  short term or long term benefits you hope to achieve for yourself and how can you best  develop healthy habits that best suit your own individual life style over the long haul   

[Sweetgimmo]

@Esya

Thank you for taking the time to write to me...I might try that new site.  Is it an app that I can download to my phone?

Michele

[modelinafatgirl]

I just started on Friday for my birthday, and I weigh myself every day. It's not so much the number I'm concerned with, but the consistency. In the past, when I don't weigh myself daily, I don't know my weight, so I stop thinking about my weight, so I stop making healthy choices, so I start gaining weight, so I get discouraged, so I make unhealthy choices, etc., etc., etc. It just becomes this huge downward spiral. 

Now? Weight loss or no weight loss, I get on that scale every morning after I go to the bathroom. And I LOG IT!