Wednesday Question: How often do you weigh yourself?

Posted by Ryan Robitaille in Motivation, QuestionJul 29th, 2009 | Comments

Hey everyone – welcome to another “Question Wednesday”, I hope your ‘hump day’ is going well. So, whats your opinion on those numbers that mock us from the face of the scale? I’m sure that we’ve all been very familiar with them from time to time…

I’ve found that excessive weighing can lead to frustration. Do you do it Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Maybe Never, maybe you use the mirror to detect whether things are “working”. Mine goes up and down in about a 5 pound range from day to day depending on how much I eat, how often I work out, and how often I use the, you know, “facilities”.

When I did my first big loss a few years ago (60+ pounds), I used to do it every Thursday morning. I’m actually not sure why I picked Thursdays…  Hmm, who knows. These days I pretty much do it every morning for amusements sake. I’m focusing on building muscle and strength primarily and weight loss second – so the scale isn’t going to exactly give me any hidden wisdom.

I often find that the best way to tell if you’re still losing… is trying on previously tight pants (or previously loose pants that are now CRAZY loose). I know it sounds odd, but it works. And that’s all because low-carb weight loss is much more of a “re-composing” of the body as opposed to just simple “weight loss”.

So, I ask you, how often do you weigh yourself? What the “tracking method” of your weight loss?

Tell us the sick science of your weight loss obsessed minds! : ) (just kidding!)

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  3. Wednesday Question: What turned you on to low-carb living & where did you first go for info?
  4. Wednesday Question: What the funk do you DO all day, man?
  5. Wednesday Question: What is your favorite low-carb website / blog / forum?

  • Candy
    Call me crazy but I weigh twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night (before bed around 12pm). On some days I actually weigh in the middle of the day or at around 5:30pm too. I weigh at night because I am almost always exactly 2lbs heavier at night than I am in the morning so when I am trying to lose weight it is like a sneak peak at the loss coming up. Even crazier .. at one point I was weighing twice a day on three scales! I bought a new BF/BMI/BW scale so I weighed on that, then I weighed on my old scale for a point of reference I was used to (the two differ by about 1.5 lbs) and then on a kg scale because I grew up weighing on kgs so this provided a lifetime reference point. I stopped that and now just use the new scale - a SECA scale I LOVE! It doesn't change no matter how many times you step on it.
  • 2 or 3 times a day? You certainly win the toaster here! :)

    So the SECA scale isn't "moody" depending on how you step on it? Nice. How accurate do you think the BF/BMI/BW scale is? I had one in the past and it was very difficult for it to give you a BF% reading, and sometimes I think it was just using simple math based on weight and height (which is wicked inaccurate, at least for my body composition).
  • I think the BF is a bit off. It says I'm at around 16.8 - 17.7 but my trainer who says he is very accurate at eye-balling BF said he thinks it's probably more like 15. The BF/BW do seem to correlate up or down so I think it is probably just using math. My previous scale said about 6% higher and changed each time you got on so I was just happy to have a solid reference point for my progress ... which has been down from 21.8% in May.
  • I do it every morning. However, in the summer with no A/C, this gets depressing--not to mention misleading. On hot days I can easily retain an extra five pounds of pure water weight, even if I'm burning fat stores (I'm not sure if this is true of the average person or a consequence of my autonomic issues). I like the idea of using the same pair of pants to gauge how I'm progressing. If my jeans still fit, I must not be too far off track. This post may have inspired me to move my weigh-ins to once every fortnight, but I'm an obsessor and will need to ask my partner to hide the scale from me.
  • I think the "pants method" is much better. Lots of people actually stay the same weight-wise, but gain muscle and lose fat - which leads to confusing results on the scale since muscle is much heavier (and smaller) than fat.. Break out the "skinny jeans". ; )
  • deanmc
    I usually weigh in once every 10 days or so just to keep myself in check. If I go a little crazy and gain a few I'll weigh in a little more frequently while I'm trying to get back to my normal weight
  • musajen
    It's really easy for me to hop on the crazy train if I weigh frequently so I've been limiting myself to once a month. Of course, the fit of clothing is a good indicator in between those weigh-ins. :)
  • Yeah, daily weights can be really irritating - but the scale is just sitting there so innocently on the floor in the morning, I can't help myself sometimes! :) Maybe I should hide it.
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