Sort of a poll for those who struggle with being overweight

[namtrag]

There was just a study done that said people who weigh every day have a better chance of keeping weight off,. The theory being that you get fairly instant feedback of whether your eating choices were wise ones. This flies in the face of what everyone says, don't weigh more than once a week.

I weigh every day, but I only write it down on Tuesday morning in my journal. My cousin is slim, and he weighs every day, he says if he is more than 2 lbs heavier than the day before, he knows to watch what he eats for a couple of days.

It would be interesting to see, what do you guys do who struggle with weight issues? Weigh every day, or once a week, or neither?

[jtroster]

I step on the scale at home every morning. But I only believe the balance scale in my gym. I weigh myself there every Sunday morning after a workout.

[Aquilius]

Every day, usually. Doesn't work, though... The only thing which seems to work somewhat for me is slavishly doing my cardio after every workout.

Regards,
Aquilius

[Original Poster]

I struggled with my weight for years.

All I care about now is the trend of the numbers and most importanly the BF%....not weight so much.

I want to be as big as I can but lean. I weigh myself pretty much every day and take BF readings. I caliper myself every week, just to have another gauge of my progress. I am one who can fluctuate in weight as much as 5-10 lbs in a few days depending on my current nutrition and supplementation schedule.

IMO, I like the daily monitoring, but you have to put it in perspective and understand that the trend is what matters..........not just today's readings.

In the end it's the dedication and working smarter not harder that matters.
Anything else that may help us is fine to do. But keep in mind some thigns can be counter productive. Like if seeing daily fluctuations mess with you mind so much that it makes you think......what's the use. For those people............I sayd put the scale away all together and use the mirror and your clothes as yoru means of measure.

[lukamar]

I weight myself every day but only because my wife makes me stand on the scale because she is obsessing about her weight at the moment. Ohhhhhhh to be like her and worry if i was 105 or 105.5 Lbs...LOL Her goal is 102 or 103... I don't think daily actually tells you anything. If you are a bit constipated you weigh heavy if your intestines clear you weigh light. If you want to weigh light take a laxative at night...LOL Once a week is more than enough.

[Odin1970]

I get on the scale maybe once a month. Every three months I take a weight and measurements to monitor progress. I used to weigh myself a lot but now i focus as much as I can on eating properly, rest, and training methodology.

[Original Poster]

I don't think daily actually tells you anything.

It tells me how my body reacts to different macros actually.
I know exactly what my weight and BF readings will do if I have a high carb day.

The body screams volumes to us.....the problem is most people are not listening. There are so many indicators it's rediculous. I myself find it fun and very informative to track and investigate such things. It must he the Engineer in me. LOL

[fitnessman]

I weigh in about once every two weeks..If that..Don't really care what I weigh..But let my BP or squat numbers go down and I am all

[namtrag]

Yeah Chi, I am a CPA, so I like to see the numbers every day too. It's a sickness I suppose

[namtrag]

And Lukamar,

The study said that weighing every day gave the people instant feedback, meaning, they could see what eating pizza and drinking a lot of beer the night or two before would do. If you do that on Monday, and don't weigh until the following Sunday, it's easy to say, "Wow, I gained weight, and I don't know why. I ate good this week." I know I have heard that from overweight people, and even used that line myself many times.

[lukamar]

I know what you guys are saying, I guess the thing is to do what works for us individually.

My diet changes very little. I very seldom eat Pizza, I haven't had a drink in 30 years and I try to limit carbs. At the moment I'm on a 40-40-20 diet and it doesnt change more than a percentage point or two on a daily basis. Yesterday it was 40-41-19 the day before 36-41-22 (I had a baked potato with butter). Unless I increase my workload and/or reduce calories my weight stabalizes and I could stay at 195-198 for years on end. At the moment I'm increasing my workload and reducing my calories and hope to get to my goal by mid January.

[jspirate]

It tells me how my body reacts to different macros actually.
I know exactly what my weight and BF readings will do if I have a high carb day.

The body screams volumes to us.....the problem is most people are not listening. There are so many indicators it's rediculous. I myself find it fun and very informative to track and investigate such things. It must he the Engineer in me. LOL

I agree. I weigh every morning at the same time and on the same beam scale.

Argueably, eating is the most important aspect of what we are trying to do. So, I want to know exactly how the foods I eat effect me. This includes my performance in the gym, the fit of my cloths and the tip of the scale. The only way I can nail down how my body reacts to certain foods is through precise observation and documentation.

[Hibiscus09]

I get on the scale out of habit each morning. If my weight is up a couple of pounds or down a couple of pounds, it does not bother me. It's usually water and my bodyweight tends to fluctuate that way. I do get concerned if I loose much weight because I'm not so big to begin with and I don't want to be losing muscle mass. I most care about my bodyfat %. It's always nice when the weight stays the same or goes up and the bodyfat % goes down.

[karategirl]

I threw my scale out the window

[Minotaur]

As I said elsewhere, I was almost obsessive-compulsive about weight and body fat percentage, and charting them weekly. I drove myself nuts, especially when there was no change. Now I only check once in a while out of curiosity. I use my pants, a mirror and a tape measure to gauge progress (positive or negative). Right now I think I'm in a backslide.

[namtrag]

I have never been lean, so that's what I want, not so much a low weight. But I can tell I am not lean because of my waist area. Everything else is pretty solid and fat free looking.

I think 190-200 would accomplish my goal of 34 waist without me starting to lose muscle mass. That is just my "gut" feeling. (get it).

[chief1450]

I've always been a large person, 6'4" 265lb. I knew when I started seriously working out on a regular basis, the scales were going to be deceiving.

I made up my mine I would only weigh every 3 months. As long as my shoulders, arms, and chest keeps increasing in size and my waist and hips keep decreasing in size, I don't care what I weigh.

I make sure I consume the right amount of protein by using protein whey. Other than that I eat just about anything I want in moderation. The protein whey seems to curb my hunger pains.

[cookiecrumb]

There was just a study done that said people who weigh every day have a better chance of keeping weight off,. The theory being that you get fairly instant feedback of whether your eating choices were wise ones. This flies in the face of what everyone says, don't weigh more than once a week.

I weigh every day, but I only write it down on Tuesday morning in my journal. My cousin is slim, and he weighs every day, he says if he is more than 2 lbs heavier than the day before, he knows to watch what he eats for a couple of days.

It would be interesting to see, what do you guys do who struggle with weight issues? Weigh every day, or once a week, or neither?

I don't have a scale at home, by choice, so I weigh myself at work probably once a week. I don't like to see the daily fluctuations that take place. I will retain water at the drop of a hat too, and can be up 5-7 pounds in a day!! That makes me nuts. I don't want to see it!

[empresscat]

For a while, I weighed myself at least once a day - sometimes twice.
I did NOT use this as a guage of whether I was losing weight, though, and only "counted" one weigh-in a week.

It was interesting to me, because I could see that my weight might fluctuate as much as 5-7 pounds in a single day, and typically fluctuates 2-3 lbs during the course of a day. So it acually helped me understand why seeing the larger picture, and the trends, was more important - but also told me that too much sodium and/or not enough water had a significant effect on my weight on a given day. (Alcohol consumption, too.)

Now I weigh about once a week, and measure about the same frequency. I know how things I do will effect me, so I don't need the scale to tell me... though when I experiment with my diet, I do weigh a little more often...

Still, I can usually tell a lot from just my face in the mirror (though those frequent weighings helped me learn to guage that)

[yellowrv]

I weigh on digital medical scales at work once a week on Monday before lunch. I used to dread it, but now I'm looking for weight gain. Had a trippy dream the other night where I weighed 240 lbs but looked more muscular ! Good dream seeing as I weight 199.3 now !

[SweetDell]

I threw my scale out the window

I like that one!!

I guess for me the scale is just numbers (now..it never use to be) and I try not to be a slave to it. So I go more on how my clothes are fitting and only weigh myself maybe every 2-3 weeks. It's hard not to jump on the scale and be driven by it.

[greenboa]

If I weighted every day I would think that would be harder if you are trying to loose wieght most people that I know when they are cutting only wiegh like once a month.

[cookiecrumb]

Ok, just wanted to say Sweetdell, that you are sporting my "dream back"!! Awesome!

[dmr11]

I use the scales once a week, same time of the day, and caliper for body fat once a month. My workouts are basicly by feel, and I know that is not the best way, but if I push past the feel I know I have made progress.

[SweetDell]

Ok, just wanted to say Sweetdell, that you are sporting my "dream back"!! Awesome!

Thanks for the compliment!!! Nice to see someone else from Canada here too!!

[erniejade]

i got frustrated to see the scale go up and down every day. it made me think i was doing something worng so now I only weigh myslef 1x a week

[Sasquatch]

I weigh myself 4-5 days a week, and have a spreadsheet set up to track my weight. It computes my average weight over the last 7 days. I have found it to be a good way to see short-term trends without being to reliant on a single measurement. If anyone wants a copy, send me a message.

[rotlex]

When I was in losing mode maybe a year ago, the scale was an obsession to the point of insanity for me. I'd weigh when I woke up, after going to the bathroom etc.

I now weigh once a week, but take that number only as a guide. My weight fluctuates 5-10 pounds at times, mostly water, and the only real numbers I now concern myself with, are my waist size, and my squat, deadlift and bench weights, LOL. If the latter three go up, I'm a happy camper, if the first goes up, I eh, cut back the feedings a bit, hehe.

[DelDav]

I weigh myself everyday and then use a rolling average to keep track of my weight. Because there's so much possible daily variation in weight this smooths things out and gives you a good indication of which direction you're heading.

I learned this trick from a site called the Hacker's Diet. I'd also recommend a site called physicsdiet.com, which has some web-based tools based on the theories found in the Hacker's Diet.

The address is http://physicsdiet.com

[V-240]

Ok, just wanted to say Sweetdell, that you are sporting my "dream back"!! Awesome!

Cookiecrumb, you are sporting MY dream FRONT! *ahem, cough* Anyway, I let my coach weigh me periodically and take bodyfat readings. That's good enough for me. I knew people who weighed themselves ten times a day! That is.. well, kinda cuckoo.

Scott