How often should you weigh in?

I hope this question hasn't already been asked as I don't want to tick off the caloriecount members on my first post.

Anyways, in the past when working on weight loss, I've perpetually checked my weight, stepping on the scale two or three times a day. When I had lost weight, it always felt good to see that lower number pop up on the scale every time, however when I gained weight, I'd step on the scale every few hours hoping to see the higher number somehow magically go away.

With this experience behind me, I wonder if it's not best to check your weight at the beginning and end of each week, to avoid the discouragement or false hope perpetually weighing yourself can give you. How often do you all check your weight?

Every Sunday morning works for me.

To misquote Kipling ... 'If you can meet with gains or losses and treat those two impostors just the same'.... then weigh as often as you like.  But if seeing a gain would ruin your day or if you're prone to getting a little obsessive, then it's best to go with once a week.   Use the same scales, same location, same time, same clothing (or lack of)... and then you'll get the real trend. 

I tried daily weighing for a week once and went from being a relatively happy, calm person to quite a twitchy miserable one.  The scales every day seemed to bear no resemblance to what I'd eaten or done the day before... and by the end of the week I was exactly the same as when I'd started.  So it was all for nothing!!!!  Once a week for me.

Hey comn0001

I get too overly obsessed and see my eating habits as a competition with myself from week to week.

in other words it becomes a big numbers game, i end up just doing whatever i can just t o see a result on the scale. Therefore it isnt really a lifestyle change its just a challenge to get the weight off and i dont care how.

So NOW what i do is weigh once a month........and OMG can i just say how much BETTER it is.  i mean dont get me wrongi walk pass the scale now (3 weeks in) and im kinda desperate to see what or if ive lost but then i just think nope wait for the 'weigh day' im excited about it but most of all its taken off all the pressure of my weight, what number i am etc etc.  Now its just about what i eat, when i eat and exercising.  My emphasis is purely on getting fit and getting healthy.  I feel like i can carry on living this way forever more - so no more yo-yoing (i pray). 

Thing is it's different for everyone and up until 3 weeks ago ive always weighed once a week.  Im still overweight and still yo-yoing, well i was.  Now ive stopped im happy and well on my way to be very healthy.  I do things because i want a better healthier lifestyle not because i wanna see a result on the scale next week.

You'll find what suits you...maybe once a week works, once a fortnight or totally take off the pressure and go once a month.

Good Luck  xx

I do not often weigh. If I drop a size in clothing, I'll weigh. If I think my clothes are getting tighter, I'll weigh. I did not like the negative thoughts that I had about myself when I weighed in regularly and especially the ridiculous obsessing with fractions when I weighed frequently.

When I don't weigh often, I pay more attention to positive things like - am I stronger? is the waist on that pair of pants looser? do I have more energy than before? do I just plain old feel good and healthy? am I choosing great low cal foods now because I love them or because I know I should? doesn't my reflection in that store window look so much better! etc...

I deep-sixed the weight goal too. My goal is to achieve the best possible level of health by eating an abundance of lovely nutritious well spiiced foods and to be strong, flexible, and energetic. Whatever I weigh when I feel that I am there is the right weight for me.

This explains why I weigh every day, but it's just what works for me.

I use the trend line on CC's weight log, so I weigh every day.  But I do it right after I get up, after I use the restroom, and with no clothes on and that's the only way I weigh-in.  I also ignore it until Thursday which is my official weigh-in day.  But I know not everyone can do this.

The nice thing about the trend line is... even if my weight goes up sometimes (which it does) the trend line is going down if I'm still losing weight over the long run.  :)

I used to recommend weighing once a week, then I went down to 3 times a week, now I weigh almost everyday.  It's not an obsession, I just like to know what my body is doing. To keep sane, I also measure myself about once a month or so (arms, thighs, waist, hips, bust...). If the scale doesn't move for a month, I don't freak out. I usually drop a few inches in that time.

I weigh everyday (same time), because I've learned to focus on the "trend" and that makes me think more long term about weight-loss.

Do what makes you feel sane and happy. If you want to weigh everyday, do it. But don't freak out if you miss a day either.

After I lose the last 5-10 pounds, I'm going to weigh once a month.

I definitely agree with all the posters because weighing-in is very much a personal thing and what works for one of us may not work for another.

I weigh-in several times a day and take my average of all weigh-ins to tell myself what I think I actually weighed that day.  This is not going to work for most people, and I know that.  For me, if I only weighed-in once a week, I would have a great deal of trouble not gaining (or losing) more weight than I wanted to. 

I definitely agree that for some of us, if we weigh too often and don't understand things like water retention and momentary weight gain, we can get obsessive.  But once I understood that, I set a 5-pound weight window; and now as long as I am within that window, my weighing several times a day is great fun for me and very beneficial.

So just find what you like best and stick to it!  Wishing you all the best luck in the world!

Personally, I weigh in every morning just before I get into the shower.  A lot of times I don't even pay much attention to the number showing but for me it's a reminder that I DO have a goal in mind and that it's a new day and a chance to keep working towards that goal.  I plug that number into my calorie count account in the morning as I plan what I am going to eat and do activity-wise for the day.  For me the weigh in is just part of the process.

What works for me is to weigh every morning I am at home, same time, same clothing (none), write it down, and forget it until I log into an Excel spreadsheet (from The Hacker's Diet) about once a month.  The SS calculates a trend line and shows me my average calorie deficit/day.

I used to weigh in once a week, but I found that actually made me more crazy than weighing everyday.  I often play around with 1 or 2 pounds for weeks, up and down, then drop 3 or 4 pounds overnight in spite of no obvious changes in my eating or exercising.  If I had been "good" for an entire week, and happened to weigh in on one of the "up" days, I would spend way too much energy trying to figure out what I had done "wrong".  If I had been "bad" and the weight went down I felt weird about that, as well. 

So, ironically, weighing every day defuses the number for me.  But, everybody is different, and needs to figure out what works best for them.