Does a weighing yourself everyday help you lose weight?

I am 18, 5'7 and 155 pounds, my heaviest ever. I just started college so that is probably due to the "freshman fifteen". In summer of 2007 I weighed a much better 135 and was in great shape. I also weighed myself everyday. If I gained a pound it would motivate me to eat less that day and more fruits and veggies. If I stayed the same or lost weight I would eat the same as the day before. I stayed consistently at that weight until the weight scale at my house broke about a year ago. So, I have not weighed myself as much, probably months and have gained weight! I also am not as active, but 20 pounds more! Now I am starting to exercise everyday and do ab workouts and eating less and healthier than usual. I think the weight gain is because I do not have a weight scale that I can monitor my weight. Is this true? What should I do?

Weighing myself every day definitely has helped me to lose weight.  I was actually in the same boat as you... I basically went all four years of undergrad without weighing myself, and put on some weight accordingly.  I got a bathroom scale and started weighing myself and 4 months later everything I gained in college is gone.You probably don't need to weigh yourself every day, but I found that seeing my weight on the scale every day was a great motivator.

It helps me to know if I am on track or not.  When I don't weigh I have a pretty good idea that I am gaining and just don't want to face it.  When I weigh regularly I know I am on track to lose if not today tomorrow, if not this week, next week.  Good luck!

Although water weight and other similar things can make my weight jump around a pound or two from day to day, I definitely feel that I'm more inclined to stick to my eating plan if I weigh in every day. Something about it just makes me feel even more accountable, those numbers really motivate me. Plus, it's a nice boost every morning when I get out of bed and see a number much lower than it was a while ago!

I weigh myself every day I go to the gym.  I don't really worry about daily fluctuation- I just want to input it into CC so I can see what the trend line says.  If you're the kind of person that tends to obsess, though, I would do it only once a week or month. 

I agree with fakeout - weighing yourself every day can help you stay on track, but only if you're not going to flip out about a little bit of fluctuation.  And, based on the number of posts on this site along the lines of "OMG i weighed 134.2 yesterday and now i weigh 136 how did i get fat so fast!!??!", I'd say that a lot of people DO flip out about the fluctuation.  If you're prone to obsessing about the number on the scale, weighing yourself every week (say, every Wednesday morning) might be the way to go. 

I weigh myself every day. I know it doesn't help everyone to do it, but it certainly does help me. I have found that the times I have gotten off track were the times I wasn't able to use a scale (freshman year of college, doing study abroad, on vacation, etc. etc.). I don't think there's anything wrong with weighing yourself every day. Give it a shot and see if it helps!

Best of luck.

The scale is a powerful tool. I had a doctors checkup in October that opened my eyes as I had not been weighing myself either and it shocked me to hear the nurse say 195.

I went home and dug the scale out from under the bathroom cabinet and stepped on and sure enough....confirmation of my eating habits.

I now weigh myself twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening before supper. I take the lower one of course. 15 steps to my computer and it is recorded which keeps me where I need to be....focused on my diet with cc.

It also helps our family....to discuss our weight. Early on my family looked at me funny when I started talking about calories, grams, carbs, weight etc. ....but now everyone is weighing and talking about health and such....It is a good addiction !

I threw the old scale out....bought a digital.....and think its the best tool in the house now.

I like to weigh myself every day, especially now that I'm pretty close to my goal weight.  I think it helps me consciously make better eating decisions. If I think to myself "If you eat that, you won't be very happy when you step on the scale tomorrow," it sometimes gives me a bit more willpower. And if I do decide to eat mass amounts of whatever it is I told myself would make me unhappy, when I confirm by stepping on the scale it gives me something to remember for the next time! And I know a lot of that is daily water retention fluctuation, but it's a mental thing for me. And if, for instance, my boyfriend and i go to a brunch buffet and stuff our faces enough to actually gain real weight, I have a whole week or so where the scale is above my trend to say "Hey, it was your choice, now you're set back a bit!"

I used to weigh every day.  I hit a plateau that started October 4, and it's still hanging around.  I haven't weighed now since last Tuesday; giving myself a vacation from stressing about the numbers.  Now if it hasn't moved by this Tuesday I only have one day a week to pull my hair and go AArrrrghh!, instead of seven. 

Double edged sword:

There is nothing more encouraging then when you step up and your down another 2 pounds. There is nothing more discouraging then steping on the scale and being up 2 pounds from 2 days go and then having that weight stay there for a week.

I'd rather weight in once a week while loosing but I dont have the willpower to pass the scale in the morning. Lukily I know i'm on track if a bit low in Calories some days so I know when I'm up it's just retained water or the such.

At weight, ya, i'm gonna definitely keep a log so that I dont let myself get up more then 10 pounds over prime this time. I'm not gonna fight off 80 pounds again.

joe

Try weighing yourself once to twice a week. The results are much more accurate this way.

It is normal for a person to fluctuate up to and sometimes greater than 5lbs in a day for any reason. Thus, it's much smarter to weigh in once a week under the same conditions and take your progress based on that, instead of every morning.

Why The Scale Lies - by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer

It was death to every weightloss effort I ever made up until now.  That's why I'm not doing it at all.  No weigh ins, only measuring.  Muscle weighs more than fat, and weight fluctuates daily.  Measurements only fluctuate for me around my period, and give a much more accurate read on how I'm doing.

I do once a week. It's just habit, i find i can often do without it and use how my clothes fit as a better judgement. But i will admit, if i've had a week where i've binged and really not eaten well, i'll wear my heavy warm robe over my pjs to weigh myself, then take it off and weigh again, so at least i get to see  2-3lbs going down.

I weight myself just about every day.  It's been very motivational for me and I'll tell you why.  We have an old scale that's really hard for me to read and so I have my wife read it for me.  This involves her in the process and she also gives me great support and cheers me on every time I've made another milestone.  I think it also keeps her motivated despite the fact that my calorie counting really creates a lot of extra work for her.  Measuring and writing down everything she makes, comparing calories along with price when shopping, and most of all, listening to me talk about calories all the time.

i used to be scale obsessed (sort of had an ed) and every .2 of a lb that went up i would freak out. Well i changed my mindset, i stored my scale away, started eating healthier (and more), incorporated some strength into my workout, and now just use my tape measure. i realize this will be more accurate than the scale and i won't beat myself up if the number is higher (could be muscle, or just a bloated day or whatever!)

Hey there! For people like me my weight can fluctuate 2-3 pounds per day depending on how much water I've been drinking, etc.  When I'm losing weight, it'll go up about a pound one day and then down two pounds the next day...without changing anything in my diet and exercise regimen. 

 

Whenever my weight would go up, I would feel really down about myself.  Because of this, I've only been weighing myself once a week (maybe twice) to track the overall pattern of weight loss or gain because the daily fluctuation was too hard.

I weigh myself every day, but only with the knowledge that there are going to be fluctuations.  Weighing every day used to cause problems, but now I know better.  What REALLY caused problems was weighing once a week, and then finding that even after my hard work over an entire week I wasn't down any.  I'd get really frustrated then.  This time, though, I've resolved to stick to it no matter what.  Just accepting the fact that even if I don't lose anything for weeks at a time, I'm going to keep on, has made things easier.

Weighing in every day certainly helps me to stay on track.  Every morning, after-ahem, taking a "dump"-I weigh myself.  I can easily see that I'm progressing or digressing, and I plan out my menu for the day accordingly.  I'm pretty consistent about what I eat, so I don't have much "water weight" gain as some people.  I don't eat an excessive amount of salty foods, I don't drink alcohol any more, and do drink a lot of water based beverages. I've been keeping a food/exercise log for quite some time and make note every day my weight, what I ate (honestly)and what exercise I've done.  It's very heartwarming to see the steady decline in my weight loss and motivates me even more!

I'd couple regular scale visits with taking measurements.   If the scale doesn't show a loss then the measurements may show a reduction in a problem area.  A pound of muscle is only 600 calories... so any gains in muscle can offset the scale and hide fat loss... but they may not as easily hide fat loss from the measuring tape.   The trick to measuring is not to do it more than once a week.   Infact once every other week is better.   I prefer to weigh in only once a week so I don't get to obsessed with the results.

I hope one day not to need to weigh in so regularly or take measurements and doing a daily weigh in I think may interfeer with my moving from weight loss to a maintenance lifestyle.