Do you weigh yourself at home?

[Rita]

Once you reach goal do you get more or less obsessive about the scale? I believe it is more important to have a scale at home once you are on maintenance than it is while losing. It's good to learn your body's weight fluctuations. And it's helpful to be able to catch an actual weight gain (as opposed to a fluctuation) in time to do something about it.

If you haven't seen the article "Why The Scale Lies" it is definitely a MUST READ for everyone! It explains how a person's scale number can fluctuate and how it doesn't always reflect actual weight gain/loss. You can read it here:

tinyurl.com/4snur

[smilyus]

Yes, I'm online-only so its the only place I weigh

I still do weekly WIs. Sometimes I "peek" during the week if I'm curious to see how something may effect the scale.

I don't know how some meeting members do it with only monthly WIs. The scale isn't always the most accurate way to judge how you are doing, but it does provide early feedback if something may need to be reviewed.

[JeddoMom]

Yes, I weigh at home.
Yes, I weigh at the gym.
Yes, I weigh at WW once a week.

Yes, I'm hopelessly addicted to scales, BUT I like what I see now!!!! Even if I'm up a bit, that's my signal to watch it!!!!!!! I've read the article and agree it's a must read!! Monica

[Lesley1]

I do not own a scale (except a food scale) so I weigh in at meetings and sometimes at the gym. The only scale I trust is the one at the meeting so I don't bother with others, although I've tested the gym scale by weighing myself on it shortly after a meeting, and it is accurate.

[kathleen320]

I weigh at home occasionally during the week, but I don't take it too seriously. The only weigh-in that concerns me is my weekly weigh-in at my meeting.

[jmmoon]

I bought my first body scale about a month ago. (always had a food scale!)
Most the time I was losing I only WI'd about twice a month at my meetings. When I got nearer to goal I started going pretty much weekly. Hated the stress of it though. And then on maintenance I had to WI weekly---that wasn't as bad, but still didn't like being required to WI. Now I own a scale because someone, I think it was Rita!, suggested that I needed to weigh more often on maintenance to keep an eye on things. That made sense, but I have to say that the first week or two I owned it it drove me nuts! Now I ignore it most of the week. Got on it yesterday and it said exactly what it had said last week...guess that's what maintaining is supposed to be like??!

[Rita]

That's right Julie - it was me! Learn to love your scale - it can be your friend once you understand it!

[LessOfMe2C]

I am online only, so I have always weighed at home. But I still weigh every morning, even on maintenance. I understand small fluctuations, but like to keep things in "check".
In fact, I have found that the only days I dont weigh, are days when I might have over-indulged the day before, so I really do prefer to do it daily, otherwise, I could see mysef feeling like "ignorance is bliss" if I dont keep it in check.

[xenagoddess]

I weigh in at my gym every week. I actually set a date and time in my calendar to weigh in. I always go in the morning...even if I'm not going to work out at that time. I will just go back later in the day. It seems to work (although it seems complicated) because I can't play mind games with myself about what time of the day it was, how much I ate, etc. So far so good...the scale doesn't lie....at least not over the long haul.

[yankees14]

Hi everyone I weigh myself at home I;m doing e-tools. every Saturday but I peek sometime during the week is this not good should i only weigh once?

[ema2two]

I weigh myself every day (just about) at home (almost) first thing in the morning. I have a graph of my daily weights and chart them. I attend and weigh in weekly at meetings, even when I'm at goal and don't have to pay for my meetings.

To some people that can sound like I'm scale obsessed. I actually found that weighing daily let me invest less in any single number, and gave me a handle on when it was a trend in a good or bad direction and when it was a meaningless fluctuation.

I'm more interested in health issues than a scale number or clothing size. Right now my weight is about 5 lbs over goal. I was on vacation for 10 days, didn't step on a scale at all (since it wasn't my scale, I figured the number would be meaningless) and missed three WW meetings, my first missed meetings in almost a year. When I got back from vacation a difficult period with one of my kids started, related to his special needs, and I've only stepped on teh scale at home about 3 times in 2 weeks. Am I surprised that without keeping closer tabs on my weight at meetings and at home it crept up 5 lbs in 4 weeks. Nope. Not one bit. Especially 4 weeks out of my routine, eating away from home and with major life stressors.

At the same time, everyone is commenting on how much more weight I've lost. Huh? My measurements weren't down at Curves, so it's not that I've lost inches, and my exercise frequency is down compared to my usual. The 5 lbs didn't make my clothes stop fitting.

I'm below the weight that I'd originally thought I'd want to have my doctor set as my goal, but since I was losing easily still when I got to that number, I kept losing and got to the high end of the WW weight range for my height. I had a baby right after getting to goal (well, actually I found out I was pregnant right after getting to goal and had the baby 7 months later, premature). I sat between the weight I'd originally thought I'd want to have my doctor set and my WW goal weight for a long time (over a year), and finally broke through to within a 1/2 lb of my official goal weight.

Now I'm back solidly in that range with this gain from vacation and some major home stress with one of my kids who has special needs. I need to get my act together, but it's hard to do when thigns are very hard in other parts of life. It's also hard to do for a number on the scale. My health isn't really compromised by these 5 lbs. My clothes still fit. It's a number 5 lbs below the number I thought for years I'd jump for joy to see. But I know if I don't get my act together, I'll be back 100 lbs overweight and with real problems. That's a real challenge for me.

My goal for this week is just to maintain where I am (rather than gain more) while I try to get a handle on things with my son. Weighing every day is a key part of my attaining that goal.

[katelight]

Ema I'm so sorry to hear of your difficulties with your son. My prayers are with you.

I don't own a modern scale. I have an antique cast-iron hog scale that is surprisingly accurate. This scale has a platform with a tall neck that has the disc's and slide weight to measure the weight of something. It literally was used to weigh hogs when they were taken to market. It is very humbling to stand on this scale knowing it's original use. lol. I am very comfortable with the weekly WI at my meeting. I will continue to attend weekly meetings as long as my daughter is going and plan to keep going indefinitely. I like the social aspect of the meetings as well as the support and topic lectures. I feel that for me once a week is enough to keep me on track.

[yankees14]

I'm sorry about your son. You seem very strong persons and you will do this . Thanks for answer my post . You guys are great.

[sunshine]

Emma,

I, too, have a son with special needs. Sometimes I use his condition to explain my obsession with food.

I weigh each and every day but only once each morning. That's better than years ago when I would even weigh during the night if I got up to go to the bathroom.

Weighing daily on maintenance is the best way for me to say where I want to be.

[HippoMommy]

I admit that I weigh every day. I have a software program (Weight Commander) that I bought after reading about it on Dottie's website (dwlz.com). It charts my weight for me and allows me to see trends. I don't freak out over day to day variations on the scale (I still have my official WI once a week at WW), but it does allow me to see what's happening.

While I was losing, for a long time I was really in favor of only the weekly WI. Now that I've been at goal for a while and I have a grip on the emotions that the scale can trigger, I like to weigh daily. It seems to keep me honest, without causing me to go into an emotional tailspin.

This is kind of an NSV (or an SV, not sure which), because I used to be very emotionally tied to the scale. Now it's "feedback," as we say in WW.