Should you weigh yourself when trying to lose weight?

I have an opinion that when you are trying to lose weight, you should never weigh yourself at all, like all those people say you should.

I think somehow your body will adjust to your situation if you weigh yourself, and you see you are losing weight. I say that you never weigh yourself at all when losing weight, and you can see it from your body alone if your taking of the pounds.

Do you guys have an opinion on this.

if u want to keep track of how much u've lost to see if anything is working i guess its not bad to check.

You know what they say about a watched pot?

I believe in teh once a week weigh in. You do like to see progress. Also, then you know if you have hit a plateau and need to shake it up a little bit. YOu hit plateaus when your metabolism adjusts to the new intake.

always weigh in the morninng at the same time. naked. That is when you get your most accurate weight.

reply to post by nixie_nox


I am just saying that i think you should not weigh yourself, and i think people losing weight do so, and it adjusts the mind and the body adjusts, if you know what i mean.

Your mind should not be given any reason to adjust, when losing weight, and i think seeing yourself lose weight on a weighing scale, helps the body adjust with the mind, and hinders weights loss. If you get my drift.

If you really want to lose the weight, I think that checking your weight every so often can be an encouraging thing because you can see the results of your hard work.

reply to post by octotom


I am experienced with losing weight, as i have done it before, and i am in process of doing it now, after a big weight gain.

I prefer not to weigh myself, i think its bad for you personally, i think you should forget about what your weight is, and just eat and do exercise and it comes off. I find if you weigh yourself, you start getting into goals, and your body and mind adjusts, and you do not have control over your subconscious.

"Should you weigh yourself when trying to lose weight?"

No, It will only make you feel fat!

reply to post by andy1033


I think it's a good idea to NOT weigh. I prefer to go by the fit of my clothes. When I weigh, my clothes may be falling off me, but if the scale doesn't show what I think it should, I'll either get obsessed and feel like starving myself or I'll just give up and eat everything in site.

I guess it just comes down to personal preference. Everyone isn't the same, but for myself, I just prefer not to do it.

Many of you seem to be forgetting, or never knew, that muscle weighs more then fat.

What does this mean to the weight scale?

It means you could be reaching your fitness and health goals and at the same time your scale will say you're getting 'fatter'.

Do not use the scale...without this in mind.

Of course, this is only applicable if you're losing weight the correct way.

[edit on 26-10-2009 by silver tongue devil]

I judge the amount of weight lost by skin. Use the skin on the back of your hand. At first, it is full of fat and hard to get a grip on. Then it slowly stretches out more and more. The amount of skin you can lift with a pinch shows me all that I need to know about my weight loss program.

reply to post by silver tongue devil


Exactly .

A regular weighing scales will just tell you that you gained or lost `weight` .
The weight lost could be water and muscle , not fat .


A body composition/weighing scales is a great piece of kit when training.

It lets you keep an eye on your hydration levels ...and focus on reducing the body fat % .

Readings can fluctuate depending on the time of day/ body heat etc. , but upon taking a reading once a week at the same time, a clear pattern soon emerges. The focus should be on reducing body fat % not necessary `weight `.
Body Composition Monitor

Yes you should- every 3 days. It keeps you on track with your goals, If you set a goal -say 2 Lbs a week, and you not watching. How you going to achieve that goal of 8Lbs a month????

End of the month comes-Wise guy says don't weigh, and you get to the end of the month, Finally do a weigh-in only to find you up or only 1 Lb down. (what a waste of a month-besides the fact that it could blow out your entire plan to lose weight)

If you watching you can mentally analyze where you have gone wrong, what you have not done enough of and fix the problem early.

It can be more detrimental to your overall mind set of losing weight-which is not easy(depending on your age and sex).

Sure you can also be a little depressed if you do a 3 day weigh-in and you’ve not moved the scale, But just imagine how you going to feel if you were only doing it at the end of the month or not at all?

Every 3 days or so is setting small goals, easy to reach and easy to fix if you don’t hit them.

reply to post by andy1033


I am on a lost weight program because I needed to lose 21 pounds, I did it for my health, I have high blood pressure, finally my blood pressure is normal after losing 22 pounds in 6 weeks.

My weight is taken every week at the clinic and that is the only time I take my weight.

I also follow a strict diet of 1200 calories a day, that I can modify after reaching my target goal, I already did it and will keep with the diet I am used to it now.

I feel great and the B12 and B6 shoots are part of the weight program, got a lot of energy.

I think you need to check it one first time .. then wait some time to check .. like a week

dont try to check everyday

do exercise ... that will help a lot ... and eat diet stuff ...

reply to post by andy1033


Then why did you ask? *laughs*

Now should you only go by the numbers? No, but you do need them to guide you. Like I said, you need to know if you hit a plateau so you can adjust for a week or two.

Also, it is not a good thing to lose weight too fast either. You need to give your body time to adjust. If your older, you also need to give your skin time to retract. AND, you need to take a while to develope healthy habits. The slower you go, the longer the habits are ingrained. That is why people almost always gain weight after crash dieting or fad dieting, because they didn't learn anything. And they immediately go back to bad habits.

So monitoring how fast is a good idea. But as for how much and final numbers, that should depend on how you feel and look, not what the scale says.

In the process of losing body fat you (if you are exercising) gain muscle weight. A scale is not a reliable method because it may look as though you are either not losing fast enough or gaining weight when in reality you are just trading fat for muscle which weighs more.

I usually go through the whole gain in the winter / lose in the spring program.

For me, weighing myself everyday (at the same time of day) helps. Trying to beat the previous day/week's weight helps whenever I get an urge to cheat. Kind of like a challenge to myself.

But you also have to realize that your weight doesn't necessarily mean being lean. You can lose muscle mass(muscle weighs more than fat) while retaining a high body fat percentage.

The best way to lose fat is to calculate how many calories you need for your BMR and subtract to be at a caloric deficiency while eating proper foods and exercising regularly.

This is a good start: Fat loss