AVERAGING DAILY WEIGHTS

Posted on 03/14/2013 by Elliehmltn

There are a lot of people who weigh themselves every day, and a lot who say this isn't good because you fluctuate from day to day, and to get the true picture you should weigh once a week at the same time of day, same clothes, etc.

But.... given the daily fluctuations, suppose this weekly weigh-in catches you in a low or high place?

Enter the Average Weight. This is not my original idea but I'm passing it on.

You weigh yourself daily, which satisfies the urge to keep close track. You write it down. It will be different every day, usually. After a week, you add 'em all up and average 'em out. Then you compare your averages from week to week.

This factors in all those fluctuations from restaurant meals, underhydration, post-race inflammation, taking NSAIDS, etc. Daily fluctuations are not important anymore, they're just part of the whole picture.

I like it.

15 votes + -

18 comments:

Cyclingbonnie wrote 3 months ago:

I've read many posts that say they are doing this. I agree that it will give a more accurate picture of what is actually happening to your body. I just don't think my fragile psyche can take seeing the scale go up and down and up again. Intellectually I do believe this is the right approach, emotionally I just don't see it working for me. I do weigh twice a week, but they are within a few minutes of each other. I weigh before elimination and I weigh after, this way I do know how much difference that makes. My reasoning for this is if I have a period of irregularity, I will have some insight into what my body is holding on to.

Elliehmltn wrote 3 months ago:

I've thought of that before-and-after deal, but by the time I get to "after" I've had coffee and/or breakfast so that throws it off. TMI, probably... =/

trijoe wrote 3 months ago:

I do this. I have a Numbers program (Mac version of a spreadsheet) that I enter my daily weight, body fat percentage, and fat weight. I average these each week. Then I graph and chart it all out. I don't much care about my actual weight, but I need it to figure out my fat weight. It's hard, sometimes, to weigh myself after a really bad day. But it's good penance. I can see the damage I caused myself by going nuts with the chips n salsa. When I say, "I did bad yesterday, I won't weigh myself", that's when I get into trouble. Once the punishment goes away, the reward stops being the loss of fat, and instead becomes another cookie, or potato chip.

Mrs_Wellington wrote 3 months ago:

that's a great idea! never thought about doing that but i'm going to.thanks.

southcarolinaguy wrote 3 months ago:

I do this. This November blog post contains a graph of 365 weigh-ins in a row looks like. http://bit.ly/YxYWiH

Still, I understand it's not for everybody. But I never understood why MFP says you should weigh yourself only once a week because of fluctuations. It does fluctuate, which is why I do it daily. Same time every day, first thing I do when I wake up.

langurmonkey wrote 3 months ago:

I think it is a great idea. I use a site called "The Hacker Diet" to track daily. It gives you a red line that is your rolling average, as long as that is going in the right direction you know you are making progress.

pkw58 wrote 3 months ago:

Daily weigh during weight loss and ESPECIALLY during maintenance. Don't do the spreadsheet, but I think I will start

missjojo31 wrote 3 months ago:

I weigh daily so I can see what is going on, I think for me it keeps me on track other wise I find myself going over the calories I have set on here.

NRSPAM wrote 3 months ago:

That's not a bad idea! Can you tell me what effect NSAIDs have on weighing? I take them a lot, and have wondered if they influence the scale in anyway. Thanks in advance! :D

vardaeml wrote 3 months ago:

I log whatever I see on whatever scale I happen to be standing on. Then I do a regression line (I think that's what it's called). I count the number of measurements I want to assess and divide by two. I print out the report and place a ruler on the first measurement I want to look at. Pivoting the ruler on this point, I slide it down the page until the appropriate number of points are above the top edge of the ruler and then draw a line using the top edge. This averages the loss for the total span and gives me a sense of the rate of my weight loss by how steep the line is.

joanthemom8 wrote 3 months ago:

I've heard this too. On a similar note, have you heard about calorie cycling? Some days you eat more, some less, but over a week's time, you are in a deficit. Logically it makes sense to me, but I haven't tried it yet. It's also supposed to "trick" your body out of plateaus, etc.

MissCryssi wrote 3 months ago:

I weight myself at the same time every weekday morning. I don't have a scale at home, so I use the same scale at work, with basically the same weight of clothing on. I'll take the weight it says at least 3 out of 5 days as my weight for the week. It's been very consistent, so it works well for me.

rustyvicinie wrote 3 months ago:

Conventional wisdom is the weigh once a week but it just doesn't work for me. I have to weigh in each morning same time and track it on a graph. It provides me good immediate feedback from the behavior the previous day and makes me think about my behavior each day. In fact if I have a increase/plateau that I am fightly I insert a comment into that cell so I can understand when I look back and analyze for trends.Do what works for your personality style.

Cyclink wrote 3 months ago:

I track my daily weight in Excel and have a formula that takes the weekly average after removing the high and low values for the week so that any random outliers from a single day of salty foods or dehydration won't influence the trend.

Elliehmltn wrote 3 months ago:

NRSPAM -- NSAIDS tend to encourage fluid retention.

FATJAKE5 wrote 3 months ago:

I weigh myself first thing every morning in my birthday suit. I do not get bothered by small fluctuations because water and sodium intake can cause 1 lb changes easily. It does show me the immediate effects of one bad late supper out.ie. 8 Deep Fried Breaded King-Sized Butterfly Prawns, with a huge pile of French Fries and everything else that goes with it. Woke up 5 lbs heavier the next day. Took me 4 days to get back to where I was! I will not be doing that again! I do think that as my weight goes down and weight loss slows it may be a waste of time to weigh in daily. But, for now I enjoy seeing the scale read even 1/10 pound lower. If it goes up a bit, I work a little harder that day.

BodyCombatGirl73 wrote 3 months ago:

I too have an app on my phone called "True Weight" and it keeps a rolling average for you, such that highs and lows are smoothed out to give you the more accurate picture. It works best with frequent weigh-ins so that the rolling average is more accurate.

carolstartingover wrote 3 months ago:

hacker ciy above me on these posts. I weigh every day to be sure I am not eating those tidbits and not writing them down. It's happened.

Add Comment

Elliehmltn's Blog

AVERAGING DAILY WEIGHTS

18 comments: