Seattle Forrest

KraneXL

Also, some people are genetically predisposed to storing more water than others: that round look. So it is definitely possible. Mostly, however, is that they're sedentary, e.g. they use the elevator to go down one floor. The part they frequently don't tell you.

Stormsedge

Maybe once a week...or when I think I've lost weight (wishful thinking).

KraneXL

And yet some pretend not to know what "messing with your head" implies. You can gain/lose up to 5lbs over the course of a single day. Is that all water? How much of the weight change is fat/muscle? Is any of the weight change from your diet/training or is it all just your normal daily body water fluctuation? There are inherent issues with weighing yourself too often.

Seattle Forrest

@KraneXL You're saying less information is better than more?

KraneXL

Sometimes. But more precisely would be too much information -- within a short span of time. In those cases, people tend to overanalyze and second guess themselves when they see an undesirable change.

Take for example, an entrepreneur who opens his door and has wall-to-wall customers all day and thinks he's hit the jackpot. Thing is, he didn't know there's a convention/etc. in town when he made that analysis. A week later it drops to 1-2 patron(s)/day, and he's left wondering what went wrong?

A similar mindset occurs when it comes to diet and exercise. Like when you get a big change initially. Too much information without perspective can be confusing and cause some to respond too quickly or irrationally. I've seen this type of thing happen to people. Myself included.

Seattle Forrest

I keep my phone charger on a shelf next to the scale. I step on in the morning, enter the number, and promptly forget it. But I have a record going back several years, and some handy charts to show me the trend.

There are apps and web sites that take your weight data and give you a moving average, which smooths out the types of anomalies you're talking about. Loss of water from sweating, etc.

On the other hand, if you weigh yourself once a week or month, the numbers are far more subject to the kind of turbulence you're talking about.

I guess I just don't understand why anybody would go to the trouble of measuring something in the first place if they don't care about the quality of the data.

KraneXL

Good point. I didn't take into account technology. They don't know any better? People say lose weight, when what we mean is lose fat. Even if you weight 300lbs, at 10% it wouldn't be an issue.

Seattle Forrest

Weighing 300 lbs is hard on your knees, no matter what those pounds are made of. But you're right that it's overall much less bad for you if it's mostly muscle.

Carbonfiberboy 

This thread is still weird. I weigh myself every morning on one of those electronic scales with weight, bodyfat, muscle, hydration, and bone numbers. They do jump around a little, but it's interesting to see what makes them jump around. More knowledge is a good thing. The challenge of knowledge is always knowing what to do with it. Some make wise choices, others not so much. Most reliable scale I've ever owned, in any case. Fasting today. I doubt tomorrow's numbers will be much different from this morning's. But I'll be interested in seeing them.

bbbean 

Just imagine what would happen if he were a responsible businessman and had good records and could track exactly when business picked up or tapered off, evaluate what was going on then, and learn to better manage those fluctuations. Maybe it would help him relieve stress to know that his business dropped off because a convention was in town and not because of some flaw in his business. Maybe it would let him know he needed to find ways to use the convention to his advantage. Maybe a lot of things. But more information would allow him to evaluate and respond, rather than getting to the end of the month and not understanding why he had a profit or a loss.

redlude97

yea, I weigh myself every morning after coffee and bathroom and just observe the general trend. I can almost always guess if I'm going to be higher or lower if I just think about my previous day's diet, ride time, and hydration. It really shouldn't be surprising when you account for small fluctuations that the general trend is up or down from your eating habits and workout habits. The daily number isn't important as a standalone data point, but it also helps keep you accountable

wolfchild

I think that getting too obsessed with numbers is not a good thing, human body doesn't work according to some magic number that somebody has come up with. Some people get way too obsessed with weighing themselves, counting every calorie they ingest, weighing their food, measuring their speed on a bike, everything is just numbers game to them... I am not saying that we should never measure anything, but what I am saying is don't let numbers become your absolute, sometimes you just have to do things instinctively. Some of my most memorable, fun and enjoyable bike rides were done without keeping track of anything. The same thing with my workouts, sometimes I'll strap a HR monitor on and sometimes I don't... I very rarely count how many calories I ingest and I only weigh myself once a week or every two weeks.

Carbonfiberboy 

That's exactly how I see it: more information is better. Nor should I or the businessman manage our affairs solely by the numbers. Sometimes one has to let one's gut guide. Innovation is a good thing and a good which does not appear in the numbers. That said, innovation not guided by the numbers won't succeed either. I've had to reinvent myself as a cyclist and businessman several times, but bankruptcy and defeat are all about numbers.

noglider 

I weigh myself a few times a week after I've had my shower in the morning. I record it on Monday mornings in MyFitnessPal. I got the app without a goal in mind, and it asked me my goal. I didn't know what to put, so I put "gain 5 lbs." I'm eating more protein than before, thanks to advice I received here. I can't gain the five pounds. Maybe it's for the best. I might be at my ideal weight. I have a tiny paunch of fat around my waist, and when I didn't have it, people said I looked too skinny. I'd like my upper body to grow, but it's my fault, as I don't do enough exercise there. This morning, I was down 2 lbs!

Freestylexgp

I like to weigh myself daily. I'm trying to gain more weight atm and watching the small gains when working out is satisfying.

Rowan

For me, daily weight measure is much preferred. It is an immediate indicative of weigh gain or loss or maintenance. Provided life is right, it means that the food and drink consumed the previous day have been processed by the intestinal system, and if the weight measure can be done after toileting out urine and faeces, there should be a good indication of the weight status.

In my estimation, a loss of a kilogram (2.2 pounds) a week is OK with regular exercising activity. This is based on the notion of doing it one day at high or highest energy with adequate but not excessive fluid and food intake, spending the next day at rest from physical exercise but still engaged in energy consumption with lower food intake, then back to exercise routines on day 3.

My logic is that putting a rest day in between those with exercise enables sufficient muscle, ligament and blood recovery... without the need for high food and drink intakes,

noglider 

That's a good perspective, @Rowan, and it's nice to see you here.

KraneXL

canklecat

Since I last posted to this thread in March I've been weighing myself daily. My longtime thyroid problem suddenly worsened over the summer and I dropped 10 lbs in a couple of weeks without intending to. Then it got difficult to swallow solid foods (the esophagus and trachea are constricted by the swollen thyroid). Feels like I'm gagging whenever I swallow solid food or a pill, like something is stuck halfway down.

The thyroid thing also interfered with metabolizing recreational alcohol, so I had to quit drinking beer a couple of months ago. I didn't drink much, usually less than one a day on average. But it is empty calories and unless I'm exercising enough to burn it, the beer just goes to pudge. And since I quit beer I also quit most junk carbs -- muffins, cookies, the stuff I didn't eat every day but kept around the house. Now I rarely buy or eat it at all.

On the one hand, I didn't mind losing the excess belly fat. There was about 5 lbs of goo around the midsection that wouldn't come off with normal diet and exercise. I just needed to buy some smaller jeans, khakis and shorts.

But I'm trying to avoid losing muscle mass. Since most of my protein is coming from soft foods like eggs and powdered supplements in blended smoothies, I need to check my weight and look more often to be sure I'm only losing fat. And it's been difficult to evaluate muscle mass because I couldn't do any serious upper body workouts with a busted shoulder. So I look bony from the chest up. But the legs seem the same, so I don't appear to be losing muscle mass due to diet, although I've lost some upper body mass due to inactivity.

After all this health mess is resolved I'll probably return to weighing myself about once a week. I really don't want to obsess over a few pounds up or down.

bruce19

I've been reading a lot about Quantum Physics lately. It is well known that an observer affects the result of an experiment. So, I'm blaming my weight gain on the fact that I'm observing the scale. I've stopped. I feel lighter.

Seattle Forrest

On the other hand, you can use numbers as a useful tool without obsessing over them.

KraneXL

Funny you should mention thyroid. When I was at the doctor's I brought up my low energy and mood and asked for a test for low testosterone. He mentioned that while he was at it, he'd run a test for thyroid as well. I know from research that low test occurs a lot and can cause low energy, lower your mood, and/or exacerbate depression. I need to do some research on the thyroid. All I know is that it regulates hormones. Fortunately, I haven't lost any weight though.

canklecat

Good idea to keep an eye on the thyroid levels too. Those aren't checked in routine blood lab tests so the doctor must request it. And the T4 and TSH levels aren't for us amateurs to guesstimate. Mine seems low to me, but my doc said it's right in the sweet spot for my body and not to get obsessed with the "normal range" figures.

My low thyroid got out of control due to an error by a nurse practitioner at another clinic. I told her I'd resumed taking thyroid meds earlier this year when I was feeling the same old symptoms I'd experienced before and realized it wasn't the flu. The symptoms of this auto-immune disorder can resemble the flu -- body aches, weakness, dizziness, etc. I resumed taking the meds in January and by March was feeling much stronger -- even had a streak of a few weeks when I cracked some Strava top tens on difficult segments.

But in May the nurse practitioner at my "geriatric" clinic said my thyroid levels were fine and told me to stop taking the thyroid meds. That made absolutely no sense and I should have ignored her or asked for another opinion.

Sure enough, within weeks I had the same symptoms again but worse -- I was so weak I couldn't even drag my self to the clinic. I couldn't even use my indoor trainer, let alone ride outdoors. Huge decline but it didn't seem to get through to the nurse practitioner that something was wrong.

By the time I did get checked out by another clinic the thyroid condition had worsened drastically. My new doc said it's the worst thyroid nodule she's ever seen. Now, that's not the fault of the nurse practitioner. Apparently a long standing auto-immune disorder suddenly worsened this year. But telling me to stop taking the med that was helping was a huge error. I won't trust that clinic again (different facility, not the VA).

Now it's just a waiting game. I've been back on thyroid meds for three weeks and don't feel any better. But my new doc had the same problems, including needing her thyroid removed, so she's very familiar with the challenges. She just told me I need to give it 6-8 weeks to stabilize.