37 days in....how often to weigh?


#1

I have not weighed.
I “think” l look better. Face and hands feel different. I DID have a doctor appointment last week so needed to step on the scale. Learned later that l was exactly where l started…10 pounds more than l imagined. However l had had breakfast and lunch, drinking water, wearing denim jeans and shoes on. So, a pretty false reading probably.
Should l be weighing?


(Robin) #2

37 days in, most folks see some weight loss. But not always. But if YOU can see a difference, just assume your body is doing the work. I did not go back and check your previous posts… are you staying pretty strictly keto? Eating enough? Under 20g carbs (or thereabouts)?

If you are sticking to the program, I would wait another couple weeks and recheck. But it’s not uncommon to see and feel your body changing, your clothes getting loser, while the scales don’t budge.


#3

Yes l am strictly keto. 24 out of 37 days have been >10 carbs. The others 15. 17 the highest.


(Marianne) #4

Weighing is a personal choice. Other than a starting weight and getting weighed at the doctor’s, I have never weighed myself at home in three years. To me, the scale is the devil. Meaningless. You can tell by your appearance and clothes whether or not you are losing weight or reproportioning your body (which is just as valuable). I bet it was very disappointing for you to find at the doctor’s that your “weight” on the scale was the same as when you started. Clearly from what you report, however, good things are happening because you say you look and feel better. That is why I refuse to weigh myself. Whether the number is “good” or “bad,” it is still anxiety provoking (for me, anyway). Do what you feel. You do not have to weigh yourself if you don’t want to.


(Stickin' with mammoth) #5

This. I weigh myself once a year on my birthday (by my calculation, the real New Year’s Day) but only if I’m in a good mood. So, I haven’t weighed myself in three years, either.


#6

It’s up to you. I couldn’t care less how much I weigh, actually (but I weigh 75kg every morning anyway), I go for losing fat, not becoming light.
But it can be an indicator and I like numbers… So whenever I remember, I weigh myself. That’s once in a few months, usually. But I weigh myself in clothes after drinking a ton sometimes, it’s about as informative, it’s only +2kg at most and I can guess my morning weight from it, vaguely…

But I always have some tight enough pants and it shows if my belly changes significantly… So the scales (very unrealiable for some. they pretty much work for me) aren’t needed. I didn’t even own them most of my life…

I had no scales when I started so I don’t know my starting weight :smiley: I weighed myself at a relative but that scale isn’t my scale and anyway, it showed different numbers whenever I stepped on it… And it wasn’t right after I woke up though that matters little.
I never go to the doctor so I don’t have that.

Scales are really unhealthy for some people. I can handle it twice a day just fine, it just doesn’t make any sense…


(Marianne) #7

That is so awesome!


#8

Thanks for the encouragement.
I do feel the scale is not my friend.


#9

How much do you think you’ve lost in general?


(Eric) #10

I am probably going to be the contrarian opinion here but I weigh myself every day. I keep a spreadsheet with a graph of each daily weigh-in as well as a weekly graph on my “official” progress day. Doing this has helped me see the patterns of daily fluctuations and this information helped alleviate my initial angst over the daily variation over time. I also track everything I consume daily. These two data points help me monitor what is happening and course correct as needed. Doing this has helped me lose 127lbs over the last 11 months.

I realize that the scale is not the end all be all, but if you are operating blind and have no idea what is happening with the scale, how can you adjust what you are doing. If you only check-in monthly or never, how can you tell if what you are doing is working. Sure I get it that you can tell if your clothes feel looser but that can be less tangible depending on the amount of weight you have to lose. For my personality at least, data,data,data is what works for me. YMMV.


#11

I think it all depends how you feel mentally.

Weighing every day and drawing a line on an ‘averages’ graph can be helpful. This gives you lots of data, enables you to see the ups and downs, and the overall average helps you to see where water retention or glycogen changes etc have affected the scale weight. On the negative side, weighing every day really draws a focus to your weight - and can set you up to feel miserable on the days when you don’t lose.

Weighing every week might be more helpful than slogging through the up and down each day, but you run the risk of only weighing on ‘bad’ days, and missing that your daily average is trending down. If you can handle seeing the same weight for weeks on end, it might be worth it - but if you will get upset at what appears to be a prolonged stall, or having to wait a week to see if last week’s ‘up’ was a trend, it might not be wise.

Measuring your body is useful to see overall trends in fat loss, and is less affected by changes that can happen in your body (such as improvements in bone density, which do show on the scale and are often interpreted negatively).

Similarly, if measuring feels too clinical, going by the fit of your clothes is also fine. You might want to try on different clothes - perhaps a coat that’s too tight, or a t-shirt that you can get on but would never wear outside; you will see the difference more easily when the coat can zip up or the t-shirt is something you’d consider actually wearing.

You can take photographs - maybe each month, perhaps every fortnight. Take a face shot, a full body front on shot, a full body side on shot. You don’t have to post them - just have them so you can compare side-by-side.

You can combine these approaches - perhaps you can handle seeing the scale stall or go up if you know that your waist measurement went down. Or, alternatively, you don’t have to do any of them.

I think it’s really key to note that data is very useful if you’re tracking a change - for example, if you embarked on an experiment where you eat low carb pizza at lunch and you want to see if it’s causing a stall compared to the month before when you were eating egg and bacon.

But if your goal is fat loss and you are firm on your food boundaries, then a softer approach will likely also be met with success.

It’s also key to remember that, at any point, you can stop weighing/measuring/collecting data - or, equally, you can start. So if you find that you’re obsessing over numbers, just take a step back and focus on the basics of keto instead. Being obsessed over a scale number won’t make it arrive any quicker - but staying the course with keto should see the results you’re seeking.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

I used to weigh myself every day, until it started making me crazy.

A typical experience of people who used to restrict their calories is that, on a ketogenic diet eaten to satiety, people (especially women) can put on lean mass at the same time as they lose fat mass. This means that body size can shrink, even while the scale number remains the same or possibly increases, even.

I also found that the scale I used to use would give me readings spread over 25 pounds (a little over 10 kg), depending on how I stood on it. For the sake of consistency, I ended up standing a certain way and then adding 20 pounds to the reading. The reason for adding to the reading was that a balance scale I had access to showed that I weighed 224 lbs. (102 kg), while the spring scale at home usually registered around 200 lbs. (91 kg). These days, I seem to fluctuate within a 10-pound (4.5 kg) range.

Now the scale I have access to, a new one we got for my dad for his birthday, says I weigh 124 lbs., which is clearly wrong. So there’s no point in trying to use that scale for anything. Intriguingly, both the old scale and the new one seem to weigh my father correctly. (I wonder if I’m perhaps full of hot air or something, lol!)


#13

I don’t believe in doing stuff with your eye closed, so weigh. I weight daily, but you just gotta take it in context. Scale weight isn’t the only thing at play, especially if you’re working out, but weighing gives you a baseline of your normal fluctuations and allows you to catch a bad trend in progress before it’s a problem, last thing you want to to take back off fat that you’ve already taken off before.

Fully clothed, multiple meals AND shoes I’d expect to have about 10lbs on you, first thing AM on empty is the best time for most people.


#14

No problem with weighing every day IMO (I say so many times that it’s bad. nope, only if one puts too much trust on that single, not necessarily very reliable number. I talk about tiny changes here, some people can’t handle those well. some people shouldn’t weigh or track or anything like that…). I like numbers myself, I track my calories.
When I lost fat, I weighed myself sometimes and as you say, due to daily fluctuations (and as fat-loss often happens, I imagine, nothing for a while and then a sudden drop) I consider daily weighing more informative than weekly or monthly but this is for very slow fat-loss or big fluctuations. Or a curious person who likes numbers :wink:
If someone can’t handle the weight going up sometimes or just not going down while everything is done right and fat-loss actually happens, they shouldn’t weigh often. But we who can handle things just fine and like numbers, we are free to do it often.

My clothes are still enough for me but it’s good to have more numbers. Even though my weight was very, very stable and when I lost fat, that happened at the same pace for months. So that is a factor too. If I know I will be 74.5-75kg for the next month as I can’t eat in a way that it could change and my weight is very stable, I don’t feel motivated to weigh often.


#15

That’s interesting and funny.
Weird.


#16

When I first got keto to “stick” in 2018, I didn’t experience weight loss until I was a few weeks in, despite following it to a T. If I had been weighing regularly, I think I would have gotten frustrated, and I’m really thankful I chose not to weigh.

Once the weight loss started, I lost 2 pounds a week until I was down 15 pounds total, which is where my weight has remained ever since (with very mild fluctuations). Keto is the only food/lifestyle method that has allowed me to reach and maintain this weight without being hungry or wrecking my metabolism.

Some people lose a lot of water early on, and others of us don’t, so my stance is that it’s better to avoid weighing yourself often. 2-4 times a month is plenty for me.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Good point to mention, since this is a common experience of women on keto. Hormonal re-regulation seems to be an important part of the process.


#18

But why would one expect automatic weight-loss on keto? Calories matter. I had to track due to the carb limit so I saw I eat just like before (only a tad less carbs) so I expected zero fat-loss and it happened. My water loss was 4lbs in the first days but some people have it way higher, I know that. Doesn’t matter, it’s water.
I probably weighed myself during that time but it’s fine for me, stalling is my normal state. I only got upset when I stress gained 5 kg and never lost it. (And I never lost on keto as I ate too much. My bad :D)

And anyway, the body may have something more important to do that losing fat at the moment. Fat-loss isn’t a race, one should be patient. And health should be our top priority.


(Rebecca ) #19

All good responses!
I have settled on weighing myself once on Mondays at 6:00 AM EST (:laughing:) with nothing in me or on me!
I have spent decades letting a scale decide what kind of person I was…if the number was down I was a beautiful success…if it
was up, I was a disgusting, fat failure.
Now I fully understand exactly what Paul explained about women and losing fat and gaining lean mass.
By the way…this past Monday the scale said I was up 2 lbs from the previous week…and I thought “so what?”. My clothes fit a lot better, I have energy and vitality…I could go on, but I’m sure you get the big picture!


(Robin) #20

Yes!