So I’ve read a lot of posts that recommend tossing the scale. I’m definitely not one of those folks. My work is in statistics and in my world the more data points that I have the more accurate the assessment and also the easier it is for me to troubleshoot. I personally would have a much more difficult time mentally if I were to weigh in once a month or week and have that data point be an outlier (significantly higher or lower than expected). My routine is weighing in every am after urinating. I step on the scale a minimum 2 times. If they’re the same I’m good and I delete one weigh in off of my weight gurus app. If the 1st and 2nd differ significantly, I’ll throw in a third and see what’s what. I’ll go until I get 2 that are close within .2 lbs and keep one on the app. I typically see fluctuations within a pound but there are definitely higher fluctuations depending on what I ate the day or week (vacation) before. I understand daily fluid fluctuations and therefore it doesn’t negatively impact me mentally. This is just me. I’m a numbers guy. Just curious if there are other twisted people like me.
Scales...toss or not?
Not alone! Think the key is to not let it rule you. Like you say, fluctuations happen and can for some be hard to not get caught up and keep the overall trend in mind. But it can help to keep your eye on the ball. Obsessive thinking/patterns I think are quite common amongst us but its how we hold said observed data as we proceed onwards is the telling part. I personally am afraid to completely give up the scale - and really had to think hard about even getting one when I first started because of past habits of constantly leaping off and on and defining my day accordingly. But reality is reality and so I opt to check in peridically. Whatever works best for you is what works for you - IMO 
I think it all really depends on what kind of person you are.
I too went back to the scale after stopping for a while. (and after ganing a lot without it) Monitoring is one of the steps to facilitate forming new habits.
A lot of people need to detach their self worth from the scale first though, and see it for what it is (useful data)
It took me a while to get to this point though. The media does not make it easier, especially for women…
Frank, I love numbers themselves for their colorful, pure world. Don’t weigh often since I’m rarely at home and don’t want to tote a scale all over hell and back.
I think “toss the scale” has some selective application - here mostly in reference to people hopefully not getting discouraged by no fast weight changes even as they are doing great things for themselves in healing the effects of long-term and too-frequent consumption of lots of carbohydrates.
It would also apply when somebody is gaining muscle and losing fat. No reason to be all bummed out, there, that the scale numbers aren’t falling like a stone.
I have a scale and I am (mostly) happy to own one. I think, despite all the shortcomings, it’s a good indicator of your health for the average Joe, provided you know how to take the numbers. Honestly, I weigh myself daily in the morning, but I know how to deal with the fluctuations. However, I found that it can be an incredible motivator to either EAT or FAST. In short: for me the scale is my substitution for the natural feast and famine cycle, if that makes sense.
I agree that daily weighing might not have its place, but I am definitely happy to own a scale. I did not own one for years, and it got me in serious trouble! What you don’t know CAN hurt you.
I’m a numbers guy (EE with some stats and enough metrology to think of measurement standards, accuracy and how we know what we know). I’ve tried to do all sorts of things to daily weight and nothing ever seemed to be the right thing. It’s an inherently noisy measurement, but I have no idea if its Gaussian noise or some other distribution, or even if it’s a recognized distribution.
What I’ve settled on is:
(1) don’t throw away the scale
(2) weigh no more than once or twice a week, as close to the same conditions as possible. Once a week is probably best. As you say, first thing in the AM, empty bladder, as close to nothing being weighed except your body as possible will give your lowest weight. (my morning two cups of coffee weighs a pound a half)
(3) Since there appear to be fluctuations with day of the week, choose one day to be your value. For example, I’ve been doing alternate day fasts since late June (this is my 8th week). My pattern is fast Sun, Tues, Thurs, and eat M, W, F, Sat. This tends to make my Sunday weight highest, and Friday lowest, although not necessarily. Before starting the ADF, I tended to weigh in on Wednesday, and that seems to work as my practical average to say what I weigh on Wednesday morning is my weight.
And all that’s because there’s no such thing as what you weigh in the sense of “absolutely right”. Weight is a bad snapshot through a low resolution camera. All you can do is minimize the variations by minimizing the variations in how/when you weigh yourself.
Some people obsess over the numbers from the scale, and the daily fluctuations are so emotionally upsetting that ignoring the scale is probably good advise. If you’re the kind of person that gets stressed out by the scale not moving far enough, it might be wise to weigh yourself less often. The down side would be if that stresses you out even more. Are you the kind of person who gets a cortisol spike from worrying you might have a cortisol spike? If so, you should avoid the scale.
You never know what you weigh to the precision or accuracy you can know what a chunk of any inanimate thing weighs.
Actually, the reason I read this post is that I’m considering tossing out my (nearly) 20 year old Tanita bodyfat scale and replacing with a newer model. Pardon the rant.
Good point! That’s how I think, too, which may be a professionally induced.
Hi Frank –
I do like to weigh myself often (or, I’m just twisted like you), it gives me a better sense of what is happening to my body after sleep, after exercise, after meal etc … so I can be more understanding – and accepting of — fluctuations.
For example, my body loses 2.5 to 3lbs every night from once I go to bed to once I wake up. That speaks volumes about water loss as well as how metabolically active my body is when I am sleeping. Sort of amazing once you think about it.
Recently have become more serious about weight lifting. My body has been retaining extra water because of it, and like SNL’s Hans and Franz, I am pumped up. So I know it’s not because my diet is bad.
So, as you say, if you have more data, you can develop more insights about your health. I truly enjoy the hacking aspect of keto.
That said, some people have a totally different relationship with the scale, and I can see why they want to throw it out the window … and totally understand and support them.
Cheers,
Q
I weigh every day but I don’t let it rule me. My lowest weight has been 204, on Saturday morning. I’ve been 205 and 206 since the. I also know I do not empty my bowels daily (TMI) or even every other day. So I’m also weighing the past few days’ meals. I don’t let it bother me, although when it drops a couple of pounds I do get extremely happy. And I always consider my current weight to be the lowest I’ve seen. So even though today I’m 206, I consider myself 204 and have therefore lost 31 lbs since May 9. Really whatever keeps you motivated.
We know there are day-to-day fluctuations, so measuring a single day in one week and a single day in the next week does not eliminate those fluctuations! I weigh at the same time each day, record it in a google spreadsheet, and then chart the average of the last 5 days. So every day I have not just my snapshot weight that I just took but my average weight over the past week.
Like you, I don’t let day to day bother me. Week to week might make me re-think what I’m doing, but mostly I just like watching that trend line!
Hey Frank,
I think a lot of the “toss the scale” thought comes from those who get frustrated with it. They might raise their stress levels way up worrying about the number that the scale says. Maybe for those people, it really is best to just ditch the scale except for a predetermined weigh-in, like maybe once a month (I just picked that number out of thin air, it could be anything).
For some of us, it’s just a number and it doesn’t dictate whether we’re having a great day or a horrible day. Yup, it goes up and it goes down. I don’t know about you but I operate in about a 9 pound range, which sounds huge, I know. I will vary that much depending upon a lot of factors… what time of day I’m weighing (morning after my first pee is NOT usually my lowest reading of the day), what I may have eaten the 24 to 36 hours before, how much salt, whether I’ve eaten vegetarian or a little higher carbs because of who I’m with, how much I’ve been outside working or if I’ve been more sedentary, stuff like that all seems to make a difference. So anywhere in the range, and I have a pretty good idea of what it is for me at any given time, I’m just fine.
If a person keeps a record of weigh-ins and wants to graph the whole thing, yes, more data points make it more interesting. I’ve never done that, probably too lazy. But stress over any of it, nope. Way bigger things to worry about than that, at least in my life.
Just my take…
If daily fluctuations aren’t taking an emotional or psychological toll, you do you. I think “toss the scale” (or at least severely minimize the frequency with which you weigh yourself) is good advice for those of us who can’t help but obsess and/or beat ourselves up over minor fluctuations as opposed to looking at the overall trend with regard to our weight, and those of us who are way too focused on eating/fasting purely for weight loss as opposed to eating/fasting for overall better health.
That’s true, Charlotte. Lots of different reasons we’re doing keto, and it changes some for some of us, over time.
When I first started, I was much more interested in that scale. But it moved much more quickly and in the right direction, I’m thankful for that. Now that I’m into keto for a year or so and within about 20 pounds of my goal, the perspective has changed. I’m not really so concerned about it other than if I happen to see a number above my normal range. I still step on the thing multiple times a day, mostly out of curiosity.
I suppose if I had started at the weight I am today and wanted to lose the same 20 pounds, I’d be frustrated that it’s taking so long. But in reality, if I never lose another pound, I’m feeling pretty good… and I don’t think I’m looking all that bad, either. I’ve come to the point where I’m perfectly fine to lose like 1 pound a month, if that. I like that I’m not going to have to worry so much about “maintenance” because for the most part, I’m almost there, it’s practically a habit now. My body isn’t in shock from having suddenly lost a huge chunk of fat, it’s had plenty of time to get used to where things are.
I kinda have this image in my mind about an airliner going from 25,000 feet to landing. That first 20,000 feet drop can go down pretty quick. Getting to within a few thousand feet of the ground, the descent slows down. When it gets to a few hundred feet, it just creeps downward until the wheels are barely above ground and you’re there. I wouldn’t want that plane to fall quickly over those last few hundred feet, way more stressful than need be. And airliners don’t bounce well nor does the ground give much. Love a pilot who can give a landing so soft you barely realize you touched down. Would kinda like to coast into my weight goal much the same way.
Thanks Doug. I didn’t even get the scale until I was 3 months in. I was more than a little surprised at the drop from Jan to march. That’s when I became more diligent with it. You can see stalls here and there as well.
I kinda think stalls are normal, even if you were super strict with your macros.
I’ve never been that strict but I have been fairly consistent. And I’ve had times when the weight would plateau, even for a month or so, and then for what seemed like no reason, would drop off a little more. It’s done that several times over the last year. The plateaus seem to get longer and the weight drops that come seem to get smaller as I approach the target. No worries.
I only weigh myself for laughs, these days. Firstly, the scale will show a completely different weight depending on where you stand on it, and whether you rock back on your heels or press down with your toes. Secondly, weighing yourself ten times in a row will generally yield ten different answers, even if you stand the same way each time. It’s even been known to tell me I gained four or five pounds after shitting my brains out—I mean, after quite a long time spent moving my bowel. 