How Often Should I Weigh?

This is something I posted awhile back on the RMAP website. Fortunately I saved it.

When I was 474.1 lbs, it was ridiculous to weigh every day. All it ever did was drive me crazy. I actually only weighed every 2-3 months. I focused on eating right and moving. HOWEVER, once I cleared 280 lbs, I started weighing once every week. Once I cleared 250 lbs, I started weighing every day (more or less). I don't weigh every day now (at 229 lbs) but I do probably 5-6 times a week. Sometimes just for fun I weigh twice a day to see what the fluctuations might be between morning and night, clothing and naked.

My reasonings: When you are 100+ lbs overweight (if you are anything like me), it drives you nuts to weigh every day and have to track yourself through a lb here or there. Plus you see EVERY SINGLE fluctuation and you drive yourself crazy thinking that this is going to be yet another thing you are going to fail at. Putting yourself in that type of psychological environment can actually cause you to fail. Especially if you are an emotional eater. Weighing once a month will allow you to see the big drops and bypass the daily fluctuations. I can't tell you how many times on this board I saw people posting "I haven't lost any weight in a week, what am I doing wrong?" And they were beside themselves with worry. I never had that... hmmm... wonder why.

However, like many others have said... once you get down to within a reasonable distance to your goal weight, it is beneficial to start weighing a lot more often because the fluctuations (+/- 5 lbs in a single day) will motivate you to be stricter with your diet and exercise. So there is a line there.

How often you weigh is a personal choice. There is no single "right way or wrong way" here. It is what works best for you.

Sean