How often do you weigh--and what does it all mean?

I weigh myself everyday and have since two days after surgery. I have a 5 pounds weight range that I stay in (I've been in maintenance since 9 months out) I also don't have an emotional reaction to the scale (in other words it doesn't make me have a "bad day" if it's up a couple of pounds, nor does it make me have a "great day" if I'm down a couple of pounds). If I'm at the high end of my weight range for more than a few days I will adjust my eating for a couple of days and get back down to my "mid" range number.  All it does (the scale) is give me feed back on how my body is dealing with what I am eating. It doesn't do anything  besides that. I know diet wise when I eat to many carbs (and I'm talking WAY to many carbs not just a handful of french fries one evening) so when I do that I expect the scale to be up a little  then I go back to cutting the carbs down for a day or two and move on.

You Guys are great!! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Seems we have a mix, but seems to me there are more daily weighers (is that a word?).

I truly don't think there is a right way, only the right way for each individual. I think the results for some of you speak for themselves--maintenance for years of huge losses--so clearly what you are doing is working regardless of whether it would work for someone else. Very impressive. I do think that avoidance of the scale can surely be a function of avoidance of the results, but it can also be a function of being so solid with your program that you know you don't need the confirmation from the scale, which is why I say there is no right way.

Thanks for all the input thus far. This is a very scientific study, don't you think?!?

Have a great day (even if the scale didn't say what you wanted it to!!).

I dont weigh myself at all.  The only weights I get are when I go to the Drs office.  Im 15 months out... it affects me emotionally cause I dont wanna be this small so I dont really want to see the number coming back at me anyways

I like to weigh every day.  Had I not let go of that habit thirty years ago I may not have ever required wls.  That will not happen again.  In my opinion, people should weigh at least weekly fat or not.  For me its about far more than loosing and maintaining. 

I never had that quick weight loss early out.  In fact, I still struggled with weight gain during the so called "honeymoon period".  Frequently I have rapid gains of significant amouts of body fat.  I can put on twenty in under two weeks while maintaining a calorie deficit.  My calorie average is to maintain ten below goal and I exercise daily.  

Had I not stopped weighing daily I may have realized something was wrong decades ago.  Instead I believed the calories in calories out no exceptions bull**** so issues went untreated.  When I began to suspect a problem, wel... no one listend to the fat person who notices abnormal weight gain.  Now that I'm less fat my difficulty loosing post rny proved I have metabolic issues. 

Regular weigh ins are your best defense against regain.  A few pounds out of range is your cue to cut back the calories and ramp up the exercise to get back to your goal.  OK, so I could have said this from the start instead of rambling on but there is a lesson here for some of you. 

My lesson learned is rapid weight gain, be it body fat or something else, requires medical attention.  The source could lead to long term damage or just an inconvenience; but, you need to know why it happens.  I know I am not alone in this.  Doctors, nutritionist, support groups, and especially these boards jump all over your @$$ when you post about this predicament.  They call you a liar; insist you are doing it wrong; insist it is impossible.  I got lucky with a surgeon who knew this is a fact of life for the "metabolically challenged" and now I also have a well informed endocrinologist too. 

If you see youselff in my experience take heart, you can get there but it will be much slower and  far more difficult.   Don't allow anyone to let you think you've failed somehow.  Be brutally honest about your diet and exercise.  Frequently assess what works and what doesn't and revise accordingly.  Weigh yourself often.  The scale may frustrate you but if you analyze your weight history vs what you eat and how you exercise, you will gain valuable insite into how your body responds. 

This concludes this repeat presentation of my lecture for the metabolically challenged.  The information within will be repeated at random as a public sevice to the metabilically challenged. 

Nowadays? As infrequently as humanly possible. I check in about every month. If my clothes start to fit differently I might check in but I honestly do stay away from the scale and try to focus on living a good life. I personally NEEDED to dissociate my self image from the scale number. Your mileage may vary.

 

In my first 18 mos. I weighed nearly daily. I was not prescribed a goal weight but my lowest recorded weight was 172. I bounced shortly thereafter with no changes in eating, exercise or weighing patterns. So I don’t know what that means with respect to your questions.

 

Anecdotally, I can say this. The term “results" is sort of a tricky thing. The “result" of weighing every day, for me, was a constant dissatisfaction with my body and my weight. That number was the lens through which I saw myself. If the number spiked up, I was a whale. If it trended down, I was sexy again. My “result" without the scale is moving toward total self acceptance. I like me. I think I’m a damn good looking woman with a damn fine figure (and apparently a fair share of the male species agrees with my opinion).

 
So I could argue that it took rejecting the scale to get the REAL result that I wanted.

You are so right about defining result.  It can be a moving target based on where you stand in this venture.  The scale is not always the best way to measure our weight loss results.