The FastDay Forum

I've noticed on some forums that quite a few 5:2 Fast Dieters say they jump on the scales every day, but is this really such a good idea? Weekly sounds better but has anyone managed to hold out and weigh themselves monthly? I'm about to start and want to avoid putting too much emphasis on weight loss given all the other potential health benefits this way of eating offers. Thanks.

Hi- if you read the forums you will see people try all kinds. Some people don't weigh at all and rely on clothes fitting or not. Some people weigh every day. I think the research shows people who do weigh regularly do better.

I try to stick to weekly (although I do peep during the week) but I only record it monthly. WIth 5:2 you get so much fluctuation from day to day. Try one of the aps (Trueweight for iPhone, Libra for android) that works on weighted averages and evens out the fluctuations.

Good luck!

I'm planning on weighing monthly because when I weigh myself and see that I've lost some weight I and eat and eat and eat! A psychiatrist would find me very interesting.

Thanks Caro!

I'm the same as you Navwoman and am putting off weighing myself so currently planning 4 weekly but might postpone it further. I can tell I'm losing weight and as I've loads to lose, as long as my clothes keep getting looser, I'm not too worried about the numbers yet.

I am very much and advocate for weighing daily and averaging your weight over the week. I do this because my weight can fluctuate by up to 1.5 kg per day. Just relying on a once a week weigh-in is taking pot luck. I did a comparison between a once a week weigh- in and averaging the daily weights at the end of the week and the Averaging method proved to be far superior:
See here:
blog/The+Fishbaum/why_i_weigh_daily_and_average_weekly_much_better._week_5._b-350.html

At first I did not weigh every day, but then when I did weigh, it was confusing because I could not tell what was water or not. I also went several weeks without losing, something I did not catch because I was not weighing. Now I weigh everyday. I can see that I am losing and I get a better understanding of fluctuations.

Perhaps I should just see how I go and decide how often to weigh myself later. I now have plenty of tight clothes so shouldn't have too much trouble tracking my progress and may only use the scales a couple of times a month. I have around 8 to 10 kgs to lose.

[janeg]

Hello Dunach
I'm a monthly weigher - or longer if I don;t have access to the scales.
It suits me and others find daily weighing suits them. What I do recommend though is measuring- especially your waist as this is a health indicator.
I measure everywhere really and in millimetres so it all adds up to a big number and makes me feel as though I'm getting somewhere.
Oh and I do have the clothing indicator too.
Do let us now what you decide and remember to put your stats into the tracker- you can keep it private if you want

I think that there is no rule, we are all different. I find that weighing daily makes me have and keep the control. Others get stressed with having to jump on the scales everyday.
Indeed though the clothes are the most trustworthy indicator.
I'm sure that you will find which frequency suits you better and don't forget that weight is like a very mad airplane. It goes up and down several times each day.

No recommendation from me. I tend to get too caught up in the numbers if I weigh myself every day, and I forget to do it if I try weekly or monthly. I'm trying Libra but it's unstable on my tablet, plus the trend line is showing me as gaining weight even though I'm lighter than my first entry. I think it's due to not tracking my weight from the start of 5:2 and some pretty wide fluctuations in the numbers. I suspect it will smooth out and trend down if I keep at it, but still...it's demotivating to see it.

The one thing I would recommend if you can swing it is to use scales that measure body fat as well as weight. I'm not sure how accurate that measurement is on my scales, but it does show me steadily declining.

I weight myself everyday when I get up and enter them in an excel spread sheet where they are plotted on a chart.
I don't brother with the day to day variation but like to see the trend. I plot a trend line and determine when I am likely to reach my target weight. At the moment it is show around my birthday which would be a great present

I'm a daily weigher but only record my weight on a Sunday morning.
It's when I stopped weighing myself that a 10 lb weight increase after a previous diet became a 25 lb weight increase !!! A friend at work who's doing the 5:2 doesn't have scales so is purely using the fit of her clothes to judge how she's doing. Each to their own.

I weigh every Monday morning plus whenever I feel like it, which usually ends up about twice a week.

Every day to keep an eye on things, but really take notice of the Monday morning weigh in.