To me the scale is my worst enemy. I used to be obsessed - but it just made me sad and made me hate myself. The number on the scale is so unimportant. What is important is how you feel. I haven't weighed myself since 3 weeks after my son was born - he's 20 months old now.

I have no idea how much I weigh - but I am back in all but one of my pairs of jeans from before I was preggo - so that is great to me! There are things about my body that I don't think that I will ever be able to change (without surgery). So I simply can't get down on myself for a number on the scale. A number that has haunted my since puberty. So for me - I have to avoid a scale.

I think the downside in weighing yourself daily is that change happens slowly sometimes, but it's still happening - if you are weighing yourself every day, you could get down on yourself easily.

I think it is a personal choice. But I think that you have to read the number with a grain of salt.

Since going paleo, I've weighed myself...never. Cavemen didn't have scales, right? Just kidding.

If you know what you're eating, and can see your body in the mirror, tracking progress isn't too hard. If you have lots of weight to lose, scales are great though. If you're trying to become Arnold Schwarzenneger, then calipers and scales are more important.

When I weighed myself daily, several years ago, it made me feel empowered. Then when I hit my lifting/bodybuilding goals, the weighing made me OCD and dissapointed. So it depends on where you're at, I guess.

Hi Familygrok, I gave a similar response on a thread once a long time back, but I don't know where, and I think it might be appropriate here.

When I was losing weight not only would I weigh myself every day, but I would also keep 5-day and 10-day averages of my weight. So with each new day I would add up the last five days' figures and divide by five, and also add up the last ten days' numbers and divide by ten. In a way this seems hyper-obsessive, but it ended up being less obsessive. Weight will fluctuate from day to day for the smallest and most insignificant reasons. This makes day-to-day changes in weight inevitable -- but also insignificant. If you pay too much attention to those day-to-day changes, you subject yourself to an emotional roller coaster that is totally unnecessary. If you only look at the five-day figure, or even better, the ten-day figure, you'll focus on the long-term trend only -- which is usually a very gradual downward curve -- and you'll free yourself from a great deal of worry. That was my experience at least.

I weigh myself daily, every morning. After losing over a hundred pounds still struggling with honoring my intuition (ED + vegetarianism broke my inner satiety meter), I find that weighing myself daily keeps me in check. Yes, unpleasant numbers can make me cross, but I know how to lose weight and reverse upward trends.

Once a week weighing would not work for me because I would obsess over the fluctuations -- was it a salty meal last night, or am I spontaneously breaking out in a severe case of fat-itis? Plus, I'm a numbers nerd, and tracking keeps me happy. Not to overshare, but it also entertains me to weigh myself before and after a healthy potty. :D

I'm hoping to get to the point one day where I am at peace with myself and my body and no longer need to micromanage my weight, but until I get there, I'll keep on tracking. :)

I weigh myself every single day. The period in my life where I didn't do that was the one in which I gained many, many pounds.

You would never embark on a long journey without a map, right? For me, the scale is my map.

I'm constantly tinkering with my diet, so I need to monitor weight and measurements to see the response to the changes. I've had a few theories that sounded good but were unequivocally lipogenic in practice. There's nothing wrong with gathering data, so long as you're using it for a useful purpose.

Never.

I gave my scale to goodwill (though, I'm now a bit saddened that it may negatively impact someone). One of the best things I ever did to my body and my mind.

No more "Aw man, but I did so well this week.", "Geez louise, why do I still weigh the same?", frustration, cutting back, and most importantly no more ignoring the signals my body is giving me.

If I'm hungry I eat. If I'm full I stop. It is a process. Sometimes I eat too much and feel too full. I own the feeling, I listen to what it feels like physiologically and mentally and I know better next time. You learn the most from your mistakes.

I don't know if I have lost weight since paleo (though I guess one could go by clothe size, but I also believe I've gained muscle, essentially I'm still the same clothe size but things fit differently). I focus on how I feel. I listen to my body and frankly, I highly suggest tossing your scales if it seems to lead to the mental set I mentioned above.

I'm weighed at the doctor's office because they seem to think it's important. Personally, I go by how my clothes fit and what size they are. I'm fairly active and have been losing fat, but gaining muscle, so a scale would skew it. But, I can tell the difference - and so can a lot of other people.

I take try to go by the fit of my clothes instead of the scale. I'd say I weigh in at least once a week. There have been times where I do it every day, for example when I went a whole week on a meal a day. I weighed in daily. Unless you are going for a particular goal I wouldn't sweat the scales.

I have a belt that I had to add holes to. This is better than a scale.

I have read as many books/articles on long term weight loss maintenance as I can find (there aren't many) and EVERY ONE says to weigh yourself daily. Having kept my 100+lb weight loss off for over 3 years (the first 3 working on losing it) I have to say I absolutely agree.

When I avoid the scale, there is always a reason. I may miss a day here and there because I WILL NOT WEIGH MYSELF UNLESS I AM NAKED. But if I find I haven't been weighing myself for a couple of days (or not tracking my food) I am generally hiding from myself and what I know is going on. It is always when things aren't going well that I avoid either.

That said, I weigh myself first thing in the morning before I get dressed and usually weigh myself when I get home and change from work clothes into play clothes. Basically, if I find myself naked in the bathroom, I will weigh myself.

I've wondered if I get obsessive about it and maybe I am a little bit. But what I try to not let happen, is I don't let what I see on the scale affect my next meal or my exercise immediately. So if I'm up 2lbs, I won't restrict myself or go run 2 miles. I used to do stuff like that.

When I was super crazy about the weight thing, what I did was I charted my weight from 3 different times a day. I left the notebook in the bathroom and wrote down the time/weight each time. What it taught me is that my weight can vary as much as zero to five pounds sometimes within a day, so not to freak out too much about a pound or two.

I'm trying to lose fat, not pounds, and no longer weigh myself. I found that it really altered my feelings about the day if I gained or lost weight...and most of the time, when the scale changed, it was due to water loss/gain and when I'd last eaten or had a bowel movement. I'm trying my best to eat a low carbohydrate paleo diet, and happiness or disappointment about my weight isn't going to change that. Perhaps if I were just doing this for weight loss, and wanted to compare how this worked for me versus another style of eating weighing myself would be helpful, but as I plan to eat this way for life, it isn't.

I am enjoying the looser clothes and hope that continues, but I know all I can do for that is be consistent and let time pass!

I've never been a scale person, so pretty much my entire life I've only been weighed at the doctor's office. I had an appointment two weeks ago, but prior to that it had been a good three years since I had been weighed. I was super surprised at the results. Turns out I weigh more now than at almost any recorded point in my life, including when I gained twenty-five pounds from birth control, despite my clothes falling off me lately, dropping a bra cup size and everyone I know regularly commenting on how much weight I've lost. Either I put on more than I realized in those couple of years prior to eating paleo or it's the muscle I've gained. Probably a combination of both. I'm sure being weighed in my full Maine winter outfit didn't help much either.

Never. I pay attention to the way my clothes fit and my energy levels. fluctuations of 3 or so pounds often aren't a sign of weigh gain or loss, but just water levels. I see the doctor every three months and get weighted then. I just want to look and feel healthy and not worry about assigning some number to that like I used to do, and the day to day "Pass/Fail" system isn't really very helpful to me. My goals used to be about hitting a number, but instead, fitting into certain clothes. I've also always weighed what CW considered very high for my height, but defied my actual size since I looked fantastic and in small sizes. No idea why, but CW can be misleading.

I decided at some point that I am in lifelong recovery from e.d.,and do not weigh myself ever. It was just too easy to spiral into the whole hating my body, punishment thing. If I feel good, and my clothes fit well, I strive to be at peace with myself. Occasionally, I will use a tape measure, but even that can get too obsessive quickly. Like others have stated, Grok didn't measure his body, and if you're eating right and moving your body, and taking time to play with people you love, maybe you don't need to either!

I weigh every morning as I am trying to lose weight and have hit a plateau. If the number goes up it is very discouraging and really can be detrimental to my outlook and mood for the day. However at this point I am still learning so much about how certain foods affect my weight that it helps me learn which foods, workouts etc affect me in what way, so I will continue to do so. I use the iPhone app True Weight which keeps a moving average in a nice graph display so that helps to show that I am making progress and keep me on track. One day I will make it to my best health/weight/composition and then I will probably only weigh once a month if ever. As paleohacks as my witness, one day I will be one of those no weigh, no measure, no counting maintenance people! ;)

I weigh myself a couple of times a week. I am trying to gain a few pounds to add some strength and muscle. I get discouraged if the scale heads down a few days in a row, which can negatively affect an otherwise good day or how I feel overall. I have not done it, but I recommend ditching the scale. Going with how you feel and the conventional wisdom "how your pants fit" is a far better approach.

I don't own a scale. But I like to jump on my MIL's when we're over there for dinner - so once every couple weeks? I am trying to maintain what I have gained so far and gain more, I like to see the numbers where they should be.

Mirror tells me more, though.

i have 50 more pounds to lose, to start. after that, ill start tweeking to see where my body is most happy. that said, i weigh myself every day- as soon as i get up and after i pee. like many (women, mostly) have said, its very emotional. going up will ruin my day, going down will make me feel like im walking on the moon. and im not even doing paleo just for weight loss- its just supposed to be an added benefit. i hate that that emotional roller coaster is still there, but with so much weight left to lose i need to be on top of things.

I use a measuring tape.

in the beginning of getting healthy you should do it daily as soon as you rise......once your gut health is back and youre leptin sensitive then you can back down to q three days......I believe if you can measure outcomes you do so........that is how you generate results and how you learn as much as you can about your body and how it reacts to what you are putting in your ferrari.

Can any of you actually say with any certainty what your optimum weight should be, and for which time of the day. Even height fluctuates throughout the day with the pull of gravity. I have yet to see any scale or weight chart published which accurately sets out what I should weigh. Weight is dynamic for all sorts of reasons.

I weigh myself most days. I don't compulsively weigh myself every day, but I enjoy seeing what the scale says. As most everyone has said, you can't obsess over it. I find it interesting to see the change in weight from day to day and I have learned not to consider it a failure if suddenly it's jumped up a couple pounds.

By weighing myself often, I've been able to recognize trends and I've come to expect that certain conditions will cause the scale to move in one direction or the other, but for the most part these movements aren't permanent. Permanent changes to the scale seem to come from a long-term change in either diet or exercise, not a weekend binge or a single day of fasting.

If you're comfortable with it, I think the scale can be a useful tool. If you find yourself obsessing and climbing onto an emotional roller coaster, it might be best to hide it out of sight. 8)

I weigh myself every time I lift. Usually three times per week. I like knowing, yes. I'm trying to gain weight and muscle so. If you're trying to lose I think a mirror and camera are far better than a scale.

I see no problem with weighing yourself every day or multiple times a day, but you have to understand measurement error and noise and know how to get rid of that. There are many source of error and noise out there. First, most consumer grade scales are only precise to +/-0.6 lbs. So while they imply accuracy to the 0.1 lb by putting the tenth of a pound on the display, they really only work in 0.6lb increments. I know in the morning I either weigh 177.6, 178.2, or 178.8, but nothing else in between. Another source of error is a pint of water weighs 1lb. I know I can drink a pint of water in about 3 seconds after a workout, and it's so easy to be + or - a pint or two of water at any given time of the day. So you really can't say "I gained/lost 2 pounds today" because yesterday you could have been a pint low on water and today your a pint high.

There are many strategies to this, I always just round my weight to the nearest 5 lbs, because anything else isn't meaningful when you count all of the errors and noise.

Someone above mentioned doing a running 5 day average, that's also a very good method. Roughly, if you average N data points you get sqrt(N) more accuracy in your result.

But remember, todays measurement should count more than last week's measurement, so a really good way to do this is to use exponential decay averaging, you can look that up in The Hacker's Diet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet), most of what he says is crap (calories in, calories out nonsense), but he understands measurements, so it's a good start.

Though, really in the end the MOST important thing is how do you look, feel, and perform (courtesy Robb Wolf), the number on the scale is just a number and doesn't tell you very much. I just use it because I'm a data freak, I know that if I start to be consistently over 180 lbs, that it's time to start cutting back on the macadamia nuts, and if it's under 175 I can be less strict. But it never affects me emotionally on any given day. It's just another input.