Weigh early, weigh often

Me, too. It really helps me to keep the focus on my woe.

--
Linda
LC since Oct. 13, 2003
296/188.2/160
http://home.att.net/~lewis_linda/index.html
http://community.webshots.com/user/mslewtoo

"Are you telling me there are dead people in my living room watching
videos?"--Nina (Truly, Madly, Deeply)

"Ignoramus7414" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I weigh myself every morning and it is helpful and entertaining.

--
223/172.8/180

Chris,

I've been maintaining for about a year and a half. I currently am still at
my lowest weight.

I have found that a daily, morning weighing is essential for successful
maintenance. A couple times over the course of the past year my weight has
started to creep up. When stringent adherence to a low carb diet did not
reverse the weight gain, I ended up going to an endocrinologist who put me
on a drug that has really helped.

Another drug I tried (a blood pressure med) caused significant weight gain
within 3 weeks, so I stopped taking it.

I generally fluctuate within 2 lbs depending on how much I've eaten, but if
the weight gain goes up to 4 lbs it's an alarm bell that requires immediate
response.

Once you have reached goal, it can be extremely tough to lose weight since
your body requires so much less food to keep going. I can lose two or three
pounds with the kind of effort that used to result in losing 10 lbs. So it
is really important to never get to where I need to lose more than those 2
or 3 lbs!

--
Jenny - Low Carbing for 5 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Jenny's new site: What they Don't Tell You About Diabetes
http://www.geocities.com/lottadata4u/

Jenny's Low Carb Diet Facts & Figures
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

"Chris Smolinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

While some advise against frequent weigh-ins, four years of low carbing
have convinced me that I do better with them. I get to see when I'm
drifting back up in weight, and see what my progress is. Yes, you see a
lot of day to day variations, but you can easily plot out the data, and
filter it out.

I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before I have anything to
eat. I've weight myself a few times during the day as well, and I
typically see about a 5 pound variation between the lowest and highest
values, with the morning weight being the lowest. Most likely because I
have the least amount of excess water at that time, after not drinking
anything (or much) overnight. So weighing at the same time each day
reduces a lot of the variation. Several months of recent data shows that
typically the variation is only +/- 1 pound between days.

I started low carb at 248 pounds in October of 2000, getting down to
about 188 pounds a year later. I then stopped weighing myself, wasn't
quite as careful with what I was eating, and drifted back to around 205
this summer. I caught myself, and am now back down to 188. My original
goal was 175, I now think I'd like to try for 170 or 165, but we'll see
how I look and feel at 175.

Surprisingly my rate of loss has been fairly steady, and doesn't appear
to have started to level off - yet! It's running about 1 1/4 pounds a
week. Obviously it won't continue at that rate mich longer.

For those interested, here's a graph of the last four months, since I
re-started low carb eating: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/pics/weight.gif

The red line is the actual data, the blue line is a smoothed average.

The missing two weeks during September is while I was on vacation at the
Outer Banks, surprisingly I only about 2 pounds during that time, even
indulging in the occasional ice cream and milkshake.

My first year when I went from 248 to 188 is also available
here: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/pics/weight0.gif

You can see the initial water loss during the first week or two.

I know that frequent weigh-ins don't work for some people, but they do
for others, and some might want to give it a try.

--
---
Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com

"Chris Smolinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before I have anything to
eat. I've weight myself a few times during the day as well, and I
typically see about a 5 pound variation between the lowest and highest
values, with the morning weight being the lowest.

I don't bother with anything other than the morning weighing, because your
scales can't distinguish between you and you plus the drink you just had. I
only write down my weight on Mondays, the rest of the week's "unofficial"
weights are just for interest... Mondays is also waist measurement day, plus
fasting blood sugar day.

Nicky.

--
HbA1c 10.5/6.4/<6 Weight 95/81/72
1g Metformin, 75ug Thyroxine
T2 DX 05/2004

"Nicky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Chris Smolinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before I have anything to
eat. I've weight myself a few times during the day as well, and I
typically see about a 5 pound variation between the lowest and highest
values, with the morning weight being the lowest.

I don't bother with anything other than the morning weighing, because your
scales can't distinguish between you and you plus the drink you just had.
I only write down my weight on Mondays, the rest of the week's
"unofficial" weights are just for interest... Mondays is also waist
measurement day, plus fasting blood sugar day.

Nicky.

--
HbA1c 10.5/6.4/<6 Weight 95/81/72
1g Metformin, 75ug Thyroxine
T2 DX 05/2004

I've been weighing every mornng and now I can usually tell when my TOM is
going to start about 2-3 days before it does. I put on about 3 pounds water
weight and the extra 3 poounds stays through the TOM and then drops.
Weighing daily helps you know your body and what it's going through. You
can understand why the weight goes up and do something about it before it
becomes a bigger problem.
Diane

I too weigh every morning. I feel it is important to maintain my database
in Fitday to see the trend. Sometimes I weigh myself in the evening to try
to predict what the next morning's number will be.

There is a lot of noise in the signal. Those who expect instant results
will be disappointed.

Cubit
311/208/165

I don't
"Ignoramus7414" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I weigh myself every morning and it is helpful and entertaining.

--
223/172.8/180

Chris Smolinski said:

I know that frequent weigh-ins don't work for some people, but they
do for others, and some might want to give it a try.

Exactly. Daily weigh-ins give the most accurate data when viewed over
a period, but it's tempting to look at progress from day to day, which
really doesn't make sense.

I weigh daily as well (every morning), and then use a linear
interpolation model based on one week's worth of data in order to get
something actually useful.

--
Stefan Holm
289/252/170 @ 2004-11-04
LC (Atkins) since 2004-08-07
<http://lowcarb.algebra.dk>

Actual data, smoothed average - you sounds like some financial analyst!

Looking at your figures, it seems like you put on 7 lbs over the course of 3
years - that's not overly bad. I'm glad you're back on the wagon. I also
weight myself almost daily - mainly to make sure that I'm not putting on
weight... although I'm trying to lose. I lost 2 kilos back around early
October within about 2 weeks and then nothing has happened since. I talk
myself into thinking that these "nothing happening periods" as time that my
body are adjusting and securing the loss, so that I don't just give up and
run off and feast on pasta and cakes. Enough with my nonsense so I shall
stop - and good luck to your new low carb adventure and please stick with it
for the rest of your life this time round.

"Chris Smolinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

While some advise against frequent weigh-ins, four years of low carbing
have convinced me that I do better with them. I get to see when I'm
drifting back up in weight, and see what my progress is. Yes, you see a
lot of day to day variations, but you can easily plot out the data, and
filter it out.

I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before I have anything to
eat. I've weight myself a few times during the day as well, and I
typically see about a 5 pound variation between the lowest and highest
values, with the morning weight being the lowest. Most likely because I
have the least amount of excess water at that time, after not drinking
anything (or much) overnight. So weighing at the same time each day
reduces a lot of the variation. Several months of recent data shows that
typically the variation is only +/- 1 pound between days.

I started low carb at 248 pounds in October of 2000, getting down to
about 188 pounds a year later. I then stopped weighing myself, wasn't
quite as careful with what I was eating, and drifted back to around 205
this summer. I caught myself, and am now back down to 188. My original
goal was 175, I now think I'd like to try for 170 or 165, but we'll see
how I look and feel at 175.

Surprisingly my rate of loss has been fairly steady, and doesn't appear
to have started to level off - yet! It's running about 1 1/4 pounds a
week. Obviously it won't continue at that rate mich longer.

For those interested, here's a graph of the last four months, since I
re-started low carb eating: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/pics/weight.gif

The red line is the actual data, the blue line is a smoothed average.

The missing two weeks during September is while I was on vacation at the
Outer Banks, surprisingly I only about 2 pounds during that time, even
indulging in the occasional ice cream and milkshake.

My first year when I went from 248 to 188 is also available
here: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/pics/weight0.gif

You can see the initial water loss during the first week or two.

I know that frequent weigh-ins don't work for some people, but they do
for others, and some might want to give it a try.

--
---
Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]
says...

Quoted message said:

I've been weighing every mornng and now I can usually tell when my TOM is
going to start about 2-3 days before it does. I put on about 3 pounds water
weight and the extra 3 poounds stays through the TOM and then drops.
Weighing daily helps you know your body and what it's going through. You
can understand why the weight goes up and do something about it before it
becomes a bigger problem.

Ditto on the TOM observation. I also recently discovered the microwaved
pepperoni crisps -- everyone was right -- they ARE good! They also
caused me to gain 2-3 lbs of water overnight. I stopped eating them,
and the water weight dropped. Since I weigh myself every morning and
record not only my weight, but my daily food log in an Excel
spreadsheet, it was easy to observe how the extra sodium affected my
weight.

--
Saffire
205/147/125 - 5'1.5"
Atkins since 6/14/03
Progress photo: http://photos.yahoo.com/saffire333

"Ignoramus22442" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I keep track of my last week's average. The weight in my sig is
actually the average of the past week, not today's weight. It is
automatically computed and added to my sig file.

That's a good idea - I might try that, thanks.

Nicky.

Chris Smolinski said:

While some advise against frequent weigh-ins, four years of low carbing
have convinced me that I do better with them.

I do to. I also offer custom-generated blank graphs for plotting your
weight on a daily basis, as seeing the long-term trends is more useful
than knowing a single day's number.

http://www.delorie.com/health/

I weighed every day for about the first year and I think I'm about twice a
month now that I think of it. There's usually at least one plesant surprise in
there.

"Cubit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I too weigh every morning. I feel it is important to maintain my database
in Fitday to see the trend. Sometimes I weigh myself in the evening to try
to predict what the next morning's number will be.

There is a lot of noise in the signal. Those who expect instant results
will be disappointed.

Cubit
311/208/165

I don't
"Ignoramus7414" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I weigh myself every morning and it is helpful and entertaining.

--
223/172.8/180

I can become obsessed and a slave to the scale. When I have weighed in
the past. I too did not eat anything, went to the bathroom, Slipped my
dress on with no under garments, grabbed my keys and went to the docs
office just down the street before patients started arriving. I throw
the keys on the counter take my shoes off and weigh. I know its
accurate with same clothes on each time. I have been naughty but have
been back on the wagon the last 3 weeks. I weighed in after week one
and have not done so again. I have a different point of view now about
weighing in since I do have some metabolic resistance that discourages
me. I choose not to weigh but once a month. It will kill me to get on
lets say weekly and find I have lost nothing. I have to do LC
regardless of weight loss b/c it keeps my blood suagr down. I just
hope when I get back on I have a nice surprise. My Dh is on LC too so
it is a competitive thing too LOL
Laureen

"Chris Smolinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

While some advise against frequent weigh-ins, four years of low carbing
have convinced me that I do better with them. I get to see when I'm
drifting back up in weight, and see what my progress is. Yes, you see a
lot of day to day variations, but you can easily plot out the data, and
filter it out.

I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before I have anything to
eat. I've weight myself a few times during the day as well, and I
typically see about a 5 pound variation between the lowest and highest
values, with the morning weight being the lowest.
---
Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com

Same here. I find it very helpful to weigh every day. I have found in the
past that it is too easy to "slip" (always *upwards*) a few pounds without
even realizing it. I weigh myself as soon as I get up every morning, before
getting dressed or eating anything. Occasionally I will also weigh
fully-clothes in the afternoon simply because that gives me a good estimate
of what my weight will be on the doctor's scales.

MaryL