At the beginning, I was careful to weigh myself once a week, because I knew otherwise I'd get obsessed about how much I weighed every day. I know that the daily fluxuations aren't all that meaningful -- it is the trend that counts, not the daily (or even weekly) ups and downs, since those can be nothing more than water retention and (not to be too indelicate about it) how recently you've had a bowel movement. (Have you ever weighed yourself before and after, when you've had a very full bladder or had a very large BM? -- it's amazing to me how much I can hold!) For that matter, even just a few hours can make a big difference; just out of curiosity, I've weighed myself when I woke up at 6:00 to use the bathroom, then again when I get up for the day at around 8:00, and seen as much as a full pound difference.

The way I look at it, the more often you get on the scale, the more likely you are to have some gains in there. The less often -- provided you follow a proper eating plan, etc -- the more likely you are to see the scale go down at least a little each time you get on. Some people only weigh in once a month or so, pretty much guaranteeing that they'll have a loss of some amount every time they get on the scale. Some almost never weigh themselves -- they keep track of inches instead, which may actually be a better indicator.

Most importantly, you need to track success by how you feel and how you are eating, and trust those things more than the scale.

Having said all that. . .

Right now I'm weighing myself every morning. I started doing that when someone posted a 10 pound challenge -- how long it would take each of us to lose 10 pounds -- but I'm kind of having fun with it, as long as I don't obsess about those days when the scale shows an increase. Right now, I'm curious to see if I can detect any particular pattern -- like a slight gain after a certain amount of loss, or anything like that. (I'd be curious about the trend WRT to my TOM -- but being past menopause, that is no longer an issue!) Since I am NOT finding weighing once a day discouraging, I'm going to continue that for now. If I start to find it discouraging -- or start relying too much of the scale to measure success rather than knowing how I feel and paying attention to what I eat -- then I'll stop.