Daily weigh ins vs. weekly weigh ins

"Should I weigh in every day or just once a week?" It's a common question. And I'm going to give an answer that is very true, but one I think people don't hear enough:

Scientifically speaking, you should probably weigh yourself every day.

Now, this is a post I've been mulling over this for a while. Erin (who, by the way, has a great blog that I'd encourage you to check out) commented on a post of mine not too long back that "the almighty 'they' discourage weighing in daily." And in terms of the diet world, she's right. Weight Watchers, Spark People, and most other diet plans and diet books say you should only weigh once a week. The typical justifications are that the scale can change greatly from day to day, meaning it's not all that accurate, and that there are emotional downsides with seeing false losses and gains throughout the week. Essentially, conventional wisdom in the diet world says that weighing yourself every day can discourage you and stress you out. But conventional wisdom isn't always right.

Weighting yourself every day is actually a good idea according to science. A 2005 study showed that "Dieters who weighed themselves regularly shed more pounds over a 24-month period than people who didn't regularly weigh themselves. Those who weighed themselves daily lost the most." Another University of Minnesota study "found that those who weighed themselves daily lost an average of 12 pounds over 2 years; weekly scale watchers lost only 6. The once-a-day group also was less likely to regain weight loss." And there are more studies out there with much the same message.

So weighing daily makes you likely to lose more weight and keep it off once it's gone. But what about the emotional damage of daily weigh ins? At least one study in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology says that's a myth. Here's what they found:

Several recent studies suggest that daily weighing is important for long-term weight control, but concerns have been raised about possible adverse psychological effects.
...
We found no evidence that increases in frequency of weighing or daily weighing per se had any adverse effects in this study population. Rather, increases in self-weighing were associated with increases in dietary restraint (p less than 0.001), decreases in disinhibition (p less than 0.003), and decreases in depressive symptoms (p less than 0.002). Moreover, those who weighed daily at 18 months were less likely to report having = 4 binge episodes per month (p = 0.03). Daily weighing appears to be an important aspect of weight loss maintenance and was not associated with adverse psychological effect.

So there's scientific evidence that weighing daily isn't emotionally damaging. It even seems to decrease depression and binging! And why are we supposed to weigh in weekly, again?

The answer to the question "should I weigh myself every day or once a week?" seems to be every day. Scientifically speaking, if you want to play the probabilities, you should step on your scale every day.

That said, just because something is likely to be right for you doesn't mean something is right for you. If you're not comfortable with daily weigh ins, then you shouldn't weigh in daily. It might be that you get extremely depressed by stepping on the scale, or that you truly can't stand seeing the fluctuations. Maybe for you this journey is more the emotional or even spiritual aspects, and that while you do want to track your weight, you don't care much about the numbers. You need to do what works for you.

My advice:

Seriously consider weighing in every day. It may not work for you, but there's some good evidence that it more likely to work than you might think. But, at the end of the day, trust yourself. If you don't want to do daily weigh ins, don't do daily weigh ins. Stick with weekly, monthly, or whatever else makes you happy. The right answer for you might not be the right answer for everyone else. And with that in mind, next time you hear someone mindlessly parrot the diet industry's standard "you shouldn't weigh yourself more than once a week," let them know that science, at least, says otherwise.

Oh, and to answer the requests from yesterday, I will review the Body Bugg once I get mine. It shipped last night, and should be arriving on the 22nd.

Tuesday Weigh In

I weigh in every day, but today's the big, official, "side of the blog" Tuesday weigh in day. The results? Not too shabby.

Weight: 253.7
BMI: 43.54

Now, when you look at the fact that I was at 253.9 two days ago, it's not that impressive. However, if you take into account that last week's official weigh in was 258.2, well, this is totally a happy dance number. 4.5 pounds is really quite ridiculously awesome.

I did pick up a new scale yesterday. It's white, it's by Thinner, and I can't find it on amazon or I'd link it to you. I primarily picked it up because it was the only non Weight Watchers scale that went to .1 pounds (just like my old scale does/did) and it didn't have crazy body fat/body water/bone density/things I don't need. It does vary depending on my exact position when I hop on, but it's still reasonably consistent. I greatly prefer the different readings to the faked same readings of the WW scale. Researching scales on Amazon, I found that there are a few other people who agree with my "programmed to give you the same reading" conspiracy theory. This way, when I get different readings, I can be smart about which one shows up the most.

It's weird though. As much as I'm in to nit picking the number, I also get that it doesn't really matter all that much. Unless I go ahead and get one of the big health o meter doctor scales, I'm not going to get a truly accurate reading. And even though this battle day to day and week to week is fought in pounds and fractions thereof, in the big picture that's not what it's about. I'm in the lower half of the 250s right now: where, exactly, I am doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm not in the upper part of the 270s anymore. The big numbers I'm looking at: where I started and where I'm going, they're so different that a few pounds of scale error isn't really a big deal. Even if day to day scale errors matter, I have to remember that in the long run they don't, and that I just need to keep the trend moving down.

Speaking of trends, it's about time to show you my totally badass moving average progress. Take a look:


And remember when I lost 4.5 pounds this week? JOY.

And before I close out the post, thank you to Monica, Kat and Orange and Black Kittehs for hooking me up with even more lovely blog awards. I think you guys are lovely too!

I think I need a new scale

This is the part of the post where I normally give the day's weigh in. Today, that's just not going to happen.

So I have this scale which I purchased off of Amazon shortly after moving to DC in January. I've typically liked it because it's very consistent. If I weigh myself then hop off then weigh myself again, it'll give me back the same number.

This morning, I weighed myself and came in at 253.8. I hopped on and off a few times, and still got the 253.8. I went to the bathroom, and then decided to weigh myself again, hoping to have, er, discarded a few ounces into the toilet. I weighed in again: 255.8.

This made no sense. One doesn't gain 2 pounds in a few minutes, and certainly not by going to the bathroom. I stepped off, grabbed a relatively heavy container of laundry detergent, and stepped back on. (My scale is right by my washer/dryer and cleaning supplies.) 255.8.

At this point, I'm beginning to suspect that the scale itself isn't accurate, it just repeats the same weight as it gets the first time so you'll think it's accurate.

Holding two containers of laundry detergent, I was finally able to get the scale to move up to 261. When I put them both back and stepped on again: a repeatable 254.8.

Made breakfast/lunch and packed them in my bag to go to work. Went back to weigh: 253.8. Consistent hopping on and off a few times.

Went to the bathroom, weighed myself again: 255.8. I stepped on several times, and kept getting 255.8.

At this point, I was getting close to running late, so I got dressed, stopped messing with the scale, and went to work. I'm planning a post work trip to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a new scale. Does anyone have any scale recommendations?

I half considered getting one of these, which I think Monica has, but I think I'd be too embarrassed to have one around when friends and family members come over. I'm still at the point where I'm yet to acknowledge to anyone offline that I'm on a diet. While I accept that the cat will be out of the bag eventually, I'd like it to happen via people visually noticing, rather than seeing a "she means business" scale in my apartment.

Also: thank you to Learning to Be Less for giving me another lovely blog award!