Can You Stay For Dinner? |
How often do you weigh yourself? Posted: 26 Sep 2012 03:05 AM PDT A source of frustration that everyone who has ever tried to lose weight or maintain weight is that pesky box in the bathroom, the scale. Sometimes no matter how good a week you had while sticking to your goals, no matter how many times you narrowly escaped the urge to face plant into a birthday cake, the scale just won't cooperate. It happens. We’ve all at one time or another experienced one of life’s great embarrassments- standing naked and alone, arguing with an inanimate object. For lots of folks, the week to week fluctuations of the scale define the success or failure of their diets. This is both dangerous and impractical as a way to judge success. It’s impractical because your body weight measures much more than just your fat content, which is what most dieters are concerned with. The scale measures the gravitational pull on your fat but also your bones, organs, tissue, blood, water and everything else that you’re composed of. There are fluctuations constantly based on your food intake, waste output, water retention, and many other biological processes that have nothing to do with fat or calories. These can affect your scale weight by several pounds in either direction. This, my friends, is why weighing your body to measure how successful you were at losing fat is an imperfect measurement. It can be dangerous to define your success by your weight because many dieters end up getting so discouraged after a disappointing weigh in that they throw in the towel. If you are a person who fits this description you may be better off just weighing yourself once a month if at all. If you set goals for yourself that you know will lead to weight loss, have confidence that you’ll lose weight if you meet your goals regardless of what the scale says. If you’re the curious type and someone who can handle the daily swings of variance, it is perfectly fine to weigh yourself everyday. Some studies have shown that the accountability of a daily weigh in can be helpful. You won't always see the scale go down but you should be able to see a downward trend over time. I like to weigh myself once per week but I always keep in mind that the number isn't so important. Do you find more frequent weigh ins hold you accountable? Or, does the variance frustrate you too much? |
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