How Often Should I Weigh Myself?

When someone begins a weight loss journey, they may pull out the scale to monitor progress. But here are a few things to note about weighing yourself:

Your weight fluctuates from day to day. As it’s meant to. The number fluctuates (sometimes 1-4 pounds) easily. Around your period, your progesterone and aldosterone increases, which leads to sodium and water retention causing a higher number on the scale. The amount of fiber, carbohydrates, and excessive salt intake can also increase the number on the scale.

You started exercising but the number isn’t changing. Keep in mind, your muscle mass can increase while your fat tissue decreases. If you are doing a well-rounded exercise program, it should include strength training. This will build lean tissue, and lean tissue is much more dense than fat. So, the scale could stay the same, however, perhaps you notice your clothes are looser and your body composition is changing. To me, this is more important than a number on the scale. The added bonus of building muscle is it will help boost your metabolism and your metabolism could be higher even while you sleep! Amazing, right?!

Your scale doesn’t let you know if you’re healthy or not. Just because someone is thin doesn’t mean they are healthy. Focus on practicing healthier habits and be consistent. For overall improved health, you need to make changes that you can sustain to keep healthy long term, not just for instant weight loss. Blood pressure and cholesterol levels are a great way to measure your health than a number on a scale.

Your self-worth may be impacted. Depending on your personality, weighing yourself daily can be associated with lowered self esteem and have a negative impact on body image and body satisfaction if you don’t hit what you have determined is the appropriate number. This can lead to developing disordered eating thoughts and behaviors and feelings of lowered self-worth. It can be disheartening when you weigh the same after a week or two of attempting to make changes to your diet and lifestyle. We are putting way too much pressure on ourselves and that stupid number can bring you down and make you want to quit or make you do drastic things to your diet and lifestyle.

So when and how frequently should you weigh yourself?

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning without clothes on and the frequency is up to you. If you weigh yourself daily, don’t skip the days after you overindulged. Record every single day and then take the average number for that week and document that number. It’s much better to see progress week to week rather than day to day. If you are one that gets disheartened when the scale doesn’t show the number you want, perhaps you should weigh yourself weekly (usually Friday mornings are best before the craziness of the weekend occurs.) Remember if you are trying to lose weight along with diet changes and exercise and notice your energy has improved, your clothes fit better, and you are losing inches, it doesn’t matter what the scale says. It’s just a number. It doesn’t define you.