The number on a scale is not our health score. But when as many people struggle with obesity and overweight as do today, it might as well be. If we can maintain a healthy weight, so many other things fall in line that other efforts pale in comparison.
If you don't struggle with weight, congratulations, you are in the happy minority. The majority of Americans do struggle with weight, and the numbers continue to grow. The CDC estimates the prevalence of obesity in adults at 40% currently. The number of simply overweight people is far higher, more than two-thirds of the adult population.
Being overweight leads to increased incidence of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, some forms of cancer, and more. We've all heard the litany a thousand times. And we all know being overweight can destroy our quality of life. But knowing we have to lose weight to feel better just isn't getting the job done.
So can something as simple as stepping on a scale daily or weekly help us lose weight? A decent scale is about twenty dollars. Stepping on the scale takes about ten seconds. We're in the bathroom anyway a few times a day. It's an easy thing to do.
But is it effective? Do people that weigh themselves daily lose more weight than they they otherwise would? How often should we weigh ourselves? What time of day should we weight ourselves? Let's see if we can figure it all out.
The American Heart Association studied the weight loss of over 1000 people for a year and looked at their weight loss compared to their weighing habits. They found that daily weighers lost significantly more weight over time than non-weighing participants, and even weekly weighing participants.
The two upper lines in the graph are the people that weigh themseves once a week, or don't weight themselves at all. All the groups that weighed themselves more consistently showed some level of weight loss.
A smaller study, done by the NIH in 2015, found the same thing. Daily weighers lost significantly more weight than people weighing themselves less frequently. And the participants who weighed daily tended to take up more other weight loss behaviors, as shown in the chart below.
There is a caveat to daily weighing though-- obsessive weighing can lead to anxiety and possibly depression if the scale isn't moving as fast as we want. We need to understand that our weights fluctuate over time even during overall weight loss, and we need to use it as a trend tracker rather than a measure of daily success.
If we return to the AHA report, we see a distinct difference between those who weigh daily versus those who weigh weekly. Those who weighed themselves weekly were as unsuccessful as those who didn't weigh at all.
Anecdotally, weekly weighing can lead to a fluctuating diet strategy of trying to 'shape up' just prior to the weigh-in day, and cutting loose right after. Weight loss is such a mental and psychological process, as we learn to understand our own body's signals of hunger and satiety, and maybe we just cannot navigate one more way for our body to trick us into eating.
If you are someone who feels anxiety over daily weighing, or you have had an eating disorder, it is likely you will be more successful not weighing yourself daily. It is best used as a gentle nudge or reminder, and if it feels worse than that for you, it's likely counterproductive.
For the vast majority of people, weighing daily is the best method. And remembering that our weight can fluctuate even over the course of a few hours, is important. And knowing that losing a pound of fat while gaining a pound of muscle is true progress, even though it won't show on the scale. Weighing just helps monitor your overall trend over time. And if it keeps us on track, it's a win.
Other studies concur with this view, like this NIH study which found that "higher weighing frequency was associated with greater 24-month weight loss or less weight gain." In simpler terms, for our purposes of controlling weight, that means weighing more often is better then less often.
The best time to weigh yourself is whatever time works for you. Weighing ourselves consistently is more important than obsessing over finding the perfect time to weigh.
But if you have a choice, weigh yourself at the same time every day. We want to minimize the variables we introduce to our process, so we don't want to weigh ourselves when we wake up one day, then right after dinner the next day.
What is the ideal time to weigh yourself? The concensus among experts is that the best time is to weigh yourself first thing in the morning, after you use the restroom but before you eat anything. In this weigh you have a relatively consistent set of circumstances to get a relatively consistent measurement. The nice thing is that this is also generally the lightest you will be over the course of the day.
But the most important reason for choosing this time is that it fits easily into a morning routine. Waking up is something we do every day. And we generally use the restroom for some things once we're up. The scale is usually there, we're usually there, and the easier we make a habit to follow, the more likely we are to follow it.
So wake up, hit the head, and weigh yourself. Keep your mind on your weight loss goal and start your day on track. And for an easy, free reminder and tracker, use Weightsy. No app, no password, no hassle. Just text your number back when you get your message and watch your success over time on a nifty little graph.