There is debate in dieting circles about how often you ought to weigh yourself. One popular theory holds that you should only do it once a week.
Why? Because there are a lot of ups and downs in your weight from day to day (and even within the day) depending on how much food and water you have in the system at the time. Since dieters who are successfully losing weight tend to lose only one or two pounds a week, these losses are likely to get, uh, lost amid all the daily fluctuations. Then the dieter will get discouraged, feel his is not losing an weight, and quit.
To solve this, the solution mentioned above wants the dieter to weigh himself as infrequently as possible so that there is more of a chance of him seeing an actual loss when he (finally) steps on the scale, motivating him to keep going.
Forget that!
I’m firmly on the side of the dieters who weigh themselves daily. Indeed, I weigh myself multiple times a day.
How do I overcome seeing all the ups and downs? I keep track of them. What I do is take my lowest weigh-in of the day (typically early in the morning, before I start eating and drinking) and log it in Microsoft Excel. I then use the charting feature to graph what my weight’s doing, as in the chart above, which shows a twelve-day track of my weight starting June 20th (click to enlarge).
As you can see, it has significant ups and downs. But the nice thing about tracking your progress in a charting-capable program is that you can hae it add a trendline that will filter out the ups and downs and give you a better sense of your progress.
As you can see from this chart, I lost about three and a half pounds over the twelve day span of the track.
There are still lots of ups and downs. Note that I had a major low on June 27, but I didn’t get back to that level again in the period. If I’d weighed myself on that day and then again seven days later (not shown on this chart), my weight would have actually registered an increase, but the increase would have been illustory because it was due to food and water in the system, not actual weight gain. I would have then felt unrewarded for my week of dieting and would have had to live under that cloud for another week until I could weigh myself again.
I’d find that discouraging!
And so, for me at least, it’s much better for my morale to indulge my tendency to microanalyze phenomena and weigh myself daily, using the marvels of modern technology to look past the ups and downs and give me a better representation of my progress.
ok, well I thought I was neurotic about my weight, but I don’t log it like that, so I guess you must be even more neurotic than I am.
I am a daily weigher. I have learned to my cost, that not to do so, can be self defeating. I once convinced myself that it was ‘unhealthy’ to weigh myself daily, and for about a month I refused to do so. During that month I gained 14 lbs. Never again.
It is now so neccessary for me to weigh myself daily that I am going to put the scales in my suitcase when I pack for our forth-coming hoiday (I should be packing now but can’t be bothered it’s so tedious and requires mammoth selection skills of which I am barely capable…this shirt, that skirt…just throw the whole lot in ,I say)
God Bless.
That makes sense to me. However, I don’t think I’d weigh myself every day just because it would be a bother for me; I don’t like to make dieting a “job”. I want the least level of awareness possible that I’m dieting and don’t want it always in the forefront of my mind. I select meals carefully and then forget about it at all other times. I’m more of one of those “just eat better and move around more” kinds of dieters, and when I notice my pants are loose, I’ll weigh myself out of curiosity. That’s just me. I find that any time I make a full-time job of writing everything down and graphing progress, and make myself constantly aware that I am dieting, I become nervous and irritable with the whole thing.
Others enjoy that kind of thing and find the feedback and control fun and motivating. That’s okay too. I just prefer to approach weight loss as a set of new habits, not a regimen that I have to monitor closely. Any time I try to monitor myself too much, I go nuts with anxiety and impatience, and am always ‘aware’ that I’m dieting. It’s better/easier for me to eat my healthy meals and forget that I’m dieting and distract myself with life. In that way the habits become normal habits without too much thought, and I don’t constantly feel as though I’m in ‘diet mode’.
Lurker,
Unfortunately, some people have to monitor themselves very closely. If you can just “eat better and move around more” then you must not have a problem with weight. If I did what you did, I would probably gain around 20 pounds in a month! I am a tried everything, done everything, except surgery kind of a person and have found Jimmy’s posts EXTREMELY helpful.
I have to eat very little as well to keep at a good weight. Believe me I’m not one of those naturally thin persons who eats what they want and just gives up sugar for a couple of weeks to lose 5 pounds. My thyroid is underactive.
What’s different for me now from when I used to monitor everything closely, is that I now have an excellent idea of how big a correct portion size is and what not to eat.
That, coupled with the fact that I don’t snack, is probably why I don’t have to monitor myself closely. I get hungry at meal times but that’s it. I don’t ‘snack to keep my blood sugar up’, which is the main reason behind the grazing/snacking theory. When you don’t eat simple sugars, but eat complex carbs instead, then you don’t have those awful sugar dips where you feel starving. Blood sugar remains more constant when you go for the complex carbs instead. (They also take more energy to burn off).
So this makes it easier for me. For example, I’m not big on breakfast, but for lunch, I’ll have pretty much what I want as long as it’s balanced, low-fat, and the carbs are complex, not simple carbs. For dinner, I keep it low fat and quickly figure out from what I had at lunch, how big of a portion of meat I can take and how much from the starch group to take, and throw in some vegetables. And I have water instead of my usual cola or beer. I don’t load up on low-calorie foods and eat all I can of them just because I can; that’s a good way to stretch out your stomach and eventually make it harder to fill it up and feel satiated. The way I eat, my stomach remains small enough to be full at the proper meal size–that seems in my experience to be as important as not letting simple sugars mess with your blood sugar level.
I didn’t say Jimmy’s advice isn’t helpful to some people. I simply mean that for me, monitoring myself closely all of the time will make me a nervous wreck. When I did it before, I became a control freak with an eating disorder. I keep things as simple as possible. If that means I won’t lose that last ten, fifteen, or twenty pounds to look like a cover girl in a bikini, I’m fine with that, really. I don’t want to stress myself out so much to lose that little bit of weight, and I choose not to.
I’m not contradicting anyone who finds the constant-monitoring method easier, or more fun, or motivating. If you get something positive out of that, by all means go for it. If it stresses one out, though, maybe simplification is what is needed.
Talking about all of this is making me want to lose my beer gut! I just can’t decide whether I really want to do it. First comes the motivation, then the decision… I’m not quite there yet.
I totally love this! A well known, intelligent theologically minded type who is also obsessively following their weight–and succeeding in losing weight. Bravo. I also rely on the do my clothes fit? And, honey, did I lose weight, tell me — do I look fat in this? test. The second can be tough on your marriage until your spouse catches on to the correct answer.
Jimmy, can you fess up what kind of fiber you use? I just got back from the health food store and there weren’t many options that had substantial amounts of fiber in them (many had less than 3 grams/serving, which to me is a waste of money).
I’ve been walking a lot this summer and I’ve got an Excel spreadsheet to analyze my daily steps counts in several different ways. I’m gald to see someone else who’s turned a(n overly?) analytical mind to good use 🙂
Ooops. Except that it’s an Open Office spreadsheet. Same idea, though.