How Often Do You Weigh Yourself?

How often do you weight yourself? Some people weigh themselves every day. Others weight themselves once a week. At the other extreme, some people are afraid to ever get on a scale, because they think they’ll be highly frustrated and discouraged when they see the number.

How often should you weigh yourself for getting good results? A research study by Elina E. Helander, Anna-Leena Vuorinen , Brian Wansink, and Ilkka K. J. Korhonen found the following:

• The more days between weight measurements, the larger the weight gain
• Daily self-weighing was generally associated with weight loss
• Weekly self-weighing was generally associated with weight loss
• Going longer than a month without self-weighing was generally associated with weight gain

Limitations of the study included the fact that only 40 people participated; all of them were overweight and signed up for a health program because they were motivated to lose weight.

What can you conclude about how often you should weigh yourself? If you are motivated by seeing the numbers, you can weight yourself every day or every other day. If you get discouraged easily when your weight goes up (even if you have been following your program) then it’s better to weigh in once a week. Going over a week without weighing in is not recommended, as the longer you go, the more likely you will be to gain weight.

Keep in mind that everyone’s weight fluctuates within a range. This is do to factors like amount of sleep, amount of water drunk, hormonal shifts, and many other factors. If you get discouraged easily, it helps to remember this.