The last thing you should do is to obsess over your weight, but it’s still important to monitor it for your health. Losing weight is challenging work, even when you have the right tools and strategies. But to succeed, you must know how much progress you’re making. If you aren’t tracking your progress regularly, it will be easy for you to lose motivation and give up on your weight-loss goals altogether.
If you don’t weigh yourself, you could step on the scale a year later and discover you’ve gained 10 pounds, enough to make a substantial difference in your future health risks. Even a small weight gain can affect cardiovascular risk factors, like blood pressure and lipids, and even blood sugar control.
So, you want to catch a small weight gain before it becomes a bigger one. It’s much easier to lose a small amount of weight than 10 pounds or more that snuck up on you because you didn’t weigh for months.
Weigh Daily or Not?
Now that you know you need to follow your weight, should you weigh every day? Research shows people who step on the scale daily lose more weight and gain less weight over time than those who don’t weigh every day. Other studies also show daily weigh-ins help with weight loss and weight control. But if stepping on the scale daily causes too much anxiety, weigh yourself once per week. If you do so less often, you run the risk of a small weight gain turning into a big one.
With age, you might notice that your weight gradually starts to rise, and scientists have new theories as to why. The Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Lyon in France found that fat cell turnover in fat tissue slows with age, making it easier to gain weight. The only way to compensate for this is to adjust your diet and activity level. Keeping close tabs on your weight with daily weigh-ins helps you react quickly to slight changes in body weight before they become larger and less manageable.
What’s the Best Time to Weigh?
Then there’s the question of when to weigh. Weight can fluctuate by up to 5 pounds from day to day from factors like:
- Eating a large meal
- Consuming too much sodium
- How well hydrated you are
- The effect of hormones in women
- Medications
- Constipation
- The effects of alcohol consumption
Many people get alarmed when they see a several-pound rise when they step on the scale, but these fluctuations are normal. The best way to reduce the effect of daily fluctuations from fluid shifts, meals, and too much sodium is to weigh first thing in the morning as soon as you get out of bed. Be sure to urinate before a weigh-in, as having a full bladder increases your body weight by several pounds and gives a reading that reflects “false” weight gain or temporary weight gain. Don’t stress over daily weight fluctuations, as they’re normal.
Morning is the best time to check your body weight. Keep in mind that weight gradually rises as the day goes on, so you’ll weigh more in the evening than you will when you wake up in the morning. During the day you eat foods, consume sodium, and drink liquids, all of which affect your body weight. You’ll get the truest picture of your weight if you weigh first thing in the morning after urinating.
Your Weight Measures More Than Body Fat
When you jump on the scale and note your weight is up, don’t assume you’ve put on body fat. It could be water weight, or if you’ve started strength training, you may have gained muscle mass. You can’t determine whether your body fat changed with a standard scale. Some people invest in body fat scales that use electrical impedance to estimate body fat percentage. These scales have pros and cons. For various reasons, they’re not very accurate in an absolute sense.
That doesn’t mean body fat scales aren’t useful. If you weigh on one first thing in the morning after emptying your bladder, you can get an idea whether your body fat percentage is changing over time. Having that information can be useful, but you shouldn’t assume the number you get is an accurate measure of your body fat percentage.
Don’t Depend Too Much on a Single Measurement
The bathroom scale is only one measurement. Doctors now say we need to pay more attention to waist size. A large waist size is a marker of increased visceral fat, a deep belly fat linked with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. For measuring visceral fat, a tape measure will tell you more. If you’re metabolically healthy, your waist size should be no larger than half of your height. For example, if you’re 5 feet 6 inches or 66 inches, your waist size should be no larger than 33 inches. If it is, you could be carrying too much visceral fat. Some healthcare practitioners believe waist size is a more important marker of health than body weight.
The Bottom Line
Now you know the best time to weigh yourself – in the morning, and why it’s important to be consistent about it. While you’re at it, whip out the tape measure and monitor your waist size. Track the measurements so you can show your health care provider. Waist size is a measurement that matters, and most people don’t monitor theirs closely enough. If you don’t want to weigh every day, try weighing daily for a few weeks to get an idea of how much your weight fluctuates day-to-day. Then, switch to weighing yourself weekly.
References:
- “Why Does My Weight Fluctuate | Causes of Daily Weight ….” 07 Jul. 2020, universityhealthnews.com/daily/nutrition/a-daily-weight-fluctuation-nothing-to-wor”Weight Fluctuation: Daily Range, 8 Factors, How to Weigh ….” 31 Jul. 2018, healthline.com/health/weight-fluctuation.
- “Waist Size Matters | Obesity Prevention Source | Harvard T ….” hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/.
- “The Skinny on Visceral Fat – Hopkins Medicine.” hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/faculty-resources/core_resources/Patient%20Handouts/Handouts_May_2012/The%20Skinny%20on%20Visceral%20Fat.pdf.
- “Why people gain weight as they get older — ScienceDaily.” 09 Sept. 2019, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190909193211.htm.
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