Hello. I’m Claire. And I weigh myself every morning. But why? Are we not always told to only weigh ourselves once a week? – Or better still once a month? I mean, weight goes up and down like a yoyo depending on the amount of glycogen in your body (it takes 3-4 grams of water to bind to each gram of glycogen), the amount of salt in your body, what time of day you are weighing yourself….and so on and so forth. And then there is all the psychological stuff….you are more than a number on the scale; that number is not necessarily indicative of health; the number on the scale should not determine happiness. I could go on. I won’t, but I could.
So why, when I know all of this, do I choose to weigh myself every morning?
Y’know when sometimes you stumble across something which makes such a difference you wonder why on earth it hadn’t occurred to you before? Weighing myself each day was one of those things. It actually seems counter-productive and certainly goes against any advice the various slimming clubs have given me.
Weight Stability
I weigh myself every morning, before any food and drink. And, given how wildly my weight has fluctuated over the course of the weeks when I attended said slimming clubs, I have been mightily surprised by just how stable it is when tracked daily. I am losing less than a pound a week, on average. This means that my weight remains the same (exactly the same) for five or so days, flicks between that weight and one pound less for a day or two and then settles at one pound less. Then, the cycle begins again. Even during the monthly cycle (which had always caused tremendous gains) it is stable. I put this down to my healthier life style.
Self Control Tool
However, weighing myself daily is not just interesting to see the general stability of my weight, but also to catch myself if I put on a pound. Usually this only happens on date night, when I eat more than normal. I believe the extra pound is weight in me rather than on me, but it always makes me much more careful with my food the next day. In general, if there is an increase, I can get rid of it easily by swapping one of my meals for a juice that same day. When I weigh myself the next morning I am always back down. In this way, I know I will not let one pound become two pounds, or three….or four.
Latest Research
There’s research to back this up too.
There is a caveat to this. I do not have an eating disorder (at least not of the obsessive weighing and worrying kind). The scales have never been my enemy. Sugar? Yes! Pastries? Absolutely! But never scales. Possibly, if the scales are your enemy or you are prone to eating disorders and/or anxiety and depression around those scale numbers, weighing yourself daily may not be for you. But for me it has become my daily barometer. It is what allows me to go out and enjoy myself and ensures I pull back the next day. It puts the power in my hands, and makes sure I never get out of control.
I am currently at the lowest weight I have been for donkey’s years. I still have waaaaaay further to go, but it seems doable now, simply taking one day at a time, losing an ounce here and there and watching them add up to a pound every week or so. I’m in no rush. My lifestyle has changed, and this feels eminently doable until the day I die. Eventually my body will settle into its own comfortable weight, and when that happens I will have reached my goal, regardless of the number on the scale. That number is a tool and one I choose to use daily for the rest of my life.
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