Have you ever had a weight loss expert tell you to "throw away your scale?" or maybe you heard that too much focus on scale weight can turn you into an obsessive-compulsive (sound familiar?). Well, body compound is more important than body weight - you won't get any discussion from me about That. But what if I told you that research supports a strong correlation between daily weigh-ins and long term weight loss success? Yes, I said Daily weigh-ins. Do you think that's crazy, or could this habit be something that might help you growth your fat loss success?
It's general for your body weight to fluctuate, so it's important to control and catalogue for those variances when you weigh-in and chart your progress. Your weight fluctuates not only on a weekly and day to day basis, but even within the same day - sometimes by any pounds just from morning to night!
Weigh Scale
Changes in weight can be based on numerous factors together with hydration (loss or gain of water weight) and contents of your digestive law (how modern the last meal and bowel movements were). A exciting midpoint could absolutely flat out the variances.
To get accurate weigh-ins, consistency is also a key. All the time do your best to double the weigh in conditions every time: Fed or fasted, clothed or not clothed, bladder empty or full, pre or post workout, morning or evening, high carb or low carb day, number of fluids ingested, diuretic substances consumed, etc. If you control for all these factors, you'll get more accurate weight and body compound data and also help flat out the variances.
I recommend taking a body fat measurement only once a week (once every two weeks would probably suffice, but I prefer getting weekly feedback). I also recommend weighing yourself "officially" once a week, on the same scale, under the same conditions. But I also believe daily weighing can be helpful as long as you're controlling the variables and you don't obsess over daily fluctuations (instead, using the manifold data points to track the trend over time).
If you weigh yourself daily, you can log your weight into a spreadsheet and then change your develop into a graph with the date on the horizontal axis and weight on the vertical axis. The key is to look for the trend over time. Body fat (and weight) should be heading down in a long term trend and lean body mass should be staying relatively stable. You could also add a column for 7-day exciting midpoint if you choose, which smooths out the fluctuations or "noise." (okay, okay, so only the analytical, number-crunching "geeks" will go that far... But then again, we have quite a few of them among our readers... And some of them are pretty darn Lean!)
Another benefit of tracking your measurements frequently is that you can collate your weight and body compound results to your training and nutrition for the same time duration to look for correlations between methods and results and hopefully learn what methods work the best for you.
Many weight loss experts say you should "throw away your scales" and that it's a bad idea to weigh yourself daily or even to weigh yourself at all. I disagree and there's a Lot of research showing that self monitoring behaviors such as tracking food intake, exercise, body weight and body compound helps to growth yielding and heighten weight loss and maintenance.
It's base sense for weight management, but also well thorough wisdom in teaching, coaching and business management? that you can only expect what you eye - and what gets measured and tracked gets improved. When measurements are reported to an authority figure, and you are "graded" and held accountable for what gets measured and tracked, results commonly heighten even more.
Although weight gain can sometimes happen swiftly when there are sudden changes in environment, body weight and body fat commonly tend to "creep" when left unchecked. Folks who don't monitor weight or body compound seem to wake up one day and perceive they "suddenly" got fat. Of course, what actually happened is that tiny increases in fat and waist line went unchecked and therefore, unnoticed over a long time period.
Successful weight reducers and maintainers have a base behavior pattern and that is they keep track of their weight. Weight monitoring could be daily or weekly, but whether way, most citizen will get best results by checking it regularly. This way, if results are negative, you'll be alerted and you can growth yielding and "buckle down" or change your strategy. Frequent (weekly or even daily) weighings furnish a feedback tool which increases awareness, allowing for a quick course correction.
By the way, citizen who have to wear well-tailored suits or tight fitting clothes have a feedback mechanism they can check themselves with every singular day. Those who wear baggy clothes / elastic waist bands who also do not weigh themselves tend to succumb to the weight creep and not perceive it. If you don't have to dress up for work every day or if you wear loose, baggy clothing most of the time, its not a bad idea to have a pair of "lean jeans" that you try on commonly just to see how they're fitting.
Just to be fair and show both sides, the only inherent criticisms / drawbacks to frequent weighing that remain include:
(1) It might encourage obsessive behaviors (If person is psychologically susceptible), and
(2) There may be only a small number of measurable develop after one week, and no measurable change after just a day - both of which might lead some citizen to impatience and disappointment if they don't have a long term time perspective and/or they don't understand how to use statistics.
So, I admit, daily weighing may not be thorough for everyone. In fact, I think it's best convention to recommend measuring and recording body weight "at least once a week" and then leave it up to the individual to decide whether they want to weigh daily or not.
Keep in mind, weigh ins are not an absolute necessity and the mere act of weighing yourself every day or every week doesn't guarantee more weight loss. There are citizen who for various reasons, choose not to weigh themselves at all, who never go near a scale who successfully lose weight and declare their ideal weight.
However, quarterly weigh-ins have consistently been correlated with improved weight loss and some research says that daily weigh ins collate even more highly with long term success than weekly weigh ins. Studies have also closed that citizen who weighed themselves commonly improved weight maintenance and avoided weight regain/cycling as compared to citizen who didn't weigh themselves at all.
There's one last thing I want to re-emphasize and that's the significance of measuring and tracking body compound (fat vs. Muscle) not just scale weight.
Understanding body compound (not just body weight), and developing the patient-person's lifestyle mindset are the final keys that actually perfect this self-monitoring advice and helps you avoid compulsive behaviors or obsessing over short term results. This is exactly the approach that bodybuilders and fitness models use to get photo-ready.
Should You Weigh Yourself daily or Throw Away Your Scale?
No comments:
Post a Comment