The dangers of weekly weighing

My provider and dietitian - and most people I have ever heard discussing dieting, always say you should NOT weigh yourself every day - only once per week. In reality, I know from reading the online forums and from personal experience that most of us actually weigh ourselves every day! The argument against doing this is that weight fluctuates a great deal on a day to day basis. In fact I read somewhere that weight can vary between 3 and 5 pounds during the course of a single day!

However, I'm now going to present evidence as to why it is better to weigh yourself DAILY! The graph shows my daily weight over an eight-day period. Day 0 was in fact 23rd December and day 8 is today. If I had weighed myself once a week, starting on day 0, my two weighings would have read 16 stone 12 pounds (236lbs) and 17 stone (238lbs)! Imagine what that would have done to my psychological state if, after having had a very successful Christmas and doing LOADS of walking, I had actually gained two pounds? In fact day 7 was obviously one of those mysterious blips. The very fact that I weigh myself daily means that I could see day 7 was just a blip. If I had not weighed myself daily I would have thought I had gained weight over Christmas. I know from past experience that when you work very hard to lose weight and get nowehere, or worse still, gain weight, that is likely to send me off the rails, so to speak.

So, my conclusion from this, and my advice to you: Weight yourself daily and keep a record. That way you will be able to see all of the mysterious 'blips' but will still get a very good idea of what the overall trend is. You will also become much more attuned to why and when these blips occur (eg a late meal the night before, constipation, menstruation etc etc). So, while I usually advocate taking the advice of professionals, in this case I say "weigh every day - no matter what they say"!