CON #1: Daily weigh-ins can spiral you toward obsessive behavior.
Some experts have long been leery of too much time on the scale, partly because of issues surrounding eating disorders.
"Focusing on the number on the scale too much can be unhealthy and lead to anxiety about our bodies and what we eat," warns Charlotte N. Markey, PhD, professor of psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey and author of Smart People Don't Diet. If you're keeping a better track of numbers than your accountant, you might be going overboard. After all, "an obsession with the numbers can be counterproductive and stressful for people," Markey adds.
In other words, a bad moment at the scale can turn into binging on unlimited cinnamon rolls and potato chips. Or the other extreme altogether: working out or counting calories too much.
More from Prevention: How To Turn Off Your Weight Gain Hormones
CON #2: Daily weigh-ins may magnify normal (and minor) fluctuations.
It's normal for your weight to change throughout the day, and it's affected by many factors: the time of day, what you're wearing (which can add 3 to 5 pounds), how much sodium you've consumed, and whether you've gone to the bathroom (a lighter gut works wonders).
Instead of focusing on the vacillating numbers, "we want people to focus on how they feel by asking themselves, 'Am I hungry? Am I full? Do my pants feel too tight?' " Markey says. And it's important to keep perspective: If you've switched to snacking on fruit and nuts sometimes instead of old pals Ben and Jerry, you've successfully made a behavior change, and it's those kinds of lasting changes that will help reshape your body.
CON #3: Daily weigh-ins focus on short-term results.
Keeping an eagle eye on the scale can give the wrong impression of what's happening overall to your weight-loss journey. In fact, your weight usually goes up over the weekend, as you're likely to relax eating rules (hello, brownie!), according to a recent study of 80 people published in Obesity Facts. But those who ate what they wanted on weekends and then consistently compensated with healthier eating on weekdays actually lost weight. As a result, researchers found that "long-term habits may make more of a difference than short-term splurges." So making room for a cheat day might actually help with weight loss for one reason: you won't feel so deprived (and likely to binge).
What's the bottom line after comparing the pros and cons? There's no cookie-cutter answer. A big piece of that puzzle is your personality and what motivates you. Ultimately, research results still vary—some reveal that daily weigh-ins are beneficial while others reveal there are no effects—but they seem to agree that it's not detrimental to a person's mental or physical health, unless that person has disordered eating behaviors to begin with.
"I think that the data is more positive than anything else and suggests that daily self-weighing is a safe, inexpensive, and perhaps modestly helpful technique," Allison says. So as long as you're coming at it from a healthy place, daily weigh-ins may very well be worth a try.
Related Articles:
- 5 Common Habits That Could Be Making You Fat
- 10 Ways to Shed Those Last Few Pounds
- Why You Gain Weight In Your 20s, 30s and 40s
- 15 Foods to Help You Lose Weight
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