Daily Weight Check Key To Weight Loss, Studies Say; 5 Pros and Cons of Weighing Everyday

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As weight loss becomes a common goal for many people at the start of the year, studies have suggested that there's one tool that will help motivate you to achieve the goal. You probably have this and have used this before.

The bathroom scale can either be your friend or foe, but according to two separate studies published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the National Institutes of Health, it's actually good to weigh yourself everyday if you're trying to lose weight.

"The old conventional wisdom was: 'Don't weigh yourself more once a week. It will drive you crazy,'" said obesity expert Dori Steinberg via WMAZ. "But now we are seeing more and more research showing that the optimal frequency for weighing oneself is likely every day."

"Stepping on the scales should be like brushing your teeth," said nutrition expert David Levitsky in the same report. Both Steinberg and Levitsky are testing daily weigh-ins in their weight loss programs based on the published studies and said that the scale can indeed be a powerful and useful tool. "If you see your weight going up a little bit, you may consciously or even unconsciously be more resistant to all the cues in the environment that might otherwise make you eat a little more," said Levistky.

Below are five more pros and cons to weighing everyday:

1) Weighing yourself daily can show that your weight loss efforts are working and that whatever you're doing to keep the pounds off are bringing good results. It's a good tool for keeping track of your weight loss goals.

2) Regular weigh-ins also shows the rate at which you're losing weight, which can indicate how healthy and proper your regimen is. If it's too slow or too fast, you might need to make a few changes or adjust your diet and fitness plan.

3) Despite being a good tool, you'll need more than the weighing scale to check for progress as total body weight can account for fat, muscle, water, glycogen and monthly changes in women, according to A Workout Routine. You cannot rely on the scale alone.

4) Thus, it doesn't mean that if your scale didn't dip, you didn't lose body fat. Your diet or fitness plan might already be at work, but the scale has measured your muscle gain, which is a good thing.

5) If you're weighing yourself every day, understand that fluctuations are common and normal, and that the scale doesn't determine the actual composition of your weight. As it only works to track gain or loss, don't let the changes influence your goals.