5 Reasons to Stop Weighing Yourself Daily: Stop Obsessing!

We are excited to check our weight daily when we start our body transformation journey. We want to see if the diet is working or not.

We want to see how much weight has decreased. If you can relate to this, then you’re not alone. We’ve all been there.

Results give us that extrinsic motivation to keep us going.

But surprisingly, it can be detrimental and get less motivating for you if you continue weighing yourself daily. 

If you would ask me, I would advice you to weigh yourself weekly than daily. Here’s why.

(1) Weight Is Not Linear

Weight is never linear. It always fluctuates due to various factors such as water and food intake, sleep, physical activity, stress, climatic conditions, etc.

Even your weight would vary based on your bowel movements.

If you weigh yourself daily, you’ll see a lot of fluctuations in your weight that aren’t necessarily related to your actual progress.

These fluctuations are like “noise” – they can be caused by factors such as water retention, food intake, or even just natural bodily changes.

This can be frustrating and misleading because it doesn’t accurately reflect your overall progress.

(2) It Can be Discouraging

You might notice fluctuations in weight due to things like water retention, food and water intake, bowel movements, etc.

These changes can make it seem like we’re not losing fat anymore, or even gaining it back which might not be true.

Your extrinsic motivation would only fade away within a few days till you see your weight spiking up! Assuming your hard work going into the vein would highly be discouraging to you.

(3) You’ll Become Obsessed With the Weighing Scale

Weighing your weight daily will make you obsessed with the weighing scale. You heard that very right.

I’ve seen people doing cardio and exercises and checking their weight now and then just to check how much they’ve reduced.

Till they reach home and have their meal or protein shake, BOOOMM, the weight has gone up again:(

By this logic, you gotta check it every time you go to the loo, you drink water, you eat something, and when not.

This will create obsessive behaviour in you, which is common amongst overweight people and beginners. 

The fixation will disrupt your mindset and routine, making it harder to focus on your overall health and fat loss journey.

(4) Weighing Yourself Daily Will Mask Your Actual Progress

Weighing yourself daily can hide the actual trend of your fat loss journey which can be misleading.

Weighing just once a week lets you track the more accurate overall trend (average) of your journey over time.

By weighing yourself once a week instead of every day, you get a clearer picture of how your weight is changing over a period – as it is your weekly average weight.

Daily fluctuations will hide the reality!

(5) Weighing Yourself Daily Might Increase Your STRESS!

Getting discouraged by normal daily weight fluctuations can trigger stress and emotional eating.

More stress will cause water retention and bloating which is detrimental to your progress and shoot up your weight!

“Emotional eating” refers to the habit of eating in response to stress or negative emotions, which can lead to overeating or consuming unhealthy foods

E.E. just to fix your mood can throw you completely off-track, and eventually quit your transformation journey before it would even take the momentum.

This usually happens when people get discouraged by the daily fluctuations in weight and stop following their healthy eating or exercise routines.

Bonus Points

(1) Even women’s menstrual cycles often lead to bloating and a spike in weight which you might be knowing if you’re a woman.

(2) Similarly, muscle gain from weight training would show the difference in your weight and weighing scale which can be a misleading way if you’re checking it daily.

(3) And guess what? Even the calibration of the weighing scale and the place where you keep it would influence your weight and at times show different values.

(4) The clothes you’re wearing while weighing is a contributing factor too.

Bottom line

There are lots of factors that influence your weight on the scale. 

Weight is never linear and it keeps on fluctuating due to the factors discussed above.

So focus on your process, and the journey, and keep going without obsessing too much about the scales.

If you’re on a very short-term goal like me currently doing #ShedIn14 then you can weigh yourself daily or every alternate day.

But assuming you’re at least doing an 8-week or a 12-week body transformation, it would be ideal if you weigh yourself once a week – considering the longer picture.