What To Know About Weighing Yourself

I don’t know enough about the specifics of your body or weight loss program to say definitively what might be preventing your weight from dropping more quickly, but, to start, it’s important to keep a couple of things in mind.

First, you’re assessing a narrow, two-week period of time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who gradually lose one to two pounds per week are more likely to keep it off than people who lose weight more rapidly. Slow and steady might not be glamorous, but that approach does win the race when it comes to weight loss. Based on the numbers you’ve seen so far, you may already be on track for those kinds of results.

Second, that short two-week window doesn’t give your body time to respond to the changes you’re making in a sustainable, measurable way. In the early weeks of a new workout routine, the numbers you’re seeing on the scale may not represent the progress you’re making with your health. For instance, when you dramatically increase exercise, your muscles have to make several crucial adaptations to get stronger, which can cause you to gain water weight temporarily.

The water weight is short-lived—but only if you find a way to stick with your exercise plan without getting frustrated by the numbers.

As I mentioned in a previous column, there are lots of reasons why people gain weight when they start a new exercise routine, including:

Muscle micro-tears. Strength training requires placing a healthy amount of strain on muscle fibers, resulting in tiny micro-tears. To heal those tears and grow stronger, muscles can temporarily retain extra water.

Inflammation. That same process of productive stress and recovery can also create short-term inflammation, which requires water to flush it out of the body.

Energy stores. When you start a new resistance training routine, you need to maintain extra energy reserves in your muscles in the form of glycogen. Each gram of glycogen is stored with at least 3 grams of water. This water storage adds body weight at the beginning, but over time, muscles become more efficient and don’t require as much stored glycogen and water.

In any kind of health journey, measuring success by only one metric can be a recipe for frustration. Focusing exclusively on weight loss to measure progress ignores countless other benefits you can enjoy from exercise and good nutrition—like improved energy, strength, flexibility, confidence, focus and creativity; reduced stress, fatigue, anxiety, depression and pain, and decreased odds of developing chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and heart disease.

Diet and exercise don’t just shape your body—they shape your mental health and the way you interact with every aspect of life. The benefits in those areas can be enormous, but new habits can be difficult to maintain if weight is the only criterion that matters.

Some studies show daily weighing can be useful to lose weight and maintain weight loss, but most of these studies include that daily routine as part of comprehensive programs that incorporate customized progress reports, clinical or community support, or interventions like calorie counting. The effect of daily weighing alone needs more research.

Frequent weighing can also be triggering for some people, causing them to feel defeated and give up on their efforts. For others, weighing is just one of many touchstones that contribute to a sense of balance. Only you can know for sure how often weighing is useful for you and how often it’s counterproductive.

If stepping on the scale every day is motivating—and you aren’t thrown off by the inevitable ups and downs—go for it. If you think you would be served better by weighing less frequently, pick a specific day of the week or month to check your weight. It can also be helpful to weigh in at the same time of day each time. For most people, body weight tends to be lowest first thing in the morning after emptying their bladder.

It sounds like you’re in a groove with strength training, and many of the dietary changes you mentioned can certainly be part of a healthy diet. You’re doing a lot already, but there are a few things I noticed that were missing from the description you provided that could be helpful for weight maintenance.

Fresh Produce

As I mentioned in my column on how to lose weight, increasing the amount and variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet can provide crucial nutrients and fiber to help you feel full, satisfied and less likely to eat calorie-dense, less nutritious foods.

Cardiovascular Exercise

Diet plays an enormous role in weight balance, but if you would rather focus on exercise, research suggests aerobic training can have a more significant effect on body mass and fat percentage than resistance training alone.

Water

There’s some debate about whether drinking water can help with weight loss by increasing a sense of fullness and supporting the body’s ability to burn fat. However, there’s no debate that maintaining hydration contributes to overall health. Drinking enough fluids can help every part of your body function better by getting rid of waste, regulating your energy and body temperature and lubricating your joints. Sticking with an exercise routine is a lot easier when you feel at your best, and water can help with that.

Fun

Any routine you choose to support your health is much more likely to stick if you enjoy it. As I’ve been known to say in this column and beyond, “You can’t get a body you love by doing things you hate.”

Consistency is a key predictor of sustainable well-being, but staying consistent with habits that don’t produce your desired results immediately can be maddeningly difficult. If your ultimate goal is to maintain a lower weight in the long run, identifying other ways to measure progress can go a long way toward keeping you on track.

Once you’ve identified the changes you’d like to stick with, consider making a list of results you’re hoping for—other than weight loss. Are you able to lift more weight than you could a few weeks ago? Are you more confident or energetic? Has your sleep quality improved? What differences are you noticing in your body or mind?

Setting and achieving alternative goals can give you a meaningful sense of progress—even if you have to wait a bit for the number on the scale to move (and stay) in the direction you want to see.

“Hey, Health Coach” is for informational purposes only and should not substitute for professional psychological or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions about your personal situation, health or medical condition.

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