The Importance of Tracking Your Weight

Keeping track of your weight is important for your overall health, especially if you’re already overweight. While obsessing over the numbers on the scale isn’t necessarily healthy, having a scale around can boost your desire to keep fit as well as alert you if you’ve recently gained some extra weight.

Benefits of Weighing Yourself
A 2017 study conducted at West Virginia University showed that those who kept track of their weight at least five days a week experienced sustained and significant weight loss over a period of time compared to those who were inconsistent in tracking their weight or had done it fewer than five days a week.

When it comes to tracking your weight loss at home, there are many scale options available to you - from the digital bathroom scale to a wireless Bluetooth body weight scale paired with a weight tracking app, or a scale that tracks hydration, muscle and bone mass.

Going Beyond the Scale
Self-monitoring by maintaining a daily calorie log and sticking to a regular exercise routine, along with self-weighing are great tools that can be beneficial for weight loss. Setting small milestones and goals for yourself like losing one pound a week may give you a sense of accomplishment that can snowball into greater positive benefits over the course of your weight loss program.

Making it to the gym and or playing a high-intensity sport three times a week is a good start too. After you have achieved this goal, you can boost it to four and then five days a week. With each achievement under your belt, you might feel a great sense of empowerment. Stronger mind equals stronger body and vice versa.

Make It a Sport
When you record your diet and track weekly weight loss it can tend to become a sport in your mind. This can serve as a motivational tool for you to succeed and compete against yourself or compete against your goals so to speak, which could possibly push you to go above and beyond and get results faster. Think of your daily calories as your opposition, and your scale as the last defender before you score the winning goal. Approaching each week as one game can go a long way in helping you to achieve your weight loss goals.

Peaks and Valleys
Keeping track of your weight loss can also help to avoid hitting peaks and valleys. Maintaining a steady course during your weight loss program can help reduce the “yo-yo” effect, which may lower the risk for developing type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Your scale is another way to protect against the “yo-yo" effect. You’ll be able to see any spike in weight gain and subsequently make the right adjustments before it becomes a bigger issue.

Instant Gratification
The world today has become one of instant gratification. Perhaps tracking your weight loss and daily fitness routine can provide you with instant gratification in a positive way. Seeing the results of each and every day of hard work and discipline can only help to motivate you for the next day and so on while giving you a sense of accomplishment. 

Higher Learning
Keeping a daily food diary can help you become more educated about your health. You may see differences in what certain types of foods do to, and for your body. You’ll also learn how to gauge portion size which can be a great tool in reducing weight gain. You could also possibly realize that you’ve been taking in double the grams of carbs you should be ingesting. Coming to this realization may help you lose excess weight.

As always consult your physician before starting any diet or fitness program.

This is a guest blog entry.