A  quick search online for “weight loss” yields picture after picture of people standing on scales with a variety of emotions, wrapping themselves in measuring tape, squeezing themselves and looking at the mirror, showing off the gaps in their clothing, and otherwise finding ways to quantify their weight loss progress.

Looks rather familiar, doesn’t it? We’ve all been there.

With this kind of imagery nearly synonymous with weight loss, it’s time we weigh in on the question: “How often should you weigh yourself?”

Why Weigh Yourself

Weighing yourself is something you should do often, even if “often” varies, and “weigh” can be loosely applied, as I’ll share later on.

Ultimately, the biggest reason is personal accountability, and creating patterns and mindsets that can keep you in the driver’s seat of your weight, and even more importantly, your overall health and well-being.  

Is Weighing Yourself Every Day Bad?

Well, it depends. 

According to medical experts on WebMD, the short answer is that frequent, even daily, tracking has helped people manage their weight for the long term. It’s also why Strong with Sarah focuses on tracking progress through our coaching app, and through conversations during one-on-one coaching sessions or text message check-ins. 

On the other hand, not only can weighing yourself every day cause either unnecessary panic or a false sense of progress, but it can become a compulsive habit like anything else. For some people, weighing yourself every day has a bad effect on self-image, and can also lead to a need to measure every other part that could literally tip the scale, down to the last calorie and strict food and exercise rules.

This, of course, is a bad thing! And it’s the opposite of the Strong with Sarah model of striving for balance and sustainability over self-denial and rigid rules! If you know that you are someone who is a “perfectionist” or if you are someone who has a history of eating disorders or related issues, it’s likely that weighing yourself every day is something worth talking about with your health coach and might not be the best path for you to take. 

The numbers don’t lie… or do they? 

The short answer is: it’s a matter of quality versus quantity. After all, a ten-minute jog can feel very different going downhill on soft ground, rather than trudging uphill in the mud. And as our team frequently talks about, when it comes to building better nutritional decisions, there is a big difference between 200 calories of avocado and 200 calories of beer. Similarly, it is true that our bodies are all different in ways that range from genetics, to sex, to age, to hormones, muscle mass, and more. In fact, should you weigh yourself often throughout the day, you’ll find the numbers go up and down!

Parts of a Whole

A tall, lanky marathon runner and a short, more sedentary truck driver could both weigh 170 pounds or 77 kilograms, but between their lifestyles and their overall body types, the numbers can’t quite tell the whole story. That said, it’s likely that both the runner and the trucker would be able to describe their health in other ways outside of a number. Here are some examples: how long they can run, their energy levels, how heavy they can lift, their quality of sleep, their flexibility, and how quickly they recover after being out of breath. If you “weigh yourself” like this, you should not only have a more accurate idea of your overall health, but you will also create better weight loss goals along the way.

Because of this, we recognize that while weight measurements can help track or even confirm what we already know is true in our bodies, numbers on the scale are never the full picture. That’s because the number on the scale is affected by hormones, food in our GI system, hydration levels, muscle recovery post-exercise, and many more factors.

Lowering Weights Versus Lifting Weights

Have you ever heard the phrase, “muscle weighs more than fat”? Are you wondering if there is any truth to this statement? I’m here to remind you that #gains on your bench press can definitely lead to the numbers on the scale going up as well. As one article put it, “not all pounds are created equal,” because muscle takes up less space than fat, which means it’s denser and therefore covers a smaller amount of area for the same weight. (Please note: this is not the same thing as “muscle weighs more than fat!” - One pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat.)

Similarly, despite the popular myth that fat can turn into muscle, we are sorry to say that there’s no magical way to build a stronger body, except through finding enjoyable activities and balancing those activities with more mindful habits. But we wanted to add this as an enthusiastic reminder -  should you weigh yourself on a regular basis while doing strength training and being mindful of your eating,  the number on the scale may not go down and that’s normal (and okay!)

Finding the Right Balance

Strong with Sarah is rooted in the basic idea that moderation is key. Moderation means eating and drinking things we love but not to excess, finding adequate rest and sleep, and making sure that we are neither over-training in workouts nor getting too comfortable on that couch too often. Ultimately, the same idea can be applied to your relationship with the scale, too. 

Moderation also means thinking about how often you should weigh yourself, and more importantly, why. 

While Strong with Sarah is about achieving sustained weight loss goals, the number on the scale isn’t nearly as important as how you feel inside through a healthier lifestyle. As described in an earlier blog post, I encourage you that the next time you ask yourself “How often should I weigh myself?” to remember that because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, you are far more than a number on a scale, and measure yourself accordingly! For some people, weighing more often so they can learn their natural weight fluctuations is most helpful. For others, weighing less often helps to create a more peaceful (and less stressful) relationship with the scale.

Keep at it, you got this!