Chapter 5

  1. Weight Loss: Tipping the Scales in Your Favor

148. Knowing When Not to Weigh Yourself


If you weigh yourself every day, you’ll regret it. Of course, daily weigh-ins are tempting. When you’re working so hard to stay on a diet, you’re eager to see how you’re doing. But weighing yourself more than once a week may undermine your efforts. Here’s why:

  1. •Praise each family member’s existing healthy habits. Note who takes the best care of their teeth, hair, or skin, for example.

  2. •Set up health goals for each family member so that the heavy child isn’t the only one working on improving health.

  3. •A moderate, acceptable weekly weight loss is around 1 pound. This comes out to an average of 2.3 ounces per day, which most scales do not register.

  4. •You could easily get discouraged if no weight loss is recorded on a particular day. After a week, your weight loss is more likely to register.

  5. •As much as 70 percent of your body weight consists of water. Your weight on the scale can go up and down daily due to fluctuations in water, so you can’t judge how well you did on your diet yesterday by what you weigh today. Consistent progress over many weeks is a true indication of fat being lost.

  6. •Don’t become obsessed with the weight registered on your scale. The important issue is whether or not you’re learning new eating habits and exercising regularly. As you improve your eating and exercise habits, you will lose weight.