Making a Case for Weighing Everyday

A lot of times during my life, I have been told not to weigh myself everyday. Arguments for this are things like:

• Water can change your body weight by up to 5 lbs.
• Muscle weighs more than fat, so when you're working out, you can't tell the difference.
  
• It makes you obsessive.
• It's discouraging.

Well, I must say all of those can be true. Water does weigh quite a bit and can throw off your weight. Muscle does indeed weigh much more than fat. It does get just a bit obsessive. But over the last few days, it's not be discouraging in least - and I say that with having actually gained 2 lbs. over those last few days.

You do have to do something to eliminate the variability that these things can cause. To deal with variation due to water, make sure you're always hydrated and weigh yourself at the same time every day. (I do it first thing in the morning after a trip to the bathroom. I've sweated/breathed/eliminated all the water I can at that point.) To deal with muscle, you can have a second alternative measurement, like measuring waist girth.

But it hasn't been discouraging, because as I saw myself starting to gain back weight that I had lost, it helped to clue me in to some changes that I needed to make in the way I was accounting for my calories. By having something that I check everyday, I was able to stop a trend back upwards because I caught it early.

And the results? I'm back down to where I was and continuing downward.