You can’t lose weight if you’re not checking in with the scale. There’s no way around that. But how often should you weigh yourself and which day is best? It is agreed and recommended by the personal trainers here in Abu Dhabi that you should weigh yourself first thing in the morning, before you have eaten or had anything to drink and that you only needed to weigh yourself once or twice a week. But the question remains, which day of the week is best to weigh yourself?
MONDAYS: FIND FOCUS FOR THE WEEK
It makes sense: you weight yourself at the start of the week and then you know where you stand. It is helpful to weigh yourself on a Monday because it can help to motivate you and re-set your mind frame after what was likely a fun-filled weekend of eating and drinking. Weighing yourself is a nice check-in to get you back to your normal weekly plan of healthy eating and exercising. However, the down side may be the fact that your weight is likely to be higher on Monday as a result of relaxed eating and exercising over the weekend and this may in fact get you down and cause you to lose motivation. Seeing a higher number on the scale can either motivate you or deflate you, only you will know how you respond to seeing a higher number on the scale than expected. You just need to remember that this is only a number and use it as a starting point to get back on plan for the week!
WEDNESDAYS: GET THE BEST READING
According to the 2014 Finnish study, we tend to weigh the most on Sunday evenings and the least on Friday mornings. So some experts say weighing in midweek gives you the most accurate reading of what your true weight is. By Wednesday, you have had a few days back on track with eating healthy and exercising and your body has had time to recover from the weekend. However, if you are the type of person who can let your weekend eating and drinking habits bleed into Monday and Tuesday, then Monday may be the best day for you to motivate you to get back on track.
FRIDAYS: MAKE THE MOST OF WEEKENDS
Checking your weight before the weekend can help you strategize and prepare for it. If you weigh yourself on a Monday and then again on a Friday you can see what progress you have made and this may help you to decide if you want to reward yourself a bit on the weekend or seeing a decreased weight may inspire you to keep up your healthy habits into the weekend. The down side of weighing yourself on a Friday is the risk that you may have gained weight during the week which could lead to some people feeling bad, resulting in a binge eating fest all weekend. This “I might as well eat junk” mentality can then snowball — if you tell yourself you’ll start over on Monday, you may never get back on track.
THE BEST DAY TO WEIGH YOURSELF?
It’s simple: Do it on the day to which you can commit and to which you can mentally cope with the results, whether they be positive or negative. Weigh-ins should be a tool to help you stay on track not to derail you into giving up and binge eating. Ultimately, weigh ins can be whenever, but do it the same day and same time every week, with the same scale. Every scale is calibrated slightly differently, and your weight can fluctuate several pounds in one day.
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