Tracking your weight is necessary to know if you are making progress towards your goal. It sounds simple enough. Every now and then, you step on a scale to see how much you weigh. However, if you rely only on your scale, you may be in for a rough ride.
Does this scenario sound familiar? As you get ready to step on your scale, you try to remember your weight the last time you weighed yourself. Then, you step on the scale and hope your weight isn’t moving in the wrong direction. After seeing your weight either staying the same or moving a little bit up or down, you start to have negative thoughts, self-doubt, or feelings of frustration. In fact, that number may be enough to ruin your mood.
Unfortunately, this vicious cycle makes achieving your goal weight difficult. Fortunately, there is a way to break this emotional rollercoaster ride. You have to adjust your mindset and track your weight over time.
Tips For Tracking Your Weight
Weigh Yourself Consistently
Don’t weigh yourself multiple times a day. Instead, weigh yourself no more than once a day and no less than once a week. If you don’t weigh yourself daily, then try to weigh yourself on the same days of the week.
Furthermore, weigh yourself around the same time, such as before breakfast or showering. Your body will likely be in a similar state based on your daily routine. Consistency in weighing yourself is key to the most accurate measurements from each weighing.
Track Your Weight
A common problem when weighing yourself is that you may judge your success and all your effort solely on what the scale says. Unfortunately, it’s easy to become frustrated and criticize yourself when the scale moves in the wrong direction or stays the same based on the last time you weighed yourself.
No matter how well you manage your caloric intake, your body weight naturally fluctuates daily. Fortunately, your success isn’t measured from one weighing to the next. It’s measured over time. Therefore, keeping a journal is the best way to track your progress.
If you don’t know what to track in your journal, start by writing down the date, time, and weight each time you weigh yourself. You can add whatever you want to your journal. If you think it will help you reach your goal, you can include other details such as motivational quotes, what you ate that day, or your daily mood.
You can automatically track your weight using a smart scale if you don’t want to keep a written journal. One advantage of this approach is that you can quickly generate charts using an app to see if you’re moving toward your goal.
Don’t Overanalyze
Today’s newer scales make it easy to track your weight. Not only can you see your current weight, you can see your body mass index and how much lean mass vs. fat mass you have. That’s just scratching the surface. Right now, the competitors in this space are making more intelligent smart scales that provide more information about you. However, are all these metrics beneficial?
If you focus on too many metrics, you may be tempted to cherry-pick numbers to find reasons why your weight isn’t what you thought it would be. Instead, focus on your weight over time. The rest of the metrics can be fun to look at but don’t rely on them to measure your success unless you are an athlete or doing a specific kind of training.
Set Realistic Goals
Permanently changing your weight isn’t a quick process. It can take months or years, depending on how much weight you want to gain or lose. For example, losing 20 lbs (~9 kg) in a month isn’t realistic unless you have a high body mass index. Even in those extreme cases, it isn’t realistic once some weight has been lost.
Instead, try to lose about 1 lb (~0.5 kg) a week. This is less stressful on your body and allows you to adjust gradually, increasing your chances of reaching your goal weight. It may be hard at first, but as you adapt to your new diet or eating habits, your progress will become easier to achieve.
If you feel like you’re not making progress, you may have to redefine success. In fact, you should review your progress regularly and make sure your goals are still realistic and achievable. You can change them anytime, especially when you have more information.
The Takeaway
Maintaining a healthy weight is essential for your health, well-being, and quality of life. However, the journey to your ideal weight can be frustrating and demoralizing if you rely only on what the scale says. Instead, set a realistic goal, weigh yourself consistently, and track your weight. Success cannot be measured from one weighing to the next but from your weight over time.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your weight. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect certain scales to your account to make it easier for you to track your weight automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
