Weight tracking: how often?

Should I be tracking my weight daily?

Hello lovely people,

How was your week? It’s Sunday again, and I'm back in your inbox.

Today, we discuss another topic related to weight loss:

Should I be tracking my weight daily?

Caution: If you've received a diagnosis of an eating disorder or are currently undergoing treatment for one, please approach this article with caution.

If you aim to lose weight, tracking your weight can be a great motivator along your journey. As we've talked about before, losing weight is often recommended in women with PCOS as it can help in improving insulin resistance. However, our challenge with losing weight is that insulin resistance increases our hunger and cravings. Constantly feeling this way can make it harder to make healthy choices in an environment surrounded by foods high in carbs and sugar. 

This struggle is compounded by the mood swings influenced by our hormones, which often lead us to turn to food to cope with our emotions. Furthermore, mood swings from hormones can make us feel less motivated and tired, making it harder to cook, eat healthy, or exercise regularly. 

And trust me, I get it! Sometimes, I feel my body is fighting against me, but I know the importance of eating healthily and exercising regularly. This is the foundation for managing PCOS, and the more consistent I am with this, the better I feel.

For the last few months, I’ve been tracking my food intake and stepping up my exercise and have noticed a remarkable shift in my symptoms. But as I continued to make these changes, I was also curious about how this impacted my weight, given that one of my goals this year was to lose weight ahead of my wedding. 

I started monitoring my weight daily over a month ago to gain insights into my progress. I noticed that if I track my weight daily, I am better able to spot patterns and see if I'm truly making progress in losing weight. The less frequently I weigh myself, the less I’m able to spot these nuances. 

For instance, if I only checked my weight once a week and saw it was a specific number, I might miss out on the other readings, which were lower. This could lead me to believe I wasn't progressing, even though the other readings showed otherwise. This makes me wonder if we are trying to lose weight as part of managing our PCOS, should we be tracking our weight daily?

The pros of checking the weight daily

Research suggests that weighing yourself every day helps you pay more attention to your food intake and exercise levels and how these might impact your weight. People use the information to think about what they did before and decide what they need to do next to lose more weight.

Studies have found that those who tracked their weight every day over 3-12 months lost more weight than those who tracked it less frequently. Monitoring weight daily led to changes in behaviour, including reducing calorie intake by reducing the number of snacks, eating out less frequently, decreasing the frequency or size of desserts, and spending less time watching TV.

This suggests that tracking your weight can help you keep the healthy habits you’re trying to make at the forefront of your mind. This is important, especially in today's environment, where unhealthy food choices are everywhere. We make more than 35,000 decisions daily, and we want food choices to be easy. 

After a long day of work or taking care of the family, making yet another decision about what to eat can be exhausting, and thinking about a healthy meal isn’t always at the forefront of our minds. Combined with PCOS mood swings, low energy levels, and insulin resistance, it's tempting to opt for quick and easy options when we’re surrounded by unhealthy food. So, having that daily weigh-in reminder could be a way to stay focused throughout the day, but it all comes down to how we interpret the numbers on the scales.

Numerous factors influence our weight, including food intake, weather, hydration, activity levels, and hormones. The hormonal imbalance we experience with PCOS, with fluctuating oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone levels, can influence appetite, metabolism, and water retention, all of which can impact weight fluctuations. My weight can fluctuate by as much as 1.5kg in a week.

By observing these fluctuations regularly, we can identify patterns and gain a deeper understanding of our bodies. It can also be helpful to track our weight alongside our menstrual cycle to understand how hormonal changes may impact our weight. The more data points we have, the clearer the picture becomes.

It's important to note that weight loss may not be the goal for everyone, especially for people with lean PCOS. For them, the focus may be more on managing symptoms, improving overall health, and achieving a healthy balance rather than solely aiming for weight loss. Therefore, while daily weighing can be helpful for some, it's essential to consider individual goals and priorities when incorporating this practice as part of your routine.

The cons of checking the weight daily

Despite the evidence suggesting that daily weigh-ins can positively impact behaviours that lead to weight loss, research also suggests that they could negatively impact mental well-being and encourage unhealthy eating habits. For this reason, daily weigh-ins should be approached with caution.

Research suggests that daily weigh-ins can impact body image. With PCOS, where we may already have body image concerns, checking the weight daily could intensify preexisting worries about body image and contribute to feelings of dissatisfaction. It's crucial to be mindful of how daily tracking affects our mental well-being and avoid using this tool if it’s impacting our mental well-being negatively. 

For many years, my self-worth was dictated by the number on the scale. I would lie to say I have entirely left that behind, but I certainly learnt to have a healthy relationship with my weight.

Interestingly, some studies have shown that some degree of body dissatisfaction can serve as motivation to focus on healthy habits, and I am sure this has pushed many of us on our health journey. However, it’s essential to be cautious about this and how that dissatisfaction is showing up. If the motivation to change comes from a place of self-hatred rather than a genuine desire to manage our symptoms better and lead a healthy life, we must approach daily weigh-ins with caution and prioritise addressing the mindset component first. This is because focusing solely on weight without addressing underlying negative thoughts can lead to unhealthy behaviours and impact our mental well-being. 

How does daily tracking start to become an issue?

The issue with daily weight tracking is how we perceive the number on the scales. If we view a loss as "good" and a gain as "bad," we can easily slip into self-judgment and self-blame when we see the gain. We think if it’s bad, then we’re bad. These thoughts often lead to self-sabotage or comfort-seeking behaviours like overeating.

This is why it’s important to interpret the scales' messages as data rather than a reflection of self-worth. Daily weigh-ins can provide valuable insights into how our bodies respond to various factors like diet and exercise, but they should not define our value as individuals. By viewing weight data objectively, we can make informed decisions about our health without allowing fluctuations to impact our self-esteem or sense of worth.

If we find ourselves caught in this cycle, remember that it's not our fault. This pattern is fueled by the response of slimming clubs to participants' weight fluctuations—praise for weight loss and criticism for weight gain. Not acknowledging the effort we're putting in means we don't develop positive associations with the behaviours that promote health. Instead, our positive associations are solely tied to the outcome (weight loss), leading us to become determined to achieve it by any means necessary. This is where fad diets often enter the picture!

It’s also these negative feelings that lead us to avoid weighing ourselves altogether, fearing the expected "bad" results. When we avoid the scales, we may also begin to scrutinise the behaviours that may have led to the perceived weight gain, labelling them as "bad." For example, we might blame a piece of chocolate eaten the night before for any increase in weight. This self-criticism can spiral into feelings of personal failure, trapping us in a cycle of bingeing and restricting.

In other words, we’re convinced the weight went up because we ate the chocolate, seeing it as a personal failure due to our perception of chocolate as a "bad" food choice because of its high-calorie content and association with weight gain.

What might have happened is that the weight gain could be attributed to various factors, not just chocolate consumption. In an attempt to regain control and continue working towards our weight loss goals we may blame ourselves for such "mistakes" which can lead us to make drastic changes, such as cutting out chocolate.

How we interpret these results and remove that emotional connection we have with the scales is important.  If we view the information objectively rather than as a reflection of personal failure, we're more likely to continue tracking our weight and achieve success in our weight loss journey. It’s all about how we interpret and use the results to make positive changes. It takes practice to start relating to that number in different ways, and this can be done alongside finding other ways of measuring progress and working with a health professional. 

Tips for tracking your weight daily: 

Remember, this is all about finding what works for you! If you’re looking to use weigh-ins as part of managing your PCOS symptoms and better understanding your body, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Try to check your weight at the same time each day - hormonal fluctuations, food intake, and hydration levels can impact weight.

2. 2Weigh yourself without clothes to ensure accuracy.

3. Avoid using different scales to compare your progress. Different scales may show different readings due to variations in calibration or other factors may be influencing this (positioning, surface stability)

4. For consistency, ensure your scales are calibrated, and if you have scales with springs, ensure they’re still working.

5. Find other ways to measure your progress, such as tracking mood and energy levels, to gain a holistic view of your PCOS health journey.

When daily weigh-ins are not helpful, it's important to recognise the signs:

1. You constantly worry about the number on the scale and think about it multiple times a day.

2. You engage in compensatory behaviours, such as skipping meals based on the scale reading.

3. You avoid social situations out of fear of gaining weight or seeing the scale show an increase.

4. You find yourself checking your weight more than once a day, leading to obsessive thoughts and behaviours.

While daily weighing can be a valuable tool for tracking progress, it's important to recognise when it starts to negatively impact your mental well-being. If you find that daily weighing is causing undue stress or anxiety, consider incorporating other measures of progress into your routine. Monitoring factors like energy levels, mood, and other PCOS symptoms can provide a more holistic view of your health journey. Remember, achieving your goals is more than just a number on the scale.

With care,

Francesca

¹ Sources

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