My advice, STOP! As America embarks on its health and fitness New Year’s resolutions, many will use the scale as their measure of progress. This is very common and counterproductive for many reasons. First, if your weight stays the same or goes up, this can cause mental anguish with will lower your motivation. Next, your body’s weight isn’t consistent throughout the day. Many factors play a role in your bodyweight, such as bodily fluids, water retention (which can be caused by simple sodium intake), food in your stomach, and clothing. Any one of those things could cause a pound or two influx in body weight. With that in mind weighing yourself every day or couple of days can be a negative practice. In addition, if you’re weight training in conjunction with your diet you might be gaining muscle mass. As you might know muscle weighs more than fat. The problem is the scale does not differentiate fat weight from muscle weight. The best way to do that is by body fat analysis. Unfortunately most people can’t check their body fat on a regular basis. An easier way to see progress is how your clothing fits. If your pant waistline isn’t as snug and everything else is loose, then you’re losing body fat. The scale isn’t a useless tool. As with many things in life moderation is the key. In my fitness calendar there is a weekly weigh in section that can be used for easy tracking. Do NOT weigh yourself more than once a week!

Remember realistically you can lose about two pounds of fat a week. This gives you ample time to lose “real” fat pounds and not just artificial weight. Finally, consistence is very important when weighing yourself. Make sure that you always measure at the same time of the day. Furthermore, use the same scale (scales tend to differ somewhat) and wear the same items of clothing. My recommendation is to take your weight in the morning nude on an empty stomach. This way you don’t have to guess how much weight your clothes and food are. You’re getting a true reading without other factors playing a role in altering the number. Just remember that your body weight number is not the end all in figuring out your progress. Stay positive and remember “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Slow but steady fat loss is the best method to a healthy lifestyle!