How often should you weigh yourself? Daily weigh ins are better. Biohackr’s new venture

How often should you weigh yourself?

I was always taught that things vary from day to day, so once or twice a week is good. Are you constipated? Did you just eat a big meal? Are you at that time of the month? Weight does fluctuate. So what do the studies show?

Weekly self-weighing appears to be a minimum threshold for effectiveness, as studies show patients who weighed weekly are 11 x more likely to lose ≥5% body weight after 6 months. But is daily better?

Yes.

Weigh yourself daily to lose more weight

This surprised me, but there are many studies which support that weighing yourself daily is associated with significantly more weight loss.

• Daily weighers lose 6kg more than those who weigh less frequently
• Daily weighers are more likely to have “clinically meaningful” weight loss, which is defined at 5-10% of weight.
• American College of Cardiology states daily weighing is an effective behavioral strategy as part of  lifestyle interventions.

Studies on weight loss

2013 randomized controlled trial using daily self-weighing with smart scales

• 6.55% weight loss at 6 months vs control 0.35%
• 42.6% of daily weighers achieved ≥5% weight loss vs. 6.8% of controls
• 27.7% achieved ≥10% weight loss versus 0% of controls.

Another study with 47 participants

• Daily weighers lost 6.1kg (13 pounds) more than those who weighed themselves 5 days a week.
• They found that those who weighed daily did more weight controls behavior
• Weight control behaviors
  • reducing calorie intake by 500–1000 calories per day   30% of daily weighers vs. 11% of nondaily weighers
  • reducing between meal snacks   37% vs. 17%
  • reducing the number of times they ate out at restaurants other than fast food restaurants   30% vs. 13%
  • reducing frequency or portion sizes of desserts   41% vs. 20%
  • making one or two small changes to activity everyday   26% vs. 9%
  • reducing the amount of time watching TV   23% vs. 7%
  • exercising for a period of 30 minutes of more   41% vs. 20% 
  • removing high calorie foods from home or office   39% vs. 15%
  • increasing daily steps   37% vs. 20%
• Daily weighers adopted a greater number of total weight control behaviors on the WMSQ compared to those weighing less than daily
• For other dietary weight loss strategies, daily weighers reported on average higher EBI scores, lower calorie intake, and greater caloric expenditure compared to those who weighed anything less than daily

Large-Scale Observational Study:

• 10,000 smart scale users demonstrated a dose response relationship between weighing frequency and weight change, with stronger correlation with obese patients
• If participants took breaks ≥30 days from weighing, weight increased by 0.58-1.37 kg depending on baseline BMI.

Meta-Analysis in 2015

• Multi component intervention if it included self weighing had 3.4kg more weight loss
• Adding self weighing enhanced weight loss by 1.7kg
• They did NOT find regular weighing caused adverse psychological issues like depression or anxiety.

What is the Eating Behavior Inventory?

The EBI test was made 25 years ago and has been studied in more than 20 weight loss investigations. EBI scores correlate with weight loss outcomes. It is based on eating behaviors. The higher the EBI score the more weight lost. Many of the studies cited above talk about “different interventions.” The EBI test is not online, but examples of some of the behaviors show behaviors adopted by successful weight loss patients.

MOST STRONGLY ADOPTED BEHAVIORS in successful weight loss

• Carefully watching and recording type and quantity of food
• Maintaining a weight graph
• Weighing daily
• Eating food that help with weight loss
• Being able to stop eating

LESS COMMON BEHAVIORS, but still beneficial:

• Leaving food on the plate
• Refusing food offered by others
• Shopping from a prepared list

What do we do at Biohackr Health?

We are excited to add a pilot program of daily weigh ins to our medical weight loss program. Anything we can do to help our patients be successful in weight loss is important. These studies showed up to a 14 pound better weight loss in patients who weighed daily, without causing increased emotional issues like depression or anxiety. They showed when you have that accountability you made better choices.

Minimum weigh in is once a week. Those who did so had a 11 times higher chance of losing more than 5% of their body weight.

We have created an app to help us in this journey for our patients. Medical weight loss is a multi-pronged approach: InBody scan, body fat and muscle percentages, creatine, NAD, a probiotic supplement to help with glucose control and regularity, protein, resting metabolic testing to see your baseline, VO2 max to see when you burn fat vs carbohydrates, hormone support, lab testing to make sure it isn’t due to thyroid or other issues, continuous glucose monitors and other support if blood sugar and insulin resistance is a contributor. MEDICAL WEIGHT LOSS

Experienced medical staff. Whole body evaluations. Lab tests. Multiple ways of helping you on your journey.

Medical Citations