About a year ago I started a routine of working out nearly every day for the purpose of losing a little weight. At the same time I went on a restricted diet that focused on balancing macronutrients and clean eating. Since then my goals have expanded to getting stronger and generally healthier. When I started a year ago, my routine consisted of doing about 45 minutes of weight training and 15 minutes of HIIT cardio, usually on an elliptical machine. Eventually this focus on health and fitness led me to the habit of weighing every day.
Getting Into A Routine
My workouts have varied over the past year; last fall I moved to scheme involving heavier weight, less reps, and no cardio that I figured would cause more muscle gain. I neglected to schedule another BOD POD to measure any progress after the program, so I’m not sure how it turned out. My diet has also varied, but throughout have tried to focus on sticking to clean eating, watching calories, and ensuring enough protein consumption. I’m currently following a Whole30 program.
Recently I had gone back to my cutting routine (weight training plus HIIT cardio) before my workplace shutdown due to COVID-19. Now without access to a gym, I need to transition to a home workout. But my main focus has been to stick to a routine. On days I plan to work out, I force myself to do it. And over the past year I’ve been working out regularly. Now and again, I’ve taken a week off from regular exercise and a strict diet to go on a vacation, but exercise and a healthy diet has become a fixture in my life.
Making a Commitment
Over the past year I’ve come to value the hard work and dedication it takes to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Waking up at 5am to get to the gym before work. Spending a good portion of Sunday shopping and prepping food for the week. There was scarcely time for anything else in my life. As I have developed a habit and routine, it has gotten easier. Though sometimes I wonder why I do it or if it’s worth it. But then I remember a time before a year ago and I decide it is worth it and cannot imagine stopping. Increased stamina and energy. My clothes fit better. I’m more confident. All of these benefits aren’t something that came to me overnight. They showed up at various times over the past year.
That brings me to my central point: why I weigh every day. I’ve heard people say you shouldn’t weigh every day; “it can be discouraging”, but I disagree. A year ago, my initial goal was to lose some weight, maybe about 15 to 20 pounds. At the very beginning I wasn’t weighing, following the guidance I’ve always heard that you should not weigh every day. I lost the weight I wanted to and decided to switch up my workouts. It wasn’t until I started the muscle gain program last fall that I really started to weigh every day. I had increased my calorie intake and wanted to ensure that I wasn’t gaining too much weight. I was targeting no more than a pound every two weeks.
Tracking Weight
So starting then, every day after my workout at the gym I would weigh myself and record the weight in a spreadsheet. I charted the measurements and created a trend line to make sure I was tracking according to my expectations. From that time up until Christmas, when I was planning on bulking, the trend line gave me the awareness of how I was doing overall, rather than a single data point every see often that gave me part of the picture. So many things can impact one’s weight on a certain day. I wanted the big picture.
As can happen, my diet got a little out of hand during the holidays. I was still working out and still weighing every day and I could see my weight sky-rocketing in January. I knew I needed to go back to my weight loss routine. That is where I have been since. Still tacking my weight every day I work out, I see the results of focusing on diet and exercise.
Why I Weigh
They say a negative number, for most people a higher number, can be discouraging. Also, I believe a positive number, could mentally sabotage more than a negative number. Accepting a single lower number, that could be due to any number of reasons, marginalizes any work you did to get there, because you didn’t do all the work that day. And that goes both ways. One data point doesn’t indicate how bad you’ve been in diet and exercise and doesn’t reflect the hard work you’ve put in either.
Rather than saying you got to a goal weight immediately, wait until you’ve been at that weight for a certain amount of time, one or two weeks. That is a true accomplishment and a greater validation of the work you put in through diet and exercise. Though there is a caveat. Just as one data point doesn’t tell the whole story, one source may not either, no matter how comprehensive. A scale alone cannot tell you how much better you feel or if your clothes are fitting better.
It Reflects the Process
But above all, for me, weighing every day reinforces a mindset that progress isn’t made in one day, but rather achieved slowly over several days, strung together. There may be days that are up and some that are down. That translates to how you may feel about the entire process that particular day. A day when you don’t particularly want to get up and work out but do anyway, or when you don’t feel like you got a good workout. It can be deflating, but it is just one step in the direction you want to go. Stepping on the scale helps me remember there may be a setback today, but I’ll be back tomorrow and the day after and eventually I’ll get where I want to be.