Daily weighing can be the key to losing weight

Daily weighing can help achieve weight loss goals. People who did not weigh themselves at all or rarely were less likely to lose weight than those who often weighed, according to a study to be presented in Chicago during the 2018 scientific sessions of the American Heart Association.

The researchers examined the self-weighing habits of 1,042 adults (78% male, 90% white, 47 years old on average) and looked for differences in change. of weight between these habits over 12 months. They analyzed the self-weighing data transmitted remotely from Health eHeart, an ongoing prospective study on the electronic cohort. Participants weighed at home as they normally would, without any interventions, advice or incentives for weight loss from the researchers.

The researchers identified several categories of self-weighting adults, ranging from those who weighed themselves daily or almost daily to adults who never used a home scale.

They found that people who never weighed themselves or weighed only once a week did not lose weight the following year. Those who weighed six to seven times a week lost a lot of weight (1.7%) in 12 months.

Tracking your behavior or body weight can make you more aware of how behavioral changes can affect weight loss. These findings confirm the central role of self-monitoring in modifying behaviors and increasing success in any attempt to better manage one's weight, according to the study's authors from the School of Nursing's University of Pittsburgh and the University of California at the San Francisco School of Medicine.

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