Posted on Sun, Oct. 01,
2006
When Cynthia Thomasset went to the Poconos recently, she played hooky from her weight-control regimen. She stopped recording what she ate and, because there was no scale around, she didn't weigh herself.
Result: She gained three pounds in five days.
"When I don't weigh myself, I gain weight as easy as that," says Thomasset, 41, a sales rep and mother of two who lives in West Chester.
So
at home she steps
on the scale every two or three days.
"I'm not obsessive about it, but it's my reality check," says Thomasset, who has managed to maintain a 15-pound weight loss for three years.
"It's how I gauge what I need to do that day, whether I need to exercise more or eat tons of vegetables for the next few days. It's my meter. Sometimes it discourages me, but it would be horrible if I didn't do it. I love to cook and I love wine. I'd probably weigh 200."
Thomasset occupies the middle ground in an emerging side skirmish in the Battle of the Bulge: For best results, how often should you weigh yourself?
Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Never?
On one extreme are those who never step on a scale, because they're terrified, they've given up, they don't care, or weight isn't a problem. On the other are folks who are so obsessed with their weight that they measure it several times a day. Sometimes they're in the grip of an eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia.
Most people trying to lose weight or keep their weight from creeping up fall somewhere in between. And for them, the question is: What's the best weigh-in strategy?
And on that, not surprisingly, the experts disagree. Some say daily is better, some say weekly is better, and just about everybody says it boils down to what works best for you.
Advocates of daily weighing point to a recent study by the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Researchers there examined the self-weighing practices of more than 3,000 people over two years. About 1,800 were obese or overweight and enrolled in a weight-loss program. The rest were overweight and enrolled in a program designed to keep them from gaining weight.
In both groups, people who weighed themselves daily lost more weight than those who stepped on the scale less frequently. People in the weight-gain prevention group who weighed themselves less often than once a day tended to gain weight. Daily weighers in the weight-loss group lost twice as much weight as the weekly weighers - an average of 12 pounds versus six.
This squares with data from the National Weight Loss Registry, a compilation of the success stories of about 5,000 people who were at least 30 pounds overweight and managed to lose weight and keep it off for at least a year.
Questionnaire data from 1,000 of these "successful losers" show that:
45 percent weigh themselves at least daily;
31 percent weigh themselves once a week;
24 percent weigh themselves less than once a week.
"Based on our research, we recommend that people weigh themselves each day," says Rena Wing, cofounder of the registry, a professor at Brown Medical School and director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center of the Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I.
The point is to learn what normal fluctuations are and to be able to catch small gains quickly and act on them, she says. "Weighing yourself once a day is a proactive way of watching your weight and tracking changes."
The same thinking, with a twist, is embraced by Tom Wadden, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
"When you're trying to maintain a weight loss, weigh yourself daily, preferably in the morning," Wadden says. "It will keep you honest. If your weight is up, you'll know right away that it's time to cut back your eating and exercise more."
Those trying to lose weight might want to limit their scale time to every three or four days, he says, "especially if you're the kind of person who expects to see a weight change after walking five miles. It takes at least three to four days to see any true weight loss on a scale."
Weight Watchers advocates a similar two-pronged approach: weekly weighing during the weight-loss phase; more frequent, possibly daily, weighing during the weight-maintenance phase.
"If
you don't weigh
yourself regularly, your weight is likely to drift up; it rarely drifts
down," Wadden warns, expressing a dismal cosmic truth. "It's one of the
few things that goes up and does not come down."
On the other hand, daily weighing can be discouraging because progress is so minuscule and incremental. It can also produce false positives and negatives - fluid retention caused by menstrual cycles or ingesting salty food, for example, can cause misleading fluctuations, masking real progress.
The weigh-in is a staple of the weekly meetings of the Trevose Behavior Modification Program, a local, grassroots weight-control effort whose all-volunteer teams boast a remarkable record of success - mainly because they focus on behavior, not food.
"Besides the weekly weigh-in, we suggest that people monitor themselves at home at least once during the week," director Mary L. Jackson says. "If they choose, they can weigh themselves daily. But we don't put too much emphasis on it."
More important, she says, is keeping a weight chart, which tracks progress over time.
"The body doesn't lose weight like a downhill skier," she says. "It's more like a mountain climber who comes to a ledge and rests, the proverbial plateau."
Rather than fretting over a number on a scale, better to practice such elements of a healthy lifestyle as exercising and drinking plenty of water.
"If you're eating right, if you're staying within your calorie counts, the weight will come off," Jackson promises.
For some, the scale is a scourge - judge, jury and executioner of self-esteem.
"We tell our patients, especially those who are frustrated, not to weigh themselves, or to weigh themselves only when they come in every three months," says James Hays, an endocrinologist on the attending staff at Christiana Hospital, near Wilmington. "It doesn't help their spirits to see every pound come and go each day."
Hays reminds his patients, many of whom are dealing with diabetes, congestive heart failure, and renal malfunction, that their weight can swing three to five pounds in a single day.
"After a high-carbohydrate meal, patients can see their weight climb five pounds just from fluid retention," Hays says. "I had one patient on a strict low-carb diet who, after a pasta dinner, gained 10 pounds."
Kelly Bliss, who describes herself as a "life coach and real-people workout leader," caters to many plus-size people in the fitness classes and healthy eating seminars she conducts in Lansdowne. Her gospel is size-acceptance and healthy self-care, and in her book, Don't Weight: Eat Healthy and Get Moving Now!, she offers this advice: Don't weigh yourself.
"People are addicted to weighing themselves and measuring their self-esteem on the scale," she says, "and this gets in the way of the appreciation of self-care, like healthy eating and working out regularly."
For those who need structure or a "closer handle" on their behavior, Bliss offers a "self-care card," an ego-affirming daily checklist that acknowledges such body-boosting practices as taking a walk, drinking eight glasses of water, eating fruits and vegetables.
"You take care of yourself, and your weight will take care of itself," Bliss proclaims. "Get off the scale and get on with your life."
The problem with the scale is that it doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat, says registered dietitian Althea Zanecosky, who lives in Lafayette Hill. A woman of 40 may weigh the same as she did the day she got married, but because she has less muscle and more fat her body looks noticeably different.
Zanecosky's solution: the wedding-dress test. If you can still fit into your wedding dress, pin a rose on your nose. For the record, Zanecosky, 55, who got married in 1972, can slither into hers, and zip it up to boot.
"I weigh more now than when I got married - I was 108 pounds then, I'm 115 pounds now - but the seven pounds I added are muscle."
Lydia Reeves grew up on a farm in central Pennsylvania. She ate healthy meals, fresh from the field, and never had to worry about exercise or her weight because she was so busy with farm chores.
In college, though, things changed. She gained 40 pounds, and packed on 20 more from poor habits when she was launching her career in television. By 1990, she tipped the Toledo at 210 pounds.
Through Weight Watchers, Lydia Reeves was able to shed 60 pounds so she could fit into a size-14 bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding. But in 2004, while pregnant with her first child, Reeves began packing on the pounds again. When she gave birth, she was back to 210 pounds.
In January 2005, she returned to Weight Watchers and by May of this year, she had attained her goal.
"I'm down now to 160," says Reeves, 40, a producer at NBC10. "I have a large frame" - she's 5-foot-8 - "and my clothes fit nicely. I'm content with where I am."
She weighs herself every morning when she gets up.
"It helps me keep an eye on where I am," she says. "It's like looking in the mirror and making sure your hair isn't getting too gray. I see that the two bagels I had yesterday have made an appearance, so maybe today I'll cut out that extra something at lunch that I don't really need."
