May 17, 2008 
by M. L. Dillians
Recently, I decided to finally lose some weight - I have tried in the past but always failed for one reason or other. This article is the first in a series of tips I have learned work for me.
My new idea was simple - do it my way and ignore all the advice.
The first idea I had was to weigh myself every day. Sure, I know you are thinking, all the so called experts advise that you should weigh yourself only once a week at most. Why? Because they think you will get “discouraged” if you weigh too often and don’t see results from your diet.
I don’t get feedback fast enough on my efforts or failures if I weigh in only once per week.
Fast Feedback is the Key
Experience has shown that if I engage in daily weighing the immediate feedback is critical in allowing me to assess whether the previous day’s behavior was helpful or counterproductive.
Of great importance to the reliability of this feedback is to weigh yourself on a highly accurate scale at the same time each day. The best time for me is after awakening before I sit down for breakfast. My first step was to purchase a scale of the best quality. Such quality scales, with appearance very much like one encounters in a doctor’s office, cost approximately $150. This expense is well worth it seeing it imparts great confidence in the results I see. I do not worry they are due to a malfunctioning scale giving varying readings from one weighing to the next.
This feedback shows me the effects that eating a fast food burger with fries at lunch can have on my weight. It shows that I truly will lose weight if I stay on the diet and I can generally see actual results every couple of days.
This daily feedback tells me exactly what I am doing right or wrong. I found in the past that weighing in only weekly is too infrequent. A week is long enough to forget what it was that caused the change up or down. Daily weighing lets me mentally review the day before each morning.
There can be difficulty with stepping on the scale each day. This is most evident when I know I have been “bad” the day before. This negative feeling, however, does serve a purpose. It reinforces my resolve to improve my eating habits that day so the next session will be more positive.
I recommend trying this tip if you are having a hard time losing weight.
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