A new study in the United States has found that daily weighing may help people lose more weight and adopt healthy lifestyle habits, according to Reuters .
The researchers observed that overweight and obese people who weighed themselves on a regular basis reported more weight loss than those who weighed themselves less frequently. This is so because people who weighed themselves regularly made healthy exercise and food choices.
The study researchers hired 91 obese and overweight people between the ages of 18 and 60 with internet access and no serious medical conditions. They randomly assigned half of the participants to the intervention group. The other half participants were asked to go through the intervention later.
At the beginning of the study and six months later, participants were asked to fill out questionnaires about their exercise, diets and other health-related behaviors. The researchers gave both groups e-scales with wireless internet connections. They instructed the intervention group participants to weigh themselves daily.
During the study, participants in the intervention group got weekly email messages that contained tips and strategies about weight loss. However, the comparison group received nothing.
At six months, it was observed that participants who weighed themselves on a daily basis lost 13 to 14 pounds, whereas participants who weighed themselves five days a week lost around 7 pounds.
The daily weighers adopted more healthy behaviors such as increasing physical activity, reducing the number of restaurant meals, decreasing between-meal snacks and cutting television-viewing time. Furthermore, people who weighed themselves regularly adopted 17 positive behaviors, while those who weighed themselves less frequently adopted 7.
Dori Steinberg, lead author of the study, said that daily weighing may help people understand what they were eating and how it was affecting their body weight. Hence, people are more likely to use a pedometer, eat healthy foods and reduce portion sizes.
According to Psychology Today, previous studies have shown that daily weighing may help people manage their weight.