Effective Ways to Monitor Your Weight Loss

Losing weight is never easy and so you have to find ways to motivate yourself to continue following your weight-loss plan. It helps if you are able to notice a difference in the way you look or to step on the scales and for the numbers to have fallen. Unfortunately, weight loss doesn’t always happen as quickly as you would like it to and even if you step on the scales and find you’ve lost a pound, it doesn’t seem good enough. You therefore have to look at the bigger picture and remember that as long as your weight is heading in the right direction you will get there in the end.

Weighing yourself
When you’re overweight it can be rather traumatic stepping on the scales for the first time, but it needs to be done, so that you know where you’re starting from. Once you know how much you weigh, you can set about establishing a weight-loss goal, as this will help you to get focused on what you need to do. You may not know what a ‘normal’ weight for you actually is, but the Body Mass Index (BMI) is a useful place to start. There are online calculators in which you type your height and weight to learn whether you’re underweight, healthy, overweight, obese or morbidly obese.

It is only a guide, though, and you have to find a weight you’re happy with. You also need to focus on consistent weight loss, even if this means you only lose a pound or two a week. This is the recommended amount of weight to lose, anyway, and so you shouldn’t become too disheartened if you feel as if you’re losing weight too slowly.

Inch loss and being able to fit into smaller clothes
Sometimes you notice more difference in the way your clothes fit than when you get on the scales. If you have decided to incorporate more exercise into your day, as well as changing your diet, you will be building muscle and toning up. Even if you’re disappointed with your rate of weight loss you should be able to appreciate being able to fit into clothes that you had grown out of. If you use a tape measure and make a note of your measurements, you will be able to keep track of just how many inches you have managed to lose.

Health and fitness
The benefits of losing weight go well beyond the merely superficial. By losing weight you will reduce the health problems associated with obesity including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancer and osteoarthritis. Losing weight can also boost your self-esteem and help with depression. As you start to lose weight you will probably start to feel healthier and more confident. By eating healthier and getting active you will notice that your fitness improves and that you can do activities you previously struggled with.
It is therefore evident that losing weight is a positive thing to do if you’re overweight and unhappy about the situation. By giving yourself a goal to aim for and making an effort to monitor your weight loss, you will increase your chances of successfully reaching your goal.

The Importance of Monitoring Your Weight

When you know you’re heavier than you should be, you may not bother to get on the scales for fear of what you will discover. However, it is surely better to continually monitor your weight than to avoid weighing yourself until you become so heavy that you are unable to lead a normal life. If you fail to monitor your weight, you won’t know the precise impact your eating and exercise habits are having on your weight, which means you won’t bother to adjust them. Consequently, you could find yourself with a very large amount of weight to lose, rather than just a few pounds.

Clearly, when you find yourself needing to lose over 30 pounds you have to be extremely determined to reach your weight-loss goal. It can be hard enough to lose three or four pounds, but when you need to stay focused for so long it is even tougher. Ideally, then, you would avoid getting into this position in the first place. By monitoring your weight, you can see for yourself when you’ve eaten too much or not done enough exercise, which you can then rectify the next week to ensure you don’t continue to pile on the pounds.

If you’re overweight and trying to lose the extra pounds you’re carrying, monitoring your weight takes on even greater importance, because it provides you with a useful way to measure your progress. You don’t have to weigh yourself every day – indeed, to do so could be counterproductive – but, by weighing yourself once a week you will be able to see how the changes you’ve made to your diet and exercise regime are paying off. This should help keep you motivated, since you know for sure that all the effort you’re putting in is working, and so you don’t mind sticking with it.It is important to monitor your weight, because being either too fat or too thin could have a detrimental impact on your health and well-being.

Consequently, weighing yourself at least gives you some indication of whether you need to gain or lose weight. You are able to track how your weight fluctuates over the weeks and months, so that you know more about how your body works. Plus, if you start gaining or losing weight unexpectedly, you will know straightaway about it, which means you can make an appointment with your doctor and find out if there is anything wrong with you. If there is, at least you will be able to deal with your condition sooner rather than later.

Even though you may loathe stepping on the scales, it is important to monitor your weight, so that you don’t gain or lose huge amounts of weight in a short space of time, as doing so could be bad for your health. If you do gain or lose a few pounds you can always make changes to your habits to avoid the situation worsening and see a doctor if you’re concerned about being ill, whilst if you don’t monitor your weight you may not even realise there is anything wrong.