How To: Weigh yourself correctly

Learn how to weigh yourself correctly. Monitoring your weight is difficult when it can fluctuate three to five pounds in a single day. This system will help.

Step 1. Use your own scale

Always use the same scale. Scales that haven't been calibrated recently can be off by as much as four pounds, so using a variety of scales will make it more difficult for you to monitor gains and losses.

To check your own scale's accuracy, put a five-pound dumbbell or bag of sugar on it and see what reading you get.

Step 2. Weigh yourself in the morning

Weigh yourself at the same time every day, preferably first thing in the morning, before you eat.

Don't weigh yourself right after a workout, unless you always weigh yourself right after a workout and never at any other time. Exercising makes you sweat, so the reading may reflect an inaccurate weight decrease.

Step 3. Use a hard surface

Keep your scale on a flat, hard surface; carpeting can affect the reading.

Step 4. Pee before you weigh yourself

Make sure your bladder is empty when you step on the scale.

Step 5. Get naked

Weigh yourself naked or in your underwear; clothes and accessories can add as much as five pounds.

Step 6. Take an average

Weigh yourself on three consecutive days each week, and use the average of those numbers as your weekly weigh-in number.

FACT: In a study of 3,000 dieters, those who weighed themselves daily lost an average of 12 pounds, compared to a 6-pound loss for dieters who did weekly weigh-ins. Dieters who didn't weigh themselves at all gained four pounds.