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A Diet Tip that Violates One of the Main Rules - But It Works

By: M. L. Dillians Recently, I have nearly completed a very successful self-directed diet program. After trying other ways to lose weight, I decided to give some of my ideas a try. This article is the first in a series of tips that have worked for me even though they violate conventional wisdom.

I decided to ignore all the extraneous advice and do it my way.

Stepping on the scale each day was my first idea. It is well known I was going against the advice of alleged experts who assert you should engage in weekly weighing sessions at the most. What is the rationale for this? Many think that frequent weighings show little incremental progress which could result in discouragement on the part of the dieter.

My problem with weighing only once a week? I don't get feedback from my efforts (or failures) fast enough.

Fast Feedback is the Key

By weighing myself every day, I learn immediately whether my actions and eating pattern from the previous day were successful or not in trying to lose weight.

The first thing I purchased when I started the diet was a high quality scale similar to those you'd see in a Doctor's office. I spent about $150 on this scale, but I feel confident with the results from it since it doesn't give different readings every day. I think that having such a reliable scale and weighting myself right after getting out of bed, before eating breakfast each day, is a key to getting useful feedback.

The feedback provides me daily assurance that, indeed, if I eat a fast food burger with fries at lunch, the next day I won't have lost much (or any weight). And, if I stay on the diet, I will, in fact, lose weight. I can usually see real results almost every day or two.

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.

Daily weighing can be tough to do - especially when I know I haven't been "good" the day before. However, even this bad feeling about myself provides a limiting factor to my behaviour the next day.

Give this Idea a Try if You are Having Trouble Dieting.