For Day 11 of Healthista’s daily Tweak Diet for January, we’ve got something a bit controversial. Pundits often tell us to throw out the scales but in fact, research shows people who keep their weight off weigh themselves once a week. If you’ve just joined us, scrolled down to see how it works
Experts love telling us that 90 per cent of people who go on diets regain the weight in a year. But what about the 10 per cent who keep it off? The National Weight Control Registry in the States studied the habits of women who kept anything from 30-300 pounds off for five years or more. Here’s what they found:
- 78 per cent ate breakfast every day
- 62 per cent watched less than ten hours of telly a week (more on that next week)
- 90 per cent exercised moderately, not hard for an hour a day
Most importantly for today’s tweak:
- 75 per cent weighed themselves at least once a week
Plus, a study published in 2009 in the American Journal Of Preventative Medicine found those who weighed themselves weekly were 11 times more likely to lose weight over a six month period than those who didn’t weigh themselves.
Although it’s tempting to weigh yourself daily, this has been known to lead to obsession. It could also be counter-productive too as fluctuations in fluid don’t really give you a picture of your weight loss efforts’ results day-by-day. This could lead to frustration and disappointment and that’s no fun.
So set a weekly time and day for weighing yourself during your January Tweak Diet.
If you joined a food tracker like myfitnesspal.com at the start of the Tweak Diet you can record your weekly weight results with that. If not, just list them in your analogue diary.
JUST JOINED THE HEALTHISTA JANUARY TWEAK DIET? here are some guidelines to get you started
What is the Tweak diet? Designed for anyone who doesn’t want to go on a big starv-y diet during January, we deliver you one new small change to make to your diet or lifestyle on each day in January. You continue each change throughout the month and come February, be on your way to weight loss and new healthy habits you can keep all year. You in?
2. Continue with each of your small changes throughout the month and come end January, you will have built up a heap of new healthy habits and will be well on your way to losing weight and feeling better.
3. If you fall off the wagon just get back on asap If you don’t manage to keep up all your small changes every day, don’t worry. Just get back on the next day or even better, at the next meal.
4. Measure once at the start and once at the end. That’s all Take your waist, hip and bust measurements and weigh yourself at the start and end ONLY of your tweak-a-thin journey. I don’t want you getting bogged down in the numbers and would prefer you focus on how much better you’ll feel (the weight loss will happen, don’t worry)
5. Send us selfies of your tweak-a-thin journey Post them to Healthista on Twitter, Facebook and in the comments below. At the end of January we’ll publish them and you’ll be in with a chance of winning a Healthista exclusive pamper hamper handpicked by yours truly.
6. Do what you can Obviously you don’t have to do every single tweak we suggest. Even just one will make a difference as we’ve handpicked each change to be small but powerful. The more you do though, the better your results.
More posts in Healthista’s January Daily Tweak Diet
Day #1 Record everything you eat
Day #2 Drink two litres of water daily
Day #3 Your at-a-glance portion guide
Day #4: Have a protein breakfast for weight loss
Day #5 Cut back on sugar with these simple tips
Day #6 Burn an extra 500 calories a day (without the gym)
Day #7 Snack on 40 almonds a day
Day #8 Is it real hunger or a craving?
Day #9 Take the stairs – five times
Day #10 Add flavour without calories
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