The Best Day of the Week to Weigh Yourself is…

The ritual of weighing oneself is part and parcel of dieting. We’re all familiar with the feelings of anxiety mixed with hope as we place our feet on the scale. How much did I lose? Did I gain? Am I flat again?

For some dieters, the weigh-in is so traumatic that they prefer not to know. Others are obsessive and weight themselves daily, or more. A common-sense approach is to weigh yourself once a week, first thing after getting up and going to the bathroom.

Weighing yourself daily may be meaningless due to changes related to water retention, hormones, bowel movements, sweating, food and beverage consumption and more.

Assuming you agree, and decided that once a week is the right balance?

According to Professor Brian Wansink of Cornell University, the best day is Wednesday. The logic is simple: we spend the weekends gorging ourselves, so we are at our heaviest on Monday. Assuming we work hard at eating healthy all week long, by Friday morning we are at our low point. Therefore, a representative average weight would be on Wednesday morning.