The short answer: No
Here’s the long answer. We’re living in an era where tempting foods surround us almost constantly. Many people snack all throughout the day. People cook at home less than ever, and the average person eats restaurant food multiple times every week. Much of the food we eat nowadays is engineered in laboratories to be as tempting as it can be.
All of these factors have come together to make obesity and overweight a major health problem. And most adults that you see are overweight or obese (71% in the United States, based on government statistics from 2015/2016).
If we were living in a different era, then weighing yourself daily wouldn’t have made sense
If we were living in a different era—say before World War II—then the answer would be different. Back then, the rate of overweight and obesity was nowhere near what it is today. The food environment did not promote overeating. So weighing yourself every day would have been…solving a problem you didn’t have. Like buying flood insurance if you live far away from a flood-prone area.
But we’ve living in today’s world. Here’s what Tommy Tomlinson (author of The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America) writes:
Losing weight is a f***ing rock fight. The enemies come from all sides: The deluge of marketing telling us to eat worse and eat more. The culture that has turned food into one of the last acceptable vices. Our families and friends, who want us to share in their pleasure. Our own body chemistry, dragging us back to the table out of fear that we’ll starve.
Many will people will tell you that it is obsessive to weigh yourself daily. But stepping on the scale every day can be a very useful tool to help you figure out which food habits are working well for you, and which are not. In my book Weigh Every Day, there’s a section entitled What are some myths about weighing yourself daily? If you’re on the fence about weighing yourself daily, you may want to read through it.
