Diet Power works best if you weigh yourself every day, so that it can average out daily fluctuations caused by salt, water retention and “waste” to compute an overall trend. It works very well, to the point that I totally dismiss the general opinion that you should only weigh yourself once per week – which can lead to daily fluctuations totally hiding the progress you are making and even making you think your diet isn’t working when it is.

So, that given, what time of day?

I have been weighing in first thing in the morning, which is probably the most stable time of day for getting your weight measurement (minimising any fluctuations), and this has worked well with Diet Power. No problems so far.

A couple of months ago I got a set of Tanita scales which estimates various other body composition statistics such as body fat percentage, muscle mass and total body water. My Diet Musings entry explains why tracking your body fat percentage is a very important part of losing weight – probably more important than tracking your weight.

Again, to get a good trend line I have been collecting the stats every day when I weigh myself and computing the trend. Unfortunately, Tanita recommend that you take your BF% just before your evening meal – as that is the most stable time to measure for that.

Interestingly, the reading is about 2% less in the evening than it is in the morning and tallies much more closely with other estimates such as waist measurement. According to the Tanita, I am now in Physique Type 6, average body fat, high muscle. Nice one!

So, I am now recording my weight as per first thing in the morning, and then jumping on the scales again just before my evening meal to get the BF%.