The weigh in. Necessary, but controversial, in a weight loss quest. Why is it necessary? Two really simple reasons: if you don’t know where you’re at when you start, you can’t set a goal reasonably and if you don’t know if your plan is working as it goes along, you don’t know whether a change is needed.

What’s the controversy about the weigh in? It’s not the information that is gathered for it, it’s the psychological aspect of it. Just like watching the stock market, watching your weight closely can put you on a roller coaster–down today, up tomorrow, up the next day, way down the next. Just like people who watch the market and allow their emotions to take over and have them vary wildly from their plan, people who weigh in on a regular basis are at risk for giving up after a rough day or getting overly excited after a couple pound loss on a great one.

How to avoid this? It’s hard to say; this is a situation where the information is difficult to separate from the emotion surrounding it. Some would say that paying less attention–maybe instead of a daily weigh in, try once a week–would be an answer; others say that the whole idea of using weight is flawed (which is true, but the alternative–finding a low cost, easy to use, reliable body fat monitor–is not without its pitfalls either).

For me, I weigh myself six days a week–first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom, before eating or drinking anything–and write it in my journal. It gives me some feedback, no matter how flawed–on how well I’ve been doing. How to separate the number from the emotion? I’m not sure, but just knowing that the two tend to be linked is a start.