Research

Energy balance

Regression of daily home body weights over a 4-week period is a valid and reliable method for estimating short-term changes in body energy stores during active weight loss, superior to 2-week body composition changes.

To track your progress accurately during the first few months of a diet, weigh yourself daily at home on a calibrated scale. Do not rely on 2-week body composition scans, as the changes are too small to measure accurately in that timeframe. Instead, use the daily weights to calculate an average trend over 4 weeks.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Regression of daily home weights provided the most reliable estimate of short-term change in energy stores.
Susan B. Racette et al. · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · 2011

Why this rating

Validated against gold-standard DLW and body composition in a large multicenter trial.

Source

Approaches for quantifying energy intake and %calorie restriction during calorie restriction interventions in humans: the multicenter CALERIE study

Susan B. Racette et al. · American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism · 2011

DOI 10.1152/ajpendo.00290.2011

rct · n=40Cited 114×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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