Dec 17, 2014 11:57 PM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The amount of times someone steps on a scale could impact their weight, according to a recent study.

Researchers from Cornell University found that the more frequently dieters weighed themselves the more weight they lost, and if participants went more than a week without weighing themselves, they gained weight. This is because weighing yourself could help dieters stay on track.

For the study, researchers analyzed nearly 3,000 weight measurements (up to a years' worth of weigh-ins) from 40 overweight individuals (with a body mass index of 25 and over) who indicated that weight loss was a personal goal or concern.

They found that weight loss was related to how often individuals weighed themselves.

The observational study cannot prove causation -- it may be that less serious dieters weight themselves less or that dieters who stop losing weight stop weighting themselves, researchers said. The average time that participants could go between weighting without gaining weight was 5.8 days or about a weekly weigh-in.

A previous study by the same research team found that your weight naturally fluctuates throughout the week and that most people weigh the least on Wednesday.

"The bottom line is: If you want to lose weight, it's best to weigh yourself every day. But if you weigh yourself only once a week, do it on Wednesday because that will give you the most accurate reading," said Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and author of Slim by Design: Mind Eating Solutions for Everyday Life advises.

The findings are detailed in the journal PLOS ONE.

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