Prefer listening? 🎧 Here’s a podcast-style audio version of this blog produced by AI.

What could the collection of 5,000 distinct observations about yourself do to how you live your life optimally?

Last month, I realised that I had recorded my 5,000th body weight reading in my digital log. This milestone forced me to think: “Surely, there must be embedded value in this that others could benefit from!” Today, I am going to talk about how you can extract and multiply value from something that costs next to nothing.

If you find it useful, please share this with your family and friends. All the other 170+ articles are here.

If you would like detailed guidance to discreetly upgrade your life – health and wealth – visit the mentoring page or the coaching conversation page.

(NEW!) For some testimonials from around the world, go here.

Contents

The Anatomy
Experience Unlocking Your Inner Power
Benefits
1234Friends with Benefits
1234Outcome and Process Values
1234Internal Culture and Conquering Consistency
1234Signal Extraction
1234Avoiding Wilful Blindness
1234God or Money
1234Small Data
Protocol for Measuring
Narratives
1234Short Duration Narratives
1234Long Duration Narratives
Uniqueness
Why Do People Stop Measuring?
Cost
Leaving Money on the Table
A Tool for Parenting
Take-Home Message
Parting Message

---

The Anatomy [top]

This activity is composed of two distinct parts. The first part is the simple physical act of measuring and recording your weight. The second part involves creating the many narratives around the data that is recorded and available for analysis.

[The schoolchild in you may recall that what I’m calling “weight” is more accurately termed “mass,” though such precision here would be needlessly pedantic.]

Experience Unlocking Your Inner Power [top]

Here is the single most powerful takeaway for you today. And remember to come back to reread it whenever you cannot see the potential for a superpower that arises from deep within you.

The act of consistently logging and tracking your values builds a powerful internal mechanism that keeps your goals in sight. Even if you drift far from the place that you once cherished, this practice fuels an inner engine that pulls you back, resisting the forces that push you away. When you can clearly see yourself being pulled off course, that engine will not tire or run out of fuel. Such is the strength of the daily discipline. But beware: if you stop the daily process, the engine loses its power, and the pull toward your true path fades.

Actionable takeaway: Even if your lifestyle choices are going off track, do not stop the daily Kg-reading process. I have faith in the power deep within you, do you?

With that as a foundation, what other benefits can you accrue?

Benefits [top]

In addition to that most valuable gem to take away today, here is how we can think of all the other benefits.

Friends with Benefits [top]

Even our best friends come with small costs, the tiny annoyances that are significantly outweighed by the benefits, the joy in the friendship. This 2-part activity of recording and analysing is a special friend — a friend with benefits. If you hang around with this friend for long enough, the long-term gain will be worth the apparent pain you think you might be experiencing.

Outcome and Process Values [top]

Weighing yourself every day for many years generates gigantic value by creating a longitudinal record of your physical existence and leveraging the mathematical power of consistent action. The value derived is dynamic, stemming both from the Outcome Value—the lengthening history of data itself, which broadly tracks the quality of the interface to your inner wealth—and the Process Value—the consistent execution of a ritual that enables the expansion of your personal history, driving your future life trajectory. Because this required action can be kept small and is repeated consistently over time, it leverages the principle of compounding deltas, which guarantees progressive movement into the future.

Internal Culture and Conquering Consistency [top]

The long-term discipline required for daily measurement and recording is fundamentally valuable, serving as training for personal growth and developing your internal culture. The practice cultivates the beneficial traits of a mindfulness practitioner and helps you to become a Consistency Conqueror. The ritual of measuring increases overall mindfulness, which is the state of being fully present in the moment and being aware of your thoughts without being controlled by them. For any worthwhile outcome goal, conquering consistency in process goals is mandatory. Furthermore, consistently recording the daily data electronically acts as the perfect feedback mechanism to assist you in that desire for conquering consistency, grooming you to make meeting other important process targets a non-negotiable part of your identity.

Signal Extraction [top]

The large volume of data collected over many years provides the necessary objectivity to make sound decisions about your lifestyle. Frequent readings are essential because day-to-day weight variability (or “noise”) can be significant. Measuring often allows you to iron out the signal from noise and separate objectivity from emotion, whereas infrequent observations risk leading to incorrect conclusions.

Avoiding Wilful Blindness [top]

At the extreme end, keeping a very long gap between Kg readings leads to problems of wilful blindness. Not long ago, I spent a few years working at a fertility clinic. I still smile when I recall a new patient, struggling to conceive, who told me, “I was 58 kg, then I got married and became 85 kg.” It was clear she hadn’t made any deliberate self‑observations during the many months it must have taken to gain 27 kg — and in the process, neatly swap the digits 5 and 8 in her weight. This aligns with the foundational principle that if you do not measure, you cannot monitor, control, or improve. Failure to stick to this routine means missing the understanding of why values changed over time, illustrating the danger of not being mindful of one’s physical existence or its relevance as the interface for amassing all 4 forms of internal wealth.

God or Money [top]

By paying close attention to detail—a critical factor for performance and success in everything you do—you unlock hidden value, as the money (or God) is in the detail. The objective measure of daily weight reminds you of your physical being inside your clothes, increasing self-awareness of that primary interface to all your inner wealth.

Small Data [top]

Recording this information after reading the scale’s digital display captures your “Small Data,” which is specific to you and can be used to improve your life. This contrasts sharply with those who make the effort to measure but then fail to record the values they measured, thereby leaving value on the table to evaporate.

Protocol For Measuring [top]

To ensure consistency and accuracy, follow a strict methodology:

1. Use a digital scale with a granularity of 0.1 Kg or even 0.05 Kg. Your home must have one.
2. Use the scale every morning. We all have a morning.
3. Upon waking, drink water (I usually consume between 0.9 and 1.2 litres). Estimate how much you drink (e.g., assume 600 ml). You can do that calculation.
4. Then, “do a number 2” – I hope you can manage that.

Up until here, there’s nothing special, right? Now, remember to continue with the following steps daily. They are simple too.

5. Weigh yourself in the nude or the same minimal underwear.
6. Subtract the water you drank (e.g., subtract 600g if you drank 2 300ml glasses of water, since 1ml of water weighs 1g).
7. Record that reading. I typically WhatsApp the reading to myself before logging it in an Excel spreadsheet later, but you could use an online document like a Google Sheet directly on your phone.
8. If your scale provides additional biometric information, record your body fat % and any other data.

Remember to do all the above daily. This ritual of measuring increases mindfulness. When you are going on holiday, if you stay in a hotel, they are bound to have a scale – just make a note that it was not your usual scale (e.g. “Scale at the Taj Exotica in Goa”). Given the strict luggage restrictions when flying, most budget hotels will provide you access to a weighing scale, even if they do not have a gym or health club. If you are renting an apartment for a short holiday and have no luggage restrictions, you could carry your weighing scale from home – I often have!

Narratives [top]

As the duration of logging regular weight readings increases, the usefulness of data analysis also increases. Journaling, along with additional quantitative (e.g. blood pressure) and qualitative (e.g., mood, energy levels, stress) data that you capture about yourself, can help you understand what drives you towards better or worse states of existence.

Short Duration Narratives [top]

Daily weight readings, even across a short duration, are critical because day-to-day variability (or “noise”) can be significant. Short-term stories generally focus on specific inputs or recent events, linking daily actions (input) to the daily weight (output).

• Hydration Status and Workout Readiness: The daily weight reading, taken consistently in the morning, can help you identify which days you wake up a little dehydrated compared with normal. If you have had a normal eating day, the next day’s weight variation is likely to be mostly about hydration. This knowledge can create the narrative: “On days I was dehydrated (lower weight than normal), my subsequent morning workout session without additional hydration felt lethargic (compared with average)“. If you track body fat percentage as well, a drop in weight caused by dehydration will often appear as a higher body fat reading. This happens because muscles, which normally store water, become dehydrated. The reduced water content alters your body’s electrical impedance, causing the scale to register less muscle mass and, in turn, a higher implied body fat percentage.
• Impact of Previous Day’s Food Consumption: A daily reading can remind you that you skipped dinner the previous night (lower weight) or overate at a dinner party (higher weight). This narrative can encourage more mindful eating.
• Indulging in Healthy Food: The data helps validate the physical reality of calories consumed. For instance, after just five days of teaching in Doha, I noticed that my diet—though filled with healthy foods—had an unexpected downside. The quality was excellent, but the sheer quantity led to weight gain.

As you create these stories, you will realise how important it is to separate signal from noise to avoid misleading conclusions. Weekly readings alone can be deceptive—depending on the day you choose, such as Saturday morning versus Sunday morning, two results a week apart might tell very different stories and trigger very different emotions. A daily log, on the other hand, reveals the natural ups and downs, showing you that fluctuations are perfectly normal. More importantly, frequent readings help you spot real trends earlier and adjust your lifestyle strategies more proactively.

Long Duration Narratives [top]

There is a tiny fraction of cases where weight gain is a desirable outcome. For the remaining vast majority, weight gain is undesirable.

Here are some simple examples of how you can utilise this data over longer periods.

• Wearing a step-count tracker can help you identify the benefit of increasing the duration of your morning walks.
• Holiday guilt need not be a thing if you can see that, over the years, each short holiday creates only a temporary blip.
• Whether associative or causal, you can observe improvements in other health markers with reduced body fat.
• Whether associative or causal, you can observe a concomitant worsening of other health markers with increasing body fat.
• Experiment with MDFx (multi-day fasts) and see how your weight varies within a window before, during and after fasting. You can also see how that pattern across the 3-part window varies each time you attempt, say, an MDF5.
• Understand how your weight varies during a sports competition training season. Check how it changes after the pressure of training for competitions is eased.

Uniqueness [top]

I reflected on how few people accumulate a rich dataset spanning years and decades that includes their weight readings. I don’t know anyone else with as many daily weight readings as I have. Even professional athletes, whose statistics are critical for team selection or training prescriptions, may not maintain extensive informative records, particularly after they retire and no longer have a coach demanding it. Many retiring professionals do not seem to recognise the value in continuing this process for the rest of their lives.

Never mind elite players of sports —why do most normal people working on computers with data pertaining to the outside world not see the value in data pertaining to our inner world that I am able to see and capture in this almost costless activity?

Why Do People Stop Measuring? [top]

There are many reasons people start but then cease measuring. Often, this lack of follow-through is associated with:

• The Unholy Trinity: nudges people to save energy by not taking a weight reading. People stop taking readings to avoid the psychological pain of seeing bad news every morning, or the pain of dealing with the regret of poor personal choices around pleasure-seeking. Or the pain of guilt associated with not doing anything about the uptick in weight and the downtick in health!
• Poor Calculator and Impaired Vision: This stopping reflects a “poorly functioning calculator” that cannot see the long-term value of the activity. This is why people stop going to the gym after a few weeks. The irony here is that the physical effort required is minuscule compared with a gym workout. And yet, it can unlock a superpower within you that I mentioned at the start today.

To overcome these roadblocks, you must practise mindfulness and develop emotional detachment from the observation, while remaining interested in achieving better outcomes. This means facing reality and making changes daily for a healthier weight, without becoming emotionally upset when the readings aren’t immediately favourable.

Cost [top]

The upfront financial cost of a reliable digital weighing scale is low enough for even low-income households to afford, and it can even be used to weigh other objects, such as travel baggage or sacks of rice.

A visceral cost lies in accessing a weighing scale, preparing ourselves to get on it, and then recording a reading.

Even after more than 5,000 readings, I still enjoy guessing what number the scale will show. It’s not about whether the result is favourable compared with the day before – it is about the satisfaction of being right that the positive or negative change was as expected. A tiny hit of dopamine at the start of the day? Perhaps! And some part of that release of the neurotransmitter for pleasure and motivation comes simply from completing a small task, once again.

Leaving Money on the Table [top]

You lose valuable insight if you step on the scale but fail to record the number in a format that can be analysed or graphed. Ignoring your Small Data—the personal data unique to you—means missing an opportunity to use it for real improvement.

A simple habit of logging your weight creates a powerful feedback loop. That tiny extra effort not only strengthens your “consistency muscle,” it also builds a reliable history you can trust, instead of depending on fragile human memory to recall dates and values. With smartphones always at hand, relying on scraps of paper is outdated—digital logging is the smarter, lasting choice.

Actionable takeaway: Type the date and weight into your device each day and watch your dataset grow into a tool for progress.

A Tool for Parenting [top]

The habit of measuring and recording is also an important tool for parenting. Parents should measure and record their child’s height and weight, not only to track growth spurts and overall health, but also to foster a family culture of good health. When parents are consistent in their healthy approach, parenting becomes easier, as children tend to follow what they observe their parents doing, especially when it comes to consistent actions.

Take-Home Message [top]

Daily weight logging is more than numbers—it is a low‑cost superpower that builds consistency, filters signal from noise, and fuels an inner engine to keep you aligned with optimal health and mindful living. Over 5,000+ readings, I have seen this simple habit evolve into a strategic asset: revealing hyper-personalised insights, strengthening discipline across life’s big goals, and uncovering the causal links between body, mind, and lifestyle that memory alone cannot capture. You can start today—your engine only runs out of power when you stop.

Parting Message [top]

Tiny, low-effort habits that can deliver immense value over the years are the ones that we can all develop to give us superpowers.

It is your smallest of habits that define who you are today and who you will be tomorrow. If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you would like detailed guidance, you know how to reach me. If you found this useful, please do share it with others.

Puru

Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.