I used to weight myself. When I was younger I would occasionally weigh myself in my parents bathroom. In college I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got a scale to keep in my room. In the depths of my eating disorder I would obsessively weigh myself multiple times a day.
One story I will never forget is when I signed up for a gym membership after college and you got a free personal training consult with it. At that consult they weighed me and I was told that my BMI was on the high end and I should work with them on a weight loss plan.
I’m 5’4 and have always had an athletic/muscular build and BMI does not take that (along with MANY other factors) into consideration making it a really invalid way to assess health.
Anyways, I had words for this trainer and I explained to him how inaccurate and triggering his “assessment” was. After my rant he offered me a job LOL! I declined the job offer and told him our “consult” was over and left. Luckily I was in a strong enough place to brush off his words, but if this had happened a few years prior it would have been devastating.
My point with this story is that I was not a candidate for weight loss, but based on numbers like weight or BMI the charts might say I was. For me, the number on the scale was/is not an accurate assessment of health.
I honestly can’t tell you how much I weigh anymore and have no desire to know these days. However, for people with real weight loss goals using a scale would seem to make sense. Not necessarily.
I’m giving you 4 reasons why it’s time to ditch the scale and explore other ways to assess your health and wellbeing.
- We don’t have one true weight
Weight is variable which reflects the complexity of our body’s normal biological processes. The number on the scale is influenced by numerous physical and emotional factors such as hydration status, stress, glycogen stores, menstruation, hormonal changes, bowel movements, exercise, muscle mass, and even sleep. I read a blog post by another dietitian who did an experiment where she weighed herself a bunch of times throughout a 24 hour period. Her weight was all over the place, and at one point she was up 7 pounds from her first morning weight and then her weight right before bed was back to her morning start weight. Obviously she did not gain 7 pounds in a few hours, so this experiment proves how variable weight can be. - You can achieve your health goals without self weighing
Owning a scale won’t make you lose weight and not owning a scale won’t make you gain weight. You can still achieve your health goals without the focus being on weight. I’ve had many clients that come in hyper-focused on the scale and weight loss and freak out when I ask them to put the goal of weight loss on the hold while we focus on building healthy habits and behaviors. If you take the power away from the scale and put that energy into your relationship and behaviors related to food and physical activity…guess what you will probably lose weight if that’s appropriate for your body. - It can become addictive and negatively impact your mental and emotional wellbeing
I think many of us can agree with this one. The number on the scale can really set the tone for the day and impact our mood, behaviors, and self-worth. Something as innocent as weighing yourself every once in a while when you notice the scale can easily turn into an unhealthy obsession. It’s a slippery slope and can lead to unhealthy and harmful behaviors related to food, body image, physical activity, self harm, etc. For the clients who were ready I would have them bring in their scales to me (or their therapist) when they were ready to break up with their scale and they felt so empowered! - Weight does not necessarily reflect health or wellbeing
Weight is simply one data point. There are much better ways to assess how you’re doing. Checking in with yourself and seeing how you’re FEELING is a better place to start. Questions to ask yourself to better assess how you’re doing in reaching your health goals:- How’s my energy at different times during the day?
- How am I sleeping at night?
- How’s my ability to think clear?
- How’s my mood?
- How’s my digestion?
- How’s my skin?
- How’s my energy level during workouts?
- Can I eat until I’m satisfied instead of full?
- How are my clothes fitting?
What do you think? Are you ready to break-up with your scale?
xx,
Alix
