It’s time to Ditch the Scale because YOU are more than just a number! Are you someone who finds themself stepping on the scale daily, sometimes multiple times, held hostage by the number staring back at you? You’re not alone! That may seem crazy, but so many of us have this deep-rooted connection to what that number is, so much so that our relationship with our scale often becomes an unhealthy one.
Here are 6 reasons why you should ditch the scale and focus on the thing that truly matters, your health.
1. Your Scale Lies
Let’s be honest, the story that your scale tells you changes so often that sometimes you are left to wonder exactly where you stand. You could ask it 15 times a day and get 15 different answers. That number is affected by a myriad of things that are completely out of your control like what you’ve had to eat or drink recently, hormones, time of day, body inflammation, etc. Remember that number staring back at you represents only part of a much larger puzzle, yet it holds so much power over us since that’s how we’ve been conditioned for years.
Re-conditioning your mindset to see that number for what it is, one data point in a much larger equation. It’s but one part of what makes up the journey to better health that you’re on.
2. Muscle is more dense than fat
A lot of you may have asked this very question “I’ve been working out and eating better, but the scale hasn’t moved or it’s moved in the wrong direction, why”? It’s a fair question to ask so let’s look at it like this. If you replace 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle, sure you may weigh the same, but I can assure you that you’d look different and more importantly FEEL different. Let me propose this question: “If you feel better, look better, you’ve lost inches off your body, and your clothes fit better (maybe you’ve even had to buy new clothes), but the scale hasn’t moved would you be happy? Many of you may answer no to this simply due to the constant mindset conditioning that success is tied to the number on the scale. Is the number on the scale important, yes but it does NOT represent success or failure all by itself.
3. The Scale doesn’t define whether you are healthy…or NOT
Just because you’ve taken up exercising and paying more attention to your nutrition doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly be Healthy. If you’ve gained 2 pounds because you’ve been strength training and adding more muscle you might begin to look leaner and more muscular. Is this a bad thing, are you on the right track? Your scale won’t exactly tell you that. In the reverse, if you lose 4 pounds because you’ve been starving yourself and killing your metabolism in the process your scale will show that you’ve lost weight, but at what expense. There are better indicators of your overall health such as having more energy, decreased aches and pains, your clothes fitting better, or just feeling BETTER about yourself in general. These are the indicators that are much more important than the number that the scale shows you that could be again related to the foods that you’ve eaten, your digestive health, body inflammation, water retention, or even hormones. At the end of the day your overall health is what’s most important, so let’s shift your mindset to focus on the things that have a much greater bearing on your overall health.
4. All Or Nothing Weight Loss Mentality
For so many of us, we’ve been conditioned to use the number on the scale as an indicator of Success or Failure. No grey area, no grace, you are either succeeding or failing. This all-or-nothing mentality can cause us to resent things in our lives like food and exercise and even make them the enemy. Allowing a number displayed on a scale to have such far-reaching control over us is at its core an unhealthy activity. Your self-worth, and self-confidence, to name a couple, all take on a negative connotation when we overly invest ourselves with our scales. Taking back control and not allowing that number to define us is the first step to a much healthier outlook.
5. The scale can keep us singularly focused on one thing FOOD
So many of us subscribe to the mindset that we need to go on a “diet” to lose weight and become healthier. Heck billions of dollars a year on made just from that mindset alone. Crash diets, liquid diets, ditching entire food groups, etc. we’ve all seen them, and many of us have yo-yo dieted our way through many of them. The thing is that food alone isn’t the only factor in what number looks back at you when you step on that scale, and it’s most certainly NOT the enemy. What it doesn’t show you are things like the fact that you’ve sat in a chair all day and haven’t gotten much movement, haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in weeks, can’t remember the last time you exercised even a little, the high levels of stress over your job or family situation, you get the picture. All of these can impact the number that’s displayed when you step on that scale. Sure food is a factor in that as well, but it’s only one piece of the overall larger puzzle.
6. The scale is an awful motivator
As we covered above, your scale LIES, and because of this it is a terrible motivator. On the “good” days it motivates you to continue to get in your daily exercise, continue with your healthy eating choices, get a good night’s sleep, feel good about yourself because you’re “succeeding”. On the “bad” days it motivates you to want to throw in the towel, skip your workout, fall back to those old eating habits that got you here in the first place, and worst of all have a negative view of yourself because you’re “failing”. The crazy part of all of this is this is often a day-to-day, week to week, month to month, battle. Focusing on that number just opens you up to disappointment, discouragement, and heartache. Do yourself a favor, don’t fall into this trap.
The Journey Forward
So where do I go from here? Do I throw my scale away as soon as I get home, never to be heard from again? Not necessarily, but hey it’s your decision. As we discussed above the scale is a useful tool when it’s used to do that ONE thing, tell you what your weight is devoid of all the many factors that go into what that number actually means. So take it for what it is, a point in time reference to where you stand at that exact moment that you find yourself standing on it. There are other more meaningful things that you can pay attention to that more accurately measure your health and fitness progress such as:
Take Photos
Take weekly photos of yourself to see the changes in your body. Now, come on we both know you take a million selfies anyways right. This is important because if you simply look at yourself in the mirror every day, you’ll likely miss out on those slight yet significant changes that are taking place. Viewing yourself in these progress photos will reveal things you likely wouldn’t see otherwise.
Focus on how you FEEL
How do you feel when you get up in the morning? Are your aches and pains beginning to dimmish or have they disappeared altogether? How is your energy level today? Have you noticed changes in your digestion, yep this is an important indicator too. Make a daily check-in on YOU a priority.
Focus on the small victories
Focus on those things that may be small and insignificant to you, but often lead to bigger and better things down the road. Maybe you walked an extra mile today, used heavier weights in the gym, stuck to your nutrition goals, drank more water, didn’t have a headache today for the first time in a while, etc. Focus on all of these and celebrate them all, because they deserve to be celebrated.
Focus on your clothes
Your clothes often hold the answer to your progress. While that number on the scale might not be moving at all, or even in a direction that you don’t like, your clothes may tell a different story. You may notice that your clothes don’t fit right anymore, your pants aren’t as snug, that shirt that was tight around the middle suddenly is much more comfortable. The changes may be subtle, but they will be telling, don’t discount them.
Ditch The Scale and Enjoy The Journey To Better Heath!
It’s so easy to get ourselves wrapped up in the end goal that we forget to enjoy the journey. Have you heard that one? So here’s my challenge to you, take this day to day, celebrate the good days and give yourself grace on the rough ones. Make this about feeling like the best version of you instead of connecting the success/failure to one number. After all, YOU are more than just a number so ditch the scale and focus more on your journey to better health!
Check out our article How To Boost Your Metabolism As You Age for more tips on how to maintain a healthy weight and keep your body alive and functioning properly!
