Scale Addicts
Over the years, I’ve dealt with my fair share of weigh-a-holics. That is, people who step on the scales far too often. Some do it every day of their lives. Morning and night. Some step on and off five times in ten seconds in the hope that a lower figure might magically appear between their feet. Then they do it again thirty seconds later. Sound familiar?
No, not crazy at all.
Some people give away their personal power to the ‘almighty scales’. Sadly, their morning weigh-in will either make or break their day. And their mental and emotional states. Some people think that if they step lightly onto the scales the figure might be lower. And some think that leaving part of their foot off the plate will yield a better result.
Good grief.
An Unhealthy Relationship?
Overall, I’m not a big fan of scales. Sure, they have a place in the world of health and fitness and sure they can be a useful resource but far too often they become a source of anxiety, stress and frustration. Of course, weight is a relevant issue in the getting-fitter-healthier-and-sexier process but many (many, many) people have an unhealthy relationship with their scales. You might know such a person?
Very well, perhaps?
Heavy Ain’t Always Bad
Before I share the following ‘How to weigh yourself sensibly’ tips, keep in mind that – in terms of health – body composition is much more important than bodyweight. Some heavy people are relatively lean (like me) and some light(er) people have a high body-fat percentage – which puts them at greater risk. According to a typical height-weight chart, I am currently obese and approximately 13 kilos (29lbs) overweight. In reality, I am heavy-ish (92 kgs, 202lbs) but not fat at all. My current body-fat percentage is about twelve. In fact, I don’t want to be any lighter because, for me, that would mean losing muscle. See? Weight is an issue but not always the issue.
So, with all that in mind, when should you avoid the scales?
1. Most Days. In most instances, weighing yourself every day is unnecessary and unhealthy. And often leads to obsessive thinking and behaviour. Weekly weigh-ins are adequate for most people in most situations.
2. When you’re at someone else’s place. It’s best to weigh yourself on the same scales each time. That way – even if the scales are not perfectly calibrated – you will get a more accurate indication of what’s actually happening with your weight.
3. When the scales cost ten bucks. As a rule, the cheaper the scales, the less accurate they are. It’s my experience that most domestic bathroom scales are inaccurate – usually on the light side. For the last twenty years, I’ve listened to people complaining about how ‘heavy’ the scales are at my gym. Sadly for those clients, the scales are very accurate.
4. When it’s 8pm and you’ve eaten a cow for dinner. Under normal conditions, we’re all heavier at the end of the day. Not fatter, heavier. Natural variability means that somebody like me can easily weigh 3-4 kilos (6.6-8.8lbs) more at night time. Which is why it’s best for us to step on the scales at the same time of day each time. Preferably, first thing in the morning.
5. When you’re wearing hiking boots. Clothes can weigh as much as 4 kilos (8.8 pounds), so weighing yourself in the buff is the preferred option for accuracy. If that’s not possible, wear as little clothing as possible and wear the same clothing each time.
6. After you’ve just completed a strenuous workout – unless you’re measuring pre and post-workout hydration levels. It’s easy to shed more than a kilo (2.2lbs) of water weight during a one-hour sweat session, so don’t delude yourself with a temporarily low reading on the scales. Water ain’t fat. By the way, one litre of H2O (or sweat) = one kilo. Exactly.
7. When the scales are sitting on carpet. Make sure the scales are on a solid surface (tiles, timber, concrete), otherwise your reading could be inaccurate.
8. Certain days of the month (you can skip this one boys). I know you girls don’t need me to spell it out for you but, yes, for menstruating women there will typically be somewhere between two and seven days per month when your weight is temporarily inflated due to increased water retention. Probably best to avoid the scales during this time.
9. When the thought of weighing yourself puts you in a state of anxiety. Stepping on the scales means whatever you decide it means. If you think and believe it will be a stressful experience, it will be. Weighing yourself can be a simple data-gathering exercise or it can be a traumatic event. If you can’t master your fear of the scales then you might want to use another evaluation tool for a while. Weekly girth measurements, monthly body-composition testing and monthly fitness testing are all reasonable alternatives.
10. When you’re happy with how you look, feel and function. If you look good, feel good and are in good health, who cares about a stupid number?
Are you a gym rat, or are you happy with your current weight? Tell us in the comments below!
if you leave your scale in the bathroom closet, instead of leaving it out all the time, you’ll almost for sure stop the obsessive/compulsive weighing.
What a great post! My weight and health are good (BMI 22.8) but I need some more exercise to get fittier (I just go swimming for 1 Km, 2-3 days a week). I’m quite a scale addict, I use it to measure the quality of my eating. If I eat too much junk food one day with no weight gain the day after (the most common situation), I conclude that probably I didn’t eat that bad. I’m wrong, ain’t I?.
BTW, how can I know my body-fat porcentage?
I really do disagree with this. When you’re trying to loose weight, anything that reinforces your discipline can make or break your success. For me, weighing in every morning gives me a good idea of how I’m doing. I don’t turn bulemic if I gain a pound, but I sure as crap become much more conscious of what I’m eating that day. I don’t want my weightloss trend to turn into a weightgain trend simply because I’m not paying attention.
this is true, but for some people it is more fanaticism. i know a girl who gets on the scale about every day and just STARES at the number
I think behavior like that is an indicator of some much deeper problem. Blaming a scale for obsessive compulsive behavior would be like blaming a calculator for financial indecisions. Scales and calculators are tools, and many people find ways to use them without being compulsive.
Well then that should be addressed, not the daily part. We don’t all have to abstain from chips just be some people can’t stop with 5, to create an analogy. Daily weighing is extremely helpful for a lot of people, so it should not be so easily dismissed or criticized by a non expert who herself is obese!
These are great tips for using the scale. Although people sure start focusing on body fat percentage rather than weight. Sure tracking weight is easier but it does not carry as much meaning as body fat percentage.
Uhm, weighing yourself everyday shows you how volatile your weight actually is. This way you see how it goes up and down, up and down, up and down in ways not beyond those linked to how you eat or drink any day. The best thing is to weigh everyday and take a moving average of your weight. This cleans up the noise in the signal.
The worst thing to do is weigh yourself occasionally AND assume that the changes from one time to the next mean anything.
Seeing the random fluctuations helps you NOT WORRY about them (assuming you are rational and not inummerate that is!)
Weighing yourself every single day is the absolute worst you can do. Firstly, when exercising and trying to lose weight, in the process of losing weight, you gain muscle, which is more dense than fat. This means that initially your scale will show that you lost weight but then “all of a sudden” you will weigh more, giving you a false hope that you are not losing weight.
Best tip: Weigh yourself on day 1, focus on your calories IN vs calories OUT, eat clean (lots of fruits/veggies, non processed foods, low saturated fats) do lots of cardio, strength train and after 6 weeks of this regime, weigh yourself again. Rinse and repeat. Welcome to a very healthy lifestyle!
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I’ve found that there is a significant difference if I weigh myself before and after a long soak in the bath. I can only assume that it’s down to a degree of dehydration, but whatever the reasons, I can easily see up to several pounds of difference, highlighting even more the need to weigh yourself under consistent circumstances. As for frequency, whatever works for the individual…
I’ve found that there is a significant difference if I weigh myself before and after a long soak in the bath. I can only assume that it’s down to a degree of dehydration, but whatever the reasons, I can easily see up to several pounds of difference, highlighting even more the need to weigh yourself under consistent circumstances. As for frequency, whatever works for the individual…
We moved to China about two years ago, and I never bought scales. We’re only here temporarily, and it seemed like a waste of money. I’ve weighed myself exactly 4 times while being in China (3 times at a spa, once at a friend’s house) and I find I don’t think about my weight at all. I just notice how I feel, how my body looks (am I getting chubbier) and try to eat healthily (easy, with all the great fresh food available in Asia!).
I can imagine it being useful to someone who has to lose weight for medical reasons, but not really as a daily tool for just anyone.
I agree with most of the points in this article. However, I completely disagree with point #1. As a woman, I think the absolute best thing you can do is WEIGH YOURSELF EVERYDAY. Yup, that’s right. Totally counter intuitive? Not if you set your expectations right.
I found that by weighing myself every morning – after my “morning constitution” but before I shower and my long hair is sopping wet – I’m able to accurately map my weight to my menstruation cycle. It took about 3 months of daily weigh-ins to have a few cycles under my belt to identify a pattern. Everyone knows that women gain water weight during a certain part of the month but what I discovered through the daily weigh-ins that it’s more complicated than that.
I found that my body has about 3 phases (I’m sure medical science would say 4 but I’ve identified 3 for me). Hormones are a key component for women and weight so it’s important for every woman to really understand what that means for her own body.
During Phase 1 I’m feeling normal – not bloated or particularly skinny – and my food cravings are average. Phase 2 is when I become bloated, my period comes and my hormones are making all my food cravings nuts, shooting my appetite through the roof and increasing my sleep needs but still feeling tired. Finally, when Phase 3 rolls around I’ve lost all the water weight, feel a lot lighter, have extra energy, need less sleep, have little to no food cravings and have a depleted appetite overall.
How this helped me: Understanding what phase I’m in during my weigh in puts my weight in perspective. If I’m weighing myself during my “light” phase (Phase 3) then I know that I should expect my body to go up a wee bit during Phase 1 and not freak out that I’ve blown my diet. On the flip side, it also keeps me honest as I know that weighing myself during Phase 3 is my skinniest weight and not my “normal” weight.
However, since I AM focused on currently loosing weight, it also keeps me from artificially thinking I’ve lost weight if I compare my Phase 2 weigh-in with something from Phase 3. Over time, all the numbers should continue to go down if you’re living a healthy life style (eating right, exercising, etc.). The high/lows of the numbers will still be constants during weight loss as your weight overall might decrease but you’ll still be heavier or lighter during some parts of the cycle versus others. Contrary to popular opinion, daily weigh-ins didn’t make me have an eating disorder but instead opened my eyes to something that had otherwise felt a bit unpredictable.
^^This so much! I’ve even gone to weighing first thing and last thing in order to get a better grasp on how my sodium intake effects water retention over the days among other things and have found that after 6 months that comparing my evening weight to my morning and taking into account my salt, I can predict how much I will weigh in the morning with pristine accuracy. I have 3 phases as well. All else being being fairly equal (roughly same calories and exercise), in phase 1 on high salt days, down 1.9, low salt days, in phase 2, nothing matters, I am either the same or gain a bit the next day, but I don’t fret because I understand better what I put in my body and how it affects my weight.
Any one who has access to the internet and is freaked out about their scale enough to find this article will also find much information about daily weight changes to put their minds to rest that daily fluctuations in weight won’t cause a panic but rather give them a window to their own body.
But either way, the measurement that I do focus on for success is the inches.
I think that you should weigh once a week, as you said weighing every day might make you depressed if you think you are doing great on your diet but it looks like you are gaining weight. i think that you cannot lose weight fast since you can only lose water fast so depending on how much water you drink and how well you control what you eat you can get a good idea of how your diet is going. i also found a good diet planning site http://biggestloserclub.com.au/ so if you want to check it out :) you can see how your diet should be going and calculate pounds per month and estimate time to reach ideal weight.
I am turning 21 in less than a month and my family is taking me on a cruise and for that reason alone has pretty much kicked my into high speed to lose my unwanted flab. See I weighed 120 lbs in high school and 4 years later I have gained 30 lbs… yeah 30. It is normal to gain weight after high school but I can barely stand the sight of myself. So I have only been consuming 1350 calories a day and I also take green tea fat burning pills/I do a sea salt cleanse once a week/exercise daily and I have lost almost 11 lbs is 3 weeks or so… not bad. Only 10 more to go! Anyways, I have become so obsessed with weighing myself and what I eat and how many calories is in what that it is driving everyone around me bonkers… not to mention myseld. When I weigh myself in the morning and its more than what I was yesterday it absolutely frustrates and depresses me. I also weight myself 10 to 15 times a day to make sure it hasn’t gone up or down. I feel like I look better but again the more I obsess and stare at my stomach the more problems I find.
Reading this article made me realize how crazy I have gotten with this whole thing and nice to know I am not the only one losing my mind over it either. It is true though, if you feel good… who gives a crap about the number on the scale… kinda need to take my own advice! I am proud of my progress but not totally satisfied with the way I look.
My son came home and told him according to his gym teacher he has a 34 percent fat for his weight. He is a brink not an inch of fat. He is muscle so how can someone say that> He is 178 lbs and 5ft 7 inches his friends hit him in the stromach and said dam there is no fat there. How can a gym teacher tell you to loose weight? All the gym teachers are overwight.
The fat tests they do aren’t as accurate as the places where you lie in a tub of water and test it…but that is like $50! If your son is visibly all muscle he sounds very healthy :)
This is a great article, thank you for writing it. I recently lost 50lbs and in the last three months I have weighed myself in the morning and at night. Frankly I started to realize I was becoming a little obsessed and if my weight wasn’t down in the morning it caused me to eat poorly. So three days ago I gave up the scale. From here on out I will focus on body fat %, inches and how my clothes fit. I will weigh myself only monthly. I can see how easy it is to make the scale the focus instead of everything else. Like my resting heart rate going from 75 to 55 in the last 6 weeks. Or losing 30 inches, or going down four pant sizes. That is what should matter.
That is awesome, well done Elizabeth. Good for you. As they say, where there is a will, there is a way.
I think you have done a great job. However I would keep the scale. Focusing on how cloths fit is a bad idea most cloths these days are made with some type of stretch material (even jeans) so you could easily gain 10 pounds without going up a size. Ask any wedding dress maker women often get upset when they try on their dress and it is too small and the first thing they say is “I am still wearing the same cloths I don’t believe it”. So unless you are wearing tailored, structured clothing you will have to gain quite a lot of weight before your cloths tell you that you’ve put on a few.
I have been working out pretty much as long as I can remember. The past year and a half, I have lost nothing- inches or pounds. I mix-up my workouts, have tried working out less/more, long vs. short workouts, different eating reigmens, protein shakes/no protein shakes, diet pills, got my throid checked (negative), P90X, personal training, work-out DVD’s, etc. – pretty much everything out there and nothing has helped. In fact, over the past month and a half or so, I have actually gained weight. I am extremely frustrated and it is depressng me to the point where people can tell something is seriously wrong because I am not being myself…..and I am getting scared b/c I am so obsessed with it and that it has gotten to the point where it is affecting my relationships and who I am as a person. I don’t know what else to do- I am not obese, but I should be geting something out of all the work I am putting in. Any suggestions or routines that you know have worked?
Is there any advice for someone who is suddenly 5 pounds heavier than when she weighed herself on the exact same digital scale only 2 weeks earlier? I’m in the process of training for my 4th half marathon and suddenly gained 5 pounds. I work out like a BEAST and I have a very healthy diet. The weight gain is unexplainable to me. I am a few days away from my “special lady time”, but a 5 pound influx because of that? Geeze!
Very nice articl :) thanks
I went to gym and workout 3-4 days a week. And I have been working out in the gym for a month+. My height is 167cm,weigh around 90.4 kg(latest measurement) and my body fats is over 29%.. I know that I am overweight. But to me, I doesn’t see myself as overweight. I always thought of my muscle is more than fats. Because muscle weighs more than fats.. that is why I am getting heavier and heavier over time.
I tell myself to only weigh in sunday of each week, but sometimes i sneak a peak if im feeling nosiey lol
but waiting overall shows you a huge drop in numbers than looking everyday :)
Hi, my name is Sharon, I weight 70kg’s at my 40th birhday in August 2011. I have gradually been picking up weight since then (not eating or drinking any differently) and weighed in at 84.4kg last week Monday. I am on the 3-month injection and thought that maybe this was part of the reason for my weight gain. I have since last week, been drinking about 11/2 litres water a day, eating smaller portions of food and doing sit ups in the morning and evening (LOL, this is all I can managed at this stage) and I have lost 2 kilos since last week which is great. I am still going of the 3 month injection because that may not be helping. I just wish the weight loss would happen faster!!
I’ve been working on losing weight for a while now. I’m down nearly 35lbs in the past 10 months. Losing weight is a struggle and my weight has gone up and down. I step on the scale every day before I shower. Some days it’s later than usual, but roughly the same time every day. There’re some days when my weight will jump up or down 4lbs. That’s a huge difference either way. Weighing yourself every day means that you need to understand what you’ve digested the day before. Maybe there was too much sodium (bloating) or not enough water (dehydration). Maybe you worked out really hard with weights and the scale didn’t move at all eventhough you ate very well the day before. I’ve learned not to take the scale too seriously. It’s good to touch base, but if you weigh every day, you can’t be too hard on yourself when you see a higher number than you expected. Also, I think it goes without saying that you can’t get too excited about the huge weight loss either… not until you keep that number steady for a day or two anyway. The point is that it’s about an average, not just one day. One bad day will not ruin you. Make it give you the motivation to do better today!
I have to admit that i fall into the category of weighing myself way to much :( however after reading this i feel better about the exercise and weights that i’m doing. I am noticing a difference in my clothes and body shape so it must be working :) I’ve just hit a plateau at the moment and getting depressed!!! I can’t seem to shift those last couple of kg’s………………….Will they ever budge??
great article! thanks =)
I’m the ultimate gym rat. I previously weighed 200lbs and had 26% body fat. Now, I’ve lost 60lbs and gained 14lbs of lean muscle mass meaning, I’m now 5’7″ at 154lbs wearing a size 5.
This is all well and good, but the number on the scale still wigs me out even though I know yes, I weigh more, but also that I wear the same size as most 125lb women.
Believe it or not you can be a “skinny-fat” I am thin but have had a higher body fat percentage due to the foods I ate & is more dangerous than an average over-weight person for my over all health. I am currently correcting this by eating more fruits & veges, lean meats, almonds, oatmeal & taking fish oil. Weigh yourself in the afternoon & if you have a scale that measures body fat it will be higher in the morning as you have not ate all night & your body stores fat thinking you have went into starve mode. I am a 46 year old female, 5’7″ & had 29% body fat weighing 134. I don’t weigh much less (131.5) but my body fat is now 22% which is in the healthy range for my sex & height. Hope this helps for those of you who need to lose the unhealthy body fat w/o losing unnecessary weight!
I am almost forty six and I weight about 172.00 pounds. I am five six. I use to have an eating disorder where I would exercise all the time and take laxatives and would only eat non fat items. I struggle with this daily, although I have had counseling. I use to weight 105 pounds. I feel so fat now. I work out 4 times a week and do weights and it seems I dont lose a thing or inch. It is upsetting. I have noticed my arms look thinner but it is not showing on the scale..Is this bad? Everyone thinks i look great but not me.
I lost 27 pounds in 17 days. All I did was run every night and switch out one meal a day with salad.
I also disagree with the weigh everyday item … at least when you are in diet mode I think it is good to weigh once a day … I just completed about a 15 month weight loss of 165 pounds … I tracked my weight everyday at the same time (morning, right after I got up) … I didn’t necessarily react to an increase or a plateau unless it lasted for more than 3 days (that way I didn’t react to water weight fluxuations) … I also didn’t react by changing my diet usually … I typically just did an extra 30 minutes at the gym to try and break the plateau … once you reach a stable weight that you wish to maintain then weighing less frequently might work … but while dieting I think it is necessary and prudent
Lol! I’m definitely the person you described up there! I’m obsessed with the scale and step on it several times in a row hoping it will look better the next time. Lol I’ve actually lost about 20 lbs in a little over a month on atkins. I was wondering if being on your cycle caused weight gain, which I kinda already knew it did, but just needed a reminder. Good article.
De’Lois. Your article helped me. I go to gym 5 days a week since June 20,2012 and scales are not friendly. I’ve lost couple dress sizes but scales not showing it. I usually weigh couple days a week. I’ve decicided to put the scales out of sight for a few weeks to see what happens.
I have mostly got ridden of the negative thinking about the scale weighting. If I loose a kilo one day it doesn’t mean that it will go on like this the next days. It goes up and down but that doesn’t bother me now as long as in approximation it goes down over long periods. However I am currently measuring my weight every day just to keep a chart and write down what and how I have eaten to make conclusions (although it’s complicated with the human body and I can’t understand). If I was obsessive as in the past, yes weighting every day would be not a good idea. But now I am trying to see what kind of food works and what not. I want to make sense of it.
Why would I take weight loss advise from someone obese? I weigh myself daily and it lets me know when I can splurge a little and when not, like a budget but for my health. I love hearing what works for others, but your tone was know.it.all and judge mental of people who weigh daily…then to find out you are not interested in your weight anyway and/or not successful, well that is just irritating to be told what not to do by you.
Always trying to lose weight. Like, all my life , I think I have to accept my extra weight. PS. I am healthy..ie: good blood pressure and cholesterol.