Use Your Bathroom Scales Wisely

Use Your Bathroom Scales Wisely

It may seem hard to believe that the bathroom scale can be your enemy when you are attempting to lose weight but, if you’re accustomed to a morning weigh-in that leaves you feeling guilty, angry, discouraged or demoralized, then it’s worse than your enemy – it’s a skilled saboteur that stands ready to undercut your fat-fighting work.

Think about what happens when you step on that accusatory scale. Most of the time, it just delivers the bad news – that you haven’t lost weight or, worse, you’ve gained weight. Sure, the numbers are accurate, but the tale they tell is not the whole story. Those numbers on your scale typically tell half-truths. How often have you weighed yourself in the evening only to find that the very next morning you are 3lbs lighter, now obviously you haven’t lost 3 lbs of fat overnight. That just shows how inaccurate daily weighing is.

Among the reported 70 percent of all dieters who regularly weigh themselves, most forget that their body weight reflects an intricate combination of water, muscle, fat, bone and related tissues. The balance among those factors can vary from hour to hour, day to day, even when there’s no fat loss occurring. What this means, then, is that there’s no reason to weigh yourself every day, or even every week. When you’re on the track with low fat living, in fact, you may actually gain weight (as measured by the scale) while losing fat, changing body proportions, getting healthier and increasing your energy.

Sure it makes sense to check your weight every week or so, if that helps you stay in touch with your weight loss goals, but don’t rely exclusively on the scales. If you’re a stickler for mathematical progress checks, there’s still some measuring you can do if you want to, and it’s probably more useful than referring to the scale. Measure your waist, hips, thighs and arms; they’ll all start to change as you lose excess fat. Then check these measurements every month or two for a simple indication of your progress. The fit of your clothing is another valid sign of improvement. You may want to try on a tight pair of jeans now, then put them away for future comparison.

In a nutshell, just keep the bathroom scale out of sight and out of reach. You have enough stress in your daily life without a morning dose of guilt, doubt and Monday-morning quarterbacking.