Why the Scale Sucks
Have you ever been through this experience?
You wake up and get on the scale as part of your morning routine. You are down 5 pounds, yes! You’ve finally reached your goal weight and the scale is showing you the number that you want to see. You go about your day feeling confident and on top of the world, all because of THAT number. You allow yourself to have a couple of bites of your favorite candy bar, because “you deserve it!” You go through the rest of the day and by the time you go to bed, you’re falling asleep with a smile on your face.
You wake up and repeat your morning routine, and find that the number on the scale is not what it was yesterday. “I weigh what?!” That number that gave you such happiness and joy yesterday has now flipped a switch and started your day on a negative note. You go through the day restricting and beating yourself up for allowing yourself to have those bites of the candy bar, because that has to be it! You work out super hard after work as punishment, and to get back to that magical number on the scale. You go to bed exhausted and disappointed and hope that tomorrow will bring the joy you had the other day all because of that number.
Sound familiar to anyone? We can fall into the trap of giving the scale too much power over our lives. When we do that, it dictates our thoughts, feelings and activities for the rest of the day. But why? Why do we allow this metal piece of junk to determine our worth?
A primary reason for relying on the scale is that it’s easy and gives a concrete number to aim for, and we like tangible goals. Also, we have grown up in a world where weight is taken all the time. Oftentimes, teenagers start weighing themselves daily because a magazine suggests so. Any time you go to the doctor, your weight is taken or asked. Different sports in high school or college have weight classes or restrictions. Almost every household owns a scale, but relatively few people think about the damaging effects of constantly weighing ourselves.
Research shows that doctor visits or dietitian sessions with weight weigh-ins can detract from a person’s progress. Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche discuss in their book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works that majority of their clients (prior to intuitive eating) spent their visit asking questions on why their weight was a certain number compared to last time or why they hadn’t lost any weight rather than why they came in for the visit/session (pg. 55). Obsessing over your weight and the number on the scale is habitual to chronic dieters in need of validation.
Weight can fluctuate daily depending on how you slept the night before, your hormones, your physical activity, your diet, the weather and your fluid status. For example, about 2 cups of water equals a pound. Most often, fluid shifts in the body cause the scale to go up or down in a matter of a few days. No single meal can cause you to gain 5#. With the consistency of the scale being so inaccurate, our weight should not be considered the number one indicator of our health.
Another reason the scale sucks is because it perpetuates our distrust in our bodies revolving around food. Intuitive eating is about honoring our bodies, listening to our hunger cues, and rejecting the diet mentality, but if we are glued to the scale how would we ever begin our intuitive eating journey? We have to slowly break away from the scale and learn to trust our bodies, because man, our bodies are cool!
If you have weighed yourself daily for years, I challenge you to take baby steps in breaking that habit. I challenge you to not weigh yourself one day of the week. After about a week, I challenge you to not weigh yourself two days a week and so on. It is important to start small with our goals in order for them to be achievable. I’m sure putting the scale away is invoking some anxiety and fear, and that is okay. That is normal. I am here to meet you where you are and cheer you on along the way. You are more than a number on a scale, and the more we lean into that and truly believe it the more we can open ourselves up to listening to our bodies.
“The scale does not reflect body composition- just like weighing a piece of steak at the butcher’s does not tell you how lean the meat is.” (pg. 56).
Tribole, E., Resch, E. 2012. Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works. 1st Edition. St. Martins Press.
How I really feel about the scale :/