Scale Addiction: Why It's Time to Stop the Madness
If you're trying to lose weight, you might be extremely attached to your scale. Maybe you weigh yourself every day...or worse...two or three times a day. Granted, if you are trying to lose weight, every ounce that you lose seems like a triumph, but weighing yourself every day or more might be doing a number on your mental state:
1. Emotional Roller Coaster: The fluctuations displayed on the scale might send you on an emotional roller coaster. If the display shows you a lower number, you are propelled into an instant state of ecstatic happiness. If the display doesn't tell you what you'd like to see, however, maybe you launch into disappointment and self-inflicted negativity. Either way, your whole entire outlook for the day can become dependent on the output of a gadget.
2. Quality Poundage: Your weight is only one measurement of health. It doesn't factor, however, your height, your build, your body fat, your lean muscle tissue or your bone density. When you think of your weight and your health, all of these factors need to be considered. If you're a 5' 5" woman and weigh 140 pounds, you might think you are at a healthy weight. But if you take a closer look and evaluate how much of your weight is body fat and how much is muscle, 140 pounds may not be so great. The quality of your weight is more important than the quantity.
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3. Unavoidable Impacts: Water retention, dehydration, sodium, PMS, alcohol and constipation, all temporarily impact your weight, and not always for the better. Although weighing yourself regularly can be beneficial, if you weigh yourself too often, these fluctuations will drive you crazy.
4. Subjectivity vs. Objectivity: Lastly, your weight doesn't measure how you look or feel. If at your healthiest point in life you were a size 8, and now you are barely squeezing into a size 12, you may be carrying around a few extra pounds worth losing. If, however, you had no physical strength or were out of shape at the size 8, but are in great shape as a size 12, you might be better off. If you are honest with yourself and you genuinely feel good - you have lots of energy, you feel attractive in your clothes (assuming you have a healthy self-esteem), and you feel healthy - there is a good chance you are healthy and that you're in good shape. In short: being realistic and being observant goes much further than the number on a scale.
So, next time you feel the urge to weigh yourself every day, three times a day, resist the temptation. The best thing you can do is weigh yourself one day a week at a specific time during that day. This will help you compare apples with apples so that you know whether or not your weight loss (or gain) is real.
Do you have a scale addiction?
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