The scale…I don’t know about you but I have a love/hate relationship with the darn thing. I recently wrote a post stating, ”the number on the scale doesn’t define you.” I truly believe this now, but in the past, I let it define me and often let it dictate my day. These days, I prefer to use how my clothes fit to keep me on track.

Unfortunately, not everyone operates the same way and many insist on weighing themselves daily. As you might expect, this can lead to disappointment and frustration. However, weighing in does have some positive attributes as it can be helpful in monitoring progress, creating awareness, and keeping one on track. Daily weigh-ins can be very helpful to some as they support a higher level of awareness on small weight changes, which then creates motivation to maintain new lifestyle patterns.

For others, daily weigh-in’s don’t work as well. Why? Because even when our nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and sleep patterns are intact, just a 1-pound increase can lead to frustration. Some interpret this as gaining a pound of fat. In reality, most of it, if not all, is retained water. Weight changes from one day to the next are mostly a reflection of changes in body water, hormone fluctuation, or even constipation. Fluid shifts happen every day and daily weight fluctuations can be as high as 4-5 lbs.

Putting too much focus on the scale can lead to compulsive weigh-ins (I had one client who weighed himself several times a day). When these weigh-ins don’t meet expectations (sometimes unrealistic), many begin to avoid the scale completely, totally give up, or even binge.

Paying too much attention to the scale can truly be misleading. When focusing on weight loss or weight maintenance, it can be a much smarter decision to reduce weigh-ins to once a week. This can help to manage weight without obsessing over the daily body fluctuations that occur naturally. If this is what you chose to do, or need to do, to monitor your progress, try this once a week unclothed instead. This will help catch changes in body fat and provide a reinforcing effect when you are staying on track. It can also give you the push you might need when its time to refocus on healthy behavior patterns that may have lapsed a bit.

Still, weighing in just once a week is something that some of my clients don’t wish to do and I completely respect that. I want to encourage healthy thoughts and behaviors, not the opposite. Another option is to measure inches lost or maintained, instead of tracking pounds. In measuring inches lost, you can more effectively monitor body fat loss. If you are exercising on a regular basis, it’s very likely you will be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time and a scale may not reflect this.

The bottom line here is weighing yourself once per week can give you the appropriate cues necessary to maintain healthy behaviors that will help to keep lost weight off for the long-term. But if this doesn’t work for you, a great alternative is taking measurements, or even going by how your cloths fit (not legging or sweats as I did during quarantine 🙂 )

Ready to start adopting behaviors that support your health? Head to my website at https://balancehealthandnutrition.com/work-with-julie/ to sign up for a FREE 30-minute consultation.