The scale and I have had a rocky relationship ever since I was young. I remember going to different weight loss groups and closing my eyes when it came time to weigh in because I was too terrified of what it would say. I have also found that when I go long periods of time without checking the scale, the number can jump up anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds. (Never found it to go the other direction!)
With that said, I weigh daily. I have an obsessive personality, as I’m sure many of you do. When I focus on something, I have trouble thinking about anything else. Thus weighing daily is something I have to do for my own sanity. Here are things to note:
First off, the scale lies. Yes, it gives you a number of how much you weigh that day at that time, but it doesn’t tell you several other things. It doesn’t tell you how much water you are retaining. Did you know the more you drink, the less you retain? So when I go a day or two and don’t get enough fluids in, the scale will be up, sometimes as much as 3-5 pounds overnight.
Another thing the scale doesn’t tell you is how much muscle mass you have. People will say muscle weighs more than fat, but that’s not true. A pound of fat weighs as much as a pound of muscle, but it takes up more space as it’s less dense. If you’re lifting weights or doing other things to build muscle, the scale will likely go up. While I’m about the same weight I was before I had my son, I’m not quite as lean. At the time, I’d been working out 6 days a week for over a year. I’m working out hard again, but it’s taking time to catch up.
Yet another thing to account for is that the scale will change for ladies according to the time of the month. At two different times every month, the scale will go up for me. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but it generally will even out after the fact, and sometimes have a major drop out of no where.
So when I weigh daily, I have all of those things in mind. I don’t get excited about a drop or depressed by a gain. I don’t even believe the number to be true until it’s lasted for at least 3-4 days.
Weighing daily is a way to keep myself accountable. I will see a difference when I eat poorly, and it will serve as a deterrent for me at times from making bad choices. I also have an ingrained fear of gaining again, and so I have developed it as part of my routine.
In order to weigh daily, I follow the same ritual. I do it first thing in the morning, after I use the restroom, and completely in the buff. Food, drink, human waste…all these things affect your weight. My weight can fluctuate as much as 5 pounds from first thing in the morning to later in the day.
Weighing daily isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’re obsessed with being a certain number or losing so many pounds a week/month, it’s going to drive you crazy. Weighing weekly or monthly is a much more accurate idea of progress than daily, and if that’s still too much for you, being aware of how your clothes feel can be a better method of measurement still.
If it’s going to ruin your day if the scale goes up, don’t weigh daily. The scale will go up some days…see the points mentioned above. It’s also not healthy to weigh multiple times a day. As long as you consume food and drink or do any form of exercise, the scale will change.
The scale isn’t a bad thing in and of itself and shouldn’t define us. Non-scale victories are a much better measurement, and I’ll talk about those in another post. You have to know yourself well enough to know if it’s a good idea or bad idea for you to weigh frequently. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that!
A Work in Progress 