Note: This is a repost from the Whole9 archives. We felt it was time to pull this classic back out, as we have so many folks who are new to the Whole30. Don’t forget to check out our follow-up post: 174,203 Ways to Measure Your Health (Besides the Scale).
We work hard to present our Whole30 program as a tool for creating optimal health, and not a weight-loss quick fix. We have strict rules about weighing yourself during your program (you can’t) and focusing on weight loss as a measure of Whole30 success (you shouldn’t). But despite all our efforts, many people still find it impossible to take their eyes off the scale. So today, we’ll present five reasons to kick your scale to the curb – not just during your Whole30, but for good.
1. Scale weight fluctuates wildly.
It’s good to measure things to track progress – and if you weighed yourself monthly, that might help you spot a trend in your body weight (gaining, losing or maintaining). But over the course of a day (or a few hours!) your weight can fluctuate by as many as five pounds – sometimes more. Food and beverage intake, time of day, dietary choices and activity levels all factor into that number on the dial. (And we won’t even mention clothes, because we’re pretty sure most of you are obsessive enough to weigh yourself naked.) You can lose two pounds just by going to the bathroom – and gain it right back by eating a big meal.
Those fluctuations are not representative of body fat lost or gained. But seeing a number jump up by four pounds sure does a mental number on you, doesn’t it? Weighing yourself daily tells you nothing about your big-picture trend, and only serves to reinforce the next four points.
2. Scale weight says nothing of health.
That number on a scale says nothing about whether you’re moving in the right direction with your health. You want to get skinny? We can make you skinny. Cut your daily calories in half and spend two hours a day doing low-intensity cardio. That’ll make you skinny… for about a month. Until your willpower runs out (as those behaviors aren’t at all sustainable), and your messed-up metabolism fights back. At which point, you gain all the weight back and then some. But hey, for a few weeks, you were skinny!
Is gaining or losing five pounds moving you in the direction of better health? It’s impossible to say, because that number tells you very little about what’s going on with your relationship with food, hormones, digestive health or inflammatory status. And those are the factors that impact your health far more directly than body weight.
3. The scale blinds you to real results.
By focusing so much of your attention on that number in the scale, you effectively miss out on observing the other, more significant, results of your efforts. You’re sleeping better, have more energy, are less moody or depressed. Your cravings have dissipated, you recover faster from exercise, your symptoms or medical condition have greatly improved. And yet, your program is a “failure,” because the number on the scale hasn’t moved enough for your liking?
Re-read point #2, and tell us which factors speak more to your health – the scale weight, or everything else? Those results could be motivating you to continue with your new eating habits – but until you get your head out of the scale, you’ll never be able to see the health progress you’ve actually been making.
4. The scale keeps you stuck on on food.
You associate that number on the scale with one major factor – food. Maybe exercise factors in too – after all, if you ate less (or differently) and exercised more (or differently), that number would start to move. Wouldn’t it? Not so fast. There are other health factors at play here – sleep, recovery from activity, psychological stress and health history – all of which play a major role in body composition. But no one looks at the scale and thinks, “Darn it – I need to get more sleep.”
Now would be a good time to revisit the Whole9 Health Equation. If you didn’t experience the Whole30 results you were hoping to see, perhaps it’s time to look at some other factors. All of our Health Equation variables factor into weight loss and body composition – but none of them are reflected in the number on the scale.
5. The scale maintains control of your self-esteem.
This is perhaps the most important reason of all to break up with your scale. It’s psychologically unhealthy to allow a number – any number – to determine your worth, your value or your self-image. And yet, that’s exactly what happens to people who are overly invested in their scale. It’s tragic that your daily weigh-in determines whether you have a good day or bad day, or whether or not you feel good about yourself. The scale results can take you from confident to self-loathing in under 5 seconds, but what the scale is telling you is not real.
If this is your scenario, ditching the scale is the only way to get back to a healthy sense of self-worth. Let your actions, your intentions, your efforts and your grace influence how you feel about yourself. A $20 hunk of plastic from Target should not be the determining factor in your self-esteem.
Dear Scale, It’s Not Me, It’s You.
If you’ve got an unhealthy relationship with the scale, the only way to get back to a good place is to ditch it altogether. Donate it to Goodwill, recycle it or take it out back and give it a proper beat-down, Office Space-style. Because the sooner you ditch the idea that the scale is your ultimate measure of success, the healthier and happier you’ll be.
Need some inspiration from someone who is using the Whole30 to become wholly healthy? Check out Sarah K’s awesome post. (Really – read it. It’s short, and good.)
Have you successfully broken up with your scale, or are you still stuck in a codependent relationship? Drop your own success story or “Dear Scale” letters to comments.
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I have to admit, I’ve been a scale-addict. There was a time when I was weighing myself multiple times a day! Now I weigh myself a couple of times a week, and I’m happier on the days I don’t see the number. I think I’d be a lot happier if I just chucked the darn thing! The ironic part is that I’m heavier than I used to be, because I’ve been doing heavy weightlifting, so I’ve gained more muscle, and while there is the old part of me that cringes at seeing the new higher number, the new part of me rejoices that I’ve put on more muscle (and I’m female — most guys are happy to see muscle gains). But I am starting to believe more and more that weight is just one very small piece of the puzzle with regard to overall health.
This came on the perfect day! I’m on Day 7 of a Whole30, and I so badly want to weigh myself. It’s like a bad addiction…and a very unhelpful one at that!
I need to focus on how I feel and how my clothes are fitting instead of getting tied up in a number on the scale. Thanks for the reminder.
This came on the perfect day! I’m on Day 8 of a Whole30, and I so badly want to weigh myself. It’s like a bad addiction…and a very unhelpful one at that!
I need to focus on how I feel and how my clothes are fitting instead of getting tied up in a number on the scale. Thanks for the reminder.
Oops…sorry, it looks like I double-commented!
From a measurement perspective, #1 is actually a great reason to weigh yourself daily instead of monthly. If you only weigh yourself monthly, you could pick a day where you are carrying extra water or heavier (or lighter) for some other reason. If you weigh yourself every day, you can track how your highest and lowest weights for a week (or month) vary and get a more precise estimate of change. I think your other reasons are excellent ones for breaking up with your scale, but from a scientific measurement perspective, #1 draws an incorrect inference.
i really like the sentiment here, in the context you’ve placed it. it sounds like a lot of people are unhealthily psychologically tied up in that number they read on the scale (at the moment they read it) and, for those folks, perhaps giving up the scale is a requisite psychological step toward full health. but i feel like it’s not entirely necessary if you are simply using the scale as one of many pieces of feedback. if you keep up the same habits (sleep, stress reduction, exercise/activity, and diet) over a period of several months, then the scale and your jeans will tell you a combined story about your body’s composition.
i find that i need this feedback primarily for one reason: i try very hard to keep an accurate calorie count to stay in a negative calorie balance until i lose the extra fat on my body. my hunger can’t very accurately tell me the difference between a 1200-calorie day and a 1400-calorie day, as i very seldom feel *hungry* when all my calories come from extremely satiating fat and protein, and i’m still trying to tune into the subtleties of bodily signals that allow me to eat for nutrition instead of out of craving. so i’m counting my calories, primarily to re-teach myself what portions really are appropriate to expect (i was a chronic overeater, and i genuinely had no idea by how much—i had learned to ignore even that feeling of my stomach being ridiculously full, and that takes some serious unlearning). but i know my calculations are not precise, and i am not always sure when i’m rounding up versus down.
by weighing myself every day or two, i can simply keep a log of the days when i record a new LOWEST body weight. i’m keeping a spreadsheet, actually. what i do, then, is look at the intervals between single-pound reductions. if they start spreading out to > a month apart, then i know i’ve been rounding up on my calorie counts too much (because i’m not really gaining any significant amount of muscle). and ideally i want them at somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-2 weeks apart. how my pants are fitting (or, rather, the bittersweet fact that they aren’t anymore) is confirmation that things are going the way they seem, and because they still fall off of me on days when i’m randomly 5 lbs heavier than i was the last time i weighed, i don’t fret that numeric moment in time.
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THANK YOU for this article!! I really needed to read this today! I’m on Day 27 of Whole30 and I begrudgingly admit to not following the rule on not weighing myself. It’s the one rule I’ve given myself concessions for because, really, what’s the big deal? I lost 7lbs my first week so that stands for something, right? And I still feel like I’m eating too many calories so the scale would know best and tell me what I’m doing properly/improperly, right?? Wrong! I weighed myself this morning and I am up 1.5lbs from 2 days ago, and sadly, it has ruined my day to the point that I’ve mildly considered throwing in the towel and ordering a pizza (of which my body would surely reject the instant I consumed it and I would concurrently hate myself for). So, do I even for one minute stop and think about how great I’ve been sleeping? Or how much better I’ve been feeling, overall? Nope. Because I let that little plastic creep get into my head and dictate my success. That is until I read this article. I really needed to hear this. I mean reaaaaaally needed it (emphasis on “really”, in case you didn’t catch that). After I am done typing this, I am taking my scale outside, putting on some goggles, grabbing the sledge hammer and going to town on the evil, plastic betrayer. Donate schmonate! I’m not exposing anybody else to the cruelty and inhumanity of a subjective number on a cheap, digital screen, which knows nothing except to play tricky mind games on a hopeful user. You guys rock! Thanks for the pep talk!