We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Those mornings when you get out of bed and catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Mmm, I look pretty decent today.’ And there is no better way of proving how decent you look than jumping on the good old bathroom scales. Here’s why you shouldn’t!
1) More often than not, it ruins your Í look decent today’ vibe when how you thought you looked 30 seconds ago doesn’t correlate with the numbers on that tiny screen. The number is more significant than you thought it would be, so now, all of a sudden, you don’t think you look quite so great anymore.🤷♀️
2) You become a slave to numbers that mean absolutely nothing to anyone when you think about it. Óoh if I could just lose 5kgs.’ Ok, sure, but do you know what 5kg less actually looks like on you? Often we decide upon what we think is our ‘perfect’ weight and then fixate on getting to it, having (more often than not) never been that weight before or having been that weight way back when, before our body shape changed due to having kids (I’m talking hips widening, etc.), or the natural shifting of body fat with age, so that we have no idea whether this magical number will actually be the answer to all of our lack of self-confidence prayers.
3) The number on the scales tells you absolutely nothing about your body composition. We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Muscle weighs more than fat,’ but it really doesn’t. A kg is a kg irrespective of what it’s made up of. A smaller number on the scale doesn’t necessarily mean you’re fit and healthy. Likewise, aspiring to weigh a certain amount because maybe someone you think looks great is that weight is a pointless goal unless that person is also the same height as you with the exact same body shape and happens to store fat in an identical place.
4) Weight fluctuates throughout the day, so the number isn't even that accurate unless you get weighed at the same time, having consumed (and excreted 🙈) the same volume of food and drink. The same goes for where in the house the scales are positioned. So many variables have an effect that it’s really not worth the extra wrinkles caused by the stress of trying to find the optimal spot at the optimal time.
5) They stop you from living your life to the fullest and result in you being perpetually stuck in a ‘diet’ cycle. Í better not eat that because I have a weigh-in tomorrow.’ Sound familiar? This leads to binge eating on the weeks you’re not weighing in and being uber strict with yourself on the weeks that you are, promoting an unhealthy habit with food, and that is not the kind of habit we want to make!
Look, scales have their place. For people under the care of Doctors or Dieticians or who need to lose weight for health reasons, they can be a great guide and motivator. For those who aren’t, I believe they do more harm than good. Rather than obsessing over weight, a better indicator is to look in the mirror at how your clothes fit or to think about how you feel. If your clothes are tight and you feel like you’re not quite as fit as you should be, maybe it’s time to make some changes.
Don’t, however, hop onto the scales feeling great and hop off wishing you hadn’t bothered. Come on, liberate yourself; ditch the scales.
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