My Journey With Weight Loss – Scale, Friend or Foe?

So today I hit the 90 lbs lost mark which leaves only 2 more to go. To celebrate I went shopping and bought size 8 jeans (yes, they fit). That puts me down 10 dress sizes from the start of this journey.

I want to talk about the scale. I’ve been reading some articles that say you should weigh yourself every day. I don’t do that, I weigh in 2-3 times per week and that keeps me happy. But there is some rationale for weighing in daily. Apparently there was a study done that found people who weighed in daily were more likely to successfully lose weight as compared to those who only weighed in once per week. Weighing in daily will show you trends of the impact of what you are eating and how much you are exercising. That allows you to make changes in fairly quick response if you gaining weight.

For me, that doesn’t work as I become obsessive. When that scale doesn’t move or if it goes up I beat myself up. I tend to put so much pressure on myself that dealing with that scale becomes harder than the workouts I do and those are pretty hard. Let me give you an example, Tuesday I weighed myself and I had gained 2 1/2 lbs. I was livid! But, as I usually do I analyzed and regrouped. I realized that I had weighed myself at a different time of day than usual which meant I had done a lot of hydrating by that point (I read an article that a large glass of water can equate to 1 lb on the scale before your body fully absorbs or eliminates it). Today I weighed in at the normal time and the scale had dropped 3 1/2 lbs. So the lesson for me is to be consistent when doing my weigh ins.

The real problem is letting that scale discourage you. There can be all sorts of reasons why the scale hasn’t moved or has moved in the wrong direction. I’m sure you have heard that saying ‘muscle weighs more than fat’. Ok, let me tell you I hate that saying because 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat. What is different is that the same size bit of muscle weighs more than the same size bit of fat (you know, 1 cup muscle would weigh more than 1 cup of fat). It’s the density of that mass. There’s a great statement from the American Heart Association that says if the scale hasn’t moved but you have lost 1 lb of fat and gained 1lb of muscle (hence canceling out any weight loss) you should think of it of advancing 2 steps and not staying the same.

Well, what should you do with your weigh ins? Here’s my advice, weigh yourself as frequently as you are comfortable with. If you are like me and have to do deep breathing exercises to calm yourself before getting on the scale then weighing yourself daily is probably not a good idea. However, if you like to see the impact of the choices you made each day so that you can adjust yourself accordingly then it is a good plan to do frequent weigh ins. One article I read said to just not let the monster back into the closet, face your fear and step on that scale. Again, doesn’t work for me but if that daily weigh in helps you be successful on your journey then I say go for it!