How do you feel when you step on the scale?

It’s crazy how much power a number can have over us.

We feel good when the number reflects what we want to see. We feel bad when it doesn’t. 

Sometimes we brood about it for the whole day. We may even eat or train differently as a result.

If you find that your mood is affected by the scale, ask yourself: What does that number really mean to me?

Scale weight is just data. It tells you how much your body weighs at one moment in time. That’s it.

We’re the ones who assign meaning to that data.

Interpreting The Data

It’s important to understand that weight fluctuations are perfectly normal. An increase in scale weight does not necessarily mean you have gained fat. A lack of change does not necessarily mean that your body composition isn’t changing. Sometimes the scale will stay the same for a week or two. This doesn’t mean changes aren’t taking place.

Remember, when you step on the scale, you are measuring the weight of your entire body. It is not a direct measure of body fat. A large component of our body composition is total body water, which fluctuates all the time.

Some common reasons include:

• Salt consumption: When we eat salty foods, some of these hormones that regulate the salt and water balance of our body are up-regulated, causing us to hold more fluid to dissolve the salt and maintain a constant salt balance.

• Carbohydrate consumption: For every one gram of carbohydrate in our body, we hold 3-4g of water. 

• Volume of food consumed: Food has weight. It isn’t immediately digested, meaning that if we eat a larger volume of food one night, we may wake up heavier the next day. This isn’t fat, just food!

• Dehydration: When we consume inadequate water, the hormones involved in fluid balance cause us to hold on to any water that is in our body to dilute the salt and maintain homeostasis.

• Exercise: We may see an increase in fluid retention in the body immediately post exercise as part of the recovery process.

• Menstrual cycle: The hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle also regulate fluid balance at various stages throughout the cycle. 

Do You Need To Weigh Yourself?

Scale weight data has the potential to be useful for some people.

It can be one way to measure fat loss, which might serve as a source of motivation for some, particularly if used in conjunction with other measures.

If you need to make weight for your sport, then the scales will be pretty useful for determining how close you are to your target.

If you’re working on your relationship with food, the scales could potentially serve as an objective measure of our bodies in ‘reality’ (as opposed to what we may catastrophize in our heads).

With that said, it’s important to be aware of your own relationship to the scale. Oftentimes, the associations we make with our weight on the scales extend far beyond what the data actually represents. Sometimes we speak pretty negatively to ourselves and often this only makes us feel worse. The way that we talk to ourselves influences how we feel and how we act. It can even lead to self-sabotage!

If this sounds like you, it’s important to challenge the beliefs you have around the scale.

Swap ‘I’ve gained weight’ for ‘fluctuations are normal’.

Swap ‘I'm a failure’ for ‘my weight has nothing to do with me as a person’.

Swap ‘I'm not making progress’ for ‘scale weight is not the only sign of progress’.

You have to mean it too. At the end of the day, what does progress really mean to you? Does the scale weight really matter?

Some non-scale victories may include:

• Clothes fitting better

• Increased energy levels

• Improved mood

• Better sleep

• Stronger performance

• Sharper mind & clarity of focus

• Feeling more in control around food

What other signs of progress matter to you?

If the scales affect how you feel about yourself as a person, perhaps it’s time to reassess your beliefs about your body, your weight, and yourself.

At FNC, we don’t only help our clients change their bodies. We also help our clients improve their relationships with themselves and their nutrition.

If you’d like to learn how to improve your body image and self-compassion, then our Comprehensive Coaching approach can help you work towards that goal.