You can be healthy at many weights and sizes. But if you want to lose weight, you may have wondered: to weigh in, or not to weigh in? The bathroom scale is the classic measurement tool for this task, to be sure, but there are plenty of reasons to consider not bothering with it.
A scale can tell you what your weight is at a current point in time, and that’s all. It can’t tell you how much of that weight is fat or muscle. It can’t tell that one pound is from a glass of water you just drank. And obsessing over that number can certainly lead you to some unhealthy behaviours. So, should you weigh in, or not?
In my experience with losing weight, a scale can be an effective tool, if you understand its limitations and use it correctly. Seeing the number go down can be highly motivating, and a good indicator of progress with the right method. This is how I do it.
Get regular, good measurements
If you aren’t weighing in a way that’s consistent and accurate, you can’t learn anything useful from the number. Lots of little things can make your weight bounce around, and you’ve got to control for them as best you can to get good data.
First of all, use a good scale that rechecks your weight each time you step on it. Many bathroom scales store your recent weights and will show you a stored weight rather than your actual current one. Check reviews and make sure the one you get doesn’t do that.
Second, be consistent about what time of day you weigh. Your weight bounces around during the day, so it’s not useful to compare one day’s morning weight with another day’s after-dinner weight. My method is to weigh myself when I wake up, after my first trip to the bathroom. That way, any excess water I drank the night before has had time to move through me.
Finally, be consistent in what kind of clothing you wear when you weigh yourself. You’d be surprised how much clothes weigh. Even a light set of pyjamas can make a big difference.
Pay attention to the trends, not the fluctuations
No matter what you do, the number on the scale will bounce around some. Eating an especially big dinner or having several after-dinner snacks one night will knock your weight up the next morning, and probably for a day or two after. Does that mean you gained a few pounds in one night? Of course not. You just have more food in your digestive system, and you aren’t going to absorb and store all of that. Because of this, you need to focus on the overall trend, rather than the day-to-day results.
There are plenty of good ways to log daily weigh-ins, including simple pen-and-paper. Personally, I use the Fitbit app, but there are lots of other good apps for tracking weight. Most apps will provide you with a graph of how your weight is moving in general, and how it compares to last week or last month. Focusing on the big picture helps me not worry about my weight going up a bit here and there.
A scale can be a really useful tool for keeping track of weight loss, as long as you weigh accurately, weight consistently, and don’t obsess over it too much. For more thoughts on my weight loss experiences, check out What I Wish I’d Know About Weight Loss.
