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If there was a scale in my house when I was growing up, I have no recollection of it. If we did own one, it must have been hidden away somewhere -- like in a closet, tucked under a stack of towels or bed sheets. Our house only had one bathroom, and for a few years there were seven people who used it regularly (two parents and five kids; my youngest brother was three when my parents separated), so floor space was at a premium. Unfortunately, although I was sheltered from scale-reliance for such a long time, that didn’t stop me from focusing on the numbers when I got older.
My parents never talked about how much their kids weighed, and since I was home-schooled between the ages of 7-15, I didn’t have a chance to adopt a weight-fixation from school kids, either. It wasn’t until I reached my early 20s -- having gained a few pounds that I was unhappy with -- that I started paying attention to my weight for the first time. I bought a cheap non-digital scale, stepped on, and continued to do so on a regular basis for a number of years.
When I was at my lowest weight, I would use the scale every day, as soon as I woke up. This was before I had anything to eat or drink, and after I took off whatever clothes I’d worn to bed. The daily weigh-ins lasted for at least a year (maybe longer), but as I started letting-up on my food control issues, I started letting-up on the scale reliance as well. Weighing myself once a day went to a few times a week, then once a week, then every few weeks.
There isn’t anything wrong with scales. They can be an excellent way to gauge your progress if you're trying to lose (or gain) weight. Also, if you're prone to wearing elastic waistbands, you can check-in occasionally to make sure there haven’t been any changes you weren't aware of.
It becomes a problem if you let the scale dictate your mood and how you feel about yourself. Does a “good” number on the scale equal a good day, and vice versa? I’ve been there. I remember weighing 120 pounds -- this was an extremely unhealthy weight for me, being 5’9” -- and freaking out internally when the scale showed a two-pound weight “gain” from the day before (which, as we all know, could have been due to any number of reasons).
I still own a scale, but it’s stored under the bathroom sink and I only pull it out on random occasions. (However, when I do, old habits die hard: it’s always first thing in the morning, before I’ve had anything to eat or drink, and certainly not when I’m feeling bloated from my period or from eating too much the night before.) It took a while to feel okay with checking-in on a random basis, but as someone who used to be a slave to these numbers, it’s what I need and what works for me.
I haven’t trashed my scale completely, but I honestly feel like I could. I use it so infrequently that it wouldn’t be much of a change. I’ve been able to replace scale-reliance with something that would have seemed impossible a few years ago -- I rely on how I feel and how my clothes fit.
Something else I didn’t believe when my weight was too low and I cared about every pound: except in rare instances, nobody but you is going to notice a one-, two-, or five-pound weight difference. There’s no need for stress. That’s not to say you shouldn’t stay at the weight where you’re most comfortable (as long as it’s healthy), but seeing a slightly higher number is no reason to freak out.
How often do you weigh yourself?
Related Reading:
Kori at Train Like a Girl! tracks her progress using measurements instead of scale weight. She says no matter what method you choose, the most important thing is to be consistent.
Bella on the Beach said she was Facing the Scale (Gulp!), stepping back on after a month of being away. Her reason has to do with a renewed accountability to her weight loss efforts.
Lynn C, guest-posting at MizFit Online, disclosed that she’s never owned a scale in her life.
Charlotte from The Great Fitness
