3 vital reasons to ditch your scales
A friend recently shared that she had joined a well-known weight loss app subscription that promotes eating behaviour change. Initially, I thought this sounds promising. Surely, if big bucks have been spent on campaigns that emphasise mindset change and eating psychology, rather than just pushing another diet, it has to be a good thing, right?
However, when my friend mentioned that a daily weigh-in was a requirement, I was somewhat perplexed.
I am not a fan of scales. In fact, I often suggest that my clients give them away or throw them out! Trying to break free from a dieting mindset while being told to create or reinforce a weighing obsession is utterly bizarre to me. The two are simply not compatible. My fear is that people are unintentionally being deceived into yet another diet, by this app subscription.
Whenever someone comes to me for help with their relationship with food—whether it's an eating disorder, binge eating, or emotional eating—I explain how and why weighing themselves will keep them firmly stuck in the cycle.
Many people who seek my help describe having obsessive thoughts about food, weight, and their body. From morning to night, these thoughts do not stop. The process of weighing themselves exacerbates this, crowding their mental space so there's room for nothing else.
Stepping on the scales dictates how you "should" feel that day. Lose a pound, and you're euphoric; gain a pound the next day, and it can trigger a binge, food restriction, low mood, and nasty, critical inner thoughts about yourself and your body, convincing you that you've failed or are a bad person.
Moreover, our bodies naturally fluctuate in weight from day to day. A 2017 study in the journal of Physiological Reports found that the average body weight of adults fluctuates between 2.2 and 4.4 lb over a few days, in individuals who are making no effort to lose or gain weight. This is due to many factors, and rarely to do with how much and what we eat. The researchers found that weight fluctuations were primarily in fat-free mass, with water being its main component.
If you are experiencing slight fluctuations in weight, as I would expect, think about what it will do to your mindset if you are weighing yourself regularly. If you are someone who leads their life based on that number on the scales, consider what that number really means.
Where did your ‘ideal’ weight come from?
Are you allowing that number to stop you from leading the life you want?
This is a topic I cover in my upcoming book about overcoming binge and emotional eating.
Obsessively focusing on your weight can negatively influence your eating behaviour, and recognising this is an important step towards a healthier relationship with food.
If you would like to get started and create change in your life now, download my FREE guide Breaking the Cycle - Your First Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food to kickstart your journey today