You are at that point in life where you really want to give healthy living a chance to change how you feel about yourself. So, you eat healthy, exercise regularly, sleep on time, and give time to do things you like after a long day.
All of this is good practice and when you want to see how you’ve progressed, you step on your weighing scale and see the results. Keeping a track of your weight once a week with the help of the weighing scale is normal.
However, obsessing over how well you have changed physically and using the weighing scale as the ultimate measure of your progress may not really be a healthy habit.
So, if you are giving way too much importance to your weighing machine, here are a few reasons why you must stop doing that today.
1. The Scale Is Not Accurate All The Time
While the weighing scale shows how much you weigh, it is not always accurate. It definitely gives you a number but you should also know that it can fluctuate within a few days.
The weighing scale does not take into account factors like hormonal changes, the amount of water you have in your body at a particular time, or even the time of the day – all of which have an effect on your weight.
2. It Does Not Measure Your Progress
You should understand that the weighing scale can only produce a number but your progress is far beyond that.
When you make certain lifestyle changes, the weighing scale has no idea how much effort it takes it takes to change something that you have been doing differently for the most part of your life.
So, if you think your weight is a measure of your progress, you are wrong. For instance, take a look at some of your old photographs and compare them with the present ones, if that puts a smile on your face, that’s progress right there!
3. It Cannot Measure Good Or Bad Health
Using your weighing scale is not going to determine if you are healthy or not. For instance, there are different ways you could get to the desired number you want to see on the scale.
You can take the healthy path – eating the right foods and exercising regularly – or the unhealthy one where you starve yourself or eat very little portions if you do.
The number on that scale does not tell you if you are headed in the right direction toward better health or not. So, don’t set your weighing scale on a pedestal and trust it blindly.
4. It Could Have An Impact On Your Self-Esteem
Research has shown that self-weighing can cause dissatisfaction about one’s physical appearance and can also have a negative impact on their self-esteem. This is more likely to be seen in adolescents and those entering young adulthood.1
So, if you have set your mind to lose weight, then it is up to you how you see the results on the weighing scale.
Don’t let the numbers make you feel less motivated to lose weight. Instead, take it up as a challenge and tell yourself that you can do better. Sometimes, talking to your scale as if it were a real person helps, too!
So, the bottom line is don’t magnify the importance of your scale and think of it as the ultimate truth. Instead, change how you see it.
Self-weighing is not a bad idea as long as you are clear in your head what you intend to do with those numbers you see. Use the scale to your advantage and don’t let the scale control you.
When you choose a weight loss program, place less emphasis on your body size and appearance and find a way to better health.
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