What the Scale Doesn’t Tell You

The scale will tell you the amount of force on your body due to gravity. That number can be useful as a comparison of previous weight to help track progress. Here’s what the scale doesn’t tell you:

How much extra fat you have on your body vs. muscle you’re building. 

Your self worth.

Your cellular health.

If your body is inflamed.

How fulfilled you are.

How healthy your gut is.

If you have a healthy relationship with your body.

If you have healthy relationships with the people in your life.

If you’re addicted to sugar, alcohol, or coffee.

How much progress you’re making towards your goals.

If you have a healthy relationship with food.

If you’re treating your body with care.

If your body is getting the nourishment it needs.

If you’re at the right weight for your body.

Why you engage in emotional eating when you’re not hungry.

When I tell my clients to stop weighing themselves, it’s partly because the scale tells only one tiny part of the story of your health, and even of your weight. It’s because sometimes, with every little healthy change you make, both with food and with undoing the emotional blocks that keep you from taking care of yourself properly, you get closer and closer to the tipping point of success; that point when all of a sudden the extra weight you don’t need will come off. But the scale doesn’t show that progress. In fact the scale might not show any movement at all yet, even while you’re moving mountains internally. And sometimes the scale will discourage people who are right on the precipice of a breakthrough that might change their life, their health, and subsequently, their weight forever… if they just kept going.

Don’t let the scale be your master, your dictator, the teller of your fortunes, the reason you eat that extra sugar as a reward, or the reason you deprive your body of the nutrients it needs. The scale is like a bad relationship; it punishes you when you’re not perfect and belittles your very essence, but you keep going back to it for approval, for affirmation of your self worth.

If this describes your relationship with the scale, I urge you to break free from the chains and throw it out! This might sound drastic and melodramatic, but I have watched the scale haunt people day in and day out, ruining their chance at joy, crushing their confidence at every turn. Health is important, what you put into your body is important, shedding unhealthy weight naturally is important, but the number on the scale in your journey towards health, is not. Know that the scale is not your friend. Your body, however, is. Be good to your friend:)