“Don’t step on it! It will make you cry!”

This was the caption below a cartoon I saw of two little girls staring at a scale.

It made me both laugh and cringe all at once.

Weighing ourselves…

Some of us do it daily. It’s part of our “morning routine.” But it can also sometimes be a number that decides how we feel about ourselves that day…for better or for worse.

And for others of us…

Well…others of us won’t even walk close to one for fear of the dreaded number that may glare back at us.

But should you be weighing yourself? And, more importantly, should you be doing it daily?

I’ll tell you the answer right now and you’re not going to like it…

IT DEPENDS!

Isn’t that an infuriating answer?!

The thing is…that is 100% true.

Weighing yourself can be a HUGE accountability tool when used correctly, even doing it daily.

It can have a huge positive impact and help increase your dedication and consistency

HOWEVER…

There is a dark side to the scale…

One in which that number begins to dictate how you feel about yourself. One in which you start to obsess over the number you see there.

One in which your feelings of confidence and self-worth are dependent on what that stupid little piece of technology that sits on your bathroom floor says…

Then weighing every day is for sure not a good thing.

The only thing is…

That number on the scale can have that same impact even if you never weigh.

Having to AVOID the scale out of fear of what it would say is no better than weighing obsessively.

 

The point is…our WEIGHT can’t rule how we feel about our bodies.

It is simply another measuring tool we can use to keep track of progress or even use to guide us when we find a point we feel comfortable with.

But we have to remember our weight is just a NUMBER and doesn’t determine our worth.

And that goal number can, and even should, change over time. And it shouldn’t be our only determination of success.

However, all too often it doesn’t change and it becomes the most important measure of success.

Heck, some of us get so freaking stuck on a specific number we don’t appreciate when we have huge body composition shifts.

I’ve literally had clients tell me, “Well I lost inches but the scale didn’t budge!”

And they’ve said this as if they were UNHAPPY with this fact! (This is usually where I sit there looking dumbfounded, confused and shocked.)

But losing inches means they lost fat. Heck, it’s probably a BIGGER victory than weight lost on the scale.

Because that number on the scale can fluctuate for so many reasons.

I mean crap…that number can fluctuate from hour to hour based on eating food…or how much salt we eat or water we drink…or even if our workout broke down more muscle tissue the day before or we ate more carbs or heck, depleted our glycogen stores by NOT eating carbs…

The point is that number can fluctuate so easily. And it is just a NUMBER. It should just be another guide to help you track and see if something is working OR if changes need to be made.

It can be an accountability tool, but it can’t be something that is the be all and end all.

And I think it has become one for all too many of us as dieting has become know as deprivation…

STARVING yourself to hit a number on a scale….A number that really has been arbitrarily assigned by ourselves or something we read in a magazine….

Doesn’t lead to long-term results or long-term health.

And I don’t think this will change by weighing or not weighing. I think that is just a symptom of a bigger problem. Because as I mentioned we can be as obsessed with that number whether we obsessively weigh or obsessively AVOID weighing.

I think the real answer to changing our obsession with our weight and having to be a specific number to be happy comes from changing our relationship to how we view dieting – aka our relationship with FOOD.

It’s about changing our view of our diet from one of purely slashing calories and starving ourselves to hit a number on the scale, to one focused on FUELING OUR BODIES.

It’s why I put an emphasis on Macros over Caloric Intake. Dial in your macros. Think about getting your body the right foods and everything else will start to fall into place.

Stop dieting and depriving. Focus on giving your body what it needs and creating a balance so you can enjoy life!

To help you get started, find out what macros you need with the Macro Cycling Quiz.

–> Take the Quiz And Start FUELING Your Body!