Don’t Battle the Bathroom Scale: Weight Charts are Your Weight-loss Friend
BySandra Ahten
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I’ve witnessed people who have an insane relationship with the bathroom scale and weight charts. When I used to work for a weight-loss center, the weigh-in ritual would often include shedding shoes, belts, and even the tiniest of earrings. One woman would even insist on taking off her pants. As I protested—this was a public place and men and kids could walk in at any moment—she would be unzipping down to her skivvies.
Is your bathroom scale and weight chart a friend or foe? Even for those who are successfully losing weight, or who are at an ideal weight, there are often feelings of dread and angst as they step on the bathroom scale, and keeping a weight chart is the furthest thing from their mind.
It is important to calm our relationship with our bathroom scale and welcome a weight chart—a running tally of body weight on specific dates—into our lives. This means calming our feelings about our weight and then reprogramming the messages that would have us judge ourselves according to how much we weigh on any given day.
Normalizing our relationship with the bathroom scale and keeping a weight chart is important because, if used correctly, the bathroom scale and weight chart can be a good indicator of if (or how) we need to modify our behavior.
The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is tracking more than 5,000 individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time. They are examining the behavioral and psychological characteristics of weight maintainers, as well as the strategies they use to maintain their weight losses.
One of the common denominators of their habits is that they step on the bathroom scale. In fact, 75% of participants weighed themselves at least once per week, and many stepped on their bathroom scale daily.
In order to maintain an appropriate weight, I use the same strategy that I suspect many folks in the NWCR use. I see what I can get by with in terms of “indulgence calories,” and when the bathroom scale starts tipping to the right, I rein it in and take off a few pounds.
But befriending the bathroom scale is not enough; as I said above, keeping a weekly weight chart is also crucial. People who are actually losing weight will often convince themselves they are on a plateau, that the diet isn’t working, that they should be doing more, etc.
Judy is an example. She has lost 19 pounds in six months and is now in an appropriate weight range. Yet she constantly tells herself (and the group) she isn’t exercising enough (three times a week), she is eating too much cake, and so forth. She will actually say the words “I’m not losing weight” when she has just gotten off the bathroom scale and it was down a half a pound. It’s good to have solid, black-and-white evidence in the form of bathroom scale readings and a weight chart. It’s also good to have a diet coach or group support to lend some perspective.
The same is true of folks who are gaining weight and convincing themselves it’s “just a few pounds” and they will worry about later. Seeing it on a bathroom scale or weight chart, in black and white over a range of time, can be helpful. It may be just a few pounds . . . but when you see it over months or years, it can give you a reality check that might prompt you to make the decision to reverse the trend.
How often to weigh?
When it comes to how often to step on the bathroom scale and make notations in your weight chart, the best advice I can give as a diet coach, funny enough, is to tell people to do the opposite of what they are now doing. If you never get on the bathroom scale or keep a weight chart, then you should weigh once a day for a couple of months, and keep a daily weight chart along with it. This will help you get out of denial if you are gaining and also give you a realistic picture of your weight fluctuations due to salt intake, hormones, air travel, time of day, etc.
If you are getting on the bathroom scale daily or even more than once a day, and keeping an equally frequent weight chart, then it’s probably time to cut it back to once a week. Monitor and record your weight at the same time every week, but also take a thorough inventory of your past week’s behavior. You should note your regrets as well as your accomplishments with regard to your diet and exercise routine. With this big picture, the bathroom scale and weight chart are just one piece of feedback.
If you take this inventory of your behavior, and you’re doing well, yet the number on the bathroom scale or the trend on your weight chart is disappointing, then try using the wise words of my client Shirley: “The number on the bathroom scale is not a reflection of who I am; it is a reflection of who I used to be. I am a person who exercises regularly and eats right. I am already at my goal weight. The number on the bathroom scale measures the progress of my body catching up with who I am today.”
Sandra Ahten, CEO of www.reasonablediet.com, is a professional motivation expert and diet and wellness coach. She is an internationally recognized host for two top-rated diet podcasts: Reasonable Diet Radio and Six Minutes of Sanity. Sandra's clients most often lead very successful lives, yet they still battle with their weight. If this sounds like you, register now for your own free e-course ==> "Five Fact You Absolutely Must Know Before Starting An
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