My ex used to get on the scale every morning. I mean every… single… morning.
Whatever the scale read decided how she felt about herself for the rest of the day. As messed up as that is, she’s not alone. Many people do this.
Here’s the 411 about the scale; it’s just a tool that tells you a little piece of info. It doesn’t tell you how fit you are, and it sure as hell doesn’t tell you if you are getting in better shape.
All it does is say what you weigh.
Let me tell you a story; I had a client come to me a few years ago. She had already lost about 40 lbs. She weighed about 165 lbs, and needed to get fit now that she was lighter, as she had done the whole weight loss with diet.
Flash forward one year later and she was only 10 lbs lighter than when she came to see me the first time. If she had only been interested in the scale, and used that only as a measure of her success she would have undoubtedly said, what a waste of money.
But she didn’t do that for a simple reason; She had also come down eight clothing sizes in that year and lost over 30 inches from her body. She looked like a million bucks!
The scale lied to her. She was gaining muscle and losing fat the whole time, so that little bit of weight loss, was actually a huge difference in body compensation. She lost fat and gained muscle. She was much smaller.
What I say to all clients who say they want to be a certain weight is this; If you weighed what you weigh right now, but looked exactly the way you want look, would you be OK with that?
Of course the answer is always yes. Even if you say you want to be a certain weight, really what you want is to look a certain way.
This is why you can’t count on the scale. It will only tell you weight. It doesn’t tell you fitness.
So get the heck off that darn scale and don’t let it run your life!
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Devin Sherrington was named #2 trainer in Canada 2015, is 8 time Best Personal Fitness Trainer Halifax award winner, and owner the award winning fitness studio 360fit in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He lives in Fletcher’s Lake with his girlfriend Lauren and children Reign and Journey.