The belief that your level of weight loss success is only measured by the scales is a false belief that has been cursing psychological damage for far too long. 

This is because the scales may measure the reduction in physical weight (which is rarely linear anyway) but they cannot measure crucial non-scale victories such as inch loss, mental progress, habit breaking, confidence growth, or the achievement of personal bests, which are all huge indications of progress throughout your journey and are measures of long term success. 

The scales not only fail to measure those things, but can be the cause of overlooking those things entirely as all of the emphasis is placed purely on the number going down on them.  Not only that, but this inanimate object somehow manages to hold power over people. It can cause people to feel deflated, sad, frustrated and defeated when the effort applied isn’t reflected on them. And this can happen often, and for many reasons as there are so many contributing factors to the number that you see on the scale, on any given day.                      

For example- If you ate a lot of salt recently, your body could be holding on to water weight, if you’ve done an intense workout recently it can make the scales go up temporarily, as your muscles are inflamed. This does NOT mean you have “gained fat” though, it can just be a case of water retention.  Also, if you’re a woman, then you’ll naturally experience hormone fluctuations that can affect your weight at certain times throughout the month. All of these factors may reflect on the scales temporarily, but do not reflect on your long-term success, however, when the focus is on the scales, this can really damage your motivation when it doesn’t always show favourable results. 

During my time working as a health practitioner for my local health authority I was instructed to host a weigh-in session before each fitness class I taught, and this is where I got to really experience just how much the scales can negatively impact a person/group.                                

I had been teaching the class to the same group of ladies for three years and it was an empowering and energetic vibe every week with the energy and mood being consistently high.                                

They ladies would come in vibrant and raring to go and there would always be a buzz in the atmosphere.                                                                                                                             

Throughout the class each member would really give it their all, jump around energetically, and laugh and everyone would work hard with lots of enthusiasm. However, when I had to introduce the weigh-ins there was a significant shift in the energy and dynamic of the class. They would all still come in with the same energy and vibrancy as before, but if their weigh-in hadn’t shown a loss then their energy would instantly deflate, their motivation would drop, and I’d notice a significant decrease in their energy and effort, which changed the entire dynamic of the class. On a few occasions some even decided to go straight home, and not participate in the class.                                                                                                              

The same ladies that had been coming to me for years with consistent energy became deflated and withdrawn, and it was painful to witness. I decided to remove the weigh-ins, which led to me leaving the job entirely due to a ‘conflict of interest’ and starting my own groups that replaced weigh-ins with emotional support.

The belief that the scales measure your success, and ‘you’re only winning when you’re losing’ is a belief that needs to be removed from your belief system because it is not only untrue, but it can prevent you from viewing your success on a broader scope.                          

Any effort that you make, and positive behavioral changes that you implement to achieve physical and emotional freedom do not get eridated if the scales fail to show a lesser number. And it is an undeniable fact that although the scales may temporarily fluctuate throughout your journey, if you are genuinely following the system and consistently putting in the work then you will inevitably lose weight for life.  

You can still track your progress, but this can be done in various ways. You can take body measurements and progress photos, but try to remember that it is equally important to track your other positive health improvements too such as- improved energy, clearer skin, balanced hormones, healthy sleep patterns, and an overall improvement in your well being as these are all important factors. Far more important in-fact than purely just a number on the scales.

Does this mean that you’ll not be tempted to weigh yourself during this process? Of course it bloody doesn’t. Weight loss is still the goal here, and so tracking that progress will be something that you’ll naturally want to do, but it shouldn’t be a weekly occurrence and you shouldn’t allow them to emotionally impact you.                                                                         

If you do feel that currently you would be unable to emotionally detach from them, and you would feel tempted to weigh-in regularly then I would highly recommend you packing them away and allowing yourself the time to alter your behaviour around them first, and redevelop your way of thinking before you track your weight on them, so that you prioritise losing emotional weight over physical weight first.

Other ways to measure your success-

• Comparison photo’s.
• Body measurements.
• Health improvements.
• Non-scale victories, such as clothes adjustments.
• Mobility changes.