In preparation for the start of the April 2014 round of the Feel Great in 8 Challenge I’ve decided to make some minor changes to the challenge. The one I’m sure many of you will notice is the absence of any reporting of, or prizes awarded for, weight loss. This is a change I’ve been contemplating for a while and I want to tell you why.
At the beginning of the year I made a big change and decided to stop weighing myself completely. I was feeling incredibly frustrated and discouraged because I was eating healthy and exercising and the scale wasn’t budging even an ounce. I was complaining to my husband one day when he stopped me to ask why in the world I was letting that stupid number affect me so much. He was completely right. I was letting a “stupid number” determine my happiness and I needed to stop.
It’s been 3 months and I can’t even tell you what a fantastic change it has been. I can almost guarantee that I’ve lost weight in that time, but even if I haven’t it really doesn’t matter because I feel healthy. I’ve gotten stronger, my clothes fit better, I have more energy, and I am a happier person now that I have stopped letting that number control me.
So, here is why I think you should, at the very least, take a break from weighing yourself…
8 Reasons You’ll Lose Weight When You Ditch The Scale:
1. Your Scale Lies: The number on your scale is affected by so many things that are completely out of your control – time of day, what you’ve had to eat/drink recently, and hormones are just a few of them. We seem to think it is the ultimate indicator of our success or failure and that just isn’t true.
2. Muscle Weighs More Than Fat: Actually, that’s not true. One pound of fat weighs the same as 1 pound of muscle, but muscle is more dense than fat. So, if you replaced 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle you would weight the same, but look much leaner and feel much better. Again, the scale is lying to you.
3. Weight Loss is a Poor Motivator: Because your scale lies to you (see above), it ends up being a terrible motivator. When the scale shows what we want it to we are motivated to continue eating healthy and exercising, but when it doesn’t we are tempted to throw in the towel or resort to unhealthy habits like skipping meals and over exercise. When we rely on it for our motivation from day to day or week to week we are opening ourselves up to disappointment and discouragement.
4. You’ll Learn to Rely on Better Indicators of Health: When you ditch the scale, you are free to focus on much better indicators of health. The most important indicator, in my opinion, is how you are feeling. The scale won’t tell you if you have more energy or less aches and pains. It won’t tell you if your clothes are fitting better or if you are feeling more confident. These are the things you can rely on to keep you motivated.
5. You’ll Feel Happier: If you are anything like me, the wrong number on the scale can turn a great week into a terrible one. It’s silly, but I could literally be feeling fantastic about my success and progress until the moment I got on the scale. I am healthier mentally and spiritually when I don’t give the scale that power over me.
6. You’ll Avoid the “All or Nothing” Mentality: I think many of us have the tendency to either be in weight loss/diet mode or not. Hopefully, getting rid of the scale will help you avoid this. When you aren’t eating healthy and exercising to loose weight, but instead doing it to feel great you’ll be more likely to just generally care for yourself. Not perfect and not terrible, just good. Perfect isn’t sustainable longterm, but good is.
7. You’ll Naturally Find Your Healthy Weight: For some reason many of us have a number in our head that is our perfect weight. The funny thing is, usually it isn’t really based on health. Your healthy weight is going to look different than everyone else’s and it will be different at different times in your life. If you continue to eat a generally healthy diet (not perfect, but good) and stay active your body will find it’s happy place. You’ll want your healthy weight to be a place you can maintain longterm, not something you have to kill yourself to keep the scale at. It may not look exactly like the number in your head, but I bet it will feel better.
8. It’ll Help Stop Comparisons: The fact of the matter is that our bodies are all so different in so many ways. Again, your healthy weight will not be the same as anyone else’s. And, since the scale lies and muscle weighs more than fat (see above) it really isn’t even fair to compare your current weight to your past weight. Focus on how healthy you feel and work to improve that instead.
So, here is your added challenge: I challenge you to hide your scale and don’t step on it for at least the next 8 weeks. Instead use these questions as your scale:
* How do I feel? Do I feel healthy? Do I have more energy?
* Am I regularly moving my body and doing exercise I enjoy? Is my strength and endurance improving?
* Am I generally choosing foods that nourish my body and make me feel good? Am I listening to my body’s hunger cues?
* How do my clothes fit? Am I remembering to love my body exactly as it is?
I hope you’ll be as happy with the results of this new focus as I have been! I’d love to hear how it goes. Comment below, or email me {tiffany@feelgreatin8.com}
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I LOVE THIS! good work. I haven’t weighed myself since the initial weigh in a month ago, until this past week. I was discouraged to see I had only lost 3 pounds (according to that scale, anyway) and thought “what is the point!?!?!” but you are right… if I feel better about myself, and my clothes fit better, then it’s progress!
Exactly Hannah! I’ve watched too many Feel Great in 8 participants have this exact experience which is why I decided to make this change. Feeling good is definitely worth it we’re just too used to thinking the scale is what really matters. You’re awesome! Keep up the great work!
I think this will be good for me. Since Christmas the scale has not moved much, but I’ve been working hard and it has been discouraging for me even though people have commented that I look smaller, and I know my clothes are looser. The scale really does play with our minds. I am excited to try this approach!!
I really does! I hope it helps you like it has me! Keep up the great work Jackie!
Okay just found your blog..and I LOVE LOVE this article/thoughts!! I am ditching my scale…Gonna eat right and exercise…I think everything you say is true and I sooooo agree! Great job!!
Thanks for taking the time to comment and for the kind words! Good luck with your healthy goals! 🙂
Great post! I agree with you 100%. I think it’s super easy to get obsessive when we focus on just that one silly number. I don’t even look at the scale when I go to the doctor! Feeling good and being healthy is what it’s all about!
SO TRUE Jamie! Thanks for commenting!
Ooh, I love this post. I am anti-scale, and I love that 150 pound image. Thanks for a great post!
I already feel great about most my life. I like the scale. It’was for weight loss that I did the last session and the scale was my friend. How can we measure any improvement without a form of scale. Saddened about the departure.
I think it is fantastic that you are able to keep perspective about the scales place! Not weighing is definitely not a requirement, so you are welcome to continue to use it as one way to track your progress, I just wanted to make sure the challenge was focusing on other more important indicators of success and ones that we are more in control of.
I loved this post! It is exactly what I needed to read because I have been trying to avoid the scale lately. I felt like I was letting the scale control how I felt about myself. It is scary to not weigh in though because it holds me more accountable when I weigh in and it keeps me in check by not gaining weight. Although, I want to continue not weighing in, eating healthy, and working out and not letting the scale control me. 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that Jolene! I am the same way, letting the scale control how I feel about myself. It’s so silly that we do that since our real worth and value have noting to do with it! I hope you have the same success not weighing that I have had!
I LOVE that you made this change! I am obsessed with doing challenges but I personally didn’t like doing them cause most of them were based on weight loss and you got more points if you lost more weight and I didn’t like that cause I feel like my weight fluctuates so much no matter how healthy I am eating. I could probably lose between 5-10 pounds but my new years resolution this year was to focus more on getting toned and strong and less on what I should weigh and I am happier because of that. I have had a lot of people say this is the skinniest they have seen me but according to my scale I weigh more then I have in the past. Can’t wait to start this challenge and making it a lifestyle!
Thanks Teresa! I LOVE your new goal to focus on strength! I completely agree that we put too much focus on weight and not enough on health. I’m excited to have you participate!
This is awesome! It is so true that the scale plays with your mind!! It’s crazy! If I step on the scale and I haven’t lost anything or I’ve gained, it makes me want to go eat a big piece of my favorite Costco chocolate cake! It’ll be hard for me not to step on the scale because I’ll be curious, but I think it’s going to be great!
It is so crazy how much it really does mess with our brains! I’m glad you’re excited to try it out! Let me know how it goes.
TIFFANY…I have to tell you what perfect timing this is! I just finished finals for this semester today and have gained about 40 pounds since last fall. I committed last week to do a 5K in July with my family and really need this right now. To be honest, I haven’t participated since the first year you did it and wouldn’t have this time except that I knew the timing was not a coincidence. Thankfully I read this post on the scale and I agree 100%!
I’m excited to have you participate again Marinann!! 🙂
Tiff- How in the world did I miss this post?! I have no words. I just think you are the BEST gal around. I am sharing this on Smitten tomorrow. Such good stuff here. Seriously!
Thanks Kallie! You are the BEST!!
What a wonderful article. This is exactly how I feel about the whole “The scale rates your succes” thing. It simply isn’t true, I think it is more like a torture device that can ruin a perfectly beautiful day, happening or even a whole life.
It has held me hostage for years but after realizing how unhappy about myself it made me, that it did nothing for my selfworth, selfesteem and it only killed joy, we’ve parted ways.
We really should stop LOOKING at what the scale shows us and start LISTENING to what our bodies tell and teach us.
Awesome! Love that perspective! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for sharing! This was extremely helpful! 🙂
Trying this! I ‘m ready to let you know how I do!