Your scale doesn’t tell the whole story
There are a few ways to track your health and fitness progress, but there’s one you could avoid fixating on.
Your scale.
The number on the scale is simply telling you how resistant you are to gravity … in other words, how much mass your body has.
It tells you nothing about the health of your bones or connective tissue, much less how much muscle or lean mass you have or how much fat mass you have.
If your scale is anything like mine, it’s like a roller coaster. Up, down, up, back down and back up again. Day-to-day fluctuations are perfectly normal, but it can be very easy to obsess over them and even have them ruin your day.
Don’t fall for this trap!
The scale is one of the least informative measures of your overall health and fitness status – yet it tends to be the one women focus on the most.
It can be quite obsessive. Case in point: have you ever weighed yourself in the morning (of course, no clothes & after going the the bathroom) and then weighed yourself at night? …I thought so.
Instead of daily weigh ins, do it at the same time of the day each week or even once a month. In between, put your scale away in the closet.
You can enhance your progress assessment by tracking waist and hip measurements, and/or taking progress photos or even noticing how your clothes fit.
Don’t allow one metric – especially a limited one – to impact your mood and motivation. Focus more on how your clothes fit, your energy levels, sleep duration, hydration and your exercise motivation level and your overall feeling of wellbeing.
Embrace choices and actions that bring you closer to your goals, and seek out additional ways to measure your progress.
