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Are you obsessed with what the scales tell you? Does the number you see in the morning make
you feel like you’ve been ’good’, or that you’re a good-for-nothing low-life
slug? Do you weigh yourself daily—or more often? Have you ever tried adjusting where and
how you stand on the scale to get a ’better’ reading?
If you answered, “yes” to the above questions, it’s time for something radical:
Throw away your scale! To convince you that this is a worthwhile course of action,
let’s weigh the evidence and look at what the scales do and don’t tell you.
Scales don’t tell you...
Your body composition
You can’t glean any information from your scale about body composition. That includes your
hydration status (which changes from hour to hour, and in women, across the menstrual cycle) and
how much muscle or fat you contain. If you’re increasing the amount of endurance exercise,
you could end up being totally frustrated, because the scale would tell you that you’d
gained weight, when all you’ve gained is water. Similarly, if you’re beginning a
strength-training program, you can increase muscle mass at the same time as you lose fat. The scale would tell you that nothing was happening, when in fact, positive changes were occurring.
You can buy scales that give you an estimate of percent body fat, but the values
aren’t accurate (if it says 18 percent, the actual percent could range from 14 to 22
percent), and can fluctuate dramatically with changes in hydration. So if you’re someone
who obsesses about your weight, chances are you’ll equally obsessed with the body fat
number. Don’t go there.
Whether you’re an apple or a pear
Scales don’t tell you where your body weight is distributed, and that’s important
information from a health perspective. A 200-pound “apple” (who carries body weight in
the abdomen) is at much higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers than a
200-pound “pear” (whose emergency stores are in the hips and thighs). Measuring waist
circumference provides an indication of health risk: Men should aim for less than 37 inches and
women for less than 32 inches.
Your fitness level
When we’re honest with ourselves, most of us would rather be healthy than malnourished.
And research studies done at the Cooper Clinic in Texas, clearly show that unfit, thin people
are at more risk of dying than fit but portly types.
Anything at all about whether you’re a good person
Think about it. Your mother and your dog love you, and it won’t make any difference to
them whether you’ve gained or lost two pounds.
Scales do tell you...
Having discussed what the scales don’t tell you, it’s only fair to summarize what
they do tell you. Drumroll please... And that is your weight.
Let’s look at the positive side. If you know your weight, you know that you won’t
single-handedly break the elevator cable when the sign says, “Load limit 2,000
pounds.” You’ll also know whether you qualify for the Clydesdale division of the local
fun run, or conversely, whether you can buy the kid’s model of the life jacket for your
upcoming canoe trip. In other words, you’ll know what you weigh. At a crude level,
that can be useful, as you can calculate your body mass index (BMI) and determine whether your weight is in a healthy range. Keep in mind, however, that BMI tells you nothing about your body composition or your fitness level, both of which are likely more important predictors of your health.
There is one other use for scales. If you’re an endurance athlete, knowing how much you
sweat means that you’ll know how much you need to drink during exercise to maintain your
hydration status and exercise performance. And weighing yourself before and after exercise lets
you determine your sweat rate. To do this, weigh yourself (sans clothes) before starting a hard
exercise session in which you don’t drink any fluids, and again when you finish. Let’s
say you lost two pounds during a 90-minute exercise session. The weight loss would be almost
completely fluid loss, and that’s how much you should aim to drink. (The breakdown: 2
pounds equals 32 ounces, in 1.5 hours. So you’d need to drink about 20 ounces per hour of
exercise to stay well hydrated).
The Conclusion?
If you’re not convinced to throw away the scales, at least use them wisely.
- Don’t weigh yourself more than once a week.
- If you’re changing your exercise routine, remember that your weight is not a good
indicator of your progress. Skinfold thickness (a fitness professional can do this) and
circumference measurements provide more useful information.
- When it comes to health risk, fitness level, and body fat distribution (apple versus pear)
are much better indicators than weight.
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