Exercise, be fit, eat right, be happy, and be healthy. Sounds great, but it seems that the constant urge to diet and lose weight is something that plagues many people today. The result is the constant pressure and expectations we put on ourselves.
And with the constant urge to lose weight and diet comes a true evil, the urge to weigh yourself. To many people, the idea of weighing themselves is daunting, scary, stressful, but something that must be done.
Despite, the common thought that you should weigh yourself, it turns out that there is more harm done than good. In fact, the occasional benefit to weighing yourself is drastically outweighed by negatives that come from weighing yourself. Read on to find out why you should ditch the scale.
It’s a trigger
Like being told where your “problem areas” are on your body, or being insulted on your appearance, weighing yourself can be just as harmful. Naturally,since humans are self-conscious for an array of reasons, they will try to avoid negative situations or situations that make them feel bad about themselves.
Once you step on that scale, you see a number, and that number can make you feel accomplished, or give you some important information about your health. But most likely it will make you feel bad.
This number has the power to make you feel horrible about yourself, and could possibly lead you to the very dangerous world of eating disorders. Keep in mind that is an extreme possibility, but it is also a reality for many people. More often than not, people who weigh themselves will end up really sad and with the bad vision of themselves. In short, numbers on a scale can produce the same feeling as someone saying horrible things about you.
Weighing yourself can be a trigger that causes a vicious cycle which can and does lead to more intensive dieting, deeper rooted insecurities, and depression regarding how you actually look, which then leads to more weighing, and so on, without an end.
It’s not a doctor
A scale is not human, it gives you one piece of info, and it cannot account for other variables. All it does is give you your weight, which is just a number.
What a scale does not account for is when was your last meal, how much water or fluids you’ve had, what time of day it is, what you’re wearing, your height, your age, your gender, how much muscle vs. fat you have (you’re body mass index), when your last bowel movement was, and so much more.
There are countless factors, and the scale you step on cannot account for all of this and neither can you because you and your scale aren’t doctors. This then leads to you even feeling bad about yourself when you don’t even know all of the facts, so go to your doctor if you want to be weighed because your doctor will know how to read the results in accordance with all the other information your scale cannot actually provide.
When you should weigh yourself
You should weigh yourself very rarely because you don’t need to see a number every day that will either make or break your day. That isn’t healthy. Instead, you should just live a healthy lifestyle and be happy. Of course, there are certain weight ranges for people to stay in, in order to be healthy, but that still doesn’t mean you need to weigh yourself constantly.
Whether you feel like a scale rules your life or not, here is one idea I want to share with you: do the weight challenge. You should try to go 60 days without weighing yourself and see if you have a massive urge to do it in that period. Within the first few weeks, you will be able to tell if you’re a “scale addict”. The goal of this challenge is to become independent from the scale and to realize that you don’t need to see that number every day, and you will also realize that you will be happier and healthier.
The scale is not the boss of you. It should not make you feel scared or nervous, and it should not hold power over you. In fact, it’s one number and without knowing the context of what else is going on in your body it shouldn’t count.
However, to the person weighing themselves, it does, and it can cause serious mental health issues and even more insecurities. It is good to be strong, fit, healthy, and happy, a number won’t do that for you. Proper exercise will and so will a good diet, so stop weighing yourself, and be healthy. If you have any more reasons as to why people shouldn’t weigh themselves constantly, feel free to share!
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