You’ve embarked on a journey of self-discovery. To make a permanent change to your health and fitness.

Perhaps to even lose some body fat.

You step on the scale as part of your fitness routine. For some, that’s in the bathroom. For others, that’s within a diet club. 

You look at the number. It’s gone up. Your heart sinks to your stomach. “But I don’t understand how this is possible, “you say. You have stuck to your plan all week. You were really expecting a loss.

You feel defeated and deflated. Your mood goes from excited to dishearten and your whole day is ruined. Your perception of your self-image changes and you begin to think negatively about yourself.

But little did you forget just 2 days ago you were jumping for joy as the jeans at the back of the cupboard fitted once again.

And a week ago you just completed your first 5k and never felt prouder.

Before you jumped on the scales you felt amazing.

So, what changed?

A piece of plastic dictated how you felt that day but after reading this that will soon stop.

The scale number does not define who you are. In fact, it’s the least important metric for measuring progress.

Why don’t you focus on: photos, measurements, how you feel, and non-scale victories you achieve?

While a trend on the scale number overtime can help measure progress the factors that influence that number are volatile to be measured alone.

Just some of the variables that cause weight fluctuations

1. Stress
2. How hard you trained the day before
3. Sleep quality the night before
4. Hormones (Menstrual cycle)
5. What you ate/drunk the night before
6. Dehydration

Once you accept there are far too many variables that dictate the number on the scales focusing on using the data for assessing trends becomes a lot easier.

Now if the scales haven’t changed in the direction, we want 4 weeks in then yes we may need to make some adjustments.

But this is just a maybe and really is person dependant. If you are looking different in photos and feel better then the scale weight is not a reflection to progress.

I’ve had clients not drop a single kilo of body weight yet changed their body composition. Why? Because they build muscle and trusted the process.

This is a huge advantage of having a coach. The second pair of eyes. A coach to make the decisions for you.

I’ve had clients where I’ve decided weighing will not be necessary to monitor progress due to the negative relationship with the scales.

Even with all the information provided if you still become emotional with the scales maybe this is something to consider. Ditch the piece of plastic and focus on how you look and feel. Trust me its a lot more rewarding.

For coaching enquires shoot me a message

Bexi