A weight loss journey is full of ups and downs, victories and defeats, and differing levels of momentum. The same is true for a weight gain journey. On some days, you will take a look in the mirror or put on certain clothing and feel great about your progress. On other days, you may feel like you aren’t making any progress at all, or even regressing on your journey.
How you look in the mirror or how you feel while wearing certain clothes are subjective measurements. A more objective measurement is getting on a scale to see how much you weigh. After all, math is math, right? While technically true, weighing yourself on a scale and tracking your weight is not always a straightforward strategy.
For starters, many people make the mistake of weighing themselves on multiple scales, such as weighing themselves on a scale at home and weighing themselves on a scale at their gym. Furthermore, many people weigh themselves at different times of the day, which can result in a lot of variation.
The best strategy for weighing yourself is to use the same scale every time and to do it at the same time of day, that way the math is more of an ‘apples to apples’ comparison. Another thing that I recommend is to not weigh yourself every day. Sometimes your digestive system is slower or faster on some days compared to others and you are holding more or less food in your system. On other days you may be retaining more or less water.
People can do a great job of eating very disciplined and working out really hard while building the expectation that when they go to weigh themselves that night or the following morning their weight will have changed, just to get mentally deflated when the scale demonstrates that expectation wasn’t met.
A better strategy is to refrain from weighing yourself for at least a week at a time, keeping your head down, and focusing instead on crushing your nutrition and exercise goals every day in between. Going two weeks in between weigh-ins is even better in my opinion, however, I get that people are eager to see if what they are doing is working.
Also, just as seeing your weight on a scale and having it not be favorable can be a soul crusher, the opposite is true for getting on a scale and seeing that you have made meaningful strides in your weight journey. The feeling that the latter yields can be a tremendous mental momentum builder.
I will end with the advice of not relying too much on what your scale tells you. Use your weight scale as one tool in your evaluation toolbox, but keep your evaluation toolbox diverse and always keep things in the proper context. How you look, how you feel, how much you weigh – they are all indicators of how well you are doing on your weight loss or gain journey. Value progress over perfection, and keep going. Don’t let one bad weigh-in result get in the way of you pursuing your goals!
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Disclaimer: The contents of this article and this website are not meant to substitute for the professional advice of a doctor, nutritionist, and/or certified personal trainer. This content is provided as an educational tool to help people on their fitness journeys. While we strive to research topics as much as possible and provide useful and accurate information to the best of our abilities, we also strongly recommend talking to your doctor, nutritionist, and/or certified personal trainer before starting any workout, therapeutic, or nutritional regimen, as each individual’s needs and situations vary depending on the person.