Are you more than just a number? Firstly the question is what this number is exactly. Standard bathroom scales tell you a number which is how much you weigh in total but completely disregards what this weight is made from.
There are circumstances such as in hospitals when scales are appropriate and needed to help look after a patient. The use of bathroom scales in everyday life is another situation. You may question my thinking if you are trying to lose or maintain your weight but before making up your own mind consider the following:
- Scales do not tell you how much of your mass is muscle and how much is fat. Muscle burns around three times the amount of energy per gram compared to fat. This means your energy needs over a day are greater if you have more muscle mass just to maintain your weight compared to an identical person with more fat mass. Muscle is an energy burning machine and to keep the muscles from eating itself you need to eat more. Why do you want muscle? Not only to have an increased metabolism but also stronger bones. Muscle pulls on bones and this causes the bone building cells to stay active and decreases your risk of osteoporosis. Another positive is muscle may weigh more but takes up less space in your body than the same amount of fat gram for gram.
- Scales do not measure how much fluid you have in your body. Water or fluid can make a big difference on the scales and can be effected by many factors. These include the amount of salt you have eaten, if you are a woman where you are in your menstrual cycle, if you have just drunk any type of fluids, if you have gone to the bathroom.
- Scales do not tell you where you have lost fat. There are parts of your body where it is less healthy to have higher amounts of fat. This is around your middle where your major organs are called central adiposity. If you have more fat in this area it is linked to an increased risk of many diseases including heart disease. This is why waist to hip ratio can be a better determinant of overall health risk compared to bathroom scales.
- Scales are inferior measurements of your mirror or clothes. You can see in a mirror what looks normal and healthy for you and you know how your clothes should fit. Scales are inferior when it comes to measuring how you feel which is so important. You deserve to feel and look healthy not just look skinny.
Take home message: What makes up the weight in your body cannot be measured on your standards scales. Weighing more can potentially be a good thing depending on what the weight is made up of. Unless you are going to use your bathroom scales to weigh your luggage it may be time to throw the scales out with the trash.
