A customer walks into an outdoor adventure store to find the owner setting up a realistic model of Mt Kilimanjaro.  “The detail on that is amazing,” says the customer. “Is it to scale?”  “No,” says the surprised owner. “It’s for display purposes only.”

My point? The word “scale” can’t untangle every problem all by itself.

Here’s an inescapable truth – if you’re trying to lose weight, you want to see results when you step on the scale.  However, if your only satisfaction comes from seeing a particular number beneath your feet, you’re missing many of the great little moments of victory that are part of a weight loss journey.

So maybe it’s time to rethink relying on the scale as the ultimate measure of success or failure.

Your mood should not be dependent upon the results you’re getting when you weigh in, whether that is daily, weekly, or randomly. The weigh-in is not a test of how well your weight loss program is going.  At most, it’s merely just one indicator of its progress.

But more importantly, during the process of losing weight, you need to realize that there are many indicators of success OTHER than the scale… most of which are much more rewarding than a digital readout.  Learning to embrace these will keep you from getting frustrated when your weight loss slows down or plateaus, and help you to succeed long-term, without relying on the scale as your only source of affirmation.

Clothes Make the Man/Woman

So many of the great milestones of weight loss involve clothing.  First, your current clothes start to fit better.  Next, those items begin to get a bit loose and send you hunting through your closet in search of older, smaller items that you can suddenly fit into again!

Of course, nothing beats the next stage, when you need to purchase new clothing… especially when it repeats itself.  Buying new, smaller pants, and then months later having to do so again?  That’s a lot more enjoyable than any information you’ll get from a scale.

What’s wonderful is that even when you get pretty far down the road on your weight loss journey and start hitting plateaus, you might still notice a difference in the way your clothing fits!

Your body will still be adjusting to “the new you” and redistributing your weight, especially if you’ve made physical activity part of your program.  So even if a scale would tell you that your weight loss has temporarily leveled off, you might continue to notice clothing fitting better and even a drop in sizes!

More Giddy-up in Your Get Along

Try picking up a 50-pound weight and carrying it around all day.  It would be exhausting.  So imagine how much more energy you’ll have when you’re 50 pounds lighter and walking around in the world day-to-day!  I’m down 160+ pounds at this point, and although it’s been a gradual weight loss, I certainly can remember how much more tired I used to get from routine walking activities.

As I’ve lost weight and become more active, it’s allowed me to have more energy and become even more active. When I was 400 pounds, my daily activity consisted of 30 minutes of slow walking on a level treadmill, five days a week.  Over time that has increased to 60-100 minutes at a faster speed, and an incline.

You may think that you have a lot of energy for your size right now, and perhaps you do.  But I promise, as long as your weight loss features a healthy eating plan (well balanced, and enough calories), you’ll have even more energy when your body is more fit and doesn’t have to work as hard just to move you from place to place.

Waking up and feeling that extra boost of energy is something to which you should look forward, and a perfectly good reason to walk, jog or run right past the scale to get your day started with whatever activity you have planned!

Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Speaking of planning, setting out on a weight loss journey is an ambitious plan for anyone.  It is a project which takes organization, willpower, patience, forgiveness and more.  There are plenty of reasons why such a project can fall short, and if that happens just realize that there’s no better teacher than failure.

If you do succeed, however, there’s something to be said for the sense of accomplishment that comes from achieving a goal.  If you’ve ever been responsible for a big project at work or school, you know how satisfying it can be to see your plans come to fruition.  Even just seeing the first part of your plan working out (losing, say, the first 15 of your targeted 150 pounds) should be reason to feel proud.  It’s like the successful opening night of a play. You’re planning on a long run, but you’ve got things off to a good start and in a positive direction.

Knowing that you’re well on your way towards achieving your goal, you do not require a scale to tell you that you’ve made positive changes to your life.

Eat Without Guilt

It’s hard to even discuss overeating without discussing the concept of guilt.  They go hand in hand.

Well one of the remarkable benefits of finding success on a weight loss journey is that you will build a new relationship with food.  You’ll start to learn how to enjoy all kinds of food again, without guilt.

I know, I know, if you haven’t gone down this road yet it sounds like I’m saying two plus two equals a kumquat but trust me.  In fact, I’ll write more on this specific topic soon.

But for now, just know that as you start to eat well, and in combination with an active lifestyle begin to shed pounds, you will find yourself looking forward to food again.  Not just the first few bites followed by the inevitable ‘oh God, why did I eat THAT again?’ 

Learning to “eat happy” is a big part of a long-term, successful weight loss program.  It comes with patience, and practice and trial and error.  But without question it is one of the most rewarding parts of a new healthier lifestyle.

And it’s not something you can always measure by stepping on a scale.

Despite all of the above, of course, when you’re trying to lose weight, you’re going to want to step on a scale from time to time. The secret, then, is to do so in a way that removes the power the scale has to ruin your day, and instead use it only as a delivery system for useful data on your weight loss progress.

What follows are a few tips for demystifying the scale.

Make it Official

Decide what will constitute your “official” weigh-ins going forward. 

Doesn’t matter if you pick daily, weekly, monthly, only at a physician’s office (that’s what I do), etc… whatever you pick, stick with it.  From here on, only those weigh-ins will be considered official.   So, if you record your weigh-in into an app or a journal, that’s the weight you use.  If you update your friends on your progress on social media? You only do so after an official weigh-in.

Why? Because as you know, there can be so much variation in your day to day weight, based on what time of day you weigh yourself, what you’ve eaten, what you’re wearing, and several other factors… all of which can add up to a 4-5 pound difference during the same day on the same scale!  You can easily drive yourself crazy with misleading data like that.

So if you feel compelled to step on the scale every time you pass by it, you need to get in your head that unless it’s an official weigh-in, this particular weigh-in is “for entertainment purposes only.”

Apples to Apples

When weighing yourself, especially for your official weigh-ins, remember to try to be as consistent as possible.  Same time of day, amount of clothing, meal status, etc.  It doesn’t do much good if you’re not measuring the same thing each time.

To this end, it’s best if you keep things simple.  Make your weigh-ins something easy to duplicate. Every Monday morning, right when you wake up.  First thing in the morning means you won’t have eaten yet; you won’t have worked out.  And if you decide to step on the scale in your birthday suit, no pesky clothing to interfere either.  If the last part is a bit too far, just throw on sweats and a t-shirt and make that your official weigh-in gear.  Anything that you can easily duplicate.

I know this attention to detail might seem annoying, but I bring it up partly so that you realize just how utterly useless it is most of the time when you hop on the scale randomly and let it ruin your day. There are too many factors at play.  And even when you get a result that makes you feel good, not knowing how accurate the number is certainly mitigates that joy.

So, here’s the takeaway.  If you still feel the need to step on a scale every time you walk by one? That’s fine.  But if the only happiness you derive from your weight loss program is from results on a scale, you’re not building a program made to last.

Instead, focus on how you feel, how your clothes fit, the great satisfaction you get from successfully engineering a weight loss program, and most of all, developing a new, positive relationship with food.