MYST 179: Chaos, Confusion and the Bathroom Scale




Make Your Someday Today Podcast : Reach Your Goal Weight and Become the Person You Deserve show

Summary:  <br> Bathroom scales. We love them. And we hate them. But mostly we hate them. I mean, think about it. When you see a weight drop, you think to yourself “Well, finally!” as if the scale had been cheating you recently but not showing a loss. When you see a weight gain—and we all see gains, unless you never step on your scale—you immediately think “You LIE!”<br> When was the last time you saw a number on the scale and thought “Yeah, the scale loves me”?<br> <a href="https://i0.wp.com/makeyoursomedaytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/weigh-689873__340.jpg"></a><br> No, they don’t love us. Or hate us. They simply weigh us. They give us a number that is accurate—for that moment only. When you next eat, drink or use the bathroom, that number will change.<br> But let’s assume the worst. Let’s assume the scale went up. What are you going to do? There are three options, based on the underlying cause.<br> What’s the first option? How about this: Do nothing. That’s right. Do nothing.<br> We all know—or we should, by now—about the saw-tooth weight loss patterns. Weight gains for no apparent cause, weight losses when we should have had a weight gain. We go into stalls when we eat under budget and have losses after a splurge.<br> I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before. Our bodies conspire with the scale to mess with our minds.<br> So our first default response to a scale increase should be to do nothing. Look at the scale. Sigh. Record the number and move on. There is no need to get off the scale and get on it again, hoping for a better weight. Or to stand on your left leg only in a wasted effort to get a smaller number. Your weight is your weight. Log it. Own it. Move on.<br> One point to make here. It’s easy to confuse “weight gain or loss” with “fat gain or loss”. The scale cannot easily differentiate between losing weight because you are reducing your stored fat or because you are dehydrated. I talk about why <a href="http://makeyoursomedaytoday.com/CICO">“Weight Loss is Wrong” in MYST 157</a>.<br> If you want to wring your hands, and post “Oh, I’m a weight loss failure” on LoseIt, go ahead, but that won’t change anything. Sure, some people will respond with comments that have become meaningless platitudes to weight loss frustration, such as “You’re probably gaining muscle because muscle weighs more than fat” or “Don’t forget to take measurements because that’s how you really measure weight loss” or “You need to eat more/eat less/eat keto/purge/binge/cleanse/ or whatever Dr. Oz is pitching today”.<br> All of that advice is garbage. It’s all given with good intentions, but it is useless. Worse than that, the advice you receive distracts you from the steps you need to take to get back on track.<br> You need to get off the scale and go about your normal day. Eat. Log. Walk. And stop obsessing about the scale.<br> Here’s the second option: Maybe the scale is telling you more than you want to acknowledge. Random and intermittent gains are one thing, but have you been seeing steady and slow (or maybe fast) gains, almost every time you stand on the scale?<br> I’m sure we’ve all had periods when then scale just continues to climb. That is a signal that something is wrong.<br> Don’t obsess over the bathroom scale, but maybe start to obsess over the kitchen scale. Answer these questions:<br> <br> * Are you weighing everything you eat?<br> * Are you logging everything you eat and drink?<br> * If you cook (at home or professionally) are you accounting for every Bite, Lick, Taste, and Sip (“the BLTS of weight loss”)?<br> <br> <a href="https://i1.wp.com/makeyoursomedaytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/scale-3209896__340.jpg"></a><br> If your answer is “No” to any of those questions, you probably found the cause. And once you know the cause, you also know the corrective action you need to take. That does not mean the corrective action will ...