If you’re trying to lose weight or keep your weight stable, you’ve probably formed a close relationship with your scale. This numbers game is an integral part of most weight-loss programmes. However, a growing number of experts, myself included, question whether the scales are really the best way to monitor your progress.

Scales give you an instant answer to whether or not you are gaining or losing weight but all in all they are not very reliable. This is because weight gain is highly unpredictable. There are a number of factors that affect your weight, such as fluid retention, hormonal fluctuations and muscle mass, so it’s best to take the results you get from the scales with a pinch of salt. For example, 14 or so days prior to a woman’s period her weight can fluctuate by as much as 10 pounds due to fluid retention and hormonal shifts. You need to find what works best for you but the best way to lose weight is to focus less on weight and more on making healthy food choices each to day to boost your fat burning.

Also by focusing just on your weight the scale can lull you into a false sense of progress. Just counting pounds doesn’t tell you whether you’re losing water, muscle or fat. On the other hand the number of the scale can also be extremely demoralising if you are doing the right thing but don’t see any progress.

The BMI or body mass index isn’t that helpful either because it is affected by how much muscle you have. For instance, if you have more muscle your weight may be higher than what is considered healthy on the BMI chart, even though you have a healthy body fat percentage.

Instead of being a slave to the scale or the BMI, the best way to monitor your weight loss is to shift the focus on your health. Use a variety of measures that can give you a more complete picture of what’s actually happening to your body.

Here are some alternative ways to make sure your weight-control program is working:

• The simplest measure is a tape measure. Changes can show up quickly in the places where you store excess weight.  Health benefits can be seen with as little as a one-inch reduction in waist size.

• Another measure is your body composition. Muscle mass keeps you fit and strong while it stokes your fat-burning capability. Healthful weight control aims to reduce fat while preserving or increasing muscle mass. Body composition is hard to measure and in the clinic when a woman comes in to lose weight we measure body fat percentage so that as she changes shape we can monitor how much fat she has lost. 

With recent research showing that up to 60 per cent of home scales are completely inaccurate and can’t differentiate between fat and muscle, isn’t it time to ditch the diet mentality when your happiness each day is determined by the number you read on the scales for good?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.