Are You Scale-Obsessed?

Do You Have An Unhealthy Relationship With The Scale?

Four common weight watching traps to avoid

Experts caution against imbuing the scale with magic weight loss powers. Are you drifting in that direction? Here are four signs that you need to rethink your attitude toward the scale.

1. You Weigh Yourself Twice a Day "After the first check-in, you're not going to get any additional helpful information," says Holly Wyatt, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado. A better plan for obssesive types, says Kristine Clark, PhD, an assistant professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, is to track your weight loss progress. "Weigh in weekly and chart the numbers to watch for a pattern," she explains. "That reveals more than a single number." 

3. You're Preoccupied "Dieters tend to be compulsive people," says Franca Alphin, RD, an assistant clinical professor of community and family medicine at Duke University. If nonstop thoughts about when, where, and how to weigh yourself have taken up permanent residence in your brain, it's time to back off the scale and focus instead on the rest of your day...and your life.2. You Focus Only on the Numbers Remember that the number on the scale is merely one measure of acceptable weight loss; there are things the scale can't tell you. Clark suggests asking yourself, Do my clothes fit the way I want them to? Can I walk a mile without getting out of breath? If the answer is yes, you are likely to be at a healthy weight.

4. You Avoid the Scale Altogether If you are phobic of scales, find another way to monitor your weight, or you may end up paying the consequences, says Clark. "I had a patient who had lost 60 pounds in a year, but then he stopped weighing himself. The last time I saw him, he'd gained back 20 pounds." For patients who avoid the scale, Clark uses a tape measure. She checks their body dimensions at the waist, thigh (midway between hip and knee), and chest--something you can do yourself at home.

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