Why I Stopped Weighing Myself

How avoiding the scale helps me to achieve my weight loss goals

Being a little scared to step on the scales isn’t unusual.

Of course, some people never weigh themselves. They either don’t care about their weight or if they do, think it’s too hard to do anything about it.

You probably won’t relate to this article if you’re one of the former. And that’s fine. But, if you’re concerned about your weight, I think you will relate to this.

In this article, I explain why I have stopped weighing myself.

I Haven’t Weighed Myself in Six Months

As you can see below, I started this article 5 months before publishing it. However, the title is as far as I had gone.

I came back to this article after scrolling through my drafts and thinking that now is a pretty good time to write this article.

So here we are. I haven’t weighed myself in about six months.

But I know that I’ve lost weight.

I just don’t know how much!

I used to weigh myself most days

For most of my adult life, I’ve been pretty body-conscious.

First, I felt small and wanted to bulk up. I was a very lean teenager.

So, I had to overconsume calories to “bulk up”.

I’ve explained the simple equation for fat loss in previous articles — eat fewer calories than it takes to maintain our weight. Calories = energy and food has calories. To gain weight, we eat more calories than maintenance.

Eventually, I reached a point of being overweight and then “cut” to lose the body fat I’d gained.

I’ve been through these bulk and cut phases a few times over the years, and I’d use the scales to monitor my weight/progress.

Thus, I’ve consistently weighed myself over the years. For lengthy periods, I stepped on the scale every single morning.

Why I haven’t weighed myself lately

It’s easier to look at the scales when you’re happy with the number you see…

The slow progress of my fat loss has been frustrating. In the past, I’ve shredded the weight pretty fast.

So, I decided to trust the process and ditch the scale. After all — I’ve done this before… One such transformation was from a chunky 96 kg powerlifter to a ripped 78 kg hockey player in over nine months.

I’ve been doing a body recomposition phase, rather than a strict cut. This is an approach to dieting where we aim to both burn body fat and build muscle. This approach is commonly called “maingaining.”

Weight loss is slow when we’re in a small calorie deficit. The goal of a body recomposition is not to lose much weight (if any) because we’re hoping to build some muscle whilst slowly burning body fat.

It's traditionally thought we cannot build muscle and burn fat simultaneously. However, although not optimal for either, plenty of research suggests it is possible. Participants in a 2015 study lost fat and built muscle after following a high-protein diet and an eight-week resistance training programme.

“Consuming a high protein diet (3.4 g/kg/d) in conjunction with a heavy resistance-training program may confer benefits with regards to body composition.” — Antonio, 2015

When will I weigh myself?

I’m not sure when I’ll get back on the scales. It will probably be a spur-of-the-moment thing.

For now, the mirror and clothing guide fat loss progress.

Once I get to the point where I am content with my fat loss, I will post a photo update. Currently, I’m around 80% there.

Instead of focusing on my weight, I’m focusing on the process.

How I’m performing in the gym. How my body feels.

Rapid weight loss leads to a rapid decline in athletic performance, and I’m focused on maintaining or improving my core lifts in the gym (e.g., the squat and overhead press).

I’m focusing on quality nutrition and keeping my calorie intake stable and consistent.

“For [one] person, checking your body weight daily might be a good thing. Or a different person can stay motivated by checking once a week. Yet someone else could find weigh-ins are self-destructive,” — Kleiner, 2023

How often should you weigh yourself?

According to the reputable health and fitness resource WebMD, “If you weigh yourself at least once a week, you may have more success with weight loss than those who check in with the scale less frequently.”

A 2014 systematic literature review analysed recent longitudinal randomised controlled trials investigating self-weighing as an intervention strategy for weight loss.

They defined regular self-weighing as either daily or weekly over a sustained period.

Their results indicated that “regular self-weighing was associated with more weight loss and not with adverse psychological outcomes”.

“The findings from prospective, longitudinal studies provide evidence that regular self-weighing has been associated with weight loss.” — Zheng et al., 2014

Thus, regularly weighing yourself seems beneficial in supporting weight loss goals.

Should you weigh yourself every day?

As I discussed earlier, I stopped weighing myself because I was getting frustrated with the slow progress on the scale.

This lack of progress can be very discouraging!

Weighing ourselves daily can also be misleading due to our weight fluctuations. Research shows that we can easily be a kilogram or two (5 pounds) heavier or lighter than yesterday without gaining or losing body fat.

We literally cannot gain anywhere near this amount of fat overnight.

For example, in two studies (here and here), participants consumed 40% or 50% more calories than required to maintain their weight, and they only gained 0.2 and 0.16 pounds (0.09 and 0.07) of body fat per day.

So, we shouldn’t let fluctuations in our weight dishearten us.

Factors influencing weight fluctuation are our hormones, what we ate that day (or the previous), what we drank (alcohol can cause water retention), exercise routine, and bathroom habits.

“Your weight can fluctuate because of different things: your fluid intake, your hormone levels, your activity level. We don’t want to get too hung up on the number.” — Walters, 2019

On the other hand, a lack of progress can be motivational, forcing us to work harder on our diet and/or exercise. Therefore, weighing yourself daily can be beneficial in helping you to reach your weight loss goals.

Research even suggests that weighing ourselves daily benefits our weight loss goals.

For example, a 2015 study monitored forty-seven participants over six months, with half the people weighing themselves daily and the other half less regularly. The daily group lost an average of 6.1 kg more.

Moreover, a 2018 study tracked 1,042 adults over a year and found that people who weighed themselves once a week or less didn’t lose weight, but those stepping on the scales daily averaged a 1.7% weight loss.

Keeping track of our daily weight can provide accountability to keep our weight consistently progressing in the right direction.

However, be wary that you should be tracking how your weight trends over time rather than getting distracted by daily fluctuations.

Final Thoughts

In this article, I have explained why I haven’t weighed myself in over six months.

I usually weigh myself at least a couple of times a week, so this is a substantial change in my routine. I don’t count calories; instead, I’m guided by habits. So, the scale has always helped me track the progress of my weight.

A lot of the literature even suggests the chances of losing weight are enhanced when weighing ourselves daily.

However, my goal isn’t to lose weight quickly — we’re more likely to retain more muscle by losing weight slowly and deliberately.

Crash dieting leads to our bodies inevitably consuming muscle mass as energy. Thus, I’m in a slight calorie deficit, slowly tweaking my calorie intake.

And because the process is slow on the scales, I’m avoiding them.

Although an experienced gym junkie, I can still be vulnerable to the mental struggles that often go hand in hand with dieting.

Avoid weighing yourself too often if you have a mental block with the number on the scales. There is no point in adding stress to the process of weight loss.

Just focus on the habits that will improve your chances of weight loss. Check the scales occasionally to keep yourself accountable.

And trust in the process.

Thank you for reading.

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If you enjoyed the article, you might be interested in reading about how I gained over 40 pounds of muscle.