Have you become scale-obsessed?

Simple check-ins or fixated ... ?

You might not think you're scale-obsessed - and that checking your scale every day is helping you lose weight or maintain your goal weight - when in actual fact, you're a little more fixated on those numbers than you thought.

Do you wake up every morning and walk straight to the scale to weigh yourself?

Do you become angry, depressed or frustrated when you see that those numbers haven't gone down, or worse... that they've gone up?

Without even realising it, you could have gone from a simple check-in, to being completely fixated on those numbers.

Put it into perspective

Weight doesn't only fluctuate from day to day, but also from hour to hour.

When you stand on the scale, you're not only weighing muscle and fat, you're weighing other things as well. Things like: Fluid, waste that's still in your body, food that's inside your GI tract that hasn't been digested, absorbed and eliminated yet, and glycogen (a form of stored carbohydrate which you carry in your liver and muscles).

You might also be retaining water or building muscle while you're losing body fat, which means that the number on the scale could stay more or less the same.

How to tell if you're scale-obsessed:

1. If you weigh yourself more than once a day.

2. If your mood is drastically affected by the number you see on the scale.

3. If you under-eat or over-exercise because of this number.

If you do any of the above, your relationship with weight has become an unhealthy one.

To get back on track, forget about the scale and focus on how your body feels instead. If you find that you need extra help getting focused about your specific weight expectations, speak to your doctor or a health professional.

Recommended reading: Lose weight without obsessing over the scale

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