5 Reasons To Throw Away Your Scale Today

By Mary Claire Schibelka, LPC

What would you say if a friend told you that every morning, you need to stop by their house before work, so they can look at you, assess whether or not you look fat, and tell you how you should feel about yourself for the rest of the day?

Crazy, right?  Who would agree to such a thing!?

Every morning, millions of Americans do almost exactly this.  They get out of bed and go directly to the bathroom scale, where a set of numbers will determine how confident, attractive, and successful they feel that day.

While diet culture may have convinced most of society that owning a bathroom scale is a part of staying healthy, weighing yourself may actually be unnecessary at best and prompt harmful, unhealthy behaviors at worst.

When working with clients who struggle with eating disorders or poor body image, getting rid of the bathroom scale is often one of the first steps I recommend.  Here are 5 reasons why:

It’s Not Accurate Anyways

Most people who weigh themselves believe that they are measuring changes in their body fat.  Really, the numbers appearing on the scale may be a reflection of water weight, muscle, or the weight of the food in your stomach.  A scale alone has no way to tell.

Weight Is Not the Only Indicator of Health

Even if the scale did measure the amount of fat on your body, it still would not be an accurate representation of your health.  The diet and fitness industries emphasize the importance of weight in overall health.  However, there are many other factors that contribute to your health, such as your stress level and whether or not you smoke.  Some research even indicates that individuals considered slightly overweight have lower health risks than their thinner counterparts.1,2

Genetics Play a Huge Role in Weight

According to diet culture, you are in control of your weight.  If you just tried a little harder at the gym or ate a little healthier, you could have the body of your dreams.  Body set point theory disagrees, stating that your body has a specific weight range it wants to stay within.  If you go above or below that range, your body will employ physical and psychological mechanisms, such as making you hungrier, in order to bring you back to the set point it’s comfortable with.

If you’re feeling frustrated with an unchanging number on the scale, it might actually be a sign that your body is right where it needs to be.  If that’s that case, why keep the scale?

Exercise Can Be Fun

Remember when you were a kid and you ran around and played sports just for fun?  Exercising can feel that way now!  When you mentally frame exercise as something you have to do, otherwise you’ll get fat (and ugly, lazy, and worthless according to diet culture), it loses its luster almost immediately.  Without the pressure of having to hit a certain number on the scale, exercise can go back to being something energizing, relaxing, and even entertaining.

There Are Other Ways To Feel Confident

Regardless of how much you weigh, you can feel confident.  I know- crazy- but very true.  To find confidence in yourself at any body size, focus on things you’re good at, features you like about yourself, and positive relationships you have.  You’ll likely find that when you take the focus off of your weight, confidence starts to show up more easily than you even thought possible.

In a society conditioned to put so much weight- no pun intended- in the number on a scale, deciding not to weigh yourself can feel scary, rebellious, or like a loss of control.  Keep in mind that as long as you’re eating nutritious foods, eating all things in moderation, and moving in a way that feels good, your body will find its healthy, happy place, no scale required.

Summer Body Image

By Mary Claire Schibelka, LPC

You know that feeling when you step outside and realize, finally, the weather is starting to get warmer?  The shift from winter into spring and summer feels hopeful in many ways.  Finally, activities like hiking, biking, going on long walks, and lounging by the pool will soon be possible again.  Warmer weather also means less clothing.  If body image is something you struggle with, this fact alone might be enough to turn that feeling of hopefulness into one of dread.

What Is Body Image?

Body image is a term meaning the way you see your body along with the feelings and judgments you have about it.  Body image includes the way you perceive your body shape, height, weight, skin tone, birthmarks, freckles, scars, hair, and everything else in between.  Your body image can be either positive, negative, or neutral, and it can change by the day.  For instance, some days, you may feel super sexy in your bikini, while others, curling up under a rock until winter returns may sound better than leaving the house in shorts.

How to Improve Body Image

When working with clients who struggle with body image, I have several go-to strategies.  Try these tips to improve your body image and get out of your head about what you look like in your clothes this summer:

Deconstruct the Ideal

The first thing I always do with clients who want to improve their body image is investigate when and where they first started developing their beliefs about what the ideal body looks like.  For many, it was parents who constantly dieted, media, or kids at school who picked on them for their appearance.  Identify pivotal moments in your past when you decided your body was not good enough.  Then, talk back to these beliefs from a place of self-compassion.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think

During my internship while in school to become a therapist, I worked at an outpatient center that primarily specializes in the treatment of eating disorders.  My supervisor at the time gave me a piece of information to pass onto clients that I will always remember.  She said, “We are incapable of seeing what we really look like.”

Whether you are looking in the mirror or at a picture of yourself, the image you see is filtered through all of your judgments, previous experiences, beliefs about yourself, and your mood that day, therefore making it impossible to see yourself accurately.  This is the reason why we can look at a picture of ourselves and hate it, and then 2 years later look at the same picture and think we look great.

Next time you hear your brain pointing out everything that’s wrong with your body.  Stop it in its tracks and remind yourself that you likely do not look exactly the way you think you do.

Focus on the Positives

One symptom of negative body image is paying disproportionate attention to the parts of your body you don’t like while ignoring the parts you either like or feel neutral towards.  You may also lose sight of your positive qualities that have nothing to do with appearance whatsoever.  Make a list of all the things you like about yourself.  When you catch yourself hyperfocusing on body parts you’re dissatisfied with, intentionally redirect your attention to a positive quality instead.

Try for Body Neutrality

Sometimes, the idea of body love or body positivity feels impossible.  In these cases, it can actually feel more shameful to hold yourself to the standard of loving your body.  Instead, aim for body neutrality.  Try thinking about the functions of body parts you don’t like rather than the way they look.  For example, if you really don’t like your legs, practice appreciating them for getting you to places you need to go, disregarding their appearance altogether.

Address Underlying Issues

More often than not, negative body image is a reflection of other issues beneath the surface, such as low self-esteem, perfectionism, and lack of satisfaction in other areas of life.  When you notice body dissatisfaction show up, check in with how you’re feeling in your relational, work, physical health, and spiritual life.  Talk to a trusted friend or therapist about your discoveries, and problem solve where necessary.  Chances are, body distress will alleviate in accordance with these issues.

Next Steps

Society is full of messaging about what it means to look “good” during the summer months.  If you’re experiencing heightened feelings of body dissatisfaction as the weather warms up, practice these strategies daily.  For more support, reach out to one of our therapists here at ELEVATED Life Counseling by clicking the “Contact Us” tab above.