THE BIGGEST MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE WHEN TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT

Whatever way you look at things, sustainable weight loss is reliant on two things: regular exercise and a healthy diet based on variety. To help keep track, many people count jumping on the scales as part of their routine. But according to experts, this might actually be hindering your efforts in the long term.

THE PROBLEM WITH BATHROOM SCALES

It’s true using bathroom scales can help to keep you accountable, but experts say this monitoring can quickly escalate into an obsession. It’s then that your physical and mental health could be placed at risk. Moreover, the average person’s weight fluctuates throughout the day based on factors such as water intake, meal times, stress levels and women’s menstrual cycles.

It’s also important to remember your weight in kilos and grams actually tells you little about your overall health. “I tell people to throw away their scale all the time,” says registered dietitian and founder of The Kidney Dietitian, Melanie Betz. “Weight is only one tiny part of health as a whole. Health is your whole physical and mental state of wellbeing. In our weight-centric culture, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing anything to get the scale lower and ignore what it is doing to your mental or physical health.”

WEIGHT DOESN’T EQUATE TO HEALTH

Bess Berger, another registered dietitian specialising in menopause, says the number on a scale is inherently simplified and doesn’t “differentiate between fat loss, water-weight loss or muscle loss”. “I have clients that get on the scale one or two times a day. I recommend they start weighing themselves less often by getting on the scale only every other day. After that, we can reassess from there,” she says. “It’s more important for one to feel good in their skin, have a good mental state and have energy than what the number on the scale says.” Tracking kilos and calories represents an outdated view of weight loss, and Betz says it can be incredibly freeing to remove our weight from the equation entirely.