How To Measure Progress If You Don't Weigh Yourself

February 15, 2022

How To Measure Progress If You Don't Weigh Yourself

Not every client of mine wants or needs to lose weight for most it's about finding a sustainable way to thrive in a busy life and feel confident and happy in your own skin.

If you're not a fan of weighing yourself, you are not alone. The scale is only one measure of the progress you are making with weight loss (if that's a goal of yours)

Some people do get to the point where the number becomes more than data and you start allowing the number to have a little too much power over how you feel about yourself and your progress.

If you notice that a decrease in your body weight makes you feel good but a slight increase makes you feel demotivated and unhappy it's time to reassess what you are doing and decide if it's right for you in the long term.

There are still plenty of men and women who weigh themselves daily, are fully aware of how much it can fluctuate and it makes no difference to how they feel or behave that day regardless if the number goes up or down. Understanding why fluctuations occur can be hugely beneficial and allows you to disconnect the power your weight fluctuations have on how you feel.

When Can The Scale Be Helpful?

You are on a journey to finding a way to live a healthy and fulfilling life, forever, not for 6 weeks or a few months, for the rest of your life. Your goals will evolve and the role the scale plays may be helpful right now or maybe not.

These are some reasons it might be helpful

If you have a very specific target goal for a specific reason. It might be helpful to pay closer attention to the scale so we can ensure you are making the right amount of progress towards your goal within the timeframe you have set.
If you need to maintain or put on weight. Again paying closer attention to weight trends helps to ensure you are trending in the right direction.
If you want to get stronger. Increasing strength means ensuring you eat enough to put on muscle. If your weight goes down on stays steady then you may need to increase the amount you eat to reach your goal.

Progress is never linear. Relying on the scale number solely can be deceiving and falsely give you the impression you are not making progress. There are many ways to measure progress that are just as, if not more important than your scale weight on one day.

Non Scale Measures of Progress or Non Scale Victories

I like to build into my clients measurements of progress as many markers as is relevant to your unique goals and how you want to feel.

Ways to Measure Progress