Don’t let a scale make you fail

Q: After months of staying committed to my exercise and nutrition program, I have seen great results. I have lost weight and definitely feel more fit, but I am struggling to lose the final five pounds. Why is it so hard to lose the last few pounds, and what can I do to finally reach my goal?

A: To investigate this situation, it’s important to keep a few factors in mind: How realistic is your fitness goal? How long have you been completing the same exercise and nutrition plan? And what results HAVE you seen so far?

Look at your fitness goal, and in this case, your goal weight. Is there a magic number you would like to see on the scale? If that number is keeping you from believing you have reached your goal, you must ask yourself how you determined what you should weigh. Who determined that was the number you needed to reach? What does being a certain number on the scale “really” mean? And is this weight realistic given your current situation?

Striving to reach a specific weight has been the cause of many exercisers not believing they have succeeded. I like to ask my clients if they would care if they wore the size clothes they desired, were stronger, had more energy, were happy with their appearance and felt healthier than ever, BUT weighed 10 pounds more than what they thought they should weigh. All usually say “no,” and I reply by asking, “Then why are you so concerned about what the scale is telling you?” I normally get a blank stare after that.

Your weight on the scale is just a number showing how much your body weighs. It does not give you a breakdown of how much of that weight is fat, water, organs, muscles, blood and other components of your body that are necessary for you to sustain life.

I know it makes you feel good to have the scale tell you that you weigh the same as you did in high school, but a smarter and healthier alternative would be to focus on your body composition, the amount of lean muscles mass and essential fat, and other important numbers, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate.

You may find you really HAVE reached your goals by losing body fat, increasing strength, flexibility and lean muscle mass, and maintaining healthy heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers. The weight of your body is not as important as what is going on inside of your body.

Focus on all of the progress you HAVE made and how you feel instead of what the scale is or is not telling you. The scale does not know the difference between you and a bag of sand, all it knows is how much you both weigh. Celebrate the change you have seen in your body and, hopefully, your life. Don’t let the scale take that away from you.