One of the most common ways and tools for tracking and measuring weight loss progress is?
You guessed it – a scale weight.
Scale weights have been used to check body weight for hundreds of years. They are so common you will find one in almost every household.
It’s not hard to see how and why it’s the most common and preferred way to check body weight – they are portable, easy to use, and easy to understand.
All you have to do is step on it and viola – you get your body weight.
These days, with the advancement in technology, these devices can do so much more. In addition to checking your body weight, some scales can tell your body composition (body fat, lean tissue, water),
Why using a Scale may not be the best way of measuring weight loss progress
Popular as they are, using scale weights is not the only way to track and measure weight loss progress.
In fact, we can argue that they may not be the best/most reliable and accurate tool.
I am sure you/You may have experienced this yourself/Have you ever experienced this? – you step on the scale one morning and you get a certain number and then you try again a day later and boom your weight has gone up by 2kg.
Does this mean you gained 2kg of fat overnight?
No, it probably means you’ve gained weight – not fat!
And that is precisely the problem with scale weights.
They don’t tell the whole story.
(1) They don’t account for the normal day to day (and even within day) weight fluctuations that humans/we have. Check out my Weight Fluctuations article to learn x ways your scale weight may be lying to you
(2) Even the most advanced scales cannot accurately and reliably tell the composition of the weight that is gained or lost.
That is, they cannot tell, with enough precision, what percentage of the weight lost or gained is fat, lean tissue, water, or whatever else.
Side Note:
Your body weight (the number your scale shows) is a sum of the weight of your bones, organs, muscle and other tissues, fecal matter, gut residue, fat, water, blood, other fluids, and whatever you are wearing when you step on the scale.
Fat, the thing you want to get rid of, only makes up part of your body weight. Body fat percentage is the percentage of your total weight that is fat.
