When it comes to taking care of your health, it’s easy to get hung up on how much you weigh. After all, lots of ridiculous crash diets are all about numbers: Lose 10 pounds in 10 days! Drop 5 pounds by Friday! Not only is that totally unrealistic (and unsafe!), but the scale really isn’t the best tool to help gauge your progress anyway. In fact, obsessing about how much you weigh can actually derail your goals. Here are seven reasons you might want to kick your scale to the curb — or at least hide it in the closet for a while.
1. YOUR WEIGHT IS JUST A NUMBER.
Seriously, this isn’t a feel-good Pinterest quote — your weight literally only measures how much gravity is pulling on you. It can’t gauge how you look, how you feel, or whether you’re healthier today than you were yesterday. “The scale can measure one thing, and that’s your weight,” says dietitian Tori Holthaus, MS, RDN, LD, and founder of YES! Nutrition in Ohio.