Kat & Tshepi

Hello there, welcome back to K&T blog.

Last week we shared our top 10 weight loss mistakes, these are mistakes we had to fix to make progress on our weight loss journey, and we feel that being aware of them can be helpful to someone on a similar journey. One of the weight loss mistake we listed was “Allowing pressure from the scale, people and most importantly ourselves”, this week we would like to take off from this mistake and elaborate on the pressure we get specifically from body weight scale. Indeed the scale never lies, as this blog’s title states, it gives you the truth relative to your body weight “at that time”, and this truth can come with so much unwanted pressure.

The scale can be a source of anguish and disappointment for someone trying to lose weight or someone who is concerned about their weight. It has the ability to raise unconscious questions and conclusions about one’s health status as well as body image, and these are sensitive matters. only a few things reminds us of our health status concerns like the scale, seemingly only a few things brings back the body image memories, sensitivities and issues like the scale. The scale seems to be a strict unofficial health judge who constantly reminds us of how much we have disregarded our health and how much we should be worried.

On our weight loss journey, we were not spared the wrath of the scale, in 2023 we did a 6 months weight loss project where we aimed to lose 6kg’s each, when reading the weekly progress articles published in the 6-months period one can sense the anxieties we experienced every time we had to track our progress on the scale, one can also sense the disappointment we experienced every time we failed to make the targeted weight. In this period, we experienced so much pressure stemming from the scale that focused solely on the scale and started to forget all the good progress we had made previously and forgetting how better(overall wellbeing) we are in comparison to when we started. The reality was that regardless of the scale reading, we were no longer on the cusp of obesity, we were eating healthy and living an active lifestyle, there was so much to be grateful for.

We have since learned to look at the scale differently (although we unconsciously revert back at times :), bad habits are hard to break ), our perception has changed from looking at the scale as a judge and validator of our efforts to viewing the scale as a source of useful information for our journey. The former treats the scale as foe whilst the former treats the scale as an ally, an ally is on your side, an ally encourages you to do better, an ally gives you honest feedback, an ally asks you to review your efforts and to make changes in order to succeed. This is our new perception of the scale, it should not be the judge and validator of our efforts because it does not take into account your context , it does not care how stressful the week was, nor how much pressure you had from work, nor your emotional state, nor your reduced physical activity due to an illness, it just plainly give you feedback on how you did on your weight loss efforts amidst all your daily life’s struggles. The scale just gives you information to be able to review your weight loss efforts, it is a positive thing 🙂 .

Stephen R. Covey said “To change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our Perceptions “, perhaps this applies well to our perceptions of the body weight scale, if we look at it as an ally that provides us with information that we can use to succeed in losing weight instead of looking at it as an antagonist who has nothing good to offer but pressure and anxiety , and even worse to distort our body image. In shifting our perception of the scale, we are then able to focus on the real issues that are hogging our progress based on what the scale is telling us, which would mean reviewing and making some changes to what we have been doing…… and going back to the scale for further useful feedback.

In our weight loss guide, we encourage taking scale measurements at least once per week, this will ensure that you are able to gather useful information from the scale and to make informed decisions going forward. With a healthy perception of the scale, the information gathered each week can help you to:

1. Track and quantify your progress.

2.Confirm whether your plan is working or not.

3.Determine the rate of your weight loss (NB: It is considered unhealthy and risky if you are losing more than 1kg(2lbs) per week, chances are that you are losing muscle mass too).

4.Determine whether your diet is working for you or against you, and notice when it is time to review your efforts on your nutrition and physical activities in order to make improvements

5.To identify the correlation between your weight gain or loss and the events in your life (NB: mostly our eating patterns are based on things happening in our personal lives and environments)

One of the important use of scale information is to provide a view of the bigger picture, it is so beneficial to have a consolidate (e.g for a month) information about your weight , with this information one can really see how are they progressing from month to month, one can see the impact of the changing seasons on their weight, one can see the impact of what was happening in their lives and the resulting patterns of their lifestyle, eating and physical activities . Below is an example of information we gathered over a 6-month period, in this consolidated information the impact of transitioning from Summer to Autumn (Mar – May) on our weight loss is visible if one looks closer. This is not a requirement nor a necessity to succeed in losing weight but we think it is powerful to have , as they say information is power.

That’s is for this week, a scale does not lie, it tells you the truth which you can use to get better and get closer to your weight loss goal. No pressure when stepping on the scale anymore, it is time to have a healthy view of the scale.

Until next week, stay blessed.

Kat & Tshepi