Reasons Why The Scales Aren’t A Good Measure of Health – And Other Areas To Focus On Instead

If you’ve made a New Years Resolution (or even a February resolution) to lose weight, get fit or improve your health, you’ve probably set a goal to lose weight – be it 5, 10, 15 or 20kg. You’ve also probably stepped on the scales, noted your starting weight, made changes to your diet and then made a plan to start at the gym.

Is this all sounding familiar?

You work your butt off for the week, jump on the scales and nothing has changed. So you start stepping on the scales daily. You think that by checking your weight daily you can see where you are going wrong, see what foods are causing you to gain or stay the same weight, find out what things work to help you lose the most weight.

And this is where we can get in trouble – check out my blog on 5 Reasons Why Your Weight Can Fluctuate And Isn’t An Accurate Representation Of Your Health.

Your body is constantly performing hundreds of functions, sending hundreds of messages all at once, all of the time, even while you sleep. With a body that is constantly performing, signalling muscles to move, heart to contract and relax, transporting hormones, making hormones, digesting nutrients, and renewing cells.

Your body is an incredible being, whilst weight is something to consider and be aware of, it is not something that can accurately measure the extent of your health and wellbeing. All these processes are the true measure of health. Your body cannot be reduced to just one measure from the scales and these are the reasons why.

Scales only measure your overall weight – unless they are fancy and measure your muscle, adipose tissue, fluid, and bone weight also. Even then these aren’t always very accurate. This number is still, only your weight. It doesn’t account for any other measurement of your health.

Blood tests – regular check-ups with your GP and pathology testing through your Naturopath can give a greater indication of what is happening within your body. Clients are always intrigued when I go through their pathology tests with them, explaining what different results mean and how changes to their diet and lifestyle can bring results into the optimal range.

Nail health – nails can tell us a lot about your health. Brittle nails that break easily may be an indication of poor protein absorption, vertical ridges can indicate nutrient deficiencies and poor absorption or white spots which may indicate mineral deficiencies or can be due to trauma to the nail also.

Or instead, focus on the feeling of health.

How is your energy? Did it used to slump during the day and now it is constant?
How is your sleep? Did you used to toss and turn, or wake feeling unrefreshed, and now you wake feeling more energised and rested?
How are your moods? Were you constantly tired, irritated easily, or have mood swings and now you feel calmer, stable, happy, and motivated?
How are your stress levels? Were you constantly feeling stressed and overwhelmed, with no outlet, and now you feel calm, at peace, and have regular stress-relieving and management techniques in place?
How are your monthly cycles? Were they irregular, infrequent, stagnant, did they give you symptoms of PMS, and now you breeze through your period with minimal accompanying symptoms and mood swings?

These are much better indicators of your health and wellbeing! Take note of your feelings, not just your weight!

**Like any tool used to examine and investigate your health, it is important to consider all factors involved, not one tool such as weight, nail, or tongue health can or should be used to diagnose conditions. It is important that you seek medical advice should you be concerned about any aspect of your health. **

Yours in harmony and health,

Rachael