June 13, 2023
Alexandra Kinias

I confess that not a day in my adult life has passed by without me stepping on the scale to check my weight. We don’t lose weight every day, and it becomes frustrating when the scale confirms this theory. We expect miraculous results in a short time, once we  start a diet. And even though I advise my friends against weighing themselves every day, I don’t practice what I preach. For many decades, checking my daily weight became a morning ritual of equal importance as brushing my teeth or drinking coffee. 

Healthy weight loss happens gradually and it takes patience and perseverance to see tangible results. Weight that has accumulated in few months or years won’t just melt away in a week.  Knowing that, I don’t just monitor my weight to see if I lost any, but I also check if I had gained some.On some days, I am satisfied with the readings of the scale, and on other days I am not that thrilled. And there are many days when I am somewhere in between. 

If you are like me, and your weight vacillates from day to day, this is because some weight is superficial. In a way, it is the result of what you ate the night before. A salty dinner will retain more water and add few kilos to your weight. Conversely, a sudden loss in weight may just be an indication of dehydration.  Many athletes retreat to saunas before their competitions to get rid of few extra pounds/kilos. In the sauna, what athletes actually lose is sweat not fat, which is replenished by drinking water. 

After salty dinners don’t get alarmed when you are a couple of pounds (one kilo) heavier than the day before, and neither should you be elated when in few days you lose this weight. Women should also be aware that the saltier the foods they consume during their menstruation period, the heavier they are on the scale, as their bodies retain more water during this time of the month. This extra weight vanishes when menstruation is over. 

Let’s not say that scales lie, but sometimes they twist the truth, more often not to our favor. But on the long term, and even with a slight error, scales almost accurately record the real weight, which unless you are a model and your career depends on each gram /pound you gain or lose, this error should not be a source of desperation, yet it still should be monitored and dealt with as if it was real, to avoid accumulative weight gain that becomes harder and more frustrating to lose. 

For regular exercisers, scales can sometimes be deceiving. For them it is also advisable to monitor how their clothes fit. The reason is that as we exercise, the muscles we build weigh heavier on the scale.  Those extra kilos/pounds on the scale don’t mean that we gained weight, but that our muscles are toned. And in spite of this weight gain, we find that our clothes lose their tightness.  To stay in shape is an endless battle and to be ahead of our weight, we should monitor our bodies, both on the scale and how our clothes fit.