How Life Changes When You Step On The Scale Daily

[caption id="attachment_823394" align="aligncenter" width="1068"] Bigstockphoto.com/Portrait of African American woman excited for weight loss[/caption] Having a scale in your home can be a tricky thing. While some studies suggest that those who weigh themselves daily tend to be on the fitter side, those studies don’t dive much into whether or not those people enjoy their lives. Sure, they’re in great shape, but is it all because they base everything they do around that little number on the scale? There are perfectly happy women who never weigh themselves, are in shape, and don’t seem to have much weight fluctuation. You know the ones—they only step on a scale once a year at their physical! That is another extreme relationship with a scale that works for some, but could be detrimental to those trying to lose weight. It could be good for you to see how you respond to weighing yourself every day; you may make some interesting discoveries. Here’s what you may find if you step on the scale every day. [caption id="attachment_700393" align="alignleft" width="468"] Shutterstock[/caption]

The mornings are a big deal

Stepping on the scale in the morning can feel like stepping in front of a judge during a trial. That scale knows everything you did yesterday, and it’s about to give you a verdict. If you skipped your workout yesterday and had a big dinner, you don’t even want to look at the scale.         [caption id="attachment_710400" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You start to predict the number

You start noticing patterns. For example, if you have fruit for dessert, the scale will display a number on the low end of your five-pound fluctuation range, and if you have chocolate for dessert, it’ll show a number on the higher end of your range.       [caption id="attachment_714816" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re often right, but shocked when you’re wrong

You usually know approximately what number you’re going to see, but when the scale shocks you, it sends you into investigator mode. It’s lower than you thought; was your heavy dinner actually not as bad as you thought it was? It’s heavier than you thought; did you misread the nutrition label on that pasta and overdo it?   [caption id="attachment_716511" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You think a lot more about what you eat at night

You get to a point in the evening where you know every few bites can affect what you see on the scale the next morning. You don’t think about it as much during the day—night is your last chance to affect that number.     [caption id="attachment_701312" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You might adjust your workout length

You may find yourself working out longer if the number on the scale is higher than you had hoped, or skipping a workout if the number is drastically lower than you expected.         [caption id="attachment_704429" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

But then you’ll just be hungry, or hyper

You’ll soon find that you should keep your workout routine because overdoing it just causes you to be hungry, so then you overeat, and that exercise was for nothing. On the flip side, if you skip your workout, you may be hyper, and may not sleep well.       [caption id="attachment_695210" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You may even put on weight after exercising

You might come back from a long jog, expecting the number on the scale to be lower, only to find that it’s higher. You may have just built a little muscle, or drank so much water during your workout that you put on water weight.       [caption id="attachment_702584" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You tell yourself certain clothes won’t fit

If you are on the high end of your weight range, you tell yourself certain clothing items are just off limits—you assume they will not fit. That’s funny, though, because before you started weighing yourself, you wore those clothes all of the time, and never had a problem.   [caption id="attachment_623897" align="alignleft" width="380"] Shutterstock[/caption]

On “thin” days, you want to try on everything!

On days when the number is low, you want to try on everything! You also want to go shopping and change outfits as much as possible to show off your svelte figure.         [caption id="attachment_711409" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re certain you look bloated

Once you see a higher number, you start projecting that onto the mirror. You are certain that your face looks bloated. But before you were someone who weighed herself, you never thought those things, and you probably hit that number then, too.       [caption id="attachment_706971" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You see the value in being regular

You’re shocked by the fact that you can drop several pounds after having a bowel movement, which makes you really start considering adding fiber to your diet, and drinking more water to stay regular.         [caption id="attachment_714936" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

How you look doesn’t always match the number

You’ll have days you genuinely do appear bloated, and are having a hard time fitting into jeans, but the scale displays a low number. You’ll have days you look toned and trim, but the scale displays a high number. You hate these days.       [caption id="attachment_719795" align="alignleft" width="429"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You’re curious about your friends’ weight

You start to obsess about the weight of others. You want to know how much your friends weigh, how much weight they put on during vacation, how much they lost during the flu and so on.       [caption id="attachment_693983" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You begin to hate the scale

You begin to hate your scale. You make a disgusted face when you see it, and you tiptoe around it, almost as if not to wake it up so it won’t say, “Time to weigh you!”         [caption id="attachment_702705" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

And crave the scale

You’re also addicted to the scale. If you have to travel, or be away from it for a long time, the fact that you cannot know exactly what you weigh drives you nuts. You look for scales in hotel rooms and gyms, trying to get your fix.         [caption id="attachment_701337" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You get more in touch with your body

You do begin to learn what it really means to be too full, still hungry, and perfectly satiated. You learn this because when you take an average of the numbers on the scale over several weeks, you find patterns.     [caption id="attachment_610668" align="alignleft" width="420"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You see how much your weight fluctuates

You see that your weight can truly fluctuate nearly five pounds in just one day. You start to go a little crazy because you don’t know what your true weight is.       [caption id="attachment_712485" align="alignleft" width="420"] Image Source: Shutterstock[/caption]

You look at your reflection whenever you can

You end up looking at yourself a lot, almost like you’re wondering, “Ugh. Can you see those extra two pounds?” Any reflective surface becomes a mirror.         [caption id="attachment_610724" align="alignleft" width="422"] Shutterstock[/caption]

You talk about weight more than you used to

You talk about weight much more than you used to. In fact, you didn’t really used to talk about weight at all. Your friends mention that you’re a little too hot on the topic.       [caption id="attachment_625047" align="alignleft" width="427"] Corbis[/caption]

Your weight affects your state of mind

Your weight can affect how you think and feel. On days the scale displays a higher number, you may feel less confident and in control of your life. On days it displays a low number, you feel adventurous and energized.

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