Rose Cantine

Bathroom scales are useless. Worse, they are dangerous to your emotional well-being. If you own one, here’s why you should toss it out.

(1) Weight is nothing more than a convention used by humans on Earth to denote the the force they are exerting — in this case, on a bathroom scale — due to the strength of the Earth’s gravity (g). Because g, which is approximately 9.8 meters per square second, varies slightly depending upon where you are on our planet, weight scales have to be calibrated to reflect an accurate reading. So your weight in Bali, Indonesia will probably be different from your weight in Oslo, Norway. What does the numerical weight reading on your bathroom scale tell you? Nothing but a number related to the Earth’s gravitational force. If you were to weigh yourself on Mars, the number would be different.

Unfortunately, if you are like most people, when you see this number on your bathroom scale, your mind adds several things to it. Your mind adds grief and disgust if you see a number above the threshold. If that the number has not changed over the past six months, your mind adds disappointment. Even if the number falls below the threshold and you feel happy, there’s this sense of disquiet and anxiety: what if it goes up again? Your mind is never at peace.

(2) Therefore, a bathroom scale’s only function is to inflict mental torture on its owner. For this reason alone, it should be tossed out. But wait, doesn’t it indicate how healthy (or unhealthy) you are? No.

(3) Using a bathroom scale prevents you from truly feeling your body. It is an excuse that keeps you from the more challenging task of getting in touch with your body. It distracts you from focusing on what’s important: the state of your health.

I have never owned a bathroom scale. If you ask me how much I weigh, I can give you a pretty good guess based upon the weight recorded by my doctor during the previous year’s physical examination.

What do I need a scale for? I know if I have gained or lost a little weight by the way my clothes feel. It’s the same with you. Do your trousers feel tighter? Can you still close your shirt? Is it still easy to zip up your skirt? Or perhaps, the waistline of your trousers feels roomier. Is the butt of your shorts sagging? How do your clothes look on you? How do you feel in them?

You do not need a bathroom scale to tell you how you feel and look. When I have been eating well and exercising regularly, I can see that my clothes simply look better on me. I also feel better. I have more energy. I am in a better mood. So far, my annual physical examinations show that I am in good health. What do I need a bathroom scale for?

But one must go beyond looks. It is important to focus on how your body feels when it is in motion. Are you lumbering when you run? How do your feet, legs, arms, belly, and butt feel when you are doing yoga or pilates, swimming, hiking, skating, running, biking? Can you walk up 11 flights of stairs and continue to talk without losing your breath? If the answer is yes, you are out of shape and having a bathroom scale flash a number at you every morning is utterly ridiculous and irrelevant. Some people who weigh less than people their same age and height, cannot climb more than 5 flights of stairs without stopping.

In summary, toss out your bathroom scale. There are more accurate and emotionally healthy ways to figure out the state of your body. A bathroom scale only inflicts mental torture on you and distracts you from the most important task at hand: looking at and listening to your body.