The diary of a serial scale weigher

  • Monday 27/10/2015 – 9:25am 56kg
  • Monday 27/10/2015 – 8:00pm 57kg
  • Tuesday 28/10/2015 – 10:00am 57.5kg
  • Tuesday 28/10/2015 – 9:00pm 58kg

 

For years now, people have been obsessed with the number on a scale. As you can see above, this is a representation of someone who weighs themselves daily or even twice a day which can be a common occurrence.

Why do we care about a number? Does it define us? Does it make us better than the next person?

We set ourselves up for disappointment when we weigh ourselves as the number will NEVER be the same all the time. Weight on a scale does not take into consideration: weight of clothes, bowel movements (or lack of) passed in the day, urine output, that time of the month when you will no doubt be retaining fluid, how much food you’ve had that day, or stress. These factors will all contribute to the number you see on a scale. Yet people still tend to rely and obsess over it.

Of course it is important to keep track and make sure you’re maintaining a healthy weight range. That can be done by waist-hip measurements and how you fit into your clothes- a much more accurate way of keeping progress.

For those who want to take the next step I would suggest a DEXA scan. DEXA stands for Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry and measures bone mineral density, total body fat and total muscle mass.

This next excerpt is taken from: http://bodymeasure.com.au/what-is-dexa/

How does it work?

Two x-ray beams at differing energy levels pass through the tissues of the body. Fat, muscle and bone each have different attenuating factors, i.e. different levels of absorption due to their unique densities. It is these attenuating factors that allow the DEXA to calculate relative masses of each tissue type in each region (trunk, arms, legs).

It is as simple as lying fully clothed (removing all metal from your body) on the DEXA table and allowing the scan to go over your body for approximately 5 minutes. It is a comfortable, quick, accessible, non-invasive and pain free way to get immediate answers!

Safety
DEXA scans are safe.

Radiation surrounds us on a daily basis. To put the level of radiation from the DEXA in perspective:

  • An average Australian is subject to 6.3 uSv background radiation per day.
  • The DEXA scan give a radiation dose of 0.2 uSv per scan
  • ie. 32 x DEXA scans back-to-back is the equivalent of your normal daily background radiation exposure!

Throw away your scales- it isn’t worth the pain and frustration.