Step Away From the Scale

Most people come to CFSR with a goal of “losing weight”. Yes, there are you skinny folks who state that you want to get stronger and add more muscle mass. But mostly, people say they want to shed a few pounds. Nothing wrong with that.

You want to lose that spare tire, that muffin top, that pooch. You want to fit your skinny jeans. So you start training. CrossFitting. You’re working hard, and you want to see results. You step on the scale regularly – maybe even daily – to measure your results. And although your pants are feeling looser, the scale tells you you’re not losing much weight. Far less than you think you should be, anyway, for how hard you’re working and how well you’ve been eating. What’s going on?

You see, CrossFit helps you lose fat and gain lean muscle. That means that the scale, which measures your overall weight, won’t show you that you’re actually losing fat, losing inches around the waist, or gaining muscle. We’ve been so conditioned to think that our body weight, or even worse, the BMI, are important measures of health. The fact is that for CrossFitters, they’re not. So step away from the scale.

And then let’s reassess the situation. Instead of weighing yourself, pay attention to how you look, feel, and perform. Let’s say that again, all together now: pay attention to how you look, feel, and perform, in whatever order of importance you wish. These are the things that matter.

Try to forget the scale, or even our bioelectrical impedence thingy at the box that measures your body fat. Yes, those are objective measures that can be very helpful to track long term change, and especially to help those who are at high risk for obesity-related diseases. I’m not saying we should never use these tools; they wouldn’t be kept at the box if I thought they were useless. But relying on those numbers can sometimes end up being unhealthy and obsessive.

If you’ve got a scale at home, shove it in the closet or have a yard sale. Yes, we will still measure and record your weight and body fat every so often at the box. But if you’re feeling great, you’re getting PRs on the major lifts and benchmark WODS, and your clothes fit the way you like, those other numbers shouldn’t matter.