I have a question for you.
Have you ever weighed yourself, seen a number you weren’t happy with, and then started to wonder…
Hmmm, maybe my scale is broken?
Or, depending on your frustration level that day, more like…
This stupid f**cking scale is f**cking broken!!!
Well, here’s the honest truth about that.
Most of the time, you’d be wrong.
Your scale isn’t broken.
But today I want to show you an example of a rare time when it is.
Take a look at this…
This is the daily body weight of someone I’ve been working with in Results In 12 Weeks.
See the section I circled in red?
That’s their daily weight staying exactly the same for 7 days in a row.
Which is a bit… weird.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s VERY normal and VERY common for your weight to remain exactly the same from one day to the next.
Your daily body weight will go up, down, and stay the same for 100 different reasons, the majority of which have nothing to do with changes in fat or muscle.
Just normal fluctuations.
(By the way, this is why you should ignore the daily number and focus entirely on the weekly averages.)
However, these aren’t normal fluctuations.
Their weight stayed exactly the same for 7 straight days with no fluctuation whatsoever, and they’re using a scale that measures in 0.1 increments.
That’s… unusual.
But wait, there’s more!
Did you notice what happened in the weeks before and after the one I circled in red?
Take a look again…
There sure seem to be a lot of these little clusters where their weight is exactly the same, right?
And like, even on the days when the weight finally does fluctuate up or down a little, it tends to fluctuate to… yet again… exactly the same weight.
So… what’s the deal here?
This is actually a pattern I’ve seen before, and it usually means one of two things…
1. The person isn’t actually weighing themselves every day.
Maybe they’re forgetting to do it.
Maybe they’re scared to see the number it shows.
Who knows.
Whatever the reason, they’re not weighing in every day like they should be.
But that’s not even the problem.
The problem is that they don’t want their coach (that’s me) to see they’re missing days and not doing what I asked them to do. So to hide that, they put in the same weight every day to fill in the space.
Understandable? Sure.
A good idea? Not at all, because it throws off the accuracy of the data.
This is a scenario where having no data is much better than having inaccurate data.
Why?
- Because with no data, I know to hold off on making any adjustments since we don’t know what’s happening yet. We could then work on fixing whatever is preventing the person from weighing themselves daily.
- But with inaccurate data, I assume everything is accurate, which means I could potentially make adjustments that aren’t needed, which can create new problems (e.g. a new calorie target that’s unnecessarily low).
Fortunately, that’s not what was happening in this case.
This person was weighing themselves daily, and these were the legit numbers the scale showed.
Time to move on to possibility #2…
2. The scale is being weird.
It could be completely broken, partially broken, or just doing something weird that’s causing it to give you inaccurate data.
Here’s what I told this person to do:
- First, make sure you’re using the scale on a hard, flat surface. That means no carpet or rugs.
- Next, make sure you’re using the scale on a level surface. If you touch a corner and it wobbles at all, fix that.
- Next, try changing the batteries.
- Next, try a new scale.
In this case, the person was already using the scale on their tiled bathroom floor, it was already level, and they had actually changed the batteries right before starting my program.
That leaves just one more thing.
Time to try a new scale.
They ordered one on Amazon, got it a day or two later, and here’s what happened next…
Their weight after getting a new scale.
See that red line?
All of the weights to the left of it were with the original scale.
All of the weights to the right of it were with the new scale.
Notice the difference?
There are suddenly fluctuations happening every single day!
This is what “normal” looks like.
And again, it’s also normal for your weight to remain exactly the same at times. But to the extent that it was happening to the left of this red line?
In my experience, nope.
That’s weird.
And it either meant that A) the person was filling in the same number instead of actually weighing themselves daily, or B) there was something up with the scale.
In this case, it turned out to be the scale.
So what does this all mean?
If your weight isn’t doing what you want it to do, it is very rarely because your scale is broken.
But…
Every once in a while…
There might actually be an issue with your scale.
And if you’re wondering what specific issue this scale had… wtf do I look like?
Some kind of bathroom scale mechanic?
I’m just a fitness coach who has seen enough patterns in people’s body weight data to spot trends like this and say “nah, that’s weird.”
Speaking of which…
If you need some help making sense of your own body weight data, or you’d like me to help you lose fat, build muscle, and get results you want, I have some news!
The next round of Results In 12 Weeks is starting next month (September).
If you’re interested, you can add yourself to the waiting list here: Waiting List For Results In 12 Weeks
Then I’ll email you with all of the details before it starts so you can decide if it’s right for you.
