Why You Need To Stop Weighing Yourself in Recovery

When any member of your treatment team advises you to stop weighing yourself at home, or your Dietitian asks you to take a step back from focusing on the number on the scale… it is not an attempt to frustrate you or make your recovery more difficult. I know what you are thinking, “If I just knew what the number was I would stop worrying about it.” However, it is exactly the opposite. It seems, for most people, to intensify the worry.

Two things happen when you get on the scale.

One, your eating disorder is happy if the number is lower than last time, but remember that doesn’t last long because according to your ED’s standards, you will never be good enough. You can always “do better” and the number on the scale is never low enough, according to your eating disorder.

From my point of view, it seems like a lose-lose situation. Nothing about getting on the scale is doing anything to further you in your recovery

Click to Tweet.

As a Dietitian, I understand how difficult it is to trust your healthcare providers to monitor your weight. It is giving your eating disorder less control, which can be quite scary. However, what it also does is help you to strengthen your healthy voice and remove your focus from defining yourself by a number.

I want to challenge you this month to focus on backing away from the scale (Click to Tweet). A full month dedicated to not weighing yourself. A month to focus on who you are and what defines you because you are worth so much more than a number on a scale.

#noscaleseptember

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