I’m a dietitian — here’s the biggest mistake people make when trying to lose weight

There are certain things that will always go hand in hand with weight loss — a healthier diet and increased exercise, for example.

And then there are other things, which we might assume are also part of the process, which experts are now saying have no place in the enlightened dieter’s routine — at all.

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A group of dietitians spoke with EatingWell.com about the one thing they find tripping up their clients the most — and why we need to move on from this archaic, unhelpful practice that’s probably holding us back from making real progress.

And what could this be? You might be as surprised as we were — it’s all that weighing yourself we do as we struggle to shake off the pounds, apparently. It’s bad. Very bad.

That’s right — hopping on the scale might be an assumed part of the dieter’s daily ritual, but it shouldn’t be, not anymore, the pros insist. Weighing ourselves is cancelled.

And if you must step on, the scale cannot be allowed to make you feel bad about yourself or your efforts. The scale may not fat shame you.

That’s because weight ain’t nothing but a number — and for someone who’s eating well and moving around a lot, it tells you next to nothing about your health, those-in-the-know claim.

“I tell people to throw away their scale all the time,” Melanie Betz, M.S., RD, founder and CEO of The Kidney Dietitian, said in an interview with EatingWell.com.

“Weight is only one very tiny part of health as a whole. Health really is your whole physical and mental state of well-being. In our weight-centric culture, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing anything to get the number on the scale lower and ignore what it is doing to your mental or physical health,” she explained.

In fact, Betz says, consider liberating yourself from tracking your weight at all.

Some experts suggest waiting to be weighed by your doctor — and then have them keep the number to themselves. Or, even refuse to be weighed at all.

“It can be incredibly freeing to completely remove weight from the equation. If you don’t even know how much you weigh, it can be easier to focus on more important ways to measure health, such as how your body feels or your lab results,” Betz said.

Not that everyone should immediately take their bathroom scale outside and drive back and forth over it a few times, though that does sound awfully therapeutic. No, keeping track of the numbers can be useful. It’s the effect that the numbers have on you that you’ve got to watch, the experts say.

And remember, they caution — scales aren’t even that useful in micromanaging changes in weight, which can fluctuate based on water retention, whether or not you’ve been to the bathroom that day, and so much more.

“The scale doesn’t differentiate between fat loss, water-weight loss or muscle loss,” said Bess Berger, a registered dietitian specializing in PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and menopause at Nutrition by Bess. 

“I have clients that get on the scale one or two times a day. I recommend they start weighing themselves less often by getting on the scale only every other day. After that, we can reassess from there. It’s more important for one to feel good in their skin, have a good mental state and have energy than what the number on the scale says,” Berger said.

“Weight can fluctuate on a daily basis, anywhere from 1 to 4 pounds. This can be related to the food you eat, fluid shifts, stress levels and menstrual cycles for women,” said Patricia Kolesa, M.S., RDN.

Monitoring these fluctuations like a hawk can make dieters anxious — a 2023 study published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being worked with college students trying to lose weight; the students who weighed in every day admitted to more stress and lower “body satisfaction,” researchers found.

“At most, weigh yourself weekly at the same time of day,” recommended Sarah Alsing, M.S., RD, owner of Delightfully Fueled.

The longer you go — while still working hard to reach your goal — the more you’ll focus on how you feel, say the pros.

“One of my patients was upset that the scale wasn’t moving but claimed she had more vitality, energy and better sleep since changing her habits,” said Kierra Brown, M.S., RD, owner of Nutrition with Kie.

“I asked her if she would exchange all those benefits for the scale to be down 10 pounds. Her answer? No. Non-scale victories are important, if not more important than the number on the scale,” she said.