Why Inches Matter More Than Pounds
How I learned to stop obsessing over the scale
Before beginning a new fitness and diet program, I reluctantly took my “before” photo and dutifully recorded my measurements. But all I really cared about was the scale. I jumped on first thing every morning and recorded it into an app. After a month, I had only lost six pounds. Considering how much I’d been killing myself in the gym, it didn’t seem like much. After all, your weight can fluctuate by as much as four pounds within the same day, based on factors like water and salt consumption. Maybe I’d really only lost a couple of pounds.
I posed for my one-month photos, but I figured it was a waste of time. I had seen myself every day in the mirror and not noticed any changes. And the scale certainly didn’t indicate that much had happened. I had been weighing myself for years, and five or six-pound swings happened even when I wasn’t trying to lose weight.
But when I looked at the photos above, I was completely shocked. I clearly looked different. I looked significantly better. I took out my tape measure and added up the difference from my Day 1 measurements. I found out that this is what losing eight inches looks like.
Most of us have a general sense of how many pounds sound impressive, but how often do we hear someone brag about…
