132. 110. 175. 210. 120. 180.
34. 32. 28.
0. 2. 4.
If you’re anything like me or like the majority of people, you probably read those numbers and made something out of them. I may be wrong, but it’s likely that you read them as a line of weights, a line of body measurements, and a line of clothing sizes. This might not seem abnormal, but the truth is that this sort of association is dangerous.
Let me rephrase that. Seeing these numbers and pairing them with a general category in itself is not harmful. It’s a natural human function to categorize. The danger comes in the inherent assumption that most of us hold about these numbers. The bottom line contains “good numbers.” The top? Well, there’re a few “good” ones in there, according to society.
This obsession with numbers extends beyond the scale, beyond the body, and beyond gender. It ranges from pounds to class rank. It involves GPA and salary. It seems that everyone wants to categorize themselves, rank themselves, with a number. We are not a number. I repeat, you are not a number.
You are more than the 17th kid in your class because that means nothing. Tell me that, and I don't know if there were 500 or 20 kids in your grade, I don't know the average intelligence of them, and I don't care. You are more than your 2.7 GPA, or your 3.9 GPA. I don't know if you volunteered every day, took classes below your level, struggled with illness. You are more than 17, you are more than 2.7, more than 3.9.
Though this next idea is a complex issue, one I could write many articles on, I will try to keep it brief. It is my, along with many health care professionals, strong belief that the average human does not need a scale. Come again? No scale? However, will I—let me cut you off. You will not know how much you weigh each day. You will not know what percent of body fat you have. You will not know that at 5 pm you weigh 3 pounds more than at 8 am. Because you don’t need to.
Note: I’m not proposing that nobody should ever be weighed again. It’s a necessary indication of health, one that your healthcare providers—the ones who can objectively analyze the number—should watch. The ones who will not lose sleep over the number.
The problem with weighing yourself is that your worth and livelihood becomes tied to a number. A number, an arbitrary sign of how gravity is affecting your body. You are more than 174, more than 110, you are more than 156.
Going through treatment for numerous body-mind related issues, I was shocked to be informed about weighing in. If everyone took the time to educate themselves about this “issue,” I think we’d find that sooner than later, there would be less dependence on scales, less worry about what we weigh.
Muscle weighs more than fat. There’re so many directions we can go with this conversation. You’ve gained some weight, or stayed the same, but you feel like you’ve been training well? You thought you looked okay? You do. You probably gained muscle. This is a good thing and illustrates the problem with overanalyzing our weight. What’s happening is good, but the scale is telling you it’s bad. Another scenario. You’ve been restricting (disguised as “healthy eating”) and running two hours a day. You’re losing weight—but maybe you’re actually losing muscle. The scale tells you you’re good—but it’s bad.
In any given day, one’s weight can fluctuate nearly seven pounds in water weight. Why are we punishing ourselves based on water? Judging our worth based on the extra sodium we ate the last few days? This isn’t even counting the individual differences of each scale.
We think of clothing sizes as the end all be all, we get upset when we don’t fit into the same size jeans we wore last week, the dress pants we wore to our first interview. We concern ourselves with the extra 1.3 inches we gained in our waistline over the past three years. We have become, essentially, a number.
You are more than 34.5, you are more than 29, you are more than 40.
We’ve become preoccupied with the fact that our breakfast was 500 calories because heaven forbid it’s “more-than-what-that-one-fitness-blogger’s-website-suggested.”
When we stop and think of the implications that this categorizing has, when we realize that we are dehumanizing ourselves and simplifying ourselves down to a number, we will realize what a dangerous path this is.
Judging yourself based on a number is unrealistic. Weights change daily, brands vary in sizing, and measurements change based on bloat and sickness. It’s as simple as that.
I know that writing this piece won’t change the world overnight. Scale sales won’t decrease next week. Men and women alike will go shopping this weekend and complain that the sizes aren’t right.
The only place we can start is with ourselves. By considering, even for a minute, what we’re doing when we read that scale. If that number is setting the tone for the day. Considering if it’s yourself, or that number, that is making the choices today. Because you rule your life, not a number. You are not the worth, we are not the worth, of a number.
You are more than a number.
