Trust your scale, not your mirror

When people first start altering their eating habits (even subtly), and exercising, in an effort to lose weight, I always advise them not to step on the scale for the first two weeks - because it takes at least two weeks before that first pound disappears.

However, after that, using a scale is acceptable, because you want to monitor your weight loss progress, and you want to know when you can stop "losing weight" and start "maintaining weight." (Which also must be done gradually.)

And that's where the scale comes in, because the mirror is unreliable. According to studies, a thin woman can look in a mirror and see herself weighing 10 pounds more than she really does, whereas a morbidly obese person can look in a mirror and think he weighs 10 pounds or more less than he really does. (I use the pronouns advisedly. I doubt if a woman ever thinks she looks too thin, really, and I doubt if a guy ever thinks he looks too fat.)

The point is, there's psychology involved. The eyes transmit images to the brain, and sometimes the brain lies.

The scale never lies.

So find out what your appropriate weight to height ratio is for your body frame. That is your goal. It does't matter how heavy you think you look, if your scale says you've reached that weight, then that's the weight you want to stay at. (I'm talking about normal people. Professional athletes have different criteria.)

I say this because, pace the obesity epidemic, more girls and women are anoreix than overweight, and that's the epidemic I'm concerned about.