Hipster Fitness Tip: Stop Weighing Yourself

If you’re weighing yourself and are motivated by your results, keep up the good work. However, if you’re determined to get fit and constantly weighing yourself is “harshing” your motivation, stop. It isn’t helping.

Reality shows like “The Biggest Loser” may be fun to watch but drive home the motivational concept of “pounds lost” as the primary progress metric. There are others; e.g., clothing size, social reactions, and performance increases. So, why only focus on pounds lost?

As a still hip, post-college kid, I stumbled upon the philosophy of “stop weighing yourself” when I started riding a track bike for fun and accidentally lost 40 pounds. I remember I had just watched my brother compete in the Little 500 (a single speed bike race held in Bloomgington, Indiana, that is the subject of the movie “Breaking Away”) and was so moved by the event and his performance that I got on Ebay right after the finish and bought an old Schwinn. Nine months and about 2000 miles of riding later, none of my clothes fit, and people who hadn’t seen me for awhile freaked out at my slim appearance. Until I hurt my knee and was told by my doctor that I was a full 40 pounds lighter than my last visit, weight loss hadn’t even registered with me. Scary, huh?

My somewhat dramatic weight loss was a few years ago. Today, I’m still managing to keep the weight off through a combination of diet (vegetarian) and continual motivation in the form of personal training. Adam, my first fitness pupil, weighed about 260 lbs when we started. He wasn’t morbidly obese but had a pretty sizable gut. During his first five months we didn’t look at the scale once and only used clothing size, social reactions, and performance increases to gauge his progress; e.g. new jeans, cat calls, ability to bench 100 pounds. About six months into his routine, Adam got on a scale at a new gym and discovered he had lost 40 pounds! Awesome, right? Commitment and sustained effort had been the keys, not motivation from the constant tracking of numeric metrics.

The most recent pupil, Danielle, is experiencing similar results from similar motivation techniques. She’s more excited about being able to run three miles than losing a few pounds. She’s also getting married next year so she’s super pumped about having tone arms and legs. Oh, she’s also a woman so she’s totally against scales. Right, ladies? wink

Anyway, keeping track of your weight loss through numeric metrics can be motivating. However, it’s not for me, Adam, or Danielle and therefore not for everyone. At “Phil’s School of Hipster Fitness,” we don’t care about scales or weight. We care about fitting into our skinny hipster jeans.

Philip Golobish is a triathlete and personal trainer to nerds, hipsters, and musicians. When he’s not getting fit, he moonlights as an eccentric sports marketer that promotes golf stuff like Augusta hotels and horse stuff like the Kentucky Derby. Feel free to contact him about anything at pgolobish at gmail dot com.