#weight neutrality

[taylors-a-goblin]

Its a new year, which means a bunch of people are probably making some big resolutions for 2026. So let me put out a little advice, just in case it falls in the feed of the right person somehow.

Don't. Weigh in. Daily. Don't do it. First, because weight is not a reliable assessment of health or fitness and weight goals can be (and often are) a mentally damaging and/or self-defeating aspiration.

But second, if you absolutely must weigh yourself for whatever reason, daily fluctuations are a too unpredictable and make measuring change unreliable. Long term changes in any measurement in your physical body are more likely to be acurate. If you weigh yourself daily you're gonna feel like shit just because you are more hydrated today or because of clothes or damp hair or you literally havent taken a shit. Dont believe me?

I dont weigh myself as a rule, but today i conducted an experiment to prove this point. Weighed myself first thing in the morning, and then again after i had gone to the bathroom, had a coffee, and gone for a run. Guess what? The second weight was over half a kilogram less than the first. Did i magically lose over half a kilogram of fat in less than 2 hours? No, of course not! I pissed, pooped, and sweated a bit. Now, if i had weighed myself after I went to the toilet and went for a run on Monday, but weighed myself first thing tuesday morning, I might be fooled into thinking I gained over half a kg overnight! And if I was focused on the numbers on the scale like I once was (at my unhealthiest and skinniest) that would have crushed me.

So even if you are aiming to increase your fitness and also decrease some of the fat on your body, dont weigh in daily. If you can avoid it, dont weigh in at all. Aim to be healthier, not skinnier. Just do what makes you feel better in your body, whatever that means to you, and do it a healthy amount. Set an achievement goal, like a physical activity you want to do, and aim for that. Being able to walk for half an hour or do a few pull ups or climb a hill are actual measurements of fitness, numbers on a scale are not. Unlearn those outdated, toxic scales of healthiness, learn to do activities you actually enjoy, and I promise your mental and physical wellness will improve 100x more than if you hit that weight goal.

[basilicrows]

pretty sure i'm underweight but my meds make my appetite very low. i need food recs. anybody got any favorite foods that don't contain bread or gluten

[lucy-sweats-love]

Me then vs me now, losing 5 lbs a week edition.

Then:

Feeling so proud of myself, knowing I meticulously tracked every bite, forced myself to exhaustion at every gym session, and that weight loss when you’re not “skinny” is always desirable (because that’s what [insert person or group here, including myself] told me). My cravings for carb-rich foods intensify and I push that down wanting to “keep up the good work.” Shame, guilt, and the “what am I doing wrong?” thoughts the next week when I didn’t lose as much. Thinking I didn’t restrict enough. Angry at myself for not pushing “harder” at the gym as my performance falls despite my “best attempts.”

Now:

Curiosity knowing that can’t all be fat loss, and I wonder if I didn’t refill my glycogen after all my exercise, how hydrated I am, if it’s post-menstrual related, etc. I realize my workouts felt sluggish towards the end of the week, and I’ve had a lot of protein and not a ton of carbs. Suddenly it makes sense why I want some good ol’ CARBS. I eat some, and I feel basically neutral the next morning when my weight is “up” a bit again. My workouts start to feel better.

[melbinmotion]

Weight neutrality

CW: weight loss and dieting mentions In the early days of the 20th century, sports teams tended to select people with an "average" or a "typical" build, f

CW: Weight loss and dieting mentions

By Harry Sutton and Kel Glaister

In the early days of the 20th century, sports teams tended to select people with an "average" or a "typical" build, for all sports. It was presumed that the most typical human shape would produce the greatest performance. When selection for normativity was scrapped, and entry opened to people with previously unwelcome body types, not only did sports teams see an immediate divergence in body shapes between sports, they also saw an increase in average performance in those sports. This seems obvious, looking back. Gymnastics will tend to select for short people, as short bodies experience less stress during lever holds and tumbling skills. High jump, on the other hand, tends to favour tall, light bodies.

However, in some sports, something similar has happened in more recent years. For some time, athletes in gymnastics teams, footy teams and the like all had to be under a certain percentage body fat. The assumption was much the same as the assumption back in the day: being really lean is just better. Therefore, if you're a young kid and you want to achieve Olympic greatness on beam, by gawd you'd better be under 15% body fat. If you're a teen thinking of kicking the winning goal in the grand final, you'd better be lean enough or you're going home. The fitness industry is built on this idea; that the leaner and harder and veinier your body is, the better you'll be. However the reality, like so many other things, is far from as clear-cut, and just like with the body shapes example, the eventual scrapping of the body fat percentage requirements lead to a reshuffle in national teams' layouts. It turns out that some body compositions aren't healthy for everyone. Every body has a 'set point', a weight their body likes to be at. Higher or lower, their ability to do things will suffer.

We've been talking about elite, competitive sport all this time. However, movement is not an inherently competitive activity. You don't win at parkour training. There are places where you can compete (at parkour, or fitness, or just about anything) but fundamentally what we do is a personal, mindful dialogue with our bodies and our environment.