Weighing your food comes with a lot of negative opinions and assumptions. It is shocking such a simple, small act of health can create so much controversy. When people hear someone is on a plan that requires them to weigh their food, it is often met with criticism, a few scoffs, and a lot of negative comments. Comments such as, “you don’t live.”, or “that’s so extreme, are you okay?”, or “You will never keep that up, carrying a scale around isn’t normal behaviour”.

On the flip side, that skinny tea detox or juice cleanse isn’t extreme at all! No one bats an eye! Or how about fasting for totally non-religious reasons but actually more as a starvation tactic…somehow not extreme! Nope, society doesn’t think severely impacting your metabolic rate or ability to burn fat due to malnourishment and starvation tactics isn’t completely fucking crazy. But on the other hand, someone starts to weigh their food to ensure they have the appropriate portion size in an attempt to avoid joining our gluttonous, obese society…THAT’S TOO FAR!

At the end of the day, whether it’s your family chirping you, friends, or co-workers, ultimately these people do not understand the process of weight loss. They are choosing to ignore the science-based, research laden reasons as to why you should take the small extra step of weighing your food before you put it in your mouth. It’s not extreme, it is actually smart and very purposeful towards the overall goal, which is to lose weight. Too many people go at the process blind. They do not keep track of anything, never reach their goal, and unfortunately are not too sure why they didn’t reach it either. So instead, these people would rather opt to never keep track of their progress. They would rather leave everything up in the air as to what may have worked, and what didn’t work. They are too scared to commit to something they have never tried before. People who protest against weighing food do not want to sacrifice any part of their lifestyle they strongly believe will be affected by the one thing they have never tried. If they had attempted it, they would know it did not severely impact their everyday schedule, and has only brought them closer to achieving their goal.

HERE ARE MY REASONS AS TO WHY YOU SHOULD WEIGH YOUR FOOD:

1. Controlled Test

• Do research papers change their methodology, procedure and instruments every time they collect new information? No, they control their tests by keeping everything the same in order to ensure their findings are constant across all variables.
• This is appropriate because a controlled test can eliminate bias, but can also give them an even playing field so they can change one variable at a time.
• The same should be seen for dieting. If you don’t have a baseline, then how do you know what to change when you plateau? How do you know what is working for you?
• If you are not tracking, then there is no baseline to report on. What ends up happening is you are unsure of what to switch, and therefore you end up changing everything. You will likely switch to an entirely different diet based on an entirely different theory. You can’t change one variable because you are completely unaware of what your variables were to begin with!
• This is the biggest reason behind weighing food. It’s not to be a stickler, it’s because there is a methodology behind weight loss, and you need to establish a constant baseline before you can proceed. Yes, there is a method to the madness. Its science.
• Without this baseline, you are left grasping at straws not knowing what to change in order to get out of a plateau, or reach your goal. Whether it’s more carbs, less carbs, more protein, less protein, more fat, less fat, more cardio, less cardio, more weights, less weights…you literally have no fucking clue what is going on.
• How do you know a diet didn’t work for you if you can’t tell someone the amount of what you were eating in a day? Going at weight loss with zero methodology, plan, or procedure is just doomed to fail, and you will be left disappointed again and again.
• If you don’t establish a baseline or work hard at finding a baseline, you will likely never progress past plateaus you find yourself in.

2. Commitment

• Weighing your food is not as extreme as everyone makes it out to be. I personally do not see the big deal with taking MAXIMUM 15 SECONDS to transfer your food to a scale before you shove it in your mouth.
• Why does this one tiny step offend people so incredibly much?
• When people are not willing to do this small, insignificant, but vastly important task…then this entire process is NOT FOR YOU!
• The amount of effort that goes into the entire process is WAY harder, more intense, more “extreme” then weighing your food. If weighing your food is the extreme part that you believe will greatly impact and change your lifestyle, then your head is not anywhere CLOSE to where it needs to be in order to be successful. That’s like saying your overall mission/goal/dream is to play pro baseball but you think T-ball is too extreme. You won’t be successful because there’s a lot more challenging shit coming your way. Weighing food is not considered one of them.
• The day I started weighing out my food was the “first day of the rest of my life”, because I finally started to see results. I’ve worked very hard, I’ve struggled with my body for most of my life, and I have had a long journey of trial and error to find out what works. I am telling you, weighing your food works. If you are not willing to do this, I can almost guarantee you will never see optimal results.

3. Enjoy Maintenance Faster

• When you know exactly what you are consuming on a day to day basis, week after week you will notice your body responding very positively. When you are feeding yourself consistent calories and meals and are following an exercise procedure, then magical things start to happen.
• The predictable nature of your new diet and fitness routine will give you results MUCH faster. Going at the whole process blind with inconsistent measures of food and therefore an unpredictable, scattered macronutrient distribution will not get you anywhere fast.
• At the end of the day, when you take that extra 15 seconds to ensure you are eating what has been customized, designed, and calculated for you, the faster you will see the results you want.
• Weighing out your food is a necessary step IF and ONLY IF you are serious about transforming your body efficiently, and in a timely manner. If you would rather go at it 50%, then you will go about your weeks, months, and years only reaching 50% of your capabilities.
• Your eyeballs are not magical calculators. “I know how much my food weighs because I’ve weighed it out for 2-3 days.” That’s fine you can do that if you want, but I never eyeballed my food amounts when I went through my transformation, and I still don’t.
• If you are exactly where you want to be in your fitness and you have far exceeded your goals, then by all means eyeball your food.
• On the other hand, if you are still pursuing your fitness journey, striving for more, and have not met your goal, then why are you still eyeballing your food? If you are not at your goal, then why do you think giving it 50% will get you there? When has giving 50% effort ever been granted with 100% results?

Where people get their panties in knots is the expectation you will be carrying a scale with you for the rest of your life, everywhere you go. Obviously, these types of people are missing the mark and are ignorant. I do not carry a scale with me, I have never done so and I never will. If the entire process is done correctly off the hop, the less you will struggle with other dieting tactics in the future. You will arrive at your goal a lot sooner, because the entire process has been done in a structured, calculated, and CONTROLLED manner. It’s playing the long game, and the long game comes with sacrifice, commitment, dedication, and a relentless attitude towards your goal. A 15 second sacrifice and investment into your health now for a lifetime of happiness…seems like common sense to me.