Have you heard? Scales are out. Or, more specifically, considering weight the holy grail of health is out.
That approach, described by researchers in a recent review article in the Journal of Obesity as “weight normative,” isn’t so effective because it encourages yo-yo dieting and generally makes people feel lousy when they don’t weigh the number they’re told they should, the authors argue.
More effective and empowering, they say, is a “weight-inclusive” approach, or viewing health as multifaceted and individual.
“A weight-inclusive approach does not suggest every person of every size is always healthy,” says Rachel Calogero, a psychologist at the University of Kent in the U.K. and one of the study’s authors. “It simply does not take weight as the determinant of health status — and advocates for helping people optimize their health in the bodies they have right now.”
In other words, she and others say, if you’re only focused on your weight when monitoring your health, you’re missing a big part of the picture. “There’s more than one way to measure success. It’s not just the number on the scale,” says Felicia D. Stoler, a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist in Red Bank, New Jersey.
So go on, let that scale collect dust. Look to these items to gauge your health instead:
1. Your calendar.
You’ve got meetings, deadlines, lunch dates, appointments and — God willing — a party or two. But take a step back and look at your calendar from a broader perspective. How much time are you spending sleeping versus waking? Plotting out the answer might reveal more about your health than a step on the scale.
“Do you sleep well? Do you have a good night’s sleep? That’s actually really important,” Stoler says. If you’re not regularly getting close to seven hours of quality shut-eye, “that’s just setting you up for lots of health problems,” including an increased risk for heart attacks, diabetes and hypertension, she says. Not to mention weight gain, research suggests.
It’s also worth noting how your moving hours compare to your lounging ones. In a massive meta-analysis published this year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers linked more sitting time with higher risks for some cancers, including colon and endometrial — even when participants logged the recommended hours of exercise.
That’s on top of other research linking prolonged sitting with obesity, metabolic syndrome and an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.
If your calendar’s out of balance, treat sleep and movement as you would any other commitment: Schedule it in — even if you’re multitasking by, say, making your next meeting or phone call a walking one.
2. Your phone.
When patients come to Sandra Fryhofer, a general internist in Atlanta, for a physical, she asks something most of them don’t expect: “I try to find out about social connections and get people to talk about their lives,” says Fryhofer, who’s also a past president of the American College of Physicians.
What for? While not as measurable as height, weight and blood pressure, for example, strong social connections are a pretty well-supported indicator of good health. One 2010 study of 148 other studies, for example, was shocking: It showed a 50 percent increased risk of mortality among people with weak social relationships compared with those with strong ties.
Other research has linked loneliness to everything from drinking more alcohol to eating more fatty foods.
Connecting with friends is also an important way to relieve stress — yet another factor that wreaks havoc on our physical and mental health, Fryhofer says. “When you’re stressed, your body makes more cortisol,” which, if elevated over time, can adversely affect your immune, metabolic and other systems.
So open up your phone and check your call log: How often have you called old friends to catch up? When was the last time you invited a pal to coffee or a cocktail? If it’s been long enough for you to feel lonely, reach out — it’s good for all parties’ health.
“They end up having more time because … they’ll be more efficient in their work and able to function better,” Fryhofer says.
3. The mirror.
Kevin B. White, a personal trainer and fitness consultant in Bethesda, Maryland, wants you to get naked. “If you strip down and look in the mirror and you’re honest with yourself, what do you look like?” he asks. “What is your body composed of? Is it composed of a large percentage of fat, or is it more lean body tissue?”
Answering those questions can be a better indicator of your fitness than the scale, since most scales don’t know how much of you is muscle and how much is fat.
Some research suggests, for example, that more than half of American adults who see a “healthy” number on the scale actually have high levels of body fat and are at risk for heart and metabolic problems. The opposite could be true, too: Someone may weigh in as overweight but really be quite healthy because muscle is what’s weighing them down.
It’s also worth noting the shape of your body, Fryhofer says. “Having a lot of weight around your middle is not healthy, because it means there’s more fat around your organs,” she says. One well-known Harvard University study of more than 44,000 women, for instance, found that those with waists larger than 34.6 inches were three times more likely to die from heart disease than women with smaller waists — even if they weighed the same, “normal” amount.
Bottom line? Don’t eschew the mirror in favor of the scale. “The scale is one thing you can’t measure fitness with — and why that is is because of your body’s refinement,” White says.
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3 Household Items That Reveal More About Your Health Than a Scale originally appeared on usnews.com
