There isn’t a shortage of articles and blogs that claim using a scale to measure success is pointless. Spoiler: this is going to be one of those rants. I’ve spent more than a decade as a trainer and coach, working with women of all shapes and goals, helping them achieve “the look.” What that look means varies from person to person, but most often it comes down to feeling and looking better, and not being self‑conscious about wearing a strapless dress when the moment calls for it. In short: becoming the best version of you, beyond any sexiness or societal standard.
If I had to name one celebrity who gets the most “I want to look like her” nods, it would be Jessica Biel around the time of that famous red‑hot spread in GQ. Don’t shoot the messenger—this is just the look many women I’ve worked with have gravitated toward. But it’s only one example and not a universal standard, so please don’t take this as “ladies, this is what you should look like.” At the end of the day, it’s about you, not me.
Here’s the deal: Jessica is widely seen as active, lifting weights, playing sports, and living a healthy lifestyle. Even beyond her celebrity status, I see a strong, athletic woman who doesn’t look frail or skeletal. Yet many women think to achieve that look they must diet for months or years, do lots of long cardio, and avoid lifting weights.
To back up that point about dieting, Elizabeth Walling recently wrote a strong post on Nia Shanks’ blog about the stress and damage caused by chronic dieting. She argues that many diet plans that promise to boost metabolism are really low‑calorie deprivation methods in disguise—sometimes as low as 1000–1400 calories a day. It’s easy to see how many people—men too—fall into this trap, cycling through dieting and misery with little real progress, hopping on the scale and feeling disappointed again and again.
Why doesn’t dieting work? Because the body treats dieting as famine. It doesn’t understand the idea of a bikini, so it goes into “preservation mode,” releasing stress hormones and storing fat to survive. The result is a cycle of temporary weight changes followed by more frustration.
On training, the default image is cardio: treadmill, Zumba, step aerobics, and avoiding weights at all costs. I’m not here to bash cardio—it has a place in a balanced plan—but it’s often overemphasized and can do more harm than good if it’s all you do. For more on this view, see John Kiefer’s article “Women: Running Into Trouble.” Yes, I’m biased. I’m a strength coach, so I strongly advocate lifting heavy enough to challenge the body—none of the light, high‑rep stuff with tiny dumbbells. If you want real change in how your body looks, you have to stress it enough to provoke adaptation. Lift weights.
One pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat, but muscle takes up less space. That’s why a contestant on a weight‑loss show can weigh the same as someone leaner and smaller. Resistance training builds muscle, increases strength, and helps burn fat. Sometimes you’ll see little or even negative changes on the scale, but you’ll look better and feel stronger. This is especially true for shorter women.
Here’s a practical example: a 5’4″, 140‑lb woman with 25% body fat wants to look leaner and fit into her old jeans. If she tries to lose weight with restrictive dieting and heavy cardio, she might slim down but become smaller and weaker. A better path is six months of resistance training, a diet with healthier fats (fish oil, nuts, avocado, olive oil, butter, coconut oil), good proteins (chicken, beef, eggs, cottage cheese, whey), and fewer refined carbs. And importantly, she abandons the scale.
After six months, she might be 135 lb with 18% body fat, losing about 11 lb of fat and gaining 6 lb of lean mass. Net loss about 5 lb, but she looks like she’s lost more and is much stronger and healthier. And yes, she can still fit into those jeans.
A real‑life before/after image often shows a gain of a few pounds while still looking leaner, underscoring the point: the scale measures quantity, not quality. For some people—the very overweight or athletes who track body composition—the scale has some value. For many others, it’s a misleading indicator.
I’ve seen clients who measure progress in curious ways: if a salty meal adds a couple of pounds the next day, they don’t panic. They just get back on track. Claudia, who’s 48, is a standout example: she focuses on performance over the scale and still achieves impressive results, including extra work like grip‑strength movements after hard sets.
So, in short: many people mistake progress when the scale goes down every week. The scale can be misleading and even demoralizing. Better signs of progress include a trimmer waist, looser clothes, lifting more weight, or performing more reps with good form. These changes are more meaningful, even if they’re less visible on a chart.
Exceptions exist, and there are times the scale has a role—especially for those who need to lose weight for health reasons or for athletes who monitor body composition.
Actionable item: for two months, ditch the scale. Set a clear goal—like squatting a certain weight for a number of reps, improving bench press technique, achieving your first chin‑up, or learning a handstand. Focus on that instead. Don’t let the scale dictate your mindset. Two months. That’s it.
