Why the step makes sense

Nobody gets on the scale every morning because they've weighed up the evidence and decided a daily reading is the best use of the first minute of the day. They do it because it answers a question that matters to them, quickly, with a number, before anyone else is up. It's worth being honest about what the step gives you, because a habit that gave you nothing wouldn't have lasted.

It gives you certainty. You care about your weight, for reasons that may be good ones, and the scale is the one thing in the house that will tell you where it is without an opinion. It gives you an early warning. If something's going wrong, you'd rather know on Tuesday than at the end of the month, and the scale feels like the smoke alarm. It gives you a score. You ate carefully yesterday, or you didn't, and the number is the mark, and a mark is satisfying in a way that "I think I did all right" isn't. It gives you honesty, or what feels like it. You can lie to yourself about a lot of things and the scale isn't one of them. And it gives you control, or the feeling of it. As long as you're watching, nothing can creep up on you.

Underneath those there's a set of beliefs, and they're the chapters that follow. That the number is the truth about your body. That if it's up you ate too much and if it's down you did well. That daily weighing is what keeps you honest and what keeps you in control. That the scale is the only objective measure and so the one to trust. That a good morning earns something and a bad one has to be paid for. That everyone who's slim does this. That it's only a number and you can take it. That the mood stays in the bathroom. And that one more go will settle it.

Each of those has something true in it. Each is also doing the same job, which is making the number look like information when, on any single morning, it mostly isn't. This book isn't going to tell you not to care about your weight. It's going to look at what the scale actually measures, what the research says about weighing, which is less one-sided than either camp claims, and what the swing costs. Then it'll give you three ways to keep whatever the scale is good for and drop the part that's running your morning.