Weight is very important and completely not important. Say whaaat? Well- as pointed out- weight is generally a PARTIAL indicator of effective dose- but when it comes to health... weight can be a critical guide. The “not important” part is for the scale watchers of the world- those who get upset about a number without context.
Say you want to be “healthy” or “fit” right? So common sense says to break out the scale. That’s usually where common sense flies out the window though. “160lbs? So heavy... lose weight..” for a 6” tall active person- 160 might be a little light- maybe perfect- or it could be BAD. “Well she’s a woman- 160 is too much!” Again... height? Activity level? Body fat percentage?
See- gender plays a role in health statistics. What is healthy percent on the low side for a man can be actually a dangerous body fat for a woman, a woman on the high side of healthy would likely be an unhealthily high percent for a man. Men’s bones are usually thicker- so usually 2 near identically built people of different genders- the man should weigh a little more in theory if they have the same Bf% and height and blah blah- even assuming they have identical muscle mass... to a point.
So if things like your body fat and height and age and gender and all that matter- why do we need a scale...? Well... it’s very useful. Ignoring the actual number on the scale- comparing your weights over time helps get indicators of health and changes in the body, illnesses, and of course the results of training.
If you’re lifting weights and that scale isn’t going UP- then your training or diet or something is off. If you’ve been training on a good routine for months and seeing pretty stable weight and all of a sudden your weight swings when nothing else has changed.... that’s a sign that something may be wrong with your body.
Weight loss= burn more calories than you eat.
Weight gain= eat more calories than you burn.
Sort of.
When you gain or lose weight- water is almost always first. Then come muscle and fat (not in order in the last two..) there are some pretty solid ranges that a normal human without health issues or chemical intervention or other influence can naturally gain or lose of each in any period of time.
If you are working out and you see that in a week you put on 10lbs- you’re either a genetic freak, on drugs, or that isn’t muscle you’re gaining. If you suddenly lose 5lbs- that could be dehydration. Ok. You weigh again in a few days- no change... you weigh again in a week- you lost another 5lbs... you may have a health issue there.
For health and “fitness” the primary things that mater are:
-is your performance increasing as it should?
-are you SEEING the realistic progression of results that you are happy with?
-are you FEELING good better?
The scale doesn’t define you. It is however a powerful tool to help you wether you just want to be healthy, you want to increase performance or achieve a certain look or you are trying to monitor your diet for nutrition and health.
You can be 200lbs and lose 80 and look and feel like crap- or nothing like what you wanted. Numbers on a scale don’t translate to what you look like, feel like, or are physically able to do. They can be a FACTOR and with other information can give you insight into your health or other goals.
So don’t get upset when you have to get on a scale- and REALLY don’t be ignorant and try to stop a doctor from using one of the best tools they have for early diagnosis of health issues- or non invasive informal diagnosis. Just remember a number is just a number. You can’t really compare weights between people who are dissimilar- just compare yourself to yourself and remember CONTEXT.
Weight can be very important for the doctor. Yes, a big reason is to give patients proper drug dosages, since over prescribing can and will kill people. Doctors will also look at how constant your weight is. If you are loosing a ton of weight with no diet or exercise regimen, that is a problem and can give them more information on what labs to order, same as if you gain a ton of weight for no reason. They don't weigh you to "bully" you they weigh you to get more information.
Yes. Exactly what I said as well. If you picture your body as a nuclear power plant- there are all these gauges and dials we can look at to see what the reactor is doing. If you look at the core temperature alone- if it is EXTREMELY out of range that is an obvious sign of trouble, same for a pressure gauge. BUT- WHAT is wrong? If we use those two measurements together- we can get a better idea what is wrong- and what to do about it.
So say that you see temperature dropping- that’s bad for the reactor. But... if you decide to remove the control rods a bit or reduce coolant flow a bit... how much do you do that by? You need more information- and if you do one of these things on just that ONE metric alone- your reactor could meltdown or blow up- since you could have a faulty reading- or there could be a condition like cavitation or void issues which means you need to do the OPPOSITE of what you might think.
The human body is complex. We need many points of data. Ever tried to diagnose something on web md etc? Do you have... a brain tumor? Eye strain? Dehydration? A rare disease? Often times the symptoms of a condition can easily be mistaken for another. Often times- the patient doesn’t get all the symptoms or gets uncommon ones or has more than one issue and what you THINK is a related symptom and would man another diagnosis... isn’t related at all.
Weight is a data point we can use for tracking and comparison for an individual person. It is a major factor but not the only factor in determining dose for medications- and many medications really should be prescribed on more precise measures since certain drugs may be fat soluble for example- so a 220lb athlete and a 220 couch potato probably shouldn’t get the same dose. It’s complex- but the simple part is that your weight is a number that a doctor needs to care about. As a person- you don’t so much need to care about the EXACT NUMBER or your weight- but for health and goals you may need to care about how your weight at a measured interval compares to another measured interval so that you can use that data as a guide.
Okay, if you have an ED or other legitimate reason that knowing your weight is harmful to you, ask your doctor’s office for accommodation (I.e they don’t confront you with the number). Some of us just wanna know if the digestive system is doing something screwy and whether the damn lawn chair is gonna break.
Tracking your weight has more than being inconvenienced by the doctor, they might catch some other problem you might not. It also helps if you have a problem in the future to have that data. And @famousone has pointed out, weight really is an important thing to check if you can't get it up.
To be entirely fair, if you’re fat, you’re already getting too little of half your meds in the first place. E.g. nobody adjusts the dosage of birth control for body weight cause it’s all prepackaged.
Weight gain= eat more calories than you burn.
Sort of.
When you gain or lose weight- water is almost always first. Then come muscle and fat (not in order in the last two..) there are some pretty solid ranges that a normal human without health issues or chemical intervention or other influence can naturally gain or lose of each in any period of time.
-is your performance increasing as it should?
-are you SEEING the realistic progression of results that you are happy with?
-are you FEELING good better?
The scale doesn’t define you. It is however a powerful tool to help you wether you just want to be healthy, you want to increase performance or achieve a certain look or you are trying to monitor your diet for nutrition and health.