[The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Alligator.]
Does Usain Bolt train without timing himself? Do Gators endure the whole semester without checking their grades? Then why does the Student Recreation & Fitness Center deprive gym goers of a scale?
By my second week of college, I decided to work out habitually. The very first thing I did when I arrived at the Student Recreation & Fitness Center was search for a scale to test the “freshman 15” theory. After several workouts that ended with me aimlessly wandering around, I approached two employees and asked where the scale was. The employees, seemingly embarrassed, told me that the facility does not have a scale because its philosophy is to promote student health, not obsessive weighing.
The lack of a scale may appear to be a trivial concern, but it’s actually the product of a much greater health-related issue: America’s fear of being confronted with the cold, hard truth.
A large portion of Americans support the farcical claim that scales are detrimental to health-related progress. Their theory, as I’ve heard from countless friends, is that magnifying and obsessing over one simple element of your overall health is painfully anxiety inducing. This is true. In fact, a student population of weigh-aholics is the last thing we need, but the benefits of having a scale available greatly outweigh the drawbacks (pun intended).
A scale can really wake you up with a painful jab to the gut, or in my case, the belly. However, it can also pour you a shot of motivation with a chunk of get-it-together, Jell-O.
Scales instigate change. Whether you’re 2 pounds underweight or half a pound over, dissatisfaction encourages a course of action. That’s exactly what we need in the gym: a blunt dose of reality that keeps us huffing and puffing on the StairMaster for a few more minutes.
Furthermore, scales provide invaluable hints about our overall health. Researchers have recently determined that being overweight is closing in on smoking for being the leading factor of early death. Clearly, weight should not be ignored. If we continue to minimize the applicability of weight as an accurate depiction of overall health, however, we are setting ourselves up for a much ruder awakening. The jab of a few pounds gained cannot be nearly as startling as the jab of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
Finally, as humans striving for progress, we cannot turn our heads to setbacks and live in ignorant bliss. That promotes stagnation or even regression. We need the truth. We need to be able to measure quantifiable progress. And, even if it’s limited to a few times a week or surrounded by anti-obsessive weighing posters, we need a scale.
Christopher Wilde is a UF biochemistry freshman.
