The Scale Doesn't Lie. It Just Doesn't Know Enough.

Three months into rehab, I weighed myself for the first time in a long while. 93.8kg. A starting point.

A week later I checked again. 94.2kg.

For a second I thought I'd gone backwards. Then I realised something simpler, obvious.

That first number was never my real baseline. It was just the lightest I happened to be on the day I first checked after months away. 94.2kg is the heaviest I have ever been. I'm not happy about it, but it's accurate, and accurate is what we need to work with.

The good news - I can do something about it.

Here's the thing about weight. It moves. Hour to hour, day to day.

Hot weather, hydration, what you ate yesterday, whether you've trained recently - your weight can fluctuate in surprising ways. None of which is fat gained or lost. It's just noise.

If you stepped on the scales after a hot day and saw a lower number, you didn't lose weight. You lost water.

The scale can't tell the difference. It's ignorant of everything except one simple snippet of information - what do you weigh right now. Take your trainers off and you are lighter. Put them down and you are lighter still. Holding a sports bottle full of water? Pop it down and you'll be lighter again.

This is where most people set themselves up to feel like they've failed before they've even started. One goal. One number. Lose a stone.

If you lose thirteen pounds instead, that is in reality an amazing result - but for some it's falling short. The extra pound they wanted to lose equals failure. Because the whole thing was riding on one outcome.

So if weight loss is a goal, setting a realistic range may help. If the goal is one stone (14lbs), aim instead for 10-14lbs.

Here's what I do differently with clients, and what I'm doing with myself right now.

Multiple goals, running in parallel. Weight is one of them - 82-85kg is my target range. 15-18% body fat. My waist I'm targeting 33-34 inches. That's three measurable goals.

But there's more.

Alongside these I want measurable increases in strength. Two weeks ago, with some pain in my shoulder, I struggled with 10kg for a dumbbell chest press. Now it's 14kg. A 40% improvement. The goal by end of this month is 20kg for three sets.

I also need more mobility through the shoulder. And I need to break in some walking boots before a holiday - so cardio on a treadmill and outside. Distance, pace, incline, duration - all recorded and compared each week.

Pick three to five measures that matter to you. Record them each session. For weight, check in every one to two weeks, not daily.

If your numbers aren't moving the way you expected, tell me what you're tracking. There are no wrong answers.

Build habits, not hurdles.