Most clients walk into the gym with one goal: to lose weight. Not fat, not inches, not discomfort, just the number on the scale. Coaches know better, but it doesn’t always matter. The number still carries emotional weight, especially for women.

If you coach strength-focused clients, you’ve probably watched someone deadlift double their bodyweight, then step on a scale and question everything they’ve accomplished. Years of diet culture messaging run deep. Your job is to dismantle that obsession without dismantling the feelings behind it. 

Why the Scale Still Dominates the Conversation

Even clients who deadlift double their bodyweight still worry about stepping on the scale. They’ve spent years being told that health means shrinking. Social media, BMI calculators, and decades of diet culture made them believe their weight says everything about their progress.

That’s why fitness trainer Hannah Barry went viral. She’s 5’10”, visibly muscular, and clocks in at 85 kg. Despite being lean, strong, and metabolically healthy, her BMI classifies her as obese. The backlash she got for sharing her weight proves how out of touch the public still is about what strength looks like.

The Problem With Weight Charts and BMI

BMI was never designed for individual health assessments. The population-level statistic doesn’t account for lean muscle, fat distribution, or frame. A sprinter and a sedentary person can have the same BMI and different health outcomes.

When a female client squats 60 kg and builds muscle for the first time, she will weigh more than she did during her sedentary years. That doesn’t mean she’s backsliding. It means she’s finally building tissue that supports function, bone health, and resilience.

Using BMI or weight charts with strength clients creates a disconnect. They show up and work hard, but then they check their weight and start doubting everything they’ve achieved. That’s a failure in communication, not a failure in discipline.

Reframe Progress in a Way That Sticks

The first step is language. Change how you assess check-ins. Ask questions like:

• Are your lifts going up?
• Are you sleeping through the night?
• Do your clothes fit better?
• Are you moving with less pain?
• Do you feel more confident?

These are measurable shifts that support better long-term health. When clients focus on strength, energy, and performance, they stop seeing weight as the only marker of success.

Use Smarter Metrics

The scale is limited. That doesn’t mean you skip data. Swap in better tools:

• Waist-to-hip ratio
• Bioimpedance scans or DEXA, if available
• Grip strength
• Lifting logs
• Resting heart rate

Even subjective logs help. Ask them to rate sleep, stress, and energy. Strength clients often forget how much these markers improve as they train consistently. Seeing their effort pay off in multiple directions shifts the focus away from chasing a smaller number.

Normalize Muscle Gains in All Body Types

Muscle adds weight. That’s not a problem; it’s reality.

Tell your clients what to expect when they add lean mass. Share examples. Show before-and-after photos at the same bodyweight. Talk about how a woman can gain five pounds while still dropping two clothing sizes. Introduce the concept of body recomposition. 

Use language that affirms their achievements: more strength, better posture, fewer injuries. If a client can do pull-ups or push a sled, that’s worth more than a few kilos.

Most people have never heard anyone say these things out loud, and they’ve never been told their weight gain could be progress.

What to Do When Clients Fixate on the Number

Some clients won’t let go of the scale right away. That’s fine. Don’t shame them. Ask what they believe the number represents. Usually, it’s not the weight but an emotion. They want to feel in control, desirable, or accepted.

Validate that feeling, then offer new goals. Give them an eight-week break from the scale. Track strength gains or waist-to-hip changes instead. Share stories of people who got leaner without losing scale weight.

Remind them: it’s not their fault for believing the wrong thing. It’s your role to show them a better path forward.

Final Thoughts

The strongest people you know probably don’t look like fitness magazine covers. They look like people who prioritize function over aesthetics, performance over appearance. Your clients hired you to help them feel powerful in their bodies, not to validate an outdated health metric. 

You fight decades of conditioning every time you redirect a client from scale obsession to strength gains or other variables. Non-scale victories should be celebrated, whether it’s not running out of breath when climbing the stairs, or hitting a new PR in their lifts. That’s bigger than one training session or conversation. You’re helping them redefine progress, one rep at a time.

About Robert James Rivera
Robert is a full-time freelance writer and editor specializing in the health niche and its ever-expanding sub-niches. As a food and nutrition scientist, he knows where to find the resources necessary to verify health claims.