Is Your Scale Driving You Crazy?
Your goal is to lose weight. Perhaps, this is a good reason as any to obsess over thenumbers on your scale. After all, the scale measures your body weight, and weight
is something that you want to lose, right?
Not exactly!
What you want to lose is FAT. Our body is mainly comprised of water, muscle, organ
tissue, fat and bone. The scale measures the total weight of all the elements that our
body contains. It does not give us any idea on how much of this weight is, in fact, fat.
For adults, the weight of the organ tissue and bones is constant. The fluctuation of
numbers that we see on the scale reflects changes in volume for the other three
components of our body - water, muscle and fat.
Have you ever weighed yourself twice on the same day and found a difference of
several pounds? Such differences, whether it is positive or negative, should be
attributed to changes of water in your body.
You cannot gain or lose a pound of pure fat in just one day. It is also not possible
to gain or lose a pound of muscle overnight.
However, it is very easy to retain or lose several pounds of water.
Gaining or losing water will affect the number on the scale, but will not make you
slimmer. Eventually, your water volume will return to the balanced amount, and
the scale will adjust accordingly.
Muscle Weighs More Than Fat
Muscle, another crucial component of your body, weighs more then fat. This is
the reason why ideal weight charts and formulas do not work for bodybuilders.
Even when bodybuilders have very little body fat, the amount of muscle that
they have makes their total body weight go way up. According to the standard
weight charts, most bodybuilders would fall under the category of being “obese”.
This clearly illustrates how “losing weight” does not equal “losing fat”.
Tools to Measure Your Progress
Since fat is the third component that influences the number on your scale, the
scale is merely a useful tool for measuring progress on your fat loss journey.
However, the key here is not for you to fixate on the scale, but to use it as
only one of the tools to track your progress.
Weigh yourself just once a month on the same day to avoid stressing out
every day over weight “ups and downs” caused by water fluctuation.
In addition, you do not want to rely totally on your scale. Instead, judge your
progress by the way your clothes fit.
Take your tape measurements every month to see how far you have reduced
your fat factor; because, it is inches– not pounds, which really matter most!
by Melanie Mendelson
Posmopolitan Health Research
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