Your Bathroom Scale Doesn't
Tell the Whole Story By Whitney Provost
From Team Beachbody - Join Today and Workout to
Win!
When it comes to weight loss, the scale can
be a good measure of progress, particularly if you have a lot of weight to
lose. But if you place too much emphasis on your weight and not enough on your
body composition (the ratio of fat to lean muscle), you're only getting half
the story. Plus, dreading your weigh-in or obsessing over the number on the
scale is unproductive and can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as bingeing or
starving yourself. Losing pounds doesn't always mean losing fat. Here's why the
scale can be misleading.
- The scale doesn't
tell you how much fat you have. Your scale does
exactly what it's supposed to—it tells you how much you weigh. But in
addition to measuring your weight, the scale weighs bone, water, muscle,
organs, and undigested food. When the number on the scale goes up or down, it
doesn't represent only fat loss or muscle gain. It measures fluctuations in
glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and water, and it even measures how much that
breakfast you ate weighs.
 You may
wonder about scales that claim to measure your body fat. These send small
electrical currents up one leg, through your pelvis, and down the other leg to
determine your body's density. Then a formula is used to estimate your body
fat. The problem with these scales is that they're notoriously inaccurate.
However, they are usually consistent in their readings, so they can be
helpful as a measuring tool. Even though the body fat reading might be off by
as much as 5 or 10 percent, if the number trends downward over time, you know
you're on the right track.
- The scale can't
tell if you've gained muscle. A pound of muscle is
like a brick, small and compact. A pound of fat is like a fluffy feather
pillow, bulky and lumpy. When you gain muscle and lose fat, your body gets
smaller and tighter. Building muscle also makes it possible to drop clothing
sizes without a big change in weight. Perhaps after a 90-day fitness program,
the scale says you lost 7 pounds, which may not sound like much. But what if
you actually lost 12 pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle? That's a
remarkable improvement in your body composition, but you wouldn't know it if
you only used your regular bathroom scale to track your progress.
- You didn't really
gain 5 pounds of fat overnight. You may step on the
scale one morning and shriek in disbelief because the number is five digits
higher than it was the day before. Stop panicking. Unless you ate an extra
17,500 calories the previous day, you didn't gain fat (a pound of fat is
equivalent to 3,500 calories). Your scale is registering water, stored
carbohydrates, and food. Also, cheap bathroom scales may have measurement
errors, giving slightly different readings even when you're at exactly the same
weight.
- Your body's water
levels are constantly changing. The scale can move up
or down depending on how much water you drink, how much salt you consume, how
much you sweat, and how many carbohydrates you eat. An average person can see a
daily fluctuation in water weight of about 2 pounds, without any changes to
diet or exercise habits. These fluctuations do not signify fat loss, and
watching the scale move up and down every day can be frustrating for many
dieters.
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If you're trying to achieve a healthy weight
and improve the way you look, you should focus less on what the scale says and
more on developing the good habits that will produce results. To get lean and
strong, with low body fat and nice muscle tone, there are three things you
should do:
 Cardio plus
weight lifting (or other resistance training). Cardio
workouts raise your heart rate to help you improve your fitness level, burn
calories, and shed fat. Resistance training builds muscle, which boosts your
metabolism and helps you burn even more calories. Fitness programs like
P90X®,
ChaLEAN
Extreme®, and
RevAbs™
all use cardio plus resistance training to improve muscle mass and burn
fat.- Healthy diet.
No matter how much you exercise, you'll never reach
your fat-loss goals if you don't follow a healthy diet consisting of protein,
vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. The right foods in controlled portions
will fuel your body as it shrinks.
- Track your
progress. If you don't use the scale, you need to do
something else to check your progress.
- One of the best ways to keep track of your changing body is
to use a tape measure. Record your chest, waist, hip, thigh, arm, and wrist
measurements in a journal or the guidebook that comes with your workout
program. Update the measurements every 30 days to see how your body
changes.
- Pictures are also good indicators of progress. Have someone
take front, side, and back photos of you every 30 days and keep these with your
body measurements.
 Body fat testers can also be
used regularly to track your fat loss. Monitoring your progress with tools
other than the scale will give you a more realistic assessment of your weight
loss success.- Hydrostatic (underwater) testing and DEXA (X-ray) scans use
advanced technology to measure your body fat with a high degree of accuracy. An
Internet search can help you find testing centers in your area.
- Notice how your clothes fit. This is a foolproof way to
prove that you're losing weight. If your clothes are getting looser, your body
is shrinking, even if you don't see a big change in the mirror yet.
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Too many people are slaves to the scale.
They can't resist weighing themselves, only to feel guilty, angry, or
demoralized when the numbers don't move down quickly enough. If you're one of
those people whose weigh-ins lead to loss of motivation or a feeling of
helplessness, then you need to reconsider using the scale for your progress
checks. Success is more than just a number. |
