How the scales fail you!
Monitoring our weight used to be a very useful tool for us to see if we needed to cut down our portion sizes every now and then, maybe not have the naan bread and rice with our curry or even an extra beer on a week night. However over time with the ever changing photoshop apps, desire to reach the unattainable physique we see on the odd persons social media picture, weighing our-self has become a horrible obsession. An obsession of which we hold no rationale too.
So many factors can affect our weight from day to day and even hour to hour, 500ml of water can equate to around 0.5kg, therefore if we drink our recommended 2 litres per day we are adding 2kg of ‘weight’. Even though we know it isn’t fat, the majority of people who are trying to lose weight will drink 2 litres of water, step on the scale and see it is 2kg heavier and will ultimately come to the conclusion that they have gained fat. Not taking into account that our body has to utilise this water in optimising our body’s function over time.
Imagine a big plate of even the healthiest foods such as chicken, brocolli and rice, if the total food adds up to 1kg and you eat it all. Guess what………..you will be temporarily 1kg heavier. Until your body begins to digest the food and use the nutrients or you poo them out. This doesn’t mean you have gained 1kg of FAT.
This is why measurements of key areas (waist/hips/bums/chest/thighs) and progress pictures (in the same position) are extremly beneficial to use alongisde checking in on your weight every now and then. You can actually see if you are losing or gaining body fat by taking your waist measurement, if it has gone up the chances are you have gained some body fat, if it has gone down the chances are you have lost some body fat.
With all of my clients we monitor the weight, but more for the purpose of me setting calorie goals for them. We focus on the measurements and progress pictures more for the body fat analysis.
Too many people focus on wanting to ‘lose 1 stone’, rather than saying I want to drop a dress size and feel better in my clothes. There are so many more factors that will affect your fluctuating weight than the more reliable waist measurement/tightness of a pair of jeans. At the end of the day if I were to say to you I can help you drop 2 dress/jean sizes you will be over the moon, if that meant staying the same weight it shouldn’t be an issue because that means your muscle mass has gone up and your body composition has changed (more firm in the right areas).
The bottom line is if you focus more on a clothes fitting goal or a strength improvement goal, the more you improve those areas the more likely that your weight/body fat will drop as a by-product. They are less demoralising to check as there are less factors that can influence them, making them more reliable.
So, if you are struggling a little and finding it hard to get motivated due to fluctuations on the scales……Get off them, don’t use them for a while and take some body measurements and progress pictures instead, you will thank me later :)