Oh the scale. Why does it seem so important? What in the world convinced us that our relationship with gravity being in one specific range is the key to health? I’m going to argue that you need to ditch the scale and ditch it quick! Cause it’s playing mental games with you. (If you’d rather listen/watch than read the video is below!)
So we set our goal, start doing HIIT, lifting weights, eating veggies and after being pretty consistent for a few weeks we decide we’re going to weigh ourselves. Dun Dun Dun. Why didn’t it move! YOU MEAN WE LOST NO WEIGHT!? Hold on, don’t stress!
When someone sets out after a weight loss goal, most time it’s actually a fat loss goal. Cause we don’t really just want to lose any weight, I mean we could take out a vital organ and be down a few pounds but it’s not exactly what we’re shooting for here.
When going from a more or less sedentary lifestyle to one where we are consistently working out, we are going to have a shift in body composition. This is an awesome thing! It does mean fat loss and sometimes an overall weight loss but not always. Why though? Because we are also actively building muscle. Especially if you’re doing any type of resistance training! So while we’re losing fat, we’re gaining muscle and though muscle takes up a lot less space than fat, it weights more. So when you’re feeling amazing, clothes are fitting more comfortably, progress pictures are showing the small changes, but your weight hasn’t budged, this is why! This is also one of the main reasons I want you to ditch the scale.
Another quick reason is the fact that our weight fluctuates throughout the day based on things we’ve eaten, how much water we’ve had etc. So weighing yourself in the morning and the night will get you two different numbers! This doesn’t mean you gained 3 pounds in a day! It’s just another reason not to worry too much about the number on the scale.
Our weight on a scale doesn’t tell us as much as we think. In the picture shown here I weigh ten pounds less on the left. Mainly because I did little strength training, was a competitive runner and ate like crap, lots of empty calories, multiple desserts on the daily, not a lot for my body to get strong with. Yes, I was thin so my weight was always considered healthy but I wasn’t necessarily at my healthiest. Flash forward a few years and I weight 10 pounds more but am eating to nourish my body, stronger and happier.
If I was strictly going by weight loss as a goal, when I started training this way and saw an increase in weight after a few months or a year I might have gotten discouraged and given up. I would have been focused on the wrong thing.
Here are a few ways to be in touch with your progress besides the scale:
Taking progress pictures. These are soo great. You have a visual record of the little changes that gradually happen and add up to big ones. Maybe the scale didn’t budge but you can look to your progress pic 2 months ago and start to see a difference.
We need to focus on how great we feel. Take a second, really think about how good you feel and how much more energy you have when doing your best to stick with healthier choices and consistently stay active the majority of the time.
How your clothes fit. Even if your weight isn’t changing you may notice that your clothes are fitting better or maybe the waist of your pants or a shirt sleeve is now a bit more comfortable. These little things are great ways to see progress too!
You can take measurements. If you’re more of a quantitative numbers person, this one’s for you. It’s going to be a more exact way to see small changes like mentioned above with your clothes!
Alrighty guys. There it is! Some ways to track progress that are much more meaningful than a scale! I don’t even own one. I only know my weight because I weighted myself for this video at my parents house :D.
And if you’d rather watch or listen to a video, here you go!:)
Why You Should Ditch the Scale
Sweat, Smile, Repeat!
Niki
