SCALE FAILS - IS YOUR WEIGHT DECEIVING YOU!?!

It's a common routine for many people wanting to get healthier and fitter! They get out of bed, jump on the scales and see a number staring back at them!

That number is the same as yesterday, and the day before! Or it has even gone up! PANIC STATIONS! Your mind goes into overdrive thinking of the reason, what you've done wrong or you just scream "WHY ME!".

If you honestly look back over the last week and find that you have missed training sessions, over eaten and had lots of cheat meals you may accept the scale reading, move on and vow to put in right starting from now!

However, if you have trained hard, eaten right and stuck to your plan you may feel despondent, disillusioned and ready to give up! DON'T!

This is very common, and doesn't necessarily mean you are off track!

The reason for this is that your scales and body-weight doesn't tell the overall story! In fact, going solely of body-weight data can lead you to fail at your fitness goal!

If weight measure is your only method of defining success/failure on your fitness journey it can be very damaging. Common symptoms of paying to much attention to weight can be low self-esteem, yo-yo dieting and even weight gain!

That's not to say the scales should be ditched, as using the weight measurements in addition to other methods often leads to habit changes that support longer term weight loss.

The Factors And Variables Overlooked By Your Scales:

1) THE WAY YOUR BODY RETAINS WATER: This is a major reason your weight can fluctuate significantly, particularly between morning and evening. There are many factors which effect water retention, from how much water you drink to the amount of high-salt based foods consumed to gender based factors such as a women being on her period.

Your scales just don't understand these things!!

2) INDIVIDUAL BONE DENSITY: Your bones are numerous and take up a large proportion of your inner body. They also have a significant weight attributed to them. In fact, your bones usually equate to between 12-18% of your overall body weight!

So let's think about bone density. Whilst this is effected and changes with factors such as age, it is also altered by training. For example, if you went from doing solid cardio to intense weight training your bone density would most likely increase. This means the weight of your bones will increase, and in turn this is seen in your overall body weight.

3) MUSCLE MASS: This often causes confusion with many people! 1 kilo of muscle is obviously the same weight as 1 kilo of fat! However, due to the density of muscle, the kilo of fat will take up much more space than the kilo of muscle! So, if you lose a kilo of fat and gain a kilo of lean muscle the scales may remain the same. But how do you think you will look? The answer is leaner and more toned.

4) BODY FAT:Your scale doesn't differentiate between fat and muscle. Wait - you have one of those fancy body fat weighing scales? These are OK to give you a very rough estimate, but they are not very accurate and can sometimes lead to more confusion! There are very accurate equipment's for measuring body fat, but these are not found in many household's (they usually involve a form of x-ray!).

5) HOW YOU LOOK: Your scales aren't interested in how you look and feel! For example you can feel amazing at 80kgs or you can feel awful at 80kgs!

A good way to determine how your body composition change is going is to evaluate how your clothes fit. Are those trousers now baggy at the waist? Is that shirt now tight on the bicep? Is the dress now lose at the stomach?

Looking at your clothes is a great indicator you’re making progress that your scales will ignore!

So we've determined that body-weight is not the 'be all and end all', but how should you measure your progress? Here are some options

Other Ways to Measure Progress.

a) PROGRESS PHOTOS: Spread over a long enough period and you should really see a change. Take photos daily and you won't! Ideally have photos taken from the front, back and side, and the same or similar environment.

b) BODY MEASUREMENTS: Most commonly taken measurement is waist size, but you could also track and record chest, hips, thighs, bicep, calves, forearms, bust and knees. This is very simple and only requires a tape measure.

c) FITNESS JOURNAL: Recording how you feel, the workouts you've done, energy levels etc is a great way to determine your progress.

d) FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE GOALS: Rather than just aiming towards a set weight-loss goal, have some directly controllable goals. Examples of these could be:

- drink 4 litres of water a day

- prep breakfast and lunch in advance

- only having one cheat meal per week

- completing 4 workouts every week

Final Thought:

The scales are a welcome addition to any bathroom, but don't solely base your progress success or failure on your body weight!

Any questions fire them over.

Ian David Worthington: Creator, Owner and Coach at GymWolfPT.com