About the whole scale thing....I've been right (yay!) and I've been wrong (oops). And when you know better, you do better--so here it goes:
Responding to an obsession with all things SCALE-related that seemed to sweep through my fitness center like a German stomach bug, I began to advocate ditching the scale last summer and fall. I was hearing on a daily basis about people's 2-3 weight fluctuations: "How did this happen??" "But I worked out and ate well!" "What am I doing wrong??" and worst of all "This just isn't working!!" All because these ladies (and a few men) had stepped on the scale sometime that day and it had registered a number that wasn't the number they wanted to see--the number they associated with success. No, not just the number they associated with success; the number they associated with feeling GOOD about themselves, about being GOOD ENOUGH. That damn number was beginning to dictate how a great majority of ladies felt about themselves AS A PERSON.
So what is a scale, really?? Webster's says: Pronunciation: skāl
| n. | 1. | The dish of a balance; hence, the balance itself; an instrument or machine for weighing |
And what is weight, really?? Webster's says:
| 1. | The quality of being heavy; that property of bodies by which they tend toward the center of the earth; the effect ofgravitative force, especially when expressed in certain units or standards, as pounds, grams, etc.
Other articles discussing and explaining daily weight fluctuations:
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So basically, the scale is a device that measures the effects of gravity on your mass in units derived by humans. Just think, if you were on the moon, you'd weigh so much less no matter what your current size--virtually no gravity! BUT your body composition--the proportion of lean muscle mass, organ tissue, and fat--would remain the same, there just wouldn't be a force pushing down on it. Your scale # is now rendered useless and meaningless.
Body composition--this is the thing that REALLY counts, and you can't measure body composition on the scale. (And don't get me started on those bioimpedence ones....)
Body composition defined (by about.com): Body composition refers to the make up of lean tissue and fat tissue in the body. Lean tissue is composed of muscle, bone and organs. Fat tissue is composed of three different categories: essential fat, storage fat and non-essential fat. Essential and storage fat are both necessary for the body to function, while non-essential fat serves no real purpose.
At the end of the day, the thing we're really trying to measure (through the ineffective means of the scale) is amount of non-essential fat we're carrying on our person, and if we've shed some or added some. Viewed in that light, daily scale obsession seems, well, pretty ridiculous, huh?? How in the world would you be able to measure daily fluctuations in body fat?? And attributing our self-worth, happiness to the number on the scale...ridiculous, too, since it's not really measuring that thing you think it should be. Now, I'm not advocating that you should become body-fat measuring obsessive, either!
What I am saying is that consistent, specific circumference measurements, the fit of your clothing and your naked appearance are MUCH more accurate and telling about your health and fitness progress than the scale. And also NOT things you should be doing every day. So measure yourself--or enlist the help of a friend or local fitness trainer :)--once a month, and keep a journal to track your progress. If you're brave enough, take a photo at home the same day you measure; take one from the front and one from the side. You're about to become your very own "Before and After" success story!
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| 1 pound of fat and one pound of muscle: notice the difference in size?? Imagine that around your waist. The scale says the same thing either way...but your jeans won't! |
But back to the original issue: The SCALE. Early on I alluded to being right (yay!), which I've made my case for, and that I was also wrong (oops...) about the scale and weighing oneself to track weight loss. Turns out, weighing oneself on a regular (but not obsessive!) basis is an excellent tool for keeping oneself on track with a nutrition and exercise plan. Studies show that tracking that number, making oneself aware of it, helps reinforce good eating and exercise habits. Which makes sense. I know from my own personal experience, that when I feel 'thicker in the waist' it shows on the scale. In that sense, it reinforces that bad habits should cease and good habits be reinforced. For ME, and I am only speaking for myself, weighing myself only every so often is all the information I need from that particular tool--I just use it to 'check in' when in doubt. I'm pretty sensitive to changes in my body and shifts in my habits, so keeping track is mostly intuitive for me, hence my disregard for the scale. That said, it's ridiculous of me to assume everyone else operates/can operate/wants to operate in the same way.
It's generally recommended to weigh yourself once a week, the same day of the week, first thing in the morning, naked, after your morning, er, business. This is a better marker of any gaining/losing trends that may be happening or just confirmation that you're on the right track :) And for some, particularly those who are battling deep-seated poor eating or exercise-avoiding habits, weighing oneself each day can be the thing to keep them on track--the motivation they need to continue to extinguish that bad habit and reinforce a new one. So, in the end, throwing away the scale is not necessarily the right thing to do--in this I was wrong. And when you know better, you do better...and modify your earlier positions :)
From gaining a better education (http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/ is a wonderful resource for everyone, not just fitness professionals) I've developed:
My New Scale Rules!!
If you are right around your target weight, and just working on reshaping (changing your body composition) rather than true weight loss:
Weigh yourself once a week if you want (same day, same time of day, same physical circumstances to get valid measurements). Keep yourself on track with monthly circumference measurements and photos!
If you have weight to lose (and remember, we're really referring to the non-essential body fat):
Weigh yourself once a week (same day, same time of day, same physical circumstances to get valid measurements). Keep a log to track your patterns, so that your measurements are clear-cut, fact-based results NOT an emotional response to a fuzzy idea in your head of what you think you weighed last week, month, or year. Even better, keep a log of your weekly exercise and daily eating patterns. Those tools together are a potent combination for tracking progress and making adjustments to your plan so that you can reach (and maintain!!) your ultimate goals. Circumference measurements and photos will be great assets, too. Think of it as your YOU Book :)
**I have an exercise log form and a food tracking log form available--just email me and I'll be happy to share them.**
The takeaway here: Use the scale, but use it wisely. Use it judiciously. Realize what you are measuring is a total of your mass. That it doesn't show you how many inches or lbs of non-essential body fat you've lost or still have as part of that total mass. And, most importantly, that is doesn't measure the quality or content of your character. That it isn't a measurement of your total person or value of that person. No tool exists that is sophisticated or specialized enough to measure those vast quantities of wonderful, brave, and amazing you carry within yourself...things that scale will never be able to tell you, no matter what number it shows.
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