Weights and Measures

The majority of people who seek out personal training have the primary goal of losing weight.  While it might seem as easy at calories in and calories out, that usually only works on paper.  It's often discouraging when a person puts in the hard work in the gym and in the kitchen, but the number on the scale doesn't move.  To this frustrated person, i offer this argument: the scale versus the tape measure

The scale is seems to be the tell all about a person in these United States, and perhaps the world.  It can tell you anything from how much you had to eat this morning to how the rest of your day will go.  The problem is, we put far too much emphasis on what is displayed on that little screen or where the needle ends up. Truth be told, the scale can't tell you how much of you is composed of muscle, water, organs, bones, or fat (at least not accurately).  It can't tell you how healthy you are, how well you're doing at work, or how your kids will turn out.  All it can tell you is to what degree Earth's gravity affects you.

Somewhere along the way, society has attributed this number to a person's self worth, and suddenly there's a goal number created in which the doors of happiness and fulfilment are thrown open to the scale's rider when reached.  I'm not saying it's wrong to have a weight goal but the sad, sad faces i see when the number isn't right tell me that maybe there's too much riding on that number.

For this person and for every person, i suggest another tool for measuring success: the tape measure.

Now the tape can't tell you how awesome you are either or how much money you will make in your lifetime, but it can give you a glimpse of what's happening in your body when the scale has abandoned you.  As I said earlier, I see a lot of folks interested in weight loss, but what they really mean is fat loss.  I have never heard of anyone eating unhealthy and accumulating unwanted muscle that they want gone.  Resistance training, especially to the novice, elicits a hypertrophic effect (increase in muscle size).  This effect will taper off unless further training variables are present to continue its existence.  With that being said, an increase in muscle size leads to an increase in weight, however the number on the scale very often stays the same.  What is happening here?

Now is when we get out the tape measure and see what we get compared to the original testing.  What I find most of the time is a decrease in body circumference.  You may have heard is said "muscle weights more than fat".  That's bologna. A pound of muscle weighs just as much as pound of fat like a pound of lead weighs as much as a pound of feathers.  What is meant to be said is that muscle takes up less room than fat.  More than 50% less actually.  So when the tape measurement is down, fat is being lost, and if fat is being lost then we are on the right track.  If muscle is being lost, then we need to reevaluate our nutrition plan.  A loss in muscle decreases your ability to use energy, thus hindering the ability to drop weight.  This is the reason why diets, especially diets devoid of exercise and proper macronutrient ratios, don't work.  As soon as the diet is over, you have a person who has lost weight in fat and muscle and they are more likely to gain all the weight back and then some.

To sum all of this up, instead of just focusing on what the scale says, look to the tape measure and to how your clothes fit you.  As it takes time to get big, it takes time to get smaller.  Learn to enjoy the journey and see the rewards beyond weight loss!