MISSION: SKINNY JEANS

My Scale Lies

The scale… How many women out there HATE that little 5 letter word?  I for one, loathe the scale, and I know I am not alone.  In fact, most of the women that I know hate the scale in some manner or another.  For most women, it is an evil contraption that always seems to tell us how fat we are.  Honestly, has anyone ever praised a scale?  Even when they were losing weight, ever hear anyone say, “I love that scale!”  No, you don’t.  You only hear about the scale when it is telling you the complete opposite.  I hear women say, “my scale lies.”  And you know what, they are right.

I think that a scale is useless when you are trying to get in shape.  In fact, I will take it a step further.  It is detrimental to losing weight.  Scales do lie, when it comes to losing fat and getting fit.  Think about it.  All a scale tells you is how much you weigh.  Makes me think of that old riddle, “what weighs more, a hundred pounds of feathers, or a hundred pounds of bricks?”  Now, my middle school students always seem to fall for this, but we all know that weight is weight.  But think about your body.  Is there a difference between 20 pounds of fat and 20 pound of muscle? Of course there is.

The problem is that with women, for whatever crazy reason, we have developed this obsession with weight, with that ridiculous scale.  If you don’t believe me, look up colonics on the internet.  There are large numbers of women getting colonics simply because afterwards, they are lighter.  I saw a segment on the news a few weeks ago, that there are women out there shaving their heads because…you guessed it, it makes them weigh less!  Now, these may be extreme cases, but look at the average woman.  We are so obsessed with losing weight, not fat, but weight.  I see women celebrate because they lost 1/4 of a pound this week.  I have seen women who, through heavy exercise, have lost two dress sizes, but are still unhappy because the scale has not moved as much as they would like!  I have even heard women say that they would trade some of their newly built muscle and give up one of those dress sizes, if only they could weight 5 pounds less.  Our obsession with the scale and with our “weight,” really is out of control.

Like I said before, the scale lies.  That I why I hate it to the point where I won’t even use one.  I have weighed 135 at two points in my life.  The first time, I wore a size 8 pant.  The second time, I wore a size 4.  Now, the average, scale-believing woman out there will say “no way, she is lying.”  And I understand that.  I used to be one of those women.  But it is completely true.  What was the difference, you might ask?  Muscle.  Yes, we have all heard that saying before “muscle weighs more than fat,” but 3 pants sizes?  I wouldn’t have believed it before I lived it, but it’s completely true.  Muscle does weigh a lot more.  I see women begin working hard with a personal trainer, and lose tons of fat, but be totally discouraged because they actually weigh MORE than when they started.  Women have even been known to quit working out because of this, even though their body is beginning to look awesome.

My other issue with the scale is even simpler than muscle gain.  Ever notice how you weigh 1-2 pounds lighter in the morning than at night?  HELLO??  This is the tool that we are using to measure our fitness gains?  Experts say that to lose weight the right way and keep, you should lose 1-2 pounds a week, no more.  Yet, we are measuring it with a tool that could show that amount of difference in one day.  It goes back to the feather-brick concept.  That 1-2 pounds could be water, salt, clothes, you name it.  That is why wrestlers wear plastic suits and run 10 miles to cut weight the day before a match.  In a hard 3 hour practice, a wrestler could easily lose 6 pounds!  Who-hoo!  I should market that weight loss secret on Oprah!  But anybody can see that all that wrestler lost was water weight, sweat.  So would something like that really help you reach your goals? So, if I don’t use a scale, how do I track progress?  I use a mirror and my clothes to track my fat loss.  When my clothes are looser, I know I am losing.  When my cheekbones show a bit more, and but stomach looks a bit flatter, I know I am losing.  The problem with this kind of measurement is, you have to be patient.  The scale gives us that instant gratification, and it’s measurable!  2 pounds!! It feels good, I am aware of that.  But the following week when you get on again, and that 2 pounds are back, it can be completely detrimental to that positive attitude you need to maintain to succeed.  So if you really need something measurable, use a tape measure and take your measurements (arms, waist, hips, legs) or have a professional take your body fat.  Neither of these things will show you results in a week, or even two.  They are long-term measures.  But losing fat and getting fit is a long-term journey, so anything else just doesn’t make sense.So please, do yourself a favor… stay off the scale!  And if you absolutely cannot give it up and MUST get on it, limit yourself to once a week.  Because getting on the scale everyday will seriously drive you crazy, and kill your progress!Happy Training,  -Lisa **UPDATE: I copied and pasted this, directly from a question on “Yahoo Answers.”  and it was posted by a man!  “I want to lose weight and I have been jogging and eating smaller portions,  I want to include weight training, but won’t that cause me to gain weight since muscle weighs more than fat?”  See, I am not making this up!  Who cares if you WEIGH more, if you LOOK better!

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Tags: Diet, exercise, fat loss, fitness, losing weight, muscle gain, Nutrition, scale, weight, weight lifiting, weight loss