That damn scale. How many times in a week do I hear about weight going up or not coming down much……Body weight is about so much more than just fat.
The scale tells you exactly what your body weighs. Your body weight includes all of the elements of your body like bones, blood, organs, muscles and fat. The average human body is 50-65% water and depending on many factors, including hormonal, the body can hold more or less water and fatty tissue contains less water than lean muscle tissue. Daily weight fluctuations are NORMAL and not indicators of success or failure.
Many who enter into a fitness program and are attempting to change their physique get discouraged when they don’t see the pounds coming off even if they can see the progress in the mirror. There is a flawed thinking that one must be losing weight to change their body composition.
Let me tell you a little story about me…I am now 47 years of age (notice I didn’t say “old” ) and I have been an athlete for almost my entire life. At the age of 13 it began so we are going on 34 years here. It all started with cycling and then running. My entire fitness was centred around cardio endurance and it was nothing for me to bike hundreds of miles in a day or run for 2+ hours. At one point, the scale told me I weighed 118 lbs. At 19, I began weight training but still kept up with cardiovascular activities. My body started to change a little however and guess what… the scale went up a bit. I could see I certainly wasn’t getting fat but there was some definition showing that wasn’t there before. As I scaled back on the cardio and focused more on the body building my weight continued to go up. My very first body building competition I weighed in, completely shredded, at 132 lbs. This past year at the nationals, I weighed in, completely shredded at 150 lbs. 5 months later now I sit at 168 lbs and I am far from “fat”.
If you are committed to your fitness journey and you are eating lots of great healthy unprocessed food, your body will respond in a positive way. Take measurements, take photos, really look at yourself in the mirror and use the scale as only ONE tool to measure your success.