Focusing on Losing Weight
Top 5 Mistakes Dieters Make
Mistake #2 – FOCUSING ON LOSING WEIGHT
Dieters are obsessed with losing “weight”. The number on the scale is what makes or breaks the day. Scale going down, well, that’s reason to celebrate! Scale going up or not moving, well, that means going into the depths of despair. This back and forth of emotions is distressing and detrimental to mental wellbeing.
Here’s some insight as to why scale weight should not be your barometer for determining whether the skies are sunny or cloudy for the day.
1. The number on the scale is a reflection of EVERYTHING that is part of your body.
Your fat, muscle, tissue, organs, excrement, water, food that you just ate, etc. Scale weight does not discriminate. It just weighs everything that’s on it. It doesn’t give us any information as far as what your body actually looks like visually.
For example. Let’s say we have two women who are both 5’7″ and both weigh 140 pounds on the scale. One woman has a body fat of 16%, one has a body fat of 30%. Do you think these two bodies look alike, even though they are the exact same height and weight? No. In fact they will look very different. The woman with 16% body fat will have much more tone on her body, and her actual body size will be smaller than the woman who is at 30%. How can this be? The reason for the difference in appearance is the fact that one woman has more lean muscle tissue. Muscle takes up less space in the body, but it is heavier than fat. Muscle is what gives the body shape. The woman with 30% body fat actually has 20 pounds more of fat on her body than the woman who is at 16%. Rather than focusing on achieving a number on the scale, a better goal is to achieve a certain body fat percentage.
What is body fat percentage? This is the ratio of lean mass vs. fat mass on your body. It is different from BMI, which means Body Mass Index. BMI is simply a weight to height ratio, and tells us nothing about body composition. There are a wide variety of methods for measuring body fat percentage, and some more accurate than others. Some of the most accurate, if you have access to them, are Bod Pod, DEXA Scan, Hydrostatic weighing, and Caliper testing by a skilled professional. Less accurate are body fat calculators online, hand held devices or scales. Even though the latter methods are less accurate, they can be valuable for tracking progress over time. They are typically more accessible and less expensive, and there is value in having a number that you can track progression with.
2. The number on the scale fluctuates up and down throughout the day. It isn’t a stable thing. If you weigh yourself at 5 different times of the day, you are likely to get 5 different scale weights. Scale will go up after you eat or drink something. It will go down after using the restroom or after food has digested. For women it will fluctuate during monthly menstrual cycles, the amount it varies can be on average 2-5 pounds depending on the woman. For some women this can happen during PMS, for some it is during the actual cycle. These scale fluctuations are from water retention, not from fat gains, and it’s normal for them to occur every month (for as long as a woman is having regular cycles), no matter how lean you get! Hormone shifts, lack of sleep, stress, hydration levels, and if you ate something really salty are all factors that can cause scale to go up or down. Since it isn’t stable, it isn’t reliable as the end all, be-all monitor of your progress.
3. When your sole focus is on losing scale weight fast, you are typically losing a lot more than just body fat. Popular diet fads will proclaim amazing and fast scale losses. They condition people to think that losing scale weight in a fast and furious way is a sign of success. But it’s actually just the opposite. Fast scale loss, the majority of the time, means fast scale re-gain is coming. When you have a big drop in scale in your first week of changing nutrition habits, that weight is going to consist of multiple things. Water weight is a big one, people who have poor eating habits are usually bloated on a daily basis without even realizing it. Changing eating habits will cause a reduction in water weight. The other part of the loss will be fat loss. And if the loss is a result of starvation, then it’s likely that a portion is lean muscle tissue. If large losses continue on a weekly basis, the likelihood of continually losing lean muscle is very high.
Losing scale weight fast is actually easy. All you have to do is starve yourself and do loads of cardio, and hallelujah, the scale will miraculously drop! But the jubilation of fast losses can quickly turn to devastation when a couple weeks later the scale is back up even higher than it was before. It’s just not worth it in the long run.
Losing body fat takes time. When the focus is on fat loss rather than just scale losses, then big drops in a week are not a good sign. Slow and steady is what wins the race for long term, sustainable fat loss.
What is healthy fat loss? Generally speaking, if your goal is to lose weight and keep it off, you will want to aim for 1-2 pounds per week. It can vary slightly depending on the size of the person’s body – for example someone who is small and has less fat to lose may lose less than a pound a week, someone who has a very large amount of weight may lose a slightly higher poundage in a week and it would still be healthy for them.
Does this mean not to track your scale weight? No, not necessarily. Scale weight can be ONE method of tracking progress, and it can be a good motivator and indicator of change. It can also alert you if you are losing too fast, which could mean you need to either eat more or train less. It’s fine to track your scale losses so long as you have realistic and healthy expectations, and understand that there is a lot that can be going on in your body that may not be reflected on the scale.
Bottom line: Focus on losing body fat instead of just dropping scale weight. Avoid large scale losses in short periods of time in order to avoid fast weight re-gains and slower metabolism. Look at the scale as one piece of information, not as a definition of who you are. If you need to avoid the scale for a period of time to break the emotional connection with the number – that can be beneficial for mental and emotional health. Do track inches and body fat in order to see that the body is progressing in the right direction.
