I can’t believe how many people’s lives and happiness revolve around their bathroom scale. It seems like every single day I am getting reports on how much somebody has gone up or down on their scale at home. People are weighing every single day, and some are weighing multiple times per day. It’s like their validation and their happiness always comes down to whatever number pops up on the scale from day to day or even hour to hour. I have clients who are addicted to their scales. It’s time to cut the cord people. Here’s why.
Your scale is a liar. Yes, a liar.
Your scale tells you how much your body weighs at any given moment. That’s it.
People don’t give credit to how complex and awe inspiring their bodies are. That number on the scale doesn’t represent what your body is truly made of. The fitness world is full of generic numbers that people like to use to see how they measure up against others and it’s frustrating how many people buy into them.
Body mass index, or BMI is a good example of a generic measurement that doesn’t mean much. I, for instance, am 6 feet 3 inches tall and I weigh 225 pounds. If you were to look on a BMI chart and match my height to my weight my BMI would be 28. According to these numbers I am overweight and only two points away from being obese. Shoot, I guess I really need to lose some weight. In reality I am only about 10% body fat, so the BMI scale can take a hike. A person who was introduced to the BMI scale for the very first time and had the same exact body composition as me would probably look at the result of this measurement and think they really needed to lose some weight or place value or self worth in it.
Like BMI, your scale at home spits out a generic number. This number doesn’t reflect your actual body composition, it just tells you how much you weigh, and that’s it. Nothing more.
So what exactly is body composition and what does it actually mean? Body composition is what your body is composed of. Our bodies can be broken down into fat mass and fat free mass. Fat mass is actual fat, and fat free mass is everything else like muscles, connective tissues, bones, organs, etc. In the fitness world we look at your fat mass vs. your fat free mass. We do skin folds and we measure with tape measures and we plug these numbers into fancy formulas that give us a better idea of what your body is actually composed of. Body composition is a much better reflection and a much better indicator of your progress in the gym. Not the scale.
When people start their fitness journey they usually see a pretty dramatic change on the scale. They are becoming more active, they are probably eating less, and they are probably making better food choices. They are amped by what the scale is reflecting and they are motivated by it. As they progress through the months of hard training they begin to see a decrease in the numbers of changes on the scale. They get down on themselves and they start to do things that are detrimental to their progress. I see it time and time again. Somebody is making incredible progress by working out hard with us at the gym and they have their nutrition dialed in and they come to me with tears in their eyes and they say, “The scale won’t change!” This is where every client goes one of two ways. They either say “forget the scale” or they become a slave to it. Those who forget the scale continue to make incredible progress and thrive. Those who become slaves to the scale, this article is for you.
So what gives? You have been working your tail off for months, your nutrition is dialed in, and you have been making incredible progress. Then one day the number on the scale plateaus. You freak out. You start weighing more often, maybe even multiple times per day. You question your training and your nutrition. You start to eat less and work out even more. Everything that you do doesn’t make that number budge. You have fallen into a world where the scale controls your life. You don’t enjoy yourself anymore. You feel guilty for treating yourself and you get down on yourself. Your self worth and how you think others view you goes down the toilet. All for some number glaring back at you from the bathroom floor. I have seen it so many times. Clients stall. Their lives stop and they revolve everything around getting that number to go down. People get hung up on even the smallest fluctuations in weight. As a strength coach one of the most frustrating things to have to do is convince someone that the number on the scale doesn’t matter.
There comes a point in time during every successful fitness story where the number on the scale stalls. Here’s why. Over the course of an effective fat loss program lean mass will actually increase at a rate equal to the rate that you can burn fat. Simply put, you gain more muscle and lose more fat, but the number on the scale remains the same. You are still making HUGE strides towards your goal of a leaner body but the number on the scale doesn’t reflect what is actually happening inside the body. My tip for those who notice this happening is to strive for a certain “look” and don’t focus on the number on the scale. If you look leaner and stronger every month but the number on the scale isn’t moving, then who cares.
Normal weight fluctuations based on food choices can have a huge impact on what the scale says from day to day and even hour to hour, but not in the way that you would expect. Small variations in weight over an acute period of time are completely normal and expected. High carbohydrate intake, sodium, hydration, and dehydration all play a roll in weight fluctuations, but this is due to water gain or loss, not pure fat gain or loss. In fact, for a lean individual with a large amount of muscle it can be completely normal for them to fluctuate 5-7 pounds per day based on hydration levels.
Over measuring on the scale is one of the most detrimental things you can do to your fitness goals. I have had clients in the past measure themselves on the scale multiple times per day. This always led to a cycle of punishments and rewards. If they were lighter than expected they would reward themselves with some extra calories that day, but if they were over what they expected to be that day this would usually lead to some sort of restrictive pattern of punishment that had them dramatically cutting calories. What they were doing over time was keeping their body in constant confusion between feast a famine. This is a great way to mess up a perfectly good metabolism folks.
The result of overcompensating one way or another on a dramatic level will never get you to where you want to be on your fitness journey. It will only set you on a path of frustration and yo-yo weight gain and loss. Consistent, thoughtful, and planned actions with small changes will be the best path to choose over the course of time.
Josh Soper, CSCS, Personal Trainer, LKN Fitness Specialists
