Jumping on the scales and seeing your weight go UP when you have been working so hard for them to go DOWN can be enough to make anyone give up a new health regime.
You have been eating perfectly, done loads of exercise and gone to bed early and you haven’t weighed yourself for a whole THREE DAYS so with eager excitement you jump on and… BANG you have gained 1/2 a pound! You weigh again but the scales are correct??? How can this be?
The truth of the matter is that whilst scales are certinaly the EASIEST barometer of change in your body they are not always the most accurate! What you must be aware of though is WHAT you are actually weighing, WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT and HOW to weigh yourself.
This article answers those questions…
What Are you Really Weighing?
What you are weighing on those scales is EVERYTHING in your body. The fat, the muscles, the bone, the water, the meal you have just eaten, the meal you ate 12 hours ago etc.
Now, with all these variables involved the results can fluctuate hugely. In fact they can fluctatute by up to 4lbs a day!
Just think about it, if you weigh yourself after exercise, with no food and when you have just been to the loo, you are going to be a whole lot lighter than you are in the evening before you go to bed having just had your evening meal.
Although this makes sense, few people weigh themselves at EXACTLY the same time each day, and even if they do, they fail to take into account factors such as stress (which can cause up to 6lb’s of water retention) salt intake (which again can cause water retention) and dehydration (which can cause water retention)
Because water makes up 66% of your body weight, any excess is going to affect those scales!
So what can you do?
Firstly appreciate that the scales are ONE barometer of your health and not the ONLY baremeter. At Urban Vitality all our clients get fitness assessments, measurements AND body fat percentages (if they want them) This way they can get better picture of what is really going on with their body and what you should be doing to improve the results you are getting.
After all, that is what keeps us motivated isn’t it? Seeing a reward for the work we are putting in. So why limit yourself to just one variable?
If the scales are all you are going to do, make sure you do it the following way.
Weigh yourself FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, with NO FOOD, and NO WATER on ONE DAY A WEEK only.
This way you can reduce the variability in the results and getting abetter picture of what is really going on.
Urban Vitality
