Really now?
I'm not going to sit here and be so self righteous and act like I have never bought into the hype. I most certainly have which is why I would like to save you the time, frustration, and money by telling you to put those ads on ignore.
Advertising
As a communications major in college, one of my professors asked us what was the purpose of television. As naive young people our answers were noble: Television was meant to inform, educate, bring together diverse backgrounds, provide an outlet for artists
WRONG
The purpose of television is to sell advertising.
So everything on television is meant to get us to go buy something. The purpose of these diet ads aren't to motivate you, educate you, or inform you. It's to get you to go buy whatever miracle method that is being sold.
In college I knew a student who wanted to be on an informercial for a DVD fitness program. It was one of those do this DVD 3x per week and then you will lose 20lbs in 30 days deals. I don't think this program ever made it to market because I never saw it, but anyway she wanted to be on the informercial and she was going to give a testimonial that she did this for 6 weeks and now she looks amazing.
First of all she already looked amazing. Second of all she told me that in order to be on this informerical you not only had to stick to the strict diet that they designed for you, go to personal training sessions, and then you may have a chance to be on the informerical.
Say what now? The diet was not a part of the program that they were selling and I'm sure most people were not going to have the best personal trainers in town in addition to the DVD's they worked out with 3x per week.
Of course early in the morning when you can't sleep and you're eating cookies, a lot of these programs sound very tempting and just the thing to solve your weight problems.
Get off the scale
Get off of it. Throw it away if you need to.
Stop using it as your only metric to gauge progress because it is not the best method of tracking progress.
People ask me how much I weigh now. To be honest, I don't know. I only check when it's time for my update to send into my coach because when it's competition time, they won't care how much I weigh. It's about how I look. Furthermore I know there's changes and getting on the scale messes with my head. If the scale is up 2 lbs, I'm angry for the rest of the day and want to go eat all the things. As a woman, scale weight is going to fluctuate all over the place so it's really not the best gauge of progress.
Scale Weight and Water Retention
Depending on how much water or sodium you consume, your weight can vary by substantial amounts. In the week between Christmas and New Years, I have my eat whatever you like week. I started off 2014 11 pounds scale weight heavier than in December. Did I really gain 11 pounds of fat? No, I was retaining a ton of water because I was eating, drinking (not a lot of water), and being merry.
Depending on how much sodium you consume and if you're not drinking water, you could be holding a substantial amount of water. That's why when most people start a diet that first week, they see a substantial drop. Most of it is water they are dropping because they are eating less processed foods with less sodium and drinking more water.
Of course if you're a woman, then you already know that there are certain times of the month where we will retain a whole lot of water and that can be anywhere from a 3-7 pound difference.
Carbohydrate and Water Retention
Why do people love low carbohydrate diets? They see scale drops right away. Is it because carbs make you gain weight? Not exactly.
Here's the short version:
When you eat carbohydrates, they've got 4g of water (amongst other things) riding along with it. This is why when people go on low carbohydrate diets, they see immediate scale drops and may "feel" leaner because they are holding less water.
So what happens when these people start eating normally again because I have YET to see someone sustain these quick fix low carb diets as a lifestyle.
That's right! It comes right back on! No thanks.
Body Composition
If I hear one more "trainer" say that muscle weighs more than fat, I will scream.
MUSCLE DOES NOT WEIGH MORE THAN FAT. A POUND OF MUSCLE = A POUND OF FAT. They just look totally different.
Fat takes up more space than muscle. Here is an excellent visual example of 5 lbs of muscle vs. 5 pounds of fat.
I know women who weigh 170 pounds, but look as though they weigh 140 pounds just because they carry a lot of muscle( and with it a lot of glycogen and water.)
I believe clients need to be much more concerned with their body composition than scale weight which is why I am big on measurements. I had a case where a client lost 3 lbs in 6 weeks, but ended up losing 11 inches all over and there was a noticeable difference in her body composition in that short amount of time.
Time and time again I see clients whose bodies are changing, but the scale may not be moving as fast as they would like. Whatever. We will concentrate on their body composition which is how much fat vs. muscle they have.
My goal with clients is to: lower body fat, sustain or build lean body tissue.
I'm going to get to this later on, but ladies: You can't "tone" fat. You're going to have to lift some heavy things and eat.
Better ways to track progress
Measurements
This is my favorite because we are ALL different and genetics determine where we will begin to change faster. Some people hold on to excess body fat in their lower bodies. I carry my body fat in my midsection and I know when I see movement in that area, something's happening.
If you don't want to bother with all over measurements, then make sure to measure your abdomen, right across the abdomen. That is usually a great indicator of progress.
Pictures
This has been a great tool for me to gauge my own progress. If I went according to what my mind was telling me, then there was no progress. Nothing was happening. Pictures told a very different story. It's really a great tool to be able to visually see changes. We see ourselves every day and aren't very objective. Pictures show you visual progression.
I'm definitely going to keep doing this once my competition season is over.
I have goals for my improvement season and that will help to keep me on track to make sure we are training for the desired goal.
Clothing
We all have that one pair of pants that motivated us to do something about our current condition. Tell me I'm lying! When you can't get on your favorite pants or shirt, then it's time to take action.
If you're not at the place where you want to take measurements or do pictures, get that pair of pants out that you couldn't zip without ending up on the floor and use it as your progress pants.
Tune out the advertising and quick miracle transformations
If I can't get anything else across it's that sustainable fat loss TAKES TIME and your body is going to respond how it is going to respond. Everyone is different. You can be following a plan and only losing 0.5lb of body fat a week because biologically that's what your biochemistry, metabolism, and genetics have determined is your rate of fat loss.
Well that's too slow you complain.
Let's say that happened over the course of a year. You would have lost 26 lbs of body fat and I'm sure if you're doing it slowly and effectively, then you probably gained some lean body mass. I would venture to say that you would LOOK like you lost way more than 26 lbs. Let's look at that visual of fat vs. muscle once again.
Can you see how 26 lbs of that yellow stuff being gone would make a pretty big difference.
I have lost 10 pounds scale weight in one year and looked like I lost 20 because I lost body fat and gained lean body mass. Sure it was slow but I did not rebound and have to start all over again or from a higher set point.
I want people to tune out all these fake promises, exaggerated transformations, miracle weight loss cures, and focus on creating a sustainable atmosphere for fat loss and a lifestyle that optimizes their health.
If you must weigh yourself, then do it once every 2 weeks AT MOST. Beginning of the month and end of the month. Use it as a data point but not as a defining point. There are better ways to gauge progress.
GET OFF THE SCALE!
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