Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What the Scale Misses

Women usually want to get on the scale before and after or expect that I will weigh them in each week at Fitcamp. I don't! I am really not a fan of the scale! I don't even own one! Weight is just a number, but what we all really care about is what we look like in our clothes right? I usually ask my women to find a pair of jeans that won't lie to you!! If your like me, you have about 15 pairs of jeans...some that you actually wear, and others that you hold on to and stare at hoping someday you will fit back into them! Use these jeans to determine your weight loss! Who cares about the scale.

The Difference Between Fat and Muscle
The scale only measures your total body weight in pounds. It doesn't measure how many of those pounds are muscle, fat, bones, blood, etc. Many of you know by now that muscle weighs more than fat. Muscle is like a brick. Fat, is like cotton balls. It takes far more cotton balls than brick to make a pound. So a pound of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle. (Fat kinda looks like cotton balls too huh?) lol!
So over the course of the next 6 weeks if you are participating in a strength and cardio program, you and gaining muscle and losing fat. So you may lose 6 lbs of fat, but gain 2lbs of muscle, but be upset by only losing 4 lbs on the scale. Meanwhile those jeans may start fitting alot better!

Remember these days of the leotards and leg warmers?!! All women did was aerobics. In the fitness world this era is known as the "Skinny Fat" Era. Women were skinny, but their body fat % was high because they had NO muscle! They did hours of cardio and didn't lift a weight. I laugh about the "skinny fat" era all the time! Good thing we know better now!

If you are going to weigh your self regularly, do it only once a week and at the same time every week. A womens weight can fluctuate by several pounds daily. We don't need this extra stressor in life. If the jeans fit, who cares what the scale says!

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