Why let the scale run your life or self image?

Newfiedan

So I know that there are wayyyy to many mfp users who are obsessed with the scale weight and this really bugs me so this is kind of a vent/outlet for me to hopefully put things in perspective for the scale obsessed. First a little back story to my journey thus far and what I have learned
I started this journey over a year ago mainly because I was unhealthy and needed to get myself on a better road. I decided to do so and I joined mfp because my wife had been using it for about 2 months prior to me joining and it was a nice way to keep track of things. I started my journey at 200 lbs give or take a bit depending on the day and not giving a damn what I stuffed in my face. So I simply followed the 1 lb/wk goal and ate pretty much what I wanted just in smaller quantities. I also ate back every exercise cal. I never hit a plateau during my journey until I got into the lower bodyfat % and at that point I started to loose muscle as well as fat. This was a problem. I needed to stop the muscle loss and for those whom would say things like "You did not lift hard enough" cram it kiddo I work harder in the gym than anyone I know. The problem is that working hard is not the issue. I needed to work smarter. It was at this point that I started to pay real attention to body composition which leads me to why I hate this scale obsession I see day in day out on mfp.

So let me put this in context for you to sum it up. Without knowing what your starting body composition is the scale weight means nothing. That's right ladies and gents, nothing. A scale weight is nothing more than a means to determine a starting point for calories required, and its not just as simple as cals in vs cals out because its about what the body does with those cals that really matters. If you are obese then it is as simple as cals in vs cals out, why? Simple you have a lot to lose and the body will work with you to shed that fat, I am not saying its going to be easy, but compared to a person whom is lean it, relatively speaking, is easier. This is not meant to diminish the struggle that obese ppl have to go through I know it can be hard.

So if you are a 150 lb lady with lots of muscle then you realistically will be a much smaller more compact package than a 150 lb overweight woman. I know a woman whom got herself into the gym shed 60 lbs and looked like crap at 120 lbs but once she got her head into the body comp game got back to 140 lbs and looks 10 times sexier. She is toned, built and has curves. She told me once that she never knew what it meant to think about it in terms of body comp vs the scale weight but she learned her lesson and got to a better body comp.

Same applies to my male counterparts, men we tend to have an easier time shedding fat because for the most part we have more muscle than our female counterparts (yes I know not all men have more muscle this is not the point) if we are just shedding fat then we can improve body comp but without attention to muscle loss it can leave us in a poorer body comp than when we started.

Now I can go on forever about cals, diet myths and so on, but that is for another topic another time, what my goal here in this post is to get mfp members to shift focus from just "weight loss" and the scale to what that scale weight really means in terms of muscle loss and improving body comp. What you really want to shed is fat, not just weight.

RogerF765

I basicly track my calories and my exercise. I weigh myself around once a week and if there's a loss I record it. I do a lot of strength based stuff so I'm putting on quite a bit of muscle. I know that I'm getting thinner because all of my clothes are getting way too big. But my weight is staying about the same. I use it mainly as a guage incase I backslide a bit but I don't obsess over it or try to be super exact with my calories. If I know I'm in the ballpark then it's all good and I don't sweat it.