For all Begginers - Why the scale lies *read!*
fiveohmike
Posts: 1,297 Member
Hey Guys,
Wanted to share with you something interesting I read. These are the reasons we say ditch the scale. You want to know why your gaining weight for the first few weeks (glycogen retention) or why the scale can fluctuate wildly? Please read, i know its lengthy:
"Why the Scale Lies"
By Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer
We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings.
From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.
Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.
Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.
Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.
Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it. Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.
This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue. Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale
Wanted to share with you something interesting I read. These are the reasons we say ditch the scale. You want to know why your gaining weight for the first few weeks (glycogen retention) or why the scale can fluctuate wildly? Please read, i know its lengthy:
"Why the Scale Lies"
By Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer
We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings.
From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.
Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.
Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.
Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.
Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it. Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.
This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue. Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale
0
Replies
-
thanks for posting this. this helps me keep with 2 days weighing free and keep plugging in.0
-
I so needed to read this today. Thank you0
-
LOVE! Honestly, I'm 4 weeks in and have yet to weigh myself. The more involved I get in eating at TDEE-15% and following NROL4W, the more I question why the scale is even important. Why do we place SO much importance on that number when measurements, body fat percentage and how our clothes are fitting are much truer indicators of our progress? A part of me thinks I may never step on a scale again...is that crazy talk? LOL I suppose I need to know my weight for recalculating my TDEE so I keep my cal's where they need to be, but honestly, if it weren't for that I would just ditch it altogether, I think. : )
Thank you so much for posting this!0 -
Very informative, thank you! I really need to break my scale addiction.0
-
awesome information! Thanks!0
-
Thanks for the great read !0
-
I just love this, thanks!0
-
Hi five!!!0
-
Thanks!0
-
Ty for this post.. a must read!!0
-
I really needed this. Just weighed myself this morning and the scale is up and has been shifting back and forth for 2 weeks now. I was getting so depressed.
Thank you sooooo much. I really want to put the scale away but just cant do it????0 -
Great read, thanks for sharing!0
-
I'm in a group that's not getting on the scale until the end of the month...you are welcome to join! It's 'Not weighing for four weeks' on here. (sorry, don't know how to do link thing!) I know it will be hard but worth it.I really needed this. Just weighed myself this morning and the scale is up and has been shifting back and forth for 2 weeks now. I was getting so depressed.
Thank you sooooo much. I really want to put the scale away but just cant do it????0 -
Thank you so, so much for this post. Really needed it today! :flowerforyou:0
-
Awesome read!! I really needed to hear this today!
0 -
Great post. Thank you!0
-
Thanks!0
-
After almost 6 weeks, I am finally getting it. Thanks for sharing. 0
-
Thank you for the reminder:)0
-
I know the scale lies! All of what you say here is true. But for me it's also true that all my clothes are tighter and I look fat in my most recent pictures. I'm in week 5 of attempting my metabolic reset so I expect the lies from the scale. I still hate how I look and am not at all sure I will lose weight when it's over. I wasn't losing before anyway, so why not do this ? I do wish I had a way of explaining away the fat pictures.0
-
Thanks for this!
I told my husband yesterday I felt smaller so, of course, I jumped on the scale. But there was no change at all in my weight. I still feel better though. Not have as pudgy as I've been feeling.0 -
Thanks for posting - really needed to read this as I'm having a love /hate relationship with the scales which r up and down like a to yo at the mo with the same 2 lbs
0 -
I shouldn't have stepped on the scale this morning, but I did. I'm up of course. Today is day 5 of eating more and I'm feeling good. In a way I see the "gain" as being on the right track as my body is adjusting to this new way of eating. I did eat a lot of sodium yesterday and had trouble putting my rings on this morning. I'm guzzling water and tea right now! I think it's time to put the scale in the closet.0
-
thank you 0
-
I know the scale lies! All of what you say here is true. But for me it's also true that all my clothes are tighter and I look fat in my most recent pictures. I'm in week 5 of attempting my metabolic reset so I expect the lies from the scale. I still hate how I look and am not at all sure I will lose weight when it's over. I wasn't losing before anyway, so why not do this ? I do wish I had a way of explaining away the fat pictures.
Well one thing to understand (especially for the people who put on 5+ lbs quickly) is that water does take up space. The more water you retain, you might see gains in inches. 5+ lbs of water takes up quite a bit of space.
Good analogy of this is to look at sports where people have to cut weight (wrestling/UFC ect). They cut 10-15lbs of water weight off there body. You see them 24 hours after they re hydrate and they are noticeably bigger.0 -
Amen, I so needed this today. I was how in the heck did I gain overnight when I know I didn't eat 3500 extra calories in a day. I'm ditching my scale and am going to start weighing myself once a week. Thanks a bunch!0
-
This is definitely the kind of thing I need to read today. Yesterday I ran a trail half-marathon (13.1 miles...with 1500' of climbing) and didn't even manage to eat all the day's calories. (I gave it my best shot, honest, but I gave up with something like 500-700 to go.) And today I'm up 2 lbs from my lowest weight. Given how slowly this has been going, I'm getting frustrated and wondering what's going on. So it's good to read that there might be actual explanations. 0
-
I always like to remind even myself that a jump in weight is almost always reflective of the last couple days activities; sodium, lifts, high cardio, even dehydration, TOM...so many factors. I stop and think did I eat 3500 x lbs gained...not! That's why I like the tracker in the tdee sticky, if you have to look at the scale daily, when you start noting what is happening with you, you learn your trend. Now I don't track because I know a week before Tom I will start easing up a few pounds peaking 3rd day into Tom and then after it is over take at least five days to lose the water, I gain 2lbs after heavy lifts, high sodium weekends take a couple days to flush...so said all that to say... I don't bother with the scale. My body fat has continued downward even with the higher weight. So I pass the scale most days now...lol.0
-
I know the scale lies! All of what you say here is true. But for me it's also true that all my clothes are tighter and I look fat in my most recent pictures. I'm in week 5 of attempting my metabolic reset so I expect the lies from the scale. I still hate how I look and am not at all sure I will lose weight when it's over. I wasn't losing before anyway, so why not do this ? I do wish I had a way of explaining away the fat pictures.
This is EXACTLY what I was thinking! Not sure what this will lead to, but I'm doing it cause I have nothing to lose...figuratively, of course 0 -
I really look terrible and my thighs rub together again and the hot humid summer is coming.
I didn`t want to be insane any more and struggle to lose and gain the same two lbs for months and months. I am committed to the 8 weeks. But man, it sucks to be tracking your calories for months and have your ticker stay the same. I am still not actually eating TDEE. because my activity level was much higher than I thought.
I walked all weekend on a trip. My pedometer was at 20,000 steps one day and 15000 another. I didn`t over eat and tried to get to my TDEE but was about 500 under. This is my TDEE at 7 lbs less than I am now after starting the reset.
Gained 2 cm in my waist and 2 cm on my hips. I know it's short term, I so wish it would go down at all.
All I can see is my failure. Technically I`m not even getting enough calories but am not limiting too much. Just walking where I need to go and working at home burns a 1000 cal a day. 4 weeks in. Still feeling really skeptical. I have tried all kinds of diets in my life. I really just want to live. I vowed this week to enjoy life and not sweat the scale. But I still have my ticker screaming 0 at me. And the tape measure telling me I`m fatter. And my clothes.
It seems to be going well for you Mike. What`s your secret?0
