The Scales Haven’t Moved, So Now What?
We pin so much of our success, our progress and how we ultimately feel about our bodies based on a number on a scale. But why?
The scales literally show us how much our whole body weights at any given time, so why do we let it have such a hold over us?
We seem to think: ‘Weight goes up = bad, weight goes down = good’ This is far from accurate and what the scales show does not define you as a person. It does not show you the whole picture. It is ONE metric, ONE measure and ONE snapshot!!
If the scales go up, does that mean that you have instantly gained body fat?
HELL NO!!! What the sales aren’t telling you is:
Whether you have any undigested food in your gut.
Whereabouts you are in your monthly cycle.
Whether you trained recently.
Whether you are stressed.
How you have been sleeping.
Are you dehydrated/hydrated?
Have you eaten more carbohydrate than normal?
Has there been a change in body composition (reduction in body fat and increase in muscle mass)
These factors can ALL play a role in the scales and the number that they produce and more often than not, there will be more than one of these involved at any one time. A lot of the time these fluctuations are down to water retention. There are many reasons why your body could retain water: carbohydrate intake, hydration status, hormones, stress, sleep, exercise inflammation (just to name a few) this does not mean that you have gained body fat!!
The only way you will gain body fat is by eating more calories than you are burning, this is usually a build up over a period of time.
Let’s look at an example…
You weigh yourself on Friday morning and you weigh 70kg, you have a meal out planned for Saturday night and a couple of drinks. You decide that you will enjoy your meal and not track. You enjoy your meal and have a couple of glasses of wine. You have a lovely evening and felt no differently about your body.
You step on the scales again on Saturday morning and your weight is now 70.8kg, you start to panic and regret your choices from the night before as you feel like you have ‘undone all your hard work’ and ‘gained nearly 1kg in fat’ STOP!!! Science will tell you otherwise.
The laws of thermodynamics cannot be cheated. In order to burn 1lb (0.4kg) of fat it costs your body a deficit 3,500 calories. So in order for you to have gained 0.8kg fat overnight that means that your meal out would have had to have been over 7,000 calories ON TOP of your maintenance for the day!!
That is A LOT of food!! Plus as a one off it would be very unlikely that your body would store it all in one go, it would be very inefficient and not beneficial.
We need to get out of the mindset that the scales going down is ‘good’ and that the scales going up is ‘bad’.
If weight/fat loss is your goal there will be times were your weight plateaus and daily/weekly/monthly fluctuations are perfectly normal and healthy. Instead of using just the one measure to monitor your progress. Try; taking progress pictures once a month, take physical measurements, how are your clothes fitting? Do you feel different? Leaner, stronger, fitter, have more energy? These are all signs of progress that are not necessarily shown on the scales and should be celebrated!!
If you are looking to maintain, know that you won’t hold an exact weight, once you have finished a dieting phases the scales may even go up a few pounds until your body adjusts. Food choices may be different and calories will be increased as you don’t need to be in a deficit anymore. There will of course be the same fluctuations as you would have experienced during weight/fat loss, which is normal!
I would avoid fixating on a set number to ‘maintain’ instead think of weight maintenance as a range, a couple of kg each way!! This feels far easier to ‘maintain’ and allows for these fluctuations!
‘The scales have gone up gradually, am I gaining body fat?’
I would use your other progress methods to evaluate your body; How are your progress pictures looking? how do you feel? How are your clothes fitting? How’s your performance in the gym?
If you are training hard in the gym, your sessions are feeling great. You are stronger, full of energy and your clothes are still fitting nicely, it’s going to be unlikely that you are gaining body fat, instead it is likely that your body is changing composition. You are probably gaining some muscle mass and body fat levels are either staying the same or reducing.
If you are finding that the scales are having an impact on your thoughts and feelings about your body or that they are influencing your moods based on the number that appears when you step on, it might be an idea to take some time away from them. If you are making progress you will still be making progress regardless of whether you step on the scales or not!
You might find that it helps you to evaluate your progress in other ways and celebrate your wins differently! Remember we a product of what we do consistently, not what we do on occasion.
I can feel daunting to take a step back from them, but it can be beneficial in the long run if you are fixated on them. Unless you try it you will never know!!
