Our bodies are these amazingly dynamic mechanisms that shift weight on and off all during the day and night. Hormones, diet, medications, and exercise are just a few of the players in this complex system.
The number on the scale is just a general indicator of your overall body weight. That snapshot of what your body had onboard at that moment. It’s just a number. It doesn’t help you know how your efforts are working or if you’re making progress.
Certain hormone balances, and even a Chinese meal (think: monosodium glutamate – salty foods always make your body retain water but boy are they tasty), can cause your body to retain water, thus increase your weight. While a heavy exercise session or certain medications can cause you to lose water weight.
As far as the scale is considered, it’s all temporary and doesn’t help you chart progress on your lifestyle habits.
What does help?
Surprisingly some of the best indicators are how your clothes fit and people around you noticing the weight change. Admittedly, both do wonders for the ego but fixating on pounds adds stress about trying to make a certain weight. Unless you are competing in weight-classed sporting events, you don’t need a number to mark progress.
Which brings up the important point of weight differences between fat and muscle. Pound for pound, fat takes up more physical space than muscle but muscle is more compact. As your healthy lifestyle program progresses, you are busy trading out fat for lean muscle weight, hence the frustration people have when they only watch the scales. The numbers don’t change though there is a lot happening in your body.
The cool part happens only over time and with your continued focus on your health goals. Muscle continues to replace the fat in your body and your physique becomes better sculpted. Your weight had nothing to do with this result.
So relax, stay focused on your healthy lifestyle changes (i.e. good diet, exercise, environment, sleep) and you will achieve the body shape you want with time and effort. The wait and work will be worth it!
“Ambition is the path to success, persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
– William Eardley IV
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