Should You Throw Away Your Scale?

Recently we did a poll on our Facebook page on how much weight I would gain on a week vacation at an all inclusive resort.  I did this poll for a few reasons.  One of the main ones was to show our clients and subscribers that we are human.  Just because I am a trainer and push my clients to follow a healthy nutrition program, doesn't mean there aren't times that we blow it and eat bad foods and drink alcohol.

I personally hate eating around other trainers who look down on anyone who eats what they consider bad foods like bread or gluten or whatever else they seem to have a problem with.  I just can't live that way.  I follow a nutrition diet of lean proteins, a variety of fruits and veggies, with starchy carbs in moderation.  Most of the time this is what I do.  But 10-20% of the time I will eat whatever I want and not feel bad about it.  This is a lifestyle that works for my and I can live with.

So I decided to eat and drink whatever I wanted for a week and see what kind of effect it would have on my weight.  Well 5 days into the vacation I was up 5lbs.  I figured at this point I would probably gain around 8lbs in the week.  Well then Thursday hit.  I will spare you the details, but I ate or drank something that my digestive tract wanted to get rid of immediately.  I pretty much could not stray too far from a toilet for the last two days of our trip.  Needless to say my weight started to drop back down.  After was all said and done I finished up 2.4lbs.  Most people might look at this and say, "Great! I didn't gain too much weight on my vacation."  And that may be true.  But the scale doesn't tell you everything.

I also measured my body fat % before and after.  Before the trip I was 12.8%.  When I got back I was at 14.8%.  Now there is always room for error with the type of testing I used but let's say these number are pretty accurate.  What this means is that before the trip I had 22.9lbs of fat on me.  After the trip I had 26.9lbs of fat.  So the scale said I gained 2.4lbs but I really gained 4lbs of fat.  The reason the scale didn't go up is most likely because I lost some muscle mass from lack of exercise or more likely water weight due to mi estomago issues.  A 2.4lb gain on the scale may not seem to be that bad, but 4lbs of fat is.  This took me a week to gain and will like take a month to get off.

So the purpose of this post was to remind you that you can use the scale to help guide you along the way, but it should not be your primary indicator of your success.  You weight can go up for a lot of reason other than fat gain and the scale can go down for many reason other than fat loss.  But just remember the goal is fat loss not weight loss.  Weighing in is only part of your assessment.  Make sure you are getting your body fat tested or at least circumference measurements so you know exactly how your body is changing.  If you restrict your calories on a diet you will lose fat, but are you losing muscle, bone, water weight, and organ tissue as well.  The goal of a weight management program is to lose primarily fat mass while maintain or increasing lean body mass.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training