did you know
by Katie Cardner
Reasons Why the Number on the Scale Doesn’t Matter
There’s no denying that America is the most
overweight country in the world. A killer
combination of an abundance of fast food
and the lack of adequate exercise across
the nation has earned us the top spot as the
world’s largest country, so to speak. With
all of this focus on an obese and overweight
population, we have become obsessed with
that little – or large – number on the scale.
I don’t know about you, but I have
been instructed to step on a scale
every time I visit the doctor’s office.
Since I was a little kid, I assumed that
the scale was the best way to measure
how “healthy” I am. During a time
when I was trying to lose weight, I
found myself getting so frustrated
anytime I stepped on the scale. How
could I weigh this much!? I have been
eating healthy and exercising regularly.
Shouldn’t this number be decreasing? Countless of people seem to
be asking themselves these same
questions. Perhaps the issue here isn’t
us – perhaps the issue is our form of
measurement. Research is showing
that the scale isn’t the best way to
measure one’s health – it actually may
be the worst.
There are a few reasons why
measuring your weight on a scale is a
complete waste of your time. First of
all, the only thing a scale can measure
is your relationship with gravity. The
scale measures one thing and one
thing only: your weight. One person
may weigh 150 lbs and look like a sack
of potatoes, while another person may
weigh 150 lbs and be a competitive
bodybuilder. A scale just tells you
how much you weigh; it doesn’t take
into consideration how much of that
weight is muscle versus fat.
People who are trying to lose
weight will start their journey by seeing numbers drop lower and lower on
the scale. As they get a few weeks into
their journey, they feel like they aren’t
making any progress. The number on
the scale is barely going down, but I am
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working out even more than before. I
can feel myself getting faster and stronger, so why isn’t this number changing?
This usually happens because though
you may be losing fat, you may also be
gaining muscle. A pound of fat looks
very different than a pound of muscle.
This is because muscle is more dense
than fat. A pound of fat takes up more
space than a pound of muscle. So
although you are shrinking in size,
your weight may stay around the
same amount. Granted, for those who
have a significant amount of body
fat to lose, you will eventually see the
number on the scale go down, since
you can only gain so much muscle in
a period of time. However, the most
important indicator of health is what
makes up your body composition
(muscle versus fat). Muscle is also
more metabolically active than fat,
meaning that simply having muscle
in your body keeps your metabolism
elevated. The more muscle mass you
have, the more calories you burn at rest.
Our weight can fluctuate anywhere
from 5-10 pounds throughout the day.
Our bodies are amazing mechanisms.
There are so many changes they go
through in just 24 hours. Our weight
can change throughout the day based
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