Scales for years have been the bane of many women’s existence. They diet all day and 
don’t see a change in the numbers. Then at the end of the week or month after working hard at the gym and eating like a bird there’s a drop by one.. maybe two. After a while it’s enough to make someone throw in the towel and just eat the cake. Or the opposite happens. They see a dramatic change in one week and think, “I’ve got this” and then treat themselves to that cake only to see that one “treat” cancelled the whole week’s worth of work. It can be very frustrating.
That’s because physical weight is complicated. There are many factors that go into the lbs per inch being that is you. Most of us know of the dreaded water weight. The bloating that we get during our period, or that quick 3 lbs we lose when we cut out soda, but that’s just the beginning.
I have been feeling very annoyed in my weight-loss adventure because I have been working my ARSE off. I have been working the Beachbody programs, going to the boxing 
gym and Zumba. I have even been taking nutrition classes to make sure what I’m putting into my body is not sabotaging my work. Yet the scale creeps along at snail speed.
I have to admit I’m one of those people who do… what I’m not supposed to.. and weigh myself everyday. Part of it is because as I’m learning I want to track how things are going and what is affecting what.. and the other is because I’m crazy and anal and want to see the scale numbers plummet before my eyes. But they don’t. In fact sometimes after what I think is a great day the numbers actually rise (%^&^%^). But I know that I am losing weight. My clothes don’t fit anymore, my friends and family all comment, but I reply.. no.. I’m not losing weight…. I’m losing fat, and there’s the difference.
Now I know that I named this “your scale is lying to you”, but what I should have said is, “you need a scale that knows how to talk to you”. When I first started my adventure a year ago I bought myself a Weigh Watchers body fat calculator scale
. It measures not just weight, but BMI, bone mass, water weight and fat weight. That changes everything. I stepped on the scale yesterday and used this feature for the first time in months and that number BLEW ME AWAY.
When I fist started I had a body fat percentage of 51… a year later… it’s 34. That’s huge. Some people may be surprised that the weight numbers don’t match the % numbers.. but that’s just it. Muscle weighs more than fat. So… for every, let’s say, cup of fat I lost I gained a half a cup of muscle. So my body is getting slimmer and healthier but my weight barely shifts.
In our society especially numbers are so important. The number on the scale. The number in the bank account. Hell, even your IQ. But that’s just one way to quantify a person. We need to learn to look at the whole picture.
