WHY IS YOUR SCALE NUMBER UP?

I believe that the diet culture sets us up for a failure by connecting our progress to the scale number and scale number alone!

If you are a female 40+ looking for the ways to change your body composition - adding more muscles and strength, "toning" your body, feeling fit and looking good, please understand that the scale number is not the ultimate goal or measure of your progress.

What are other possible measurements? - Pictures, measuring your waist inches, measuring and seeing your muscles by flexing your arms and legs - just to name a few. Yes, it is totally possible to see your scale number going up but your measurements going down. Just another reason not to focus on the scale number alone if you are following an effective plan that includes building muscles!

What the diet industry is not telling us is that building muscles is an essential part of our weight loss journey or more accurately fat burning journey. When we build muscles with the adequate nutrition, we increase our chances of boosting our metabolism even at the age of 40 and beyond. When we build muscles, our body looks fitter, leaner, stronger or as many women like to say "toned". And, yes, when we build muscles, our weight number may increase but usually the measurements at the waist decrease. Strength training with progressive overload is one of the essential keys to our journey of feeling good, looking good and being strong to embrace our 40s and beyond.

Read this blog - IT IS TOTALLY NORMAL FOR THE WEIGHT TO FLUCTUATE DAILY!

If weighing yourself daily is part of your journey to collect data and analyze the data for making necessary adjustments, then you may enjoy this extensive list that will help you interpret your jumpy scale number.

However, if seeing your scale number going up makes you feel very emotional, read this blog.

NINE POSSIBLE CAUSES OF A JUMPY SCALE:

1. Time of day/week/month - weight is lower in the morning than evening, higher during certain times of the month, or all over the place depending on your stress levels at any moment.
   
2. Type of workout - cardio workouts will show a loss because of lost water due to sweating. HIIT/lifting weights typically = water retention required for proper healing, so scale may temporarily shoot up. But increased muscles = increased metabolism, so ..... get over it! Keep lifting weights and getting stronger.
   
3. Sweating - aka losing water (scale loss). Water loss is NOT fat loss! It needs to be replenished or you will begin to "retain" water (scale gain).
   
4. Clothes - obviously bulky clothes will increase scale weight. Jeans can weigh 1-3 pounds! So middday-fully-clothed-Dr-office weigh-ins? At your own risk.
   
5. Carbs - eating carbs is NOT "bad", but the glycogen retention they cause can show on the scale convincing most dieters that they are. Eat a huge pasta dinner! Enjoy the yum and give the scale the next morning off.
   
6. Excess sodium - processed, packaged foods/meats contain sodium (water retention) - which causes the scales to tip until your sodium/potassium levels regulate.
   
7. Food - some foods can take 48+ to digest. Undigested food in your body = scale weight!
   
8. Sleep - 1-2% of your body weight is lost just from breathing (&... drooling). Losing water=losing "weight". Not enough sleep or interrupted sleep = scale number up.
   
9. Stress levels - stress drives up cortisol, which increases your water weight. Weight fluctuation is constant and 100% NATURAL. Unless you ate 7000+ calories above maintenance, a 2lb "gain" is not real. What science tells us is that it takes 3500 calories to gain 1lb of weight.

Where are you on your wellness journey?

Where you are is the best place to start!

Enjoy reading my story about my cooking trip to Italy!

Be Well,

Coach Jewels