Let's face it, we are obsessed with scale weight! If the scale goes down, we are happy - day MADE! If the scale goes up, it ruins our whole day and we end up feeling worthless and depressed. Am I right?? Unfortunately the scale doesn't tell you how much weight is fat and how much is muscle.
Losing weight alone is the wrong goal. You should focus instead on shedding FAT and gaining muscle! We already know that muscle takes up less room than fat - therefore, muscle will look soooo much better on you than that fat does. If you want to get off the diet roller
coaster and achieve permanent fat loss, the first thing you need to do is stop
using ONLY the scale to measure your progress.
Weigh, AND measure your BODY FAT percentage. I use the Accu-Measure - it's a little
plastic skinfold caliper that I got for really cheap. (You can get one for like $5 on Amazon) It comes with instructions and a handy little
chart. I'm sure it's not super accurate,
but as long as I do it the same every time - it's consistent.
Once you know your body fat percentage, the next
step is to calculate how much of your weight is fat, and how much is
muscle.
EXAMPLE:
You
weigh 150 lbs
Your
body fat is 25%
Multiply
your body fat by your weight to determine fat weight:
(.25
x 150 lbs = 37.5 lbs of fat)
Subtract
fat weight from total weight to determine lean mass:
(150
lbs – 37.5 = 112.5 pounds of lean mass)
Do
this every week, and TRACK YOUR PROGRESS!
By itself, the scale can be misleading, but with the skinfold testing to
measure pounds of fat and muscle your body weight gives you crucial
information. This is how to truly see
your progress. By tracking changes in
your weight, body fat, and lean mass, you can tell if you’ve lost,
maintained, or gained muscle. This
reveals whether your exercise and diet program is really working or if you’ve
hit a plateau and need to make changes.
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