Developing a love-hate relationship with your scale is an easy thing to do.
Depending on your goals, you love it when it’s down and hate it when it’s up –or vice versa.
But remember, a scale measures weight not body composition. That is it can’t tell the difference between lean muscle mass, fat, bone and water.
For instance, after staying consistent with a weight training program, you may see a gain on the scale. But, if you’re not cheating on healthy eating habits, that gain is probably lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is more dense than fat, but takes up less space. It’s always better to have more muscle than fat.
While the scale is a way to measure your healthy eating progress. Too often used as a tool for shaming, whether you want to lose or gain.
To negate any bad trips to the scale, resolve to weigh yourself once a week, on the same day, in the morning, in the buff. The scale can be your friend in that it reinforces the hard work you do each week.
If you don’t see the results you’re looking for then revisit your original plan. Remember healthy weight loss, or gain, is 1-2lbs a week. Eat more real foods and less processed and fast foods. I’m Erica Walters with the Church Health Center.
If you have a health question for Life Matters send an e-mail to health@wkno.org