Why the Scale Lies

thirty-two · October 29th, 2005, 11:01 AM

i found this on a music forum, but they didn't attach a link, so i'm not quite sure where this came from. it's an interesting article nonetheless, if one is ever dissappointed or frustrated with the scale.
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by Renee Cloe,
ACE Certified Personal Trainer

We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.

Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.

Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.

Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.

Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.

This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.

Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.

If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

vince56 · October 29th, 2005, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thirty-two

460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts.

Man, I would never want to take 123 mg in the nuts

Especially when I could put 460 mg in the pudding

Yuma · October 29th, 2005, 03:12 PM

This person has all the technical stuff OK. However, when you drop almost 50 pounds, or gain it to start with, that scale AIN'T lying! No matter HOW much you want it to!

thirty-two · October 29th, 2005, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuma

This person has all the technical stuff OK. However, when you drop almost 50 pounds, or gain it to start with, that scale AIN'T lying! No matter HOW much you want it to!

Yeah that was exactly the point of the article.

This is for the people who are trying to lose weight but maybe they see a gain of a few pounds when they thought they'd done well. Or are just discouraged.

Yuma · October 29th, 2005, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thirty-two

Yeah that was exactly the point of the article.

This is for the people who are trying to lose weight but maybe they see a gain of a few pounds when they thought they'd done well. Or are just discouraged.

I still ain't buying it. If I gain a couple pounds, I eat way less and get back down to the weight I was before I gained those pounds. By NOT looking at the scale I ended up gaining SOOO much weight.

marathon_mom · November 3rd, 2005, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuma

I still ain't buying it. If I gain a couple pounds, I eat way less and get back down to the weight I was before I gained those pounds. By NOT looking at the scale I ended up gaining SOOO much weight.

You didn't gain weight because you didn't look at the scale. You gained weight cuz you sat on your arse & ate too much. Right?

Every time I force myself to use the scale sparingly, I lsoe weight and much more of it. When I get on it too much, I tend to sabotage my results.

6 weeks in the magic # for me. However, my dr is going to help me soon & she wants to see me every 2 weeks for weigh in. we'll see. Will let ya'll know how it goes.

Yuma, you're losing wieght because you're off your arse & eating better. That's the only way this weight thing works!

P.S. I am proud of you!!!

Yuma · November 3rd, 2005, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marathon_mom

You didn't gain weight because you didn't look at the scale. You gained weight cuz you sat on your arse & ate too much. Right?

Every time I force myself to use the scale sparingly, I lsoe weight and much more of it. When I get on it too much, I tend to sabotage my results.

6 weeks in the magic # for me. However, my dr is going to help me soon & she wants to see me every 2 weeks for weigh in. we'll see. Will let ya'll know how it goes.

Yuma, you're losing wieght because you're off your arse & eating better. That's the only way this weight thing works!

P.S. I am proud of you!!!

Guys are different. We don't feel weight gain like you ladies do. We are cavemen, who as long as our pants fit, we eat what we want, then go, "Dude how did I gain 15 pounds?"

So monitoring my weight daily works MUCH better for me.

Thank you for being proud of me. I actually have been eating differently more than the getting off my arse part!

BodybuildingCardsFan · December 12th, 2005, 08:45 PM

With skimming the article the main point is clear.

You should be looking for visible changes in addition to changes on the scale.

I only allow my clients to weigh in once every two weeks, as over time a realistic change in the body can be tracked. Day to day allows too much flucuation.

My weight can go up 10 lbs from what I weigh in the morning just over the day.

Yuma · December 13th, 2005, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BodybuildingCardsFan

With skimming the article the main point is clear.

You should be looking for visible changes in addition to changes on the scale.

I only allow my clients to weigh in once every two weeks, as over time a realistic change in the body can be tracked. Day to day allows too much flucuation.

My weight can go up 10 lbs from what I weigh in the morning just over the day.

Your main point is true. Too many people look at weight only and get discouraged even though their muscle tone, or inches lost in key areas is changing. That being said, my goal is losing weight since I was obese to start with and am now just overweight. If I can't monitor my caloric intake and the reulting loss/gain in weight, how do I know if I am doing the right things? The scale is a valuable tool for me. I would totally fail under your system if I could only weigh myself every two weeks.

Your weight fluctuates so much because of your body mass and activity levels. That doesn't mean a relativly sedentary person will see the same fluctuations. Because weight does tend to go up over the day, that's why one should weigh themselves at a set time each time, preferably just after waking.

I see too many people attaking the scale and not attacking themselves for doing the healthy things needed to reach their goals. One can use a scale improperly by binging, etc. However, that's not the scales fault, it's the persons.

I am not arguing with you, just pointing out not all people do well with a set system.

BodybuildingCardsFan · December 13th, 2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuma

Your main point is true. Too many people look at weight only and get discouraged even though their muscle tone, or inches lost in key areas is changing. That being said, my goal is losing weight since I was obese to start with and am now just overweight. If I can't monitor my caloric intake and the reulting loss/gain in weight, how do I know if I am doing the right things? The scale is a valuable tool for me. I would totally fail under your system if I could only weigh myself every two weeks.

Your weight fluctuates so much because of your body mass and activity levels. That doesn't mean a relativly sedentary person will see the same fluctuations. Because weight does tend to go up over the day, that's why one should weigh themselves at a set time each time, preferably just after waking.

I see too many people attaking the scale and not attacking themselves for doing the healthy things needed to reach their goals. One can use a scale improperly by binging, etc. However, that's not the scales fault, it's the persons.

I am not arguing with you, just pointing out not all people do well with a set system.

My weight flucuates due to how I eat, and the fact I need to be in an anabolic (building) state 24/7.

Visible changes are infinitely more reliable than the scale. My clients struggle to stay off of it, but I make them. I can lose up to 7 lbs by just becoming dehydrated (which is catabolic anyway). Water weight is a very large percentage of what you see on the scale. The scale is more deceptive than people realize, hence why weigh-ins that are too common give the person no clue as to what changes are really taking place.

By tracking visible changes in conjunction with sparing use of the scale you will solve the problem of making sure your diet is where it needs to be. Food intake only needs to be adjusted according to how the person feels, and how they are looking.

Yuma · December 14th, 2005, 07:22 AM

Quote:

By tracking visible changes in conjunction with sparing use of the scale you will solve the problem of making sure your diet is where it needs to be. Food intake only needs to be adjusted according to how the person feels, and how they are looking.

I would assume that's how most of your clients come to you. Certain foods make you feel GOOD while they are bad for you. You look in the mirror and say, I don't look so bad and I ate X all weekend! Pretty soon you get on the wrong metabolic curve, next thing you know, you are 20 pounds overweight!

Look, I understand what you are trying to say. I was a bodybuilder back in the Schwarzenneger, Columbo, Zane days. I could do one arm pull ups back then. Then I studied nutrition in college during an honors class. I believe nutrition and excercise ARE they keys to a healthy life.

I also follow nutrition scientifically on the internet and in books as a topic that interests me. I know you are working on certification in that area. Everything I have learned tells me that so far nutrition is one of the least understood areas scientifically in the human body. We know some things work, even if we don't know the molecular or systemic reasons why. Some foods trigger certain responses in people and we have very rudimentary guesses as to why. I have learned there is more we DON'T know about nutrition than what we do know.

I guess my warning lights and bells go off whenever a doctor, nutritionist, etc., tells me a certain diet, food, or whatever is absolutly X! There's no debate. In my lifetime, just bodybuilding nutritional knowledge has changed immensly.

I just know from the people I work with, family, etc., that they DO eat what makes them feel good. Ninety percent of them are overweight even when a good percentage of them are physically active. So from my viewpoint, the scale isn't lying, it's the people who are lying to themselves when/after they get on/off the scale more than the daily fluctuations this thread is worried about. So many take a scientifically oriented story like this and say, "See, why should I look at scales when they are wrong?" Even though they are overweight, now they have validation that maybe they aren't so bad off as they thought. More people need to weight themselves, as evidenced by the rising rate of diabetes and weight related diseases increasing in the US!

thirty-two · December 14th, 2005, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuma

So many take a scientifically oriented story like this and say, "See, why should I look at scales when they are wrong?" Even though they are overweight, now they have validation that maybe they aren't so bad off as they thought. More people need to weight themselves, as evidenced by the rising rate of diabetes and weight related diseases increasing in the US!

Just for clarification, I only posted this story because I thought it was interesting for those who weight themselves weekly, and maybe see only a .4 loss or even a 2 pound gain. It was a way to not get discouraged. I wasn't talking about overall in general that weighing yourself is bad. It IS good, most definitely.

That's all

Yuma · December 14th, 2005, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thirty-two

Just for clarification, I only posted this story because I thought it was interesting for those who weight themselves weekly, and maybe see only a .4 loss or even a 2 pound gain. It was a way to not get discouraged. I wasn't talking about overall in general that weighing yourself is bad. It IS good, most definitely.

That's all

I'm not saying it's not bad not to weigh yourself just weekly, or every two weeks like BBCF says he does. I was just getting the impression he was saying "My way is superior and you guys are wrong, period!" I was trying to point out there ARE different ways to skin a cat as they say!

I do work with people who look at articles that come out like it's safe to eat eggs, and the article says eggs in moderation. However, my coworkers see the headline and go, heck I made me a fifteen egg omelet today since eggs are safe to eat. I could see them reading your article and going, I knew I didn't really weigh 300 pounds. That scale lies!

thirty-two · December 14th, 2005, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yuma

I'm not saying it's not bad not to weigh yourself just weekly, or every two weeks like BBCF says he does. I was just getting the impression he was saying "My way is superior and you guys are wrong, period!" I was trying to point out there ARE different ways to skin a cat as they say!

Oh dont worry, I was getting that impression as well.

jenna2891 · December 14th, 2005, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BodybuildingCardsFan

With skimming the article the main point is clear.

You should be looking for visible changes in addition to changes on the scale.

I only allow my clients to weigh in once every two weeks, as over time a realistic change in the body can be tracked. Day to day allows too much flucuation.

My weight can go up 10 lbs from what I weigh in the morning just over the day.

so, what business you in, bbcf? insurance?