Oh! The Scale is Terrible!
The scale is horrible. It's no indicator of your fat loss success. Sure it eventually gives you props and when you are losing fat, that's great. But that scale often LIES to you. It goes up and down or refuses to budge when you are doing everything right.
I am looking and feeling leaner than I have in awhile. Muscles are popping hard everywhere I turn, my husband caresses my back and says how it feels so tight and toned, and even my loose skin thighs have quad muscles down in there you can feel that are rock solid. You know what, though? For all this hotness the scale is up 5lbs from my "happy weight!" Screw it! My clothes are fitting good and I feel good. That's all that matters...plus I love my big guns and rocking shoulders and ain't no way am I going to strip muscle off them just to have a "happy weight."
Even my husband is going through this. He weighs four pounds heavier since he started running, doing weights, and watching what he eats. I swear I can tell he's lost fat. I was so convinced I made him get on the scale the other day. Nope. Up four pounds still. Oh well, his pants are looser and he's looking hot! The scale will do its thing when it wants to but we'll take loose pants and those romantical moments when I just can't keep my hands off of him. ;)
I'm closing this with a lesson that can only be learned from the PNP forums. A client of mine made a post today that is so stinking awesome I had to share with the whole PNP world. Girls, you are missing out by not belonging to the forums. Everyday I learn, laugh, and get closer to all these beautiful women who are saying enough is enough. It's time to do this for me and ain't nothing...even the stinking scale...going to stand in my way!!! They stand together, lose together, exercise together, and motivate me to be a better person every day.
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From Dawn:
As some of you might have read I am wearing my size 10 pants today for the first time in a little over a year. I actually wore these same pants a little over a year ago when I was about 2 months pregnant with baby #2, since then I wasn't able to wear them so it was one of my early goals to get back into them and now that my baby is 6 months old I can fit into them. YEAH!!!
After I made that post Corinne e-mailed me and asked me what my scale weight has been for the past 4 weeks. So I looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet I keep so that I could tell her and I was surprised at what it said. I have lost NO WEIGHT in the last 4 weeks, in fact I am almost exactly the same.
Here it is so you can see the proof. I started adding notes in it so I could see what I had done or not done that week. I am an almost daily weigher (I do not recommend that by the way unless you have the right frame of mind) and this morning the scale said 160 which is almost exactly what it was on September 8th. On September 8th I could not have worn these size 10's out of the house. If I remember correctly I could get them on but in no way did they look good enough to be seen by anyone but my husband. That is why one of my goals for October was to be able to wear them out of the house.
|
8-Sep |
160.4 |
-1 |
|
| 15-Sep |
159.4 |
-1 |
I was sick this week, fever all week, did not eat much |
| 22-Sep |
162.8 |
3.4 |
my appetite was back w/ a vengence |
| 29-Sep |
161.4 |
-1.4 |
doing better, exersiced 5 days this week |
| 6-Oct |
160 |
-1.4 |
exercised 4 days this week, ran 5 miles on Friday the 5th |
| 13-Oct |
162 |
2 |
did well this week so maybe this is just water weight |
I will post what Corinne said in her e-mail return to me after seeing that my weight has not changed: This proves that your body goes through changes when you are working strength and cardio hard. The scale is the LAST place to look for a big ole thumbs up on how you are doing. So, I was hoping you weren't losing so all can see that the scale weight eventually changes but as you put on the lean muscle tissue the fluffy, big butted fat leaves and that means you get smaller but you don't lose "weight".
I hope all of you are reading this carefully, especially the new ones to PNP (and you too ***, haha) - I started PNP in mid-June, in early June I weighed 170 and I wore a size 14. I now only weigh 10 pounds less at 160 and I can wear a size 10. 2 whole sizes and only a 10 pound weight loss. If you ask most people they will say that for every 10-15 pounds on the average you will go down 1 pant size. Well, not if you strength train and do cardio and eat healthy. I cannot stress exercise enough and the importance of the combination of both ST and cardio. It really does wonders for the shape of your body. Please note that I am not tall either, I am only 5'3" so I am actually rather short and I can wear a size 10 at 160 pounds. This is why I have always said I don't care what the number the scale says if I am happy at a size 8 and weigh 150 then so be it. That means I might be a size 6 at 140 pounds...wouldn't that be GREAT!! Man, I would be one lean machine. I look at it this way, wouldn't you rather look smaller rather than lighter????
Plus, I want to add here since I have your attention. I am proud to say that I am a runner. I just completed 6 miles this past weekend. I think that most people think you have to be 130 pounds and in fighting shape to run and it is simply not true. I have some flab and some more fat to loose but underneath it is some lean muscles that is strong. If you want to start running (or any other kind of high intensity exercise) don't let the scale be the judge of if you can do it or not. Never underestimate the power of a good attitude and a willing mind, it really can accomplish anything.
Moral of the story: For most people it is a good idea to weigh once a week if you are in weight loss mode but please please don't put all your stock in it and DO NOT let it be the judge of your success!!
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Wasn't that great? Since this is so long I will conclude that I did legs today...it was killer. I'll post it up tomorrow with my chest workout.