Scale Perspective

After reading Lia's post referencing the Figure Athlete article about throwing out your scales and a few other random posts about "how the scale should be thrown away", I was saddened that this poor old measurement tool is being so maligned.

Here are my thoughts....

When the scale isn't useful -
-when you're taking a one off reading or sporadic readings eg this can include the "once a week" weigh in.
- when you're not using it in conjunction with other measurements
- if you're at a healthy level of leanness (plus you're happy with that, and you're maintaining happily without food issues ) and the sports you play don't require a weight/class or division.

When the scale is useful-

- As a means of data collection and you are taking consistent readings - eg daily, same conditions etc - the more data points you can collect, the more statistical significance you will create.
- as an adjunct to other measurements. I'm always amused when I hear that others may just use caliper measures only and throw out their scales. In the physique transformation world which I'm very familiar with, there's a fairly consistent correlation between weight and caliper readings. Unless you're using your local pharmacy, skin folds usually drop as weight does. Sometimes, there's a lag between skin fold drops and weight, but if you've collected enough data, you should be able to see where things start to meet. In other words, I've never seen, nor prepared a competitor who dropped bodyfat, but not weight to get to the stage.
- keeps you on the straight and narrow if you're in maintenance - if you're a weight fighter like myself, keeping tabs of things on the scales helps me to keep my body in check rather than me stick my head in the sand in denial.
- you can also use a weight range as a "control" in the study of your own personal data.
-much easier and more accurate for everyday people who may not have access to a skilled operator in taking % BF measurements
- cheap :)

I'm going to happily keep weighing myself on a daily basis - even when the scale doesn't reflect what you want it to see, you can use the number as a learning process or reminder as to where you want to be physique wise. I'm also going to keep combining this statistic with how good I look in my clothes - my own experience has told me I don't go wrong when I keep up this practice!

Why the scales shouldn't do one's head in

I hear this quite a bit from my clients - "aaah, I don't want to weigh myself, the scale does my head in". If you step back and re read this statement, can you see how nuts this statement is?

We have 100% control of what we think, say and feel and we have 100% control over how we are going to react to that number. A highly disproportionate amount of time is spent analyzing scale weight over other measures of progress - the thing is, that scale weight is a very useful measure, but it is just ONE item in the toolbox of things that we measure "progress" by.

I try to weigh myself daily if possible. If you are fully committed to your progress and are eating well and training hard, then you have nothing to fear the scale. Fear the scale only if stepping off it gives you the excuse to indulge in crap "because noone's looking".

Even if you're training hard and eating well the scale can be quite variable.

Reasons for variation include:
a) menstrual cycle changes
b) DOMS - lots of DOMS produces a lot of fluid as a by product of recovery, sending your scale weight higher than usual.
c) salty food - you retain fluid if diet is very salty
d) high carbohydrate intake. When you eat carbohydrate and it is digested, much of it is stored in our muscles and liver as glycogen. Glycogen provides us with ready to go fuel when we exercise. For every gram of carb that is stored, 3 grams of water are stored with it. "Carb bloat" is not a figment of your imagination.

Yesterday's eating and training was classic - I have severe DOMS, I ate a lot of carb yesterday dipped in soy sauce (salty) - you gotta love Sushi Rolls! These sorts of uncharacteristic eating days can give me a 2-3kg increase in scale weight. But knowing why variations occur is essential for me in brushing it off and drinking plenty of water!

Training Today:
Upper Body Strength training, including mobilization and preparation
Elliptical: 30 minutes steady state (harder than it sounds); Rower: warm up + 5 Tabata Intervals (ouch), Heavy Stationary Bike 5 minutes)

Yummo!

My latest post workout recovery meal is a little bit like the picture above, except it contains way more cereal and Ladybird Protein Crunch.

Enter the "Crunchola Recovery Meal"
1 scoop Ladybird Crunch (15g)
20g Crunchola cereal in apple/cinnamon or apple and blueberry
200g Nestle Diet Vanilla Yoghurt or Strawberry or Mixed Berries Flavours
30g blueberries or raspberries (I use the frozen sort).

I usually take this to the gym in two containers. I simply dump the yoghurt and fruit into one and then mix the Crunch and Crunchola (like an old married couple!) in when I'm ready to eat.
Stats are 235 calories, 20.8 g protein, 31.7g carbs, minimal fat. This is a fantastic post workout PN compliant treat!

Training today was a 45 minute run at 11km/hr (steady state). I was pretty exhausted by the end though! Then I trained my legs and shoulders and I can already feel the DOMS setting in. Still not doing as much volume as previously, just easing back into things.

Scale weight up a little this morning, no problem. Which is going to lead me into another thing - putting the scale into perspective. I seriously want to jump off a cliff when somebody tells me that the "scale is doing their head in". Following on from other posts, we are 100% responsible for what we think, say and do, thus we are totally in control as how we decide we are going to react to a NUMBER. Do you let it define who you are? Do you avoid the scale with the "see no evil, therefore no accountability" lense? I will post more on this later.

On the flip side there are those who are obsessed with jumping on the scale ten times a day. This isn't any good either. For this , I recommend putting in the good habits first and reconnecting with yourself for a little while before you deal with your irrational beliefs about scale weight. It's not the scale that is the problem - it's what WE believe about scales that does our heads in.

Gosh, once I start rambling I can't stop myself :)