Top Five Reasons to Ditch Your Scale
Carrie and Jen don’t want
you to worry about how much you should weigh. We don’t want
you focused on what your BMI should be. We don’t want you
obsessed with how many pounds you need to lose. We want you
to concentrate on getting stronger, healthier and fitter. And here
is why.
1) Water weight – Yes, the water in your body will alter the number on the scale. But
you should be drinking water all day long. If you’re giving 100% to your workouts – and
we know our clients always do – you need to stay hydrated. If you’ve ever seen Carrie
and Jen and thought they looked like they just got out of the shower, you were wrong.
They don’t shower – they’re just very hydrated.
2) Muscle is denser than fat, and the scale cannot distinguish between fat and muscle –
as we age we’re supposed to lift more weights to help the muscles around our bones
and prevent osteoporosis – so next time we encourage you to grab heavier weights,
don’t roll your eyes, we have your best interests at heart.
3) It doesn’t take into account your fitness level, your age, your gender, your resting
heart rate, your V02 max, and the list goes on. Take for example, Olympic athletes.
According to the BMI calculator (and BMI purports to be a measure of body fat based on
height and weight), a large portion of competitors are overweight. We disagree. (Full
disclosure: we just wanted an excuse to put this picture of chiseled abs and sculpted
shoulders in this blog.) Another, closer to home example, is our FITT trainer Amy – at
her heaviest, when she was lifting 5-6 days a week with minimal cardio, she capped out
at 137lbs. She is 5’1”. According to the BMI calculator, Amy is overweight and at risk for
developing diabetes. Have you seen Amy? I think we can all agree that the BMI
calculator leads us astray. Clearly, the number on the scale is not nearly as important as
the body composition of the person standing on that scale. Be it this luscious Australian
swim team or the fit (and fabulous), strong and healthy Amy Pyne. (Who, by the way,
did not give us permission to include a picture of her chiseled abs and sculpted
shoulders. Perhaps that will be in the next blog)
4) The scale doesn’t tell you how well your clothes fit – do you have a pair of pants you
haven’t fit into for awhile? Or an old sports t-shirt? (And we’re not talking about the shirt
you shrunk in the dryer.) Make that your goal, to fit into those. Your clothes can be your
measurement tool.
5) This relates back to #3, but the scale doesn’t measure how many push ups you can
do or how deep you can squat. It cannot measure how many burpees you can do in a
row without stopping. Why not use these activities, that you do on an almost daily basis
(right?), as another means to track your progress, and determine how far you’ve come?
Having muscle means you’re fit, and fit is sexy. Unless your scale reads “You Are Sexy”
then don’t stand on it.
— Carrie Brasser, Former FITT trainer and instructor and Jennifer Knuth, FITT instructor