I'm sitting here studying my personal trainer materials and just came across the most eye-opening fact that I have to share with all of you:
60% of your body weight is water!
Wow! That means that at about 140 pounds, I'm carrying 84 pounds of water around with me! More than half of what I weigh is plain old H2O!
So I was thinking about what this means in terms of how unreliable the scale is for determining fat or fitness or health ...
What we really care about is fat, right? When we try to 'lose weight', what we really mean is that we're trying to lose fat. We all know that body fat % is a better indicator of overall health and fitness than a number on the scale because it tells us what % of our body is fat and what is LBM (lean body mass). Lean body mass is composed of muscle (the good stuff ), bone, hair, everything that isn't fat, and all those pounds of WATER.
We know that a pound of fat = 3500 calories. We know that it's physically impossible to gain or lose 2 or 3 pounds overnight (unless we had one HECK of a binge!). When we see those sudden big weight swings, all it means is that our water weight is changing. Not our fat, which is what really matters.
So let's go back to Anne's great post about how much the scale fluctuates for her in a normal day. Obviously most of those big swings must be due to variables in the huge amount of water that she has in her body. And when you stop and think about it, who really cares whether they're holding 84 or 80 or 86 pounds of water? After all, what would be the point of losing 10 pounds of water? It wouldn't change anything at all, right?
Michael Fumento, in his Fat Of The Land, talks about how easy it is for fad diets to manipulate these many pounds of water that we naturally hold. Dieters mistake the scale going down in the first two weeks of a diet as fat loss instead of simply as water loss. Karen, what does he call this? He's got a great term for the water weight scam - I don't have my book in front of me. A gram of carbs holds 3 to 4 grams of water, so when you cut carbs - voila! a big drop in (water) weight. And we all know what happens with water weight when we have too much sodium. But we all tend to misread these scale changes as FAT loss and FAT gain.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I think we're all (myself very much included) prone to reading too much into the number on the scale. If 60% of that stupid number is nothing but water, how much useful information are we really going to get from it? Of course, I doubt that I'll ever stop weighing myself every day , but I hope that this information gives me a much better perspective on what I'm seeing. And, as of now, I refuse to let that number make or break my day.
Great post! And coincidentally, I just dug up this article for somebody else on the forum:
Quote:
Why The Scale Lies
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.
This is a great informative thread. I use to be influenced by my scale and it would determine what my mood was for the day. Thank goodness I've finally realized it is normal to fluctuate.
Michael Fumento, in his Fat Of The Land, talks about how easy it is for fad diets to manipulate these many pounds of water that we naturally hold. Dieters mistake the scale going down in the first two weeks of a diet as fat loss instead of simply as water loss. Karen, what does he call this? He's got a great term for the water weight scam - I don't have my book in front of me. A gram of carbs holds 3 to 4 grams of water, so when you cut carbs - voila! a big drop in (water) weight. And we all know what happens with water weight when we have too much sodium. But we all tend to misread these scale changes as FAT loss and FAT gain.
Hey Megsta - was this what you were lookin' for??
Quote:
Wayne Callaway, MD, notes that marketing studies conducted by one weight-loss organization found that, when dieting, most women expect to lose between 2-3 lbs per week and most men expect between 3-5 lbs per week. If the expectation is unmet, dieters will discontinue the program by the 3rd week...'Rapid water loss is the $33-billion diet gimmick' says Callaway. 'It looks good on your bathroom scale and it raises your hopes. But the initial water-weight loss is completely meaningless in terms of your ultimate goal. You are not losing fat; you are not getting leaner. It's only a trick, a gimmick, the temporary side effect of not eating enough carbohydrates to supply your brain...'
Remember that virtually any diet can cause you to lose weight; the real problem is keeping it off. With that in mind, choose a regimen that emphasizes not speed, but PERMANENCY. While one often hears that no more than 2 lbs a week should be lost, it appears even this is too much for most people who are not extremely obese (Obviously, the fatter you are, the less of an overall percentage of your fat 2 lbs is. So with some people, two or even 3 lbs might be OK).
That's exactly what I was thinking of - thanks! I guess it's not surprising that so many diet programs - from Weight Watchers to South Beach to Atkins - all have their two week 'induction'-type plans to take advantage of this big water weight loss. You know how South Beach promises 8 - 11 pounds off in the first two weeks (I think it's on the cover) - well, how many of those pounds are just water? Do ya think people would get nearly as excited if the cover said something like: Lose 8 - 11 pounds in two weeks!*
Because you were low-carbing before you even started South Beach and had already lost the water weight, perhaps?
You tend to see those huge initial weight drops when someone's coming off the really horrific typical Amercian couch potato diet. Heck, I lost six pounds (obviously mostly water) over the first weekend - Friday through Monday - that I was dieting!! (goes to show how badly I had been eating, eh? )
Mel, you are probably just way better at hydrating than lots of us are!
I lost 12 lbs my first week of 'dieting'. I was eating a lot of garbage!
Another water example: DH, who is a heavy sweater, was losing up to 8 lbs on a long run. That's 1 gallon of water! (He's since mended his ways and hydrating much more adequately.)
Water is more dense than fat, so it's possible to get big swings in no time at all. And it doesn't take much to change your electrolyte (mostly salt) balance and glycogen stores. Plus, being well hydrated is actually good for you! Most people recognize issues like DH's for what it is, but when you look at my initial loss, people just say 'Way to go!' And it's basically the same thing.
I've had an interesting experience with the scale over the last few months. I had my gall bladder removed December 30. Prior to that I had been exercising 2-3 days/week - cardio and weights - for ~2 years. I felt fit, I had muscles that disgusted my DH (he'd look at my arms and say, "Gross! Would you stop it!"). My pants fit. I weighed 112-113lbs. Fast forward to present: I weighed in yesterday at 115 lbs. Not much of a gain, right? Well, I have a roll that hangs over my pants now (besides my usual extra skin).
For the 2 months following my surgery, I hardly lifted weights at all. Using my abdominal muscles was rather painful and I was tired (boo hoo!). And I didn't do anything resembling cardio.
My theory : I lost lots of muscle and gained lots of fat which, while it amounted to only a 2-3 lb. gain, amounted to a lot of fluff around my middle.
Soooo, although I liked the number on the scale, I had to accept the fact that the number didn't really reflect the whole picture, which was that I was considerably less fit and healthy.
Cebelle, I think your theory is right on the mark. That's exactly what happened. You lost muscle, and it was replaced by an equivalent poundage of fat. I hate to ask, but does your dh like your arms better? More to the point, do YOU?
It's an easily reversed process. Pick up the weights again, start doing cardio, and you'll have the sleek muscle minus the fluffy middle back in no time. Muscle "rebuilds" faster than it builds the first time around...really! And the sooner you get back to it, the sooner you'll feel like you've got your strong body back.
Muscle atrophies fairly quickly- but it does come back
DH just likes to give me a hard time. I think he really would hate it if I had super-huge muscles, but I don't think he minds me trying to get/stay in shape. I hope.
At any rate, I choose to be healthy and he's not gonna stop me without a fight!!! And who wants to fight a woman with big muscles?
It's good to know that it will rebuild faster, too. Thanks for your reply!
i had troubles with scales and really what people thought of me until i began weighing my the portions of food before consuming them. Yes, not visually or PBV (parts by Volume) but PBM (parts by Mass). Very surprising how people react when they know what the mass to volume ratio is.
It works for me and the satisfaction overcomes the yearning desire to crave more food in my mouth.
Am looking for low carb, high fiber diets too.
great forum too.
KF
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cebelle
Hello!
I've had an interesting experience with the scale over the last few months. I had my gall bladder removed December 30. Prior to that I had been exercising 2-3 days/week - cardio and weights - for ~2 years. I felt fit, I had muscles that disgusted my DH (he'd look at my arms and say, "Gross! Would you stop it!"). My pants fit. I weighed 112-113lbs. Fast forward to present: I weighed in yesterday at 115 lbs. Not much of a gain, right? Well, I have a roll that hangs over my pants now (besides my usual extra skin).
For the 2 months following my surgery, I hardly lifted weights at all. Using my abdominal muscles was rather painful and I was tired (boo hoo!). And I didn't do anything resembling cardio.
My theory : I lost lots of muscle and gained lots of fat which, while it amounted to only a 2-3 lb. gain, amounted to a lot of fluff around my middle.
Soooo, although I liked the number on the scale, I had to accept the fact that the number didn't really reflect the whole picture, which was that I was considerably less fit and healthy.
Following Up On 'Demystifying The Scale'
That means that at about 140 pounds, I'm carrying 84 pounds of water around with me! More than half of what I weigh is plain old H2O!
), bone, hair, everything that isn't fat, and all those pounds of WATER.
, but I hope that this information gives me a much better perspective on what I'm seeing. And, as of now, I refuse to let that 
number make or break my day.
)
