WEIGHTY ISSUE
Constant attention to the scale or body fat monitor can cause more harm than good.
by Heather Hare, Gannet News Service, published in Tucson Citizen Northwest Edition November 7-8, 2000

Practically everyone has done it.

Walking by the scale in the bathroom, the urge to weigh yourself overcomes you and you (regretfully) step on.

The little wheel spins to reveal a number bigger than you’d like, and the depression ensues.

Ed Jones, assistant director for wellness and fitness at Binghampton (N.Y.) University, says some people who closely monitor their weight can end up doing more damage to themselves than good.

“Weight is a real emotional issue,” Jones says. “A scale is a great thing if you put it into perspective.”

You may be at a healthful weight for your body, and a simple bathroom scale can’t tell you that. So before you start fretting that the scale doesn’t match up with what you think you should weigh, it’s best to find out what the numbers should be for your age, height and fitness level.

There are several methods for determining if you are at a healthful weight. First, see your doctor. Your doctor would have the best handle on what weight you should be according to your height and your health history, which includes your family health history.

Weight and height charts may work for children, but they are less accurate for adults, Jones says.

Body Mass Index is a better indicator of healthful weight. It is an equation that takes into account height and weight, and spits out a number that can be sued to measure appropriate weight. There are some scales that can be programmed to give Body Mass Index instead of weight, dozens of websites are set up to calculate it for you.

To calculate BMI on your own, multiply your weight in pounds by .45. Then, multiply your height in inches by .0254 and square the result. Divide the pounds answer by the inches answer to get your Body Mass Index.

If your BMI lands in the healthful range, 18.5 to 24.9, according to National Institutes of Health you’re probably fine, right? Wrong.

Some unhealthful people may fall inside the healthful range because they have little muscle and a lot of fat. Fat weighs less than muscle [*not really 1 pound is 1 pound but fat takes up more space per pound than muscle]. Likewise, some healthful people may not fall inside the healthful range because they have a lot of muscle and little fat.

Ratios indicate risk

Waist-to-hip ratios may tell more about a person’s health. To calculate you ratio, measure around the smallest part of your waist with a tape measure. Then, measure around the largest part of your hips. Divide the waist measurement by the hip measurement. According to the National Institutes of Health, women with a waist-to-hip ratio of more than 0.8 or mean with a waist-to-hip ratio of more than 1.0 are “apples.” They are at increased health risk because of their fat distribution.

For men, the ration should be less than 1.0, and women’s should be less than 0.8. The National Institute of Health says those who have ratios higher than that may have an increased risk for diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

In addition to where a person carries his weight, body fat percentages have been associated with heightened health risks, Jones says.

New technology has made it possible for people to measure their body fat percentages at home. Scales that double as body fat monitors tell percentages without the poking and prodding of the skin fold method, and without the water and expensive equipment of the immersion method.

The scales use technology called bio-electrical impedance to measure body fat. It works by sending a small electrical signal through the body, measuring resistance to it by various tissues.

The signal, which cannot be felt by the user, is slowed by fat tissues, which contain only 20 percent water. It determines body fat percentage by how fast the signal travels from one foot to the other foot. It also takes into account sex, age (in some cases), height, weight and fitness level.

The scale is a little more expensive than a regular scale, but it is small and portable. The process is quick and non-invasive. However, it doesn't always work accurately, admits the company that makes the scale.

Not all body fat scales have the ability to calculate percentages for professional athletes, children or very obese people. Nylons interfere with conductivity, and dehydration can affect the result. Badly calloused feet also may change the answer. People with pacemakers should not use the monitor.

Given that the body fat monitor has been shown to be within 5 percent accurate compared with a new, expensive and relatively accurate X-ray method, the monitor is an easier option. Keep in mind the most accurate method of measuring body fat is an autopsy, not a very appealing option.

Don’t Obsess

People can fall into the same trap with body fat monitors as they do with scales. Don't continuously check your body fat percentage. It changes even slower than weight. Jones suggested checking it no more frequently than every two or three weeks, being as consistent with time and day as possible.
Jones says men and women should have different goals for body fat because their bodies require different amounts of fat.

According to Shape Up America, a national initiative to promote healthful weight and increased physical activity in America, a healthful body fat percentage for women between the ages of 18 and 39 is 21 to 32.

Men the same age should have between 8 percent and 19 percent body fat.

For women between the ages of 40 and 59, a healthful body fat percentage falls between 23 percent and 33 percent, while men the same age are between 11 percent and 21 percent, according to Shape Up America. Between 60 and 79 years old, a health body fat percentage for women is 24 percent and 35 percent. Men are between 13 percent and 24 percent.
www.yourhealthtoday.com/cal/index.cfm will calculate Body Mass Index

pulling up

pullling up this info for the influx of newbies

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.