This quarter I’m focused on improving some health metrics that matter to me.

1) Decrease body fat (lbs/%)

2) increase/maintain skeletal muscle mass

I typically track using our inbody scanner which gives me a full breakdown of body weight, water weight, body fat, and skeletal muscle mass. But I only do that once per month.

Also, let me be clear, this is not like the $30 scale you buy from target…it cost me about $5000, and is a highly technical full body scanner with a “little” more technology to it than the store bought versions

We use that scanner for all of our nutrition clients we work with as well as our ongoing fitness clients as a way to track body metrics.

That being said, to just keep me accountable and assess my weekly progress, I have been using my home scale (probably $30 from Amazon) to track my weekly weight. I weigh early on Friday mornings so I can be consistent with time/setting.

I’ve done this for 4 weeks since my last scan. You can see the results in the image, including the one from last Friday where I had gained 2.8 lbs since the week prior.

What did I do??? How???

Honestly, no clue. I looked back on my week and nothing really stood out. Still ate “decently”. Drank my water. Worked out each day. Actions didn’t support my almost 3lb Increase. And frankly, even If I went on a bender that week, nothing would’ve increased my body fat or my muscle mass by 3lbs.

The number was just higher.

To prove a point as to why I tell people to stay off the scale sometimes or change their mindset around it, I weighed again the next day.

Now mind you, it was Friday night, I might’ve had a beer or two, and I had a typical day of training and nutrition.

Next morning….down 2.6 lbs

Again, nothing I could’ve done in the last 24 hrs could’ve allowed me to lose fat or muscle at that rate.

So why was I heavier? Likely water…and our bodies hang onto or release water for numerous reasons…none of which are detrimental to my goals of decreasing fat or increasing muscle.

This is why I tell clients to ditch the scale. If you can’t just take your weight as a data point and move on, you’ll drive yourself crazy with the wrong data.

This is why we use our InBody scanner as a full snapshot of what the body is truly doing when it comes to body fat, water weight, and skeletal muscle mass.

This is why I encourage our clients to set BODY COMPOSITION goals over WEIGHT LOSS goals.

Hope this helps. If you want to talk more about your weight loss journey, getting an InBody scan, or anything else fitness or nutrition book a time to meet with our staff HERE.