Only 1 pound...
Today I was reading the Weight Watchers message boards, and I read something that made me really think about the way I view the scale. This is what someone said:
"Muscle weighs more than fat - so if you are working out, you may have gained a few pounds of muscle, dropped a few pounds of fat & the scale does not know the difference!"
To me that sentence doesn't make any sense at all. I think there are a few misperceptions about the truth between fat and muscle. How can someone say that 1 pound of muscle weighs more than 1 pound of fat? 1 pound is equal to 1 pound. Muscle is just more dense than fat so it looks like it would weigh less when in actuality they both weigh the same thing.
I've been often ticked off at my scale for not showing a difference in my weight even though at times my measuring tape would tell me that I am making progress. It's been so frustrating to know that I've worked my butt off, both literally and figuratively, and that it didn't show in the scale. Since I started Weight Watchers, I have been measuring different areas of my body for 1 1/2 years now. Doing that has really helped me to stay positive even when I didn't see a change in the scale.
Check this picture out. You've all probably seen this picture before but I just found it while surfing around on the Internet.
This picture has reaffirmed my belief in the power of the measuring tape!
Inches are so much more meaningful than a number on the scale!
"Muscle weighs more than fat - so if you are working out, you may have gained a few pounds of muscle, dropped a few pounds of fat & the scale does not know the difference!"
To me that sentence doesn't make any sense at all. I think there are a few misperceptions about the truth between fat and muscle. How can someone say that 1 pound of muscle weighs more than 1 pound of fat? 1 pound is equal to 1 pound. Muscle is just more dense than fat so it looks like it would weigh less when in actuality they both weigh the same thing.
I've been often ticked off at my scale for not showing a difference in my weight even though at times my measuring tape would tell me that I am making progress. It's been so frustrating to know that I've worked my butt off, both literally and figuratively, and that it didn't show in the scale. Since I started Weight Watchers, I have been measuring different areas of my body for 1 1/2 years now. Doing that has really helped me to stay positive even when I didn't see a change in the scale.
Check this picture out. You've all probably seen this picture before but I just found it while surfing around on the Internet.
This picture has reaffirmed my belief in the power of the measuring tape!
Inches are so much more meaningful than a number on the scale!
Comments
I'm glad I read your blog today. It's a convo my husband and I regularly have - The tape measure says one thing and the scale has barely budged. It can be frustrating as I am working my butt off at gym and with cycling.
Michelle