Get the Truth from Body Fat Monitor Scales
I have a tyrant in my bathroom, lurking in the corner every day – a Tanita body fat monitor scale
But I’m really quite grateful to that scale.
I’ve long been an advocate for daily weighing when you want to maintain your weight and my trusty scales let me know as soon as my weight is creeping up.
If I’m 2lbs over my target weight for more than a day I am on the case. (Don’t know about you but my weight can easily fluctuate up and down by a pound or so for all manner of reasons other than pigging myself and being a lazy slob).
I’m not perfect by any means but I feel it’s an occupational responsibility to keep reasonably slim and fit otherwise what good is it me trying to tell my clients how THEY can get fit or lose weight?
To be honest, I’m always struck by the pretty sizeable men and women (even those who have lost some of their vast bulk successfully) selling diet books and programs – I have come across 3 in the past week where I thought they could be listening to their own advice a bit better first. (And no I’m not going to name names because I think that would be pretty hurtful – you can see them for yourself all around the net) I just don’t want to be one of them.
The scales I use also have an inbuilt Body Fat analysis function. I don’t use that very often – maybe once a month or so (I can never remember how to do it without getting out the instructions).
I know body fat analysis with scales is not that accurate but I think it’s worth getting that functionality if you are going to buy scales anyway. It lets you do a regular check to see if it looks like you are losing lean body mass (muscle).
If you lose weight too fast (more than one or two pounds a week after the first week or two of initial rapid water weight loss) or you don’t keep active enough, you are probably reducing the proportion of lean tissue in your body. You can tell this is the case on your scales if your weight is going down but your body fat percentage is not.
If you lose as much (or more) muscle than fat, you will pile the weight back on after you stop dieting. Muscle is active tissue which burns fat even at rest and you don’t want to lose ANY of it.
Keep up your lean body mass with exercises to tone and strengthen your muscles while you lose weight – at the very least keep as active as you can so that your body does not give up muscle tissue without a fight.
See the whole range of Tanita body fat analysis scales here.
30 Second Fitness Tip : Think One Step Ahead
Why do you skip your regular workout?
Something comes up, right?
What if you know something is coming up tomorrow, do you still end up skipping your workout?
If you don’t plan ahead you probably will.
Many things which seem to “crop up” can be dealt with if you think about them in advance. For example,
- If you know that you have to be out of the house early, get things ready the night before so you still have time to do your workout.
- If you know you’ve got a meeting which might run into your lunch hour, go to the gym before work instead.
- If you think you’ll be too hungry after work to go training, take a light snack in your gym bag.
The same holds true for all kinds of diet disasters
- If you know you’re likely to eat the bread basket empty never turn up at the restaurant table starving hungry – eat an apple before you go
- If you can’t stop eating chocolate once you start buy a tiny individual chocolate bar instead of the mega bargain size
- If you will come in from work starving hungry and eat the fridge empty while you’re cooking – have some chopped veg in he fridge ready to nibble when you come in (and hide away everything else)
A bit of forethought can go a long way towards helping your success…
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