Make Friends with Your Scale

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-04-2003
Make Friends with Your Scale
2
Mon, 01-08-2007 - 12:27pm

This article was in our Newspaper this morning, and I thought it made some great points:


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Make friends with your weigh scale
Avoid weigh-in promiscuity and stick to your home scale

COLLEEN M. SCHRAPPEN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch


Step on. Look at the number. Step off. Would that using a scale could be so simple. But as anyone trying to lose — or even maintain — weight knows, the relationship with the bathroom scale is tenuous at best. We’re best friends when it seems to overlook that extra piece of fruitcake, but woe to the scale that ignores our rigorous workouts and saintlike willpower.


It’s the new year and time to make peace with the scale. Use it as a way to track yourself and keep yourself honest, says Emily Vig, a clinical dietitian at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.


Here are some guidelines:


Be loyal


Don’t scale-hop in the hope of finding a better number. Resist the temptation to step on the scale at your friend’s house to see if you’ve lost weight on the way over.


Stick with the scale you always use. Ideally, you should be the only one who uses it.


David Vandeven, a personal trainer and former bodybuilder, advises against using the scale at the gym. These are typically beam scales. Although this model is probably the most accurate, Vandeven says, dozens of people use the gym scale every day, so you can’t be sure if it’s calibrated correctly. If the beam isn’t set back to zero each time, the scale becomes less precise.


Muscle weighs more than fat


“If you’re using the same scale, seeing changes in weight on that one scale is what’s important,” Vig says.


Be consistent


You should weigh yourself under similar conditions each time you weigh in. Weighing yourself once in a parka and the next time in the buff does not represent weight loss.


Your weight changes during the day based on what you’ve eaten and whether you’ve just exercised, Vig says. Choose a day to weigh in and do it first thing in the morning. Wear similar clothes, and keep your shoes off.


A scale should sit on a hard surface, not carpet, and should be moved as little as possible.


Expect fluctuations


Your scale is not silently mocking you by jumping up three pounds in 24 hours. What you’re looking for, Vig says, is “a general trend toward weight loss or weight gain.”


Weigh in just once a week, on the same day each week.



Use other measurements


Although you shouldn’t be promiscuous with your scale use, there are plenty of other ways to track size and fitness level.


“It’s more important to own a mirror than a scale,” Vandeven says. If you look fit, you probably are.


See how you feel in your clothes, Vig recommends. Muscle weighs more than fat but takes up less space, so a muscular person may weigh more but could fit into a smaller size than a couch potato.


Many scales now come with a function that measures body-fat percentage. These use a technique called bioelectrical impedance, which measures how well a weak electrical current is conducted in the body. The current flows better if there’s more water in the body and muscle has a higher water content than fat.


Vandeven says this method works best if you’re not dehydrated from working out and you’re not retaining water.


If you’re frustrated by your scale’s lack of co-operation, give it a rest for a while. But don’t give up on it entirely.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Mon, 01-08-2007 - 3:57pm
Great reminder for us Miranda-- and I love the "Be loyal- Scale hopping" point! Never thought about resetting the accurate scales!!!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Mon, 01-08-2007 - 11:20pm

I like that article. I agree about weighing only once a week -- when I weigh myself more frequently than that, I don't think I have an accurate assessment of where I really am because of day to day fluctuations/water weight. And I agree about looking at the general trend, up or down.