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Marissa Nieves, Lifestyle Coach and Sports Model provides clear avenues to success in health and fitness ! Follow us on Blogger to kick start or maintain your best life !!


Thanks for joining us on the road to wellness !

Marissa

Friday, July 6, 2012

Put away your scales ! I MEAN it !

Now !
 



This blog is a simple and easy one. It relates to a fun game of hide and go seek.

What I'd like you to do is to take your bathroom scale and hide it in a cupboard far away from it's current location. Now the only time to seek it is when you need to measure the weight of your suitcase when you're off on your next vacation to avoid overweight fees. Chances are your bag will be light as you will only be needing a few clothes to show of your hot body in bikinis or shorts !

What I'm going to tell you may astonish you but unless you are a competitor in a weight-classed sport (wrestling, weightlifting) you surely do not need to get on a scale frequently. In fact it can hinder your physical progress and your mindset.

Let's talk about why.

Weightloss is becoming, if it is not already the centrepoint of many people's lives. It is not just women but increasingly more and more men are stepping on the scales now too. We alll know to be healthy and happy we need to implement and maintain a sustainable happy food environment, drink plenty of water, restistance train and improve our cardiovascular health. However, a quick fix is still viewed as a positive in our ever-increasing consumable world.

We are not thinking fat loss anymore as we should be but instead have reverted to the scales in a desperate attempt to drop kilos or pounds quicker than ever. Increasing diets and fitness-related supplements and calorie reducing programs are generally designed to help you lose a bunch of water weight in a short period of time. Any layman can lose up to 20 pounds of water in under 2 weeks but if you are educated and genuinely interested in losing body fat, you will begin to wonder why you may have lost muscle, energy and your pay packet instead of body fat ! Following your few weeks of harsh diet change and supplements you may plateau or need to drop your caloric intake further just to counteract bodily changes (ie. hormone levels).

It's important to note that some diets and programs may actually also lead to a body fat increase but because you are watching the number on the scales decrease and have dropped a pant size (for now) the fact that your body is depleted and really just dropping water weight instead of becoming healthier is irrelevant at the time. Watch the ingredients in weight loss products, they may be clogging your digestive path and without proper digestion and absorption, long term body fat loss will become increasingly challenging.

So with that said, weight loss is very different to fat loss. You can lose both water and muscle at a much faster rate than you can lose body fat.

A perfect example is the Biggest Loser show where contestants compete to see who lost a higher percentage of "bodyweight". Since the contestants are so overweight to begin with, weight loss in the beginning is easy with a quick calorie cut and going to be hightly related to water and fat loss. However, once they reduce some size, it becomes more challenging. The reason ? They are gaining muscle at the same time which weighs alot more than fat so they can’t possibly continue to lose 2% per week! It’s basic math.

Now let's talk about BMI, the Body Mass Index, unnecessary stress put onto the public by the medical industry. All the BMI tells you is if you are carrying excess weight for your height. Most athletes do as they have more muscle mass and they don't have a lot of body fat (which weights very little). They are healthy, fit individuals however are noted to be too heavy and therefore unhealthy.

If you had 7% body fat, the scale would not tell you that. It only tells you how much water weight (generally caused by dehydration from sugars and salt) and muscle you are carrying.

SCALES ONLY TELL YOU HOW MUCH YOU WEIGH.

Remember, water weight can fluctuate daily. Checking scales regularly sounds exhausting !

What we should be looking at is our body fat percentage. You can buy your own do it yourself accu measure body fat tester at  http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/products/fattrack.html. Remember every body fat testing device differs so ensure you are using the same device each time and you are using it in the same manner.

SO, with all this being said.. It's now TIME to go hide your scale and start paying more attention to the mirror, your clothes, a tape measure, body fat tester and the quality of food you are putting into your body.

Remember looks aren't just related to weight gain/loss or body fat percentage. Good clean whole foods can help you gain muscle for tone or building, lose body fat and fluid retention and will also leave your skin glowing, hair shining, eyes brighter and your smile wider !!



I promise you will be healthier and happier :)















Always committed to your success,

Marissa

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