THINGS TO FOCUS ON BESIDES THE SCALES + 7 FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT YOUR WEIGHT
Do you let the scales dictate your success when it comes to your health and fitness?
If you don’t see immediate results do you often go into ‘self-sabotage’ mode?
I have found over time that a lot of peoples mentalities is; “if I haven’t lost this week after all my hard work, what’s the point, I may as well just eat whatever I want”. It’s pretty normal to have this mind set, as people want results right away, and with hard work you expect immediate progress right? I urge people to not be deterred by the scale, and don’t rely on it as your soul form of tracking and determining progress. Regular photo’s, girth measurements, the way your clothes fit, these are all alternative ways to keep track of how you are doing, without stepping on the ‘dreaded scale’.
A question I like to ask people who take not seeing results really hard is, “how closer to your goal will you be if you stop now?” If you have been working your butt off and haven’t seen progress, what can you expect to see if you stop altogether? The only way to make progress is to work hard and be consistent with your eating and training. Both go hand in hand and are equally important. You may see initial results from training hard and not changing your diet, or you may see similar results by not exercising but making a big change to your eating habits. Eventually though, more often than not, you will plateau and will need to work on the other to move further ahead.
Making a lifestyle change and doing a transformation are big steps to take and require ticking many different boxes to accomplish. Instead of focusing entirely on the weight on the scales, find other ways to track progress and stay motivated. The following things are essential when trying to achieve a goal in relation to health and fitness;
* Set goals – Without specific goals you will often coast without a direction or purpose. Have them be measureable and with a deadline. Setting a timeframe will keep you more accountable. Write it down somewhere you can see it often and read it to remind you why you are doing this.
* Be consistent – With whatever you are doing make sure you are consistent with it. Give something time to work! I once had an online enquiry tell me she tried eating well for one single week and didn’t lose any weight so she went back to eating bad. I thought that was crazy! Only after a good 4-6 weeks can you properly assess if something is working or not, and then you can make alterations where necessary.
* Be prepared – Now preparing meals is gold, can save a lot of time and will more than likely deter from eating off the plan. It isn’t the only way to be prepared however. Set out a timetable for the week; an ‘events calendar’. If possible, set times for when you want to train regularly. Set times for eating. Enter your work times. Include as much detail as possible. If you have particular days where you meet with friends, have that on there, and know ahead of time, I’m going to be with these friends at this time, and assess potential obstacles and barriers to overcome. Simply looking at a menu at a restaurant ahead of time could make the difference to sticking to a plan or not. Having a plan before you will out will ensure you don’t slack off and complete everything you need to. I often watch people walk in to a gym, not know what to do, move through machine after machine only doing 1 set of each and then leave. Although it’s great that they are making the effort to do something, I feel the desired affect would not have been achieved, and it’s because there was no plan.
* Training Intensity – Knowing the purpose of a session is important. Are you trying to burn as many calories as possible in the shortest amount of time? Are you trying to get your heart rate to 80-90% of your maximum? Are you aiming to improve your cardiovascular endurance where you want to be able to maintain exercise for an extended period of time? Maybe you are training for hypertrophy or strength where the weight you are lifting will vary vs. the amount of reps / time you are working for? Regardless of the sessions purpose it’s important that you are making necessary adjustments in relation to that purpose, and are always pushing yourself to improve. If you are doing something like TABATA that requires maximal effort for a short amount of time, I don’t care how fit you are it should be challenging. Whether you are an athlete or a beginner, everyone has a threshold or point of exhaustion. The only difference between the 2 people should be the rate of recovery. Ensure you are putting everything you have in to every workout and always aim to progress, whether it’s an increase in weight lifted, metres ran, exercise altered, you can pretty much ALWAYS make something more difficult to suit your level. In saying that, always remember form and technique is crucial, never comprise form and risk injury for the sake of false progression. Listen to your body!
* Have performance indicators and ways to track progress – Stepping on scales once a week or fortnight, taking girth measurements, taking photos, trying on clothes that previously didn’t fit, these are all ways to track progress. Also things like fitness testing and strength tests are also great performance indicators which can also keep you focused, without putting a major emphasis on weight gain / loss. Setting training goals can be a great way to ensure you are getting results, without stepping on the scales.
* Plain old fashioned hard work – You can be prepared as much as possible and do everything right, but at the end of the day if you don’t put 100% effort in you won’t get 100% return. If you find excuses for things, you won’t get results. If you approach a training session with a negative mind frame and an “I’m not bothered” attitude, then you won’t get results. If you don’t make your health a priority, then you will never get to where you want to be, and it will affect other aspects of your life. Give every aspect of this your utmost effort, and eventually you will achieve what you set out to achieve. Have faith and believe in yourself. The work you put in now, and the satisfaction you feel after achieving awesome results, will make all the hard work and sweat and pain worth it in the end, I can guarantee you that.
To keep with the theme of not focusing on weight moving on the scales, I’d like to end this post with different factors that can affect your weight. I hope you take this into consideration the next time you step on the scales and aren’t happy with what you see.
7 Factors that can affect your weight:
# 1 Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – This is the rate at which your body uses energy at rest. Exercising and increasing muscle mass can increase your BMR, whereas low-calorie diets can lower it.
# 2 Stress – Cortisol is released in response to fear or stress by the adrenal glands as part of the fight-or-flight mechanism. Cortisol influences, regulates or modulates many of the changes that occur in the body in response to stress including blood sugar (glucose) levels. The greater glucose levels the more insulin you will produce. If you don’t use the glucose for energy it will be stored as fat. Insulin hinders the body’s ability to breakdown fat that has already been stored. This chain reaction can happen from stressing too much!
# 3 Medical conditions – Hypothyroidism is one example. The thyroid gland produces the hormones tetraiodothyronine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Together these hormones regulate how your cells use energy. Hypothyroidism is a condition where your thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone. Low levels of thyroid hormone interfere with the body’s ability to perform normal metabolic functions such as efficient use of energy from food products, regulation of many chemical reactions in the body, and maintenance of healthy cells, bones and muscles, to name a few. Other medical conditions include; PCOS, Menopause, PMS, Pregnancy and more.
# 4 Medical treatments – Prescription medications that can affect your weight include anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, insulin, drugs that prevent seizures and migraines, plus many others.
# 5 The types of foods you eat and how much – Foods high in saturated fats, salts, sugar, cholesterol as well as alcohol will all have a direct impact on your weight. Also over-eating / under-eating will obviously result in changes to your weight.
# 6 Water – The more you sweat the more weight you will lose, but you are losing water not fat. As soon as you rehydrate yourself your weight will go back up. You should always ensure you are drinking enough water, and this in turn can have a positive effect on losing weight and keeping it off. Frequently drinking water will help with fighting hunger also. Dehydration can have a negative effect on your metabolism, and as such will make it harder to lose weight and prevent weight gain.
# 7 How much sleep you get a night – A lack of sleep can often result in turning to caffeine from coffee or high-sugar energy drinks. The more tired you are the more likely you are to miss workouts and just be less active in general as well. The longer you are awake, the more likely you will consume extra calories that you don’t need. Sleeplessness has also been found to have an effect on your metabolism. Ensure you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, and waking up fresh, ready to tackle the day!
