How the Scale Misleads You

The scale you use at your gym or at home may seem like an innocent piece of equipment, but here’s the thing: Your scale is probably deceiving you. Los Angeles personal trainers know that everyone’s weight fluctuates. It can fluctuate all day long, from hour to hour, based on a host of factors. For many people trying to improve their health and fitness, the scale can be quite defeating. But you need to learn not to put so much emphasis on the scale because there are numerous ways it misleads you. Here are a few!

Muscle versus Fat

“A pound of muscle and a pound of fat may weigh the same, but a pound of muscle takes up far less room,” says Los Angeles personal trainer Lalo Fuentes. You may be reducing your body size and getting fitter, but the scale won’t always reflect that because it doesn’t differentiate between a pound of muscle and a pound of fat.

A Scale Measures Everything

When you weigh yourself, you’re weighing everything. It’s not just fat and muscle, but bone, organs, clothes, and the food and water you’ve put into your body that day. Many people feel defeated when the number on the scale moves up or doesn’t change, but you have to take into account the all-encompassing nature of the numbers on the scale. Even being dehydrated can cause the numbers on the scale to go up. The point is, you must think about all the ways the number on the scale is impacted.

Changes in Body Composition

Just ask any Los Angeles personal trainer and they’ll be happy to tell you that the number on your scale isn’t a reflection of your health for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it doesn’t reflect body composition.

Body composition changes depend upon your nutrition and exercise habits. If your body composition ratio is low, then that means you have more muscle than you do fat, which is a lot more important to your personal trainer than the number on the scale. A sign of a healthy body is a healthy lifestyle, not a number!

Use Your Clothes

Your clothes reveal far more truths about your health and body than the number on a scale. How they fit is a great way to determine if how hard you’re working with your Los Angeles personal trainer is paying off. Plus, dropping a pants size is far more satisfying than dropping the number on the scale!

You shouldn’t let the number on the scale be the judge of your success or failure. It is but one aspect of your overall health and wellness. When you meet with a personal trainer like Lalo Fuentes, CSCS, you can set goals that work to improve your overall health and fitness, not merely impact the number on the scale. So, don’t let your scale ruin your day. Track your progress in other ways to help you know you’re making progress and making real changes that will have a positive impact on your health.