Most Common Mistakes - Thinking you gain or lose fat daily

This relates to the “Only tracking body weight” post I’ve put up previously.

A lot of people still use weight as their main method for tracking progress.

They jump on the scales daily or weekly, see a number that is either more than they wanted or less than they wanted, and proceed to panic and fall apart because “it’s not working”.

It’s quite common to see a weight loss of a few lbs over a week or so, only to wake up one morning to see the scales go right back to where they started, or even see that you’ve gained weight!

THIS IS NOT BODY FAT!

If you weigh one pound more or less one day, you HAVEN’T gained or lost a pound of fat overnight. It just doesn’t work that quickly.

What you gained or lost, is predominantly WATER.

The longer you track bodyweight for, the more accurate and useful it can become. Comparing your weight this month, to the same time last month can give you an idea of progress.

Comparing your weight one day compared to the next day tells you NOTHING!

Even weekly comparisons are unhelpful because, for women in particular, hormones change a lot over the course of a month, and water retention/bloating will affect your weight on the scales considerably – it’s not showing you how much bodyfat you’ve gained or lost!

So, in short, your weight will change not only daily, but throughout the day. It fluctuates wildly around meals, drinks, salt intake, exercise, bathroom visits, even stress.

It’s more common than not to see your weight change by a pound or two every day. It’ll go up and down all the time.

It’s the averaged out, long-term direction that’s of importance i.e. is it generally and gradually going in the right direction over the course of weeks, months and years?

Yet again I encourage you to track more than just weight on the scales.

EXPECT your weight to go up and down – it’ doesn’t mean what you’re doing is or isn’t working, you’ll just need the other metrics to figure that out.

Don’t panic if you’re weight goes up one day, and likewise, don’t get too excited if your weight goes down one day (sorry to burst your bubble).

Be patient. Be consistent. Track as much as you can and base your progress/success off of a number of measures, not just weight.

Mark