Why I Don’t Use the Scale
I have never liked the scale as a tool to measure health and my findings over the past 3 months confirmed this even more. Due to a hamstring tear, I had to take 3 months off of working out minus lifting arms and slow walking. I did an in-body scan at the beginning and at the end. I wanted to share the results in hopes that you too will see why just a scale isn’t a great measure and the in-body can be so much more useful.
If I was just looking at the scale, I would have thought I had good results losing 2 pounds. However, when I look closer, you will see I lost almost 2 pounds of muscle. That was just in 3 months! What it did to my basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is calories your body burns automatically, was it decreased 51 calories.
At first glance that might not seem like a big deal. Yet, it is significant because if I continued to eat the same, I would gain 5.3 pounds over 1 year with my BMR going down 51 calories. You might be thinking, “but you didn’t gain weight.” I made adjustments to eat higher protein and vegetables and lowering sugar during this time, because I knew this was coming!
Why am I sharing? For a few reasons:
First: I hear and see many people “take the summers off” from their workout routine to be outside. I am all for being outside, but don’t stop your training inside. You need to challenge your heart rate and strength train. Muscle change happens so quickly; you may not realize what is actually changing until you have significant ground to make up. I knew this would happen and am prepared to put in the work to regain the strength but if it wasn’t for an injury, I would not choose this!
Second: Muscle strength is a key to longevity! We lose muscle as we age unless we are actively working to keep it. I love Orangetheory for this reason. It works our number one muscle, which is our heart, but also works all of our muscles to keep members strong. I know I am biased on that! However you do it, I would just encourage you to pay attention to strength and muscle mass. Your body looks will improve, but more importantly how you age will improve! It is never too late; we have many members in their 70s and a few in their 80s!! Our oldest member was 93!
I will share my progress as I regain this muscle! I started to do weekly challenges on my social media. This week is all about walking and step count. If you want to join me in my challenges, follow me on social with the links below!