The Number Game

Ever stepped on a scale and freaked out because the number has increased by half a pound? Or do you weigh yourself everyday or multiple times a week to ‘keep an eye’ on weight gain? Well this post is definitely for you …

This happened to me this week. I’ve gained three pounds within the last four weeks.  But Im not upset about it *shrugs*, I’m actually quite happy. Why? Because I don’t let the scales define me and neither should you.

I think sometimes as females, we place too much emphasis on how much we weigh, to determine how healthy we are. We get so caught up on what the scales tell us but to be fair, the scales don’t really tell you anything other than your relationship with gravity.

If you starved yourself for 24 hours or went from a full head of braids to natural hair, you would definitively weigh less, but this doesn’t mean you’ve ACTUALLY made any progress. You could step on a scale and see a weight loss of several pounds, but this may not even be from fat and could be from water.

I used to chase an ideal weight I thought I would be happy with once I reached it. But to be honest, I was just chasing a magical number. Once I reached my ideal weight I still wasn’t happy and I just found other things that I wanted to fix or improve-so it just became a never ending cycle.

However, my mindset has completely changed. I’ve stopped focusing on how much the scale tells me I weigh and I’ve started to measure my progress in other ways. For example, I’m currently tracking my progress by monitoring my body fat percentage. 

Body fat percentage is the amount of stored fatty tissue compared to the amount of lean tissue in/on/and around your body. This number can be high or low; regardless of whether your skinny, fat, or in between. Remember, not all 5’5 women who weigh 10 look the same or have the same body type.

As you can see, she weighs the same in both pictures, but due to her dropping body fat and increasing muscle mass, she appears slimmer and more toned in the picture on the right.

I’m currently going through a shredding phase and the aim is to MAINTAIN and BUILD as much muscle as possible and focus on fat loss. I’m one month into my phase and within these four weeks I've managed to drop my body fat by 1% but I've gained three pounds. The extra three pounds doesn't bother me at all because it just means I've managed to lose body fat and build muscle-which means I’m on the right track to reaching my goals J.  As my aim is to get leaner, tracking my body fat percentage is the most accurate way for me to do this, but this may not necessarily be the case for everyone.

There are many other ways to track your progress such as progress pictures, how you fit in your clothes, how you’re feeling or even taking measurements. These methods will give you more of an accurate picture and won’t fluctuate as much as your body weight will on a scale.

So let’s stop obsessing over the scales and how much we weigh and focus on the bigger picture. If you feel good and are happy with how you look then playing the number game is pointless as numbers should not define you.

G