Rethink your weight & the scale
Health is a topic of intrigue and interest for most of us. There is something about being reminded about our mortality or of how helpless we are without feeling ‘healthy’ / ‘normal’, which is humbling, confusing and awe-inspiring at the same time.
One of the major points in the discussion around health is weight. Weight loss is a common goal for a lot of people and I wouldn’t be very wrong to say it is a goal for a majority of people. Most of my clients have/have had that goal, it is a common topic that I get questions on. The internet is full of weight loss tips and tricks. And I am sorry to inform you, that most of it will not give you the results you are after. As a Quora contributor, I am still surprised to see the number of questions that pop up daily and the requests I get around weight loss. Everyone wants to lose weight and they want to lose it fast. They want the diet, the exercise, the secret to quick weight loss. I even found a question asking for tips for weight loss in 4 hours! No, I am not kidding.
Today I want to challenge your idea of weight. Challenge your focus on weight. I would say while you say weight loss, what you are after is fat loss and more muscle. These are very different goals with different paths and you feel and look different and more importantly, your health is different on both.
Most people use the words, toned look, slight muscles, defined muscles, flat(ter)abs, better energy, better health, better health markers and blood markers when asked about their weight loss goal. However, these are achieved by FAT loss and building muscle, not weight loss.
When we are about to take an international trip we start packing our suitcases. There is a certain limit to the weight of the luggage we are allowed to carry. Let us say you are going on a trip and when you weigh the suitcase after packing, it is over the allowed limit. So you open your bag and start taking out stuff. When you do that what items will you be ready to remove from your bag? Will you decide to not carry money or documents or clothes OR will you choose to remove a few pieces of clothes and accessories? Both strategies will help you reduce the weight of the suitcase, won’t it? The reason why you will opt for the second option is the same logic behind why you want fat loss, not weight loss.
When you hop on a scale you are not measuring just fat. You are measuring everything that encompasses your physical body/whatever gets on that scale. You don’t get an idea about your body composition i.e. what your body is composed of and in what ratios. All you get is a number. It can change based on the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the salt in your diet in the past couple of days, and your menstrual cycle.
Weight loss is the loss of overall mass from the body. It can be muscle, bone and blood, fat, tissues, organs, hair, teeth, poop, urine etc. Fat loss is the loss of unwanted fat — excess visceral and subcutaneous fat.
What your weight is composed of is very important. What we want to aim at is better body composition — good muscle, bone mass, fat and all other things. We do not want to lose muscle and bone mass. It is very important to emphasise this because most efforts of weight loss lead to this. This is why people look like a ‘smaller’ version of themselves, not stronger, leaner or ‘toned’. Their effort to lose weight has eaten away their muscles too, along with fat. And, we do not want to lose muscle.
Muscle, to quote, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, is the organ of longevity. It is what keeps us strong and healthy and adds quality to life. It has various functions in our body from immune function to hormonal health and synthesis and bone health. And the lean-toned look most people are after comes from muscles.
What we want is fat loss. A smaller waist is losing the excess fat in the abdominal area. Better blood markers and health happen with losing fat because excess fat has an impact on all systems of our body. Ever-rising rates of obesity, excess body fat and lifestyle diseases are things we need to work on. An important step is thinking beyond weight, focusing on fat loss and building muscle. Also, weight can be a range, it is not a fixed number you need to aim for.
We have been conditioned to associate our self-worth/discipline and character with our weight and somehow it has become a go-to health marker. I have had clients who have told me they have gotten so obsessed with their weight that they find themselves on the scale at 2 in the morning after having used the bathroom to check how much weight they lost. I am often baffled by the number of people who just find it okay to greet people with “you have gained/lost weight” and one is a compliment and the other makes way for awkward smiles/jibes. Unfortunately, this shows how a lot of us are hyper-focused on the wrong problem.
We need to change the focus from weight loss to focus on fat loss and muscle building. This shift in itself, will make you look at health as a lifelong pursuit rather than a number on the scale. Imagine being able to lift that water can or run behind your grandkids or kids or being able to lift a suitcase overhead or travel and walk and hike to every place you have wanted to.
You can consider the scale as a metric but don’t get hung up on it. You are much more than a temperamental number. Your health is not defined by that number. You can weigh the same with 10 kg more muscle or 10 kg more fat and feel and look completely different. You want to aim for the one that is going to make you feel energetic, lower your blood sugar, improve hormone levels, help manage conditions like PCOS, IR, diabetes, NAFD etc., and improve mood and immunity. And that is muscle. Pick that. Rethink your weight, think beyond it and the scale.