Moms, why you should throw your scale away!

Throw your scale away!!!

By Heather Rice in Get your sexy back: A place for fitness oriented moms!

I was going to wait a little while to address this, but I think maybe it is important enough to say something now. I personally have a real issue with tracking success through lbs. When we are pregnant it is very important to keep track of weight gain with a scale because we are putting so much on in less than a year and need to keep it in control, however once you have that baby and are close to your pre pregnancy weight I think it's time to throw the scale out!

Why? I have reasons (I'm sure I'll think of more later when the baby isn't so distracting lol or when I have time to research and educate myself more) One is that when we are pregnant the majority of women lose a lot of muscle mass, and when we have the baby and start a postnatal exercise routine we can start putting that muscle back on. Muscle equals lbs! 5lbs of muscle is a lot smaller than 5lbs of fat, so you can be smaller have less fat and weigh the SAME AMOUNT! The problem with tracking success with lbs, is that a lot of women think they are back down to their pre pregnancy weight because a scale tells them so, they don't realize that they may have a higher % of body fat than before and less muscle. Lbs on a scale do not mean you are where you were before being pregnant. This can be frustrating for many women because they see that magic number on the scale but don't feel that their body looks the way it did before having a baby, and they (YOU) are right, it doesn't look the same because it isn't!

You have to put that muscle back on, and for the majority of women even more because as we age we naturally lose muscle tone. And what is going to happen once you start an exercise routine focused on adding muscle to regain that beautiful pre pregnancy shape? You may see that your weight losses stop, you may see that you actually gain a lb or two! Women often see this, freak out, feel that they are going backwards get frustrated and just stop any routine they were doing because they are so bummed at what the scale tells them!

Lbs mean nothing, just a general guideline as to what is healthy or obese. A person weighing 140lbs can have less fat on their body and be in much better shape than a person weighing 125lbs. So don't be afraid of what the scale tells you, if you have been strength training and feel stronger chances are you are putting on muscle mass and that accounts for not seeing that 3lb loss on the scale that month, it is not a failure it is truly a success! You TRULY CAN BE LOSING FAT AND SEEING VERY LITTLE OR NO CHANGE IN LBS!

So lose the scale and start judging progress by the fit of your clothing, the way your rings fit, the amount of fat on your face in a photo from one month to the next, or BEST OF ALL go and have your body fat % checked at the gym. A trainer can do it in five minutes with a caliper and some math! And it will give you a much better indicator of your actual fitness level than lbs ever will!

The reason this bothers me so much is that I have seen way too many women give up because of the SILLY numbers on a scale, it really can be so detrimental to a persons progress, so please don't let this be you! And remember the more muscle you put on the more calories you burn, strength training is a win/win!!!

That's my beef with lbs and scales for now... I'm sure more is to come! XO

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