Number on the Scale Rant
Monday, August 20th, 2007Many people have asked me at work why I eat chicken and tuna 
all the time if I am not trying to lose any weight…. here’s why….
all the time if I am not trying to lose any weight…. here’s why…. It is VERY possible to lose weight eating crappy unhealthy food, or even maintain your weight while eating crap. I can start dining at Dunkin Donuts every morning, then stop at McDonalds for lunch and pizza for dinner and still lose some weight, as long as I am burning more than I consume …… However,…it is very possible to maintain a certain scale number and actually look like total shit. ( you can be skinny and have HIGH bodyfat= skinny fat)
Scale weight tells you a few things…. If you are overweight, the scale will tell you,…. if you are underweight, the scale will tell you…Will the scale tell you if you look good ? NO . Does your body look nice because you ring up a certain number on the scale? NO.
Eating properly changes your body composition and makes you look better. How strict should you be about not eating crap? It depends on the look you want and how much sacrifice you are willing to make, everyone is different. If you want to be a certain weight and wear a certain size clothing, and you don’t mind having cellulite….,belly rolls, and hanging flab…. eat all the crap you want while maintaining your special number on the scale. Throw some liquor into the mix and sit back and watch the cellulite spread…..still while maintaining that scale number.
If you want visible muscle and a lean looking body, staying away from the crap and eating properly is what makes the difference… regardless of how great you do your workouts.
Some people become so fixated on the scale and getting a ‘magic’ number to settle on for a goal. That is such a small part of the picture.
My grandmother used to make sure she always weighed her ‘certain’ special number throughout her entire life. But what she didn’t seem to realize was that without exercising and eating properly, (although she kept maintaining that number), she had 6 inches of hanging flab swinging on the backs of her arms and she always looked 9 months pregnant. It didn’t have to be that way, it’s just a matter of exercising regularly and eating the right food. She was attempting to ‘watch her weight’, but she had it all wrong.
My body composition has been all over the map over the past 20 years, from skinny, to skinny fat, to lean, and then lean and muscular… all within a small margin of weight change on the scale.
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