Why The Scales Can Lie:

[Shelly Lynn]

This is a post that I read when I was on induction . I can’t remember who posted it but it’s by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Just thought I would share because it helped me out a lot . I would read it almost everyday. So I am hoping it helps out my friends on the ADBB , like it did for me.

- Shelly Lynn





WHY THE SCALES CAN LIE:

We've been told over and over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just cant bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence its reading. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hand onto its water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.


A biologist at Berkeley shared something very revealing on the low-carb BBS system about 4 years ago that helps us all through the erratic weight fluctuations you invariably encounter:


“Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of “proper dieting”, each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result – you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat.”


This is what we have been telling folks. You lose inches but not pounds because your body plumps the fat cells. I tell them it is a complicated biochemical process that your body replaces the fat molecules with water and fluids until you exceed your bodies predetermined fluid level. Then your body will release a chemical that releases all this stored water and you get sudden overnight loss of several pounds. Then the cycle starts over again with inches gone and the scales lag behind.


The good news is that this water replacement is temporary. It’s a defensive measure to keep your body from changing too rapidly. It allows the fat cell to counter the rapid change in cell composition, allowing for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size. The problem is, most people are frustrated with their apparent lack of success, assume they have lost nothing, and stop dieting. However, if you give those fat cells some time, like 4-6 months, and ignore the scale weight fluctuations, your real weight/shape will slowly begin to show.


Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.


Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored in the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and its packages with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with its associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.


Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you have had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different that putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner in not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you have had to eat and drink. The added weight of meal will be gone several hours later when you have finished digesting it.


Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely; in fast it is not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 – 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calories rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you are really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.


This brings us to the scales sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose “weight,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you have lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you are just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.


Robin Landis, author or “Body Fueling,” compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that is doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a take of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.


If you thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be you very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.


By Renee Cloe,
ACE Certified Personal Trainer

[Bugaboo]

It’s a matter of mind over scale.

This was a great article! Thanks for sharing it, I must have missed it the 1st time. I hardly weigh anymore because I just don't think about it. I focus more on how my clothes fit and my tape measure is still my best friend!

[**Nikki**]

Everybody need to read this. Nice of you to help others by posting it.

[Sarah1341]

Very interesting and helpful at this precise moment for me, thanks for sharing!!

[iyamamaschke]

Here's another great one to go with that Article WE have to keep posting this cause the same questions come up over and over and these 2 article explain this Beautifully.

This article is great for two reasons: 1) it provides the best explanation ever of what happens when we burn fat but aren't losing weight and/or going down in size, and 2) it provides the best reasoning ever for getting off the scales.


From http://stores.yahoo.com/carbsmart/outout.html

By Sonya Tilley

How the **** does your body hold onto weight and still manage to get smaller
while you are on your chosen low carb diet?!? You know the scenario: You are on
Induction for two weeks, and you haven't cheated even once. You notice that
your clothes fit better, that you are stepping a little livelier, and as far as
you're concerned, all's right with the world.

But then you step on that evil construction of the Devil himself, the bathroom
scale, and you instantly feel betrayed. The stupid thing insists that you have
done nothing! Sometimes, it even states you have done less than nothing; it
accuses you of cheating because it tells that you haven't lost any weight!
Well, there area couple of simple explanations to help you get through this
trying time.

First of all, if it is at all possible for you to do so, throw that insipid
Monster Scale in the trash. Or at least put it up somewhere that it is really,
REALLY inconvenient to get to so that you won't be tempted to ask it's opinion
every single day of your life. Face it. If you are feeling better and your
clothes are looser, do you really need the scale to tell you that you're on the
right track? No! You don't! Why do you think you do it, then? I'll tell you
why. The low fat diet demons have a tenacious hold on your brain. That's right,
you've been brainwashed. All your life they have told you through doctors,
dietitians, newspaper and magazine articles, surgeon generals and the like,
that you give up X calories per day and you will lose a pound of fat. They even
go on to tell you how much fat you should lose each week. In the process,
they've made you dependent on the Monster Scale to gauge your progress!

What a big lie!

Even on the diets that "they" advocate, the Monster Scale does not often
cooperate. You go back to the Diet Demons and demand to know why the scale does
not reflect the torture you have put yourself through for a month. They
immediately start backpedaling on the "give up X calories and lose a pound of
fat" story, and start talking to you about water retention and muscle buildup.
Sometimes, they even blame it on you with questions like, "Are you sure you
counted the calories in everything you ate?" (This is delivered with a knowing
little smile that makes you want to rip their knowing little face off.) Being
the type that is given to blaming things on yourself, anyway, you cooperate
with an answer like, "Well….." They pounce on this with "Ahhhh, well.." Then,
they launch into one of their scoldings/lash/encouragement speeches.

So, get off their bandwagon, already!

Then, there's the competitive spirit. You hear about what other people have
done on your chosen diet. Yes, Brian went on Atkins a year ago and lost over a
hundred pounds. Yes, a hundred pounds in a year is over eight pounds a month,
or 2 pounds a week, or .0119 pounds per hour….but, "Hello? You ain't Brian!"
And, did Brian ever say that he lost .0119 pounds per hour? No! He said a
hundred pounds in a year. This only proves he got on the scale twice; a year
ago, and yesterday. Take a hint from Brian. Stay off the scale!

The second solution is to understand what is going on in your body in light of
the current state of human affairs. Today, all a person has to have to eat
every day is money and transportation to a grocery store or, better yet, a nice
restaurant. However, your body's survival instincts have not matured in a
million years. Your body still thinks you are a hunter-gatherer. Yes, in spite
of a million years of evolution, your body still thinks you are going to have
to go out and kill a mammoth to eat. The survival instincts with which you are
going to have to come to terms are read-only memory. You can't overwrite them.
Deal with it.

That said, let me tell you what happens when you lose a pound of fat. Your body
has been saving this fat for that long hunting expedition you're going to have
to go on to track, kill, dress and retrieve that huge animal. It keeps the fat
in little pillows distributed throughout your body. When you start losing fat,
it doesn't trust you to continue whatever insane path you have chosen that is
causing the fat to dissipate. So, when the fat comes out of the pillow, it
injects water as a "place holder." Sometimes that water actually replaces the
weight of the fat it lost. Sometimes it replaces the volume.

Water weighs more than fat just like lead sinkers weigh more than feathers. If
you stuff a pillow with a pound of feathers, you'll have a nice big pillow. If
you stuff a pillow with a pound of lead sinkers, you'll have a nice (but rather
hard and uncomfortable), small pillow. Now, let's say your body removes a pound
of fat and replaces the weight with a pound of water. Your weight will stay the
same, but you will be smaller. But, if your body decides to replace the lost
fat by volume, that is a quite different story. Remember the great big feather
pillow as compared to the tiny lead sinker pillow? Well, now think of a gallon
of feathers and a gallon of lead sinkers. Try to pick up the gallon of
feathers. Piece of (you'll pardon the expression) cake. Now, try to pick up the
gallon of lead sinkers. Sucker's heavy, ain't it? So, you will be smaller, but
you will have gained weight.

Eventually, your body makes the executive decision that you are not going to
replace the fat you lost, and it lets go of the water. In the words of Danny
Skaist: "When your body accepts the fact that they are no longer needed, the
water will be expelled and the cells closed. This is known as the "whoosh."

What makes your body decide to replace by weight or replace by volume? I dunno.
But I do know that it does not seem consistent to the casual observer. What
makes your body decide that you are seriously not going to replace the fat you
lost? I dunno. But now you know why it's so important to drink your water, huh?
Loss of fat is inextricably related to water intake. It's more than a little
foolish to go on a diet that facilitates the removal of fat and then refuse to
give your body the tools it needs to do so.

Bottom Line: Stop getting on the scale and drink your water. If you stick to
your plan and wait for the "whoosh," it will come.

Sarah

[Bugaboo]

Now, let's say your body removes a pound
of fat and replaces the weight with a pound of water. Your weight will stay the
same, but you will be smaller.

That was a great article too Sarah! I like the no nonsense approach she took. Very well done! I like the part about "Hello? You ain't Brian!" that was cool.

[iyamamaschke]

YUP I love the Article it's Kick But

[Devi]

This thread should be a sticky...unless it already is, in which case - good!

[Lisa M]

Shelly Lynn & Sarah, Thank you for sharing these. It just makes perfect sense all the way around.

Definitly deserves to be a *sticky* for the following, but not limited, reasons:
1. many people are scale hounds through all phases of Atkins
2. many people freak out saying, "The **** scale hasn't moved!"
3. It just makes sense.

[Becky Sue]

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ead.php?t=6737 (Why the scales can lie)

Thanks Shelly Lynn for posting the article,( Why the Scale can Lie). Here it is in the FAQ section of the board. I am like you I like to re-read this article too. It assures me that even when I am getting smaller and the dang scale is stuck that I really am making progress.

There are many interesting threads in the FAQ section
http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...splay.php?f=79
everyone check them out if you haven't noticed them before. Great information and advice.

Thanks, Sarah for the other article. We do so much better on our new WOL, when we understand how this all works. Knowledge is power.