August 10, 2020 • 29 mins
Fitness is not just about weight loss. One of the great benefits of a well-designed exercise program is a healthy reduction in body fat, and that is really what most people mean when they talk "weight loss", but that doesn't always correlate with a fast and massive reduction in weight. In this episode, Tom discusses how you should incorporate the scale into your exercise program as a tool, and some of the science-based factors that can influence the number you see on the scale.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. Weighing yourself,
water and weight loss. That's the topic of today's show.
(00:22):
They are concepts that are connected, but I would argue
not connected enough in the discussion about weight management, about
how and and why we should weigh ourselves and how
frequently and who should do it, and the psychological components
of that. I'm gonna give you some studies on that
and just how it's all connected. And so often the
(00:45):
ideas for show has come to me during exercise, during
a workout, and I was running today really hot and
at noon, so super hot, super humid, and the hottest
time of day, and I had weighed myself before. So
this goes to what we're talking about, to test your
(01:06):
sweat rate. So I've talked about many times how my
sweat rate ridiculously high, and part of that is from
getting acclimated to training in the heat and being fitter
the faster you sweat. It did a whole show on
that about sweat and the mechanisms behind it and do
you have to sweat for it to be a good workout?
If you missed that show. I recommend that one highly.
(01:28):
And so one way to test your sweat rate is
to weigh yourself ideally naked before a workout, then go
out for a an hour long hot workout, and then
weigh yourself naked again and see how much weight you
lost during that hour. And so I did that today.
(01:49):
I've done it many many times, always testing, always, you know, experimenting,
and today I lost four pounds. Now that's pretty common
for me. And what is even a little more surprising
is because it was so hot, I actually went out
with fluids. So should truly do this test? You shouldn't
(02:10):
take in any fluids because it's gonna obviously offset your
results a little bit. But no, I uh, I was
still getting my workout in and it was too hot
not to bring something with me. So I drank twenty
is of a sports drink during the run. So if
I had not, it would probably have been closer to
five pounds of fluid lost during the run. And as
(02:36):
I did this, I said, you know, I have to
do a show about this, and it's been on my
list of shows to do in a different way, but
the connection, I said, you know, there there's so much
going on here, and that's what I love about this
show is that we take all these parts and then
we use common sense, and then we look at the studies,
and then we use common sense again and we figure
out what works for you. But we got to talk
(02:57):
about the science behind this. So the scale instantly talking
about weight loss, constantly talking about the scale, and and
how yes, we want to be our healthiest weight, but
how do we stay motivated? How do we quantify that,
what is going to affect those numbers day to day?
(03:19):
And that's what today's shows about weighing yourself, water and
weight loss. Let me start with a quick story. Back
when I was teaching group fitness classes in New York City.
And this is way back. We're talking like late nineties people,
so group cycling spin as it's uh, you know, the
(03:39):
trademark name Johnny G was just starting to take off,
like right in the infancy. And so I would teach
to this packed class New York City, different clubs, but
one club in particular, and when my class was over,
people would sprint out to weigh themselves because it was
(04:00):
a hot room. It was an hour long class. They
would sweat like crazy, many of them and they would
see that reflected on the scale. But what should that
actually say to you? That's water, that's fluid. You didn't burn.
I didn't burn four pounds of fat in my run today.
(04:28):
To lose a pound is thirty five hundred calories. It's
a simple math. It's depressing, I know when you actually
do it all out right, thirty five hundred calories. So
what does that math? Let me do that in my head.
I feel like Howard Stern when he's doing math in
his head. So four times three, it's twelve two. So
(04:49):
we're talking fourteen fourteen thousand calories and I no, wait, yes,
I did that right. Let's say roughly fourteen thousand, but
I think I'm right. Fourteen calories. No, do you know
how many calories I probably burned in that run? Six hundred,
right around six hundred, which is good. But there's such
(05:13):
important math people, six hundred calories, but the scale showed
four pounds quick break. When we come back, we're talking
about why and how you're going to use these numbers,
even though they might not reflect what you're trying to achieve.
(05:34):
But it doesn't matter. There's a way to do that.
And we're gonna look at the studies about not just
the the uh the effect of weighing yourself daily were
weekly and how that affects weight loss, but the mental
side to it and who should do it. And as
I said at the start, this has not talked about
in this way, and so we're gonna take a unique
(05:55):
look at weighing yourself, weight loss, water and more. Quick
break will be right and we are back. Yes, I
check my math during the break. I was one of
(06:15):
those people that for my s A T s. English
verbal much higher than math. Not incredibly, but that was
my forte. It took Latin for many many years. That helped.
But yes, so fourteen thousand calories is what the scale showed.
If that, if that were fat. So this is why
the scale can be so confusing. And let me start
(06:40):
by saying weight loss is never linear. What does that mean.
It means you are not going to see a lower
number every day even if you follow the right plan,
and that is it's gonna say, a huge part of
the problem. But that is the problem for so many people.
(07:03):
And that's why this show is so important. To learn
the science behind it and then to figure out the
psychological there's two sides that I'll talk about at the
end of the show to figure out which you're on
when it comes to it, and this is this is
one of those topics that's actually confusing to exercise physiologists
like me who are trying to figure out the best
(07:24):
advice to give you. We're gonna talk about it all,
and we're gonna figure out what works for you, just
like everything else, what exercise works for you, what healthy
foods you enjoy, and then what strategies you are going
to utilize based on your psychological makeup to track your progress.
(07:45):
And let me say to jump ahead a little bit,
but I did that show on I think it was
eight other ways to measure your progress other than the scale,
and it's totally connected to what we're talking about here
and why we're talking about it. But weight loss is
not winniar. So I also did a podcast on you know,
how I lose weight for my races and when I
(08:07):
do so, you know, I have a scale that I
step on it and it tracks goes to my phone WiFi,
and so I can see a graph, a line graph
or whatever typograph, but I use a line graph and
it's ups and downs, its peaks and valleys. In other words,
the line is never continuously going down. And that is
(08:29):
confusing and that is disappointing and disheartening to so many
people who are doing the right thing and then see
the scale go up. Why does that happen? Well, the
quick answer is, just like you can see four pounds
come off from fluid loss, you can see one, two, three,
(08:56):
four pounds go up due to drum or will please
things like fluid retention. And that's why you have to
understand that it's not linear and that if you are
following your program, it really doesn't matter what the scale
says on any given day. It's what it says over time.
(09:20):
And I understand how confusing and disappointing that can be
and challenging, and that's part of the reason so many
people give up too soon. But let me give you
another little insight into the whole diet world and diet books.
(09:41):
One of the main reasons the low carb diet is
so effective short term is because you restrict carbohydrates. Did
they say low carb? I think I did low carb.
The hot run got to my head a little bit.
One reason low carb works so well short term is
when you restrict your carbohydrates, you flush your body of water.
(10:05):
I hope this is all like lights are going off
for you. So so many of those low carb diets,
when you follow them, they're super restrictive. In the first
week or two, carbohydrates attract water molecules. When you lower
your carbon take, you flush your body of water. You
know what that shows up on the scale because you're
(10:29):
not losing seven pounds in a week of fat just
because you lowered your carbon take a little bit. Multiply
seven by that's how many calories you would be decreasing
by and you're not. So it's fluid. It's genius. As
(10:51):
far as selling diet books, it's genius, really super smart
when you figure it out, but it sells those books.
It shows you those results that you're looking for right away.
You get that fix. You see it on the scale,
but it's not what you're truly going for. I hope. Now.
(11:12):
Let me I say that because back when I was
training clients, I would have those clients and I would
have this discussion. They would just say, I want to
be this weight, and I would say, wait a minute,
let me give you a hypothetical. If I could take
Let's say, for a female, if I could help you
(11:32):
drop two sizes, but you're going to gain two pounds,
you wouldn't that, you wouldn't want those results. And there
are people that said, no, they didn't care. They just
wanted to be that number. And I understand, but that
is a it is part of the problem. And yes,
how many times have I said on these shows, you
can be a lighter weight, skinny, unfit, you can have
(11:57):
very little muscle, you can have high blood pressure, you
can have cardiovascular issues regardless of the weight you are.
That doesn't mean to say that all those pounds that
are above your ideal weight lead to a whole host
of negative health issues. So yes, we still want to
be that healthy weight. But let me just give you
(12:21):
myself as an example. I am not tall. Someone just
reached out to me and said, how tall are you?
I'm like five eight five eight and a half on
a good day. Right now, I weigh a hundred and
eighty five six pounds. I have been doing a lot
of weight training, So for my height and my weight,
(12:42):
I'm obese, I'm overweight depending on which charts b M I,
but my body fat is relatively low compared to my
weight because of the strength training. That even surprised me.
I didn't think I weighed that much, but my clothes
did a certain way. So we keep coming back to
(13:03):
the number on the scale. And I'm gonna finish up
with the studies that say some of you should use
the scale as a tool to to motivate you, but
some of you should not, and that's not talked about.
And I'll give you the study that shows, yeah, it's
effective for people, but then I'll give you another study
(13:24):
that talks about the psychological component, how it's not great
for certain people. Yet another example of you gotta figure
out what works for you, and that doesn't mean you know.
So often in exercise and nutrition they will say that
you know, what works for someone you know doesn't necessarily
work for another. But they're talking about like that your
(13:46):
body metabolizes things totally differently, not true, so so often
they are using that as an excuse to sell crazy
programs that have zero scientific backing. But now we're talking
to site ecological and as we know, the psychological part
of all of this, it's just about everything. I'm actually
(14:08):
going back to school to study more about the psychology.
So excited Harvard Extension School Special Certificate in Human Behavior.
Couldn't be more excited. And you know I've talked about
how he did my masters in exercised science and sports psychology.
Because the brain and the body and figuring out your
(14:30):
motivations and what's going to work for you long term,
we take the science, we take common sense, and then
we find out what works for you. So this is
such a perfect example of that. But let me go
into some other things other than flushing your body of
carbs that can affect your weight day to day. Secondly, sodium,
(14:53):
sodium intake, water retention. Hello, that's why you can get
on the scale, especially after a weekend. We'll talk about that.
Talk about that. Let's just go right there. Actually, so
you have a weekend, you drink some alcohol. Alcohol can
affect your weight in numerous ways. As we all know
(15:15):
those of us who do imbibe on occasion, alcohol is
not processed by your body the same as other things.
It can slow your digestion, and it can lead to
water retention. And as many of us know, not only
can it lead to water retention in and of itself,
but you have some wine, you eat a bacon, egg
and cheese, the next morning, some salty foods, those comfort foods.
(15:38):
So the alcohol is gonna add to your weight gain
a little bit. The foods you eat are gonna add
to that weight gain, but it's that water retention in
more ways than one. Okay, sodium, then food and liquid.
You know, what you have in your stomach will affect
your weight. We'll talk about the ideal ways to where
(15:59):
you're self. If you're going to be someone who does
then kind of gross. But the waste products that build
up in your body are gonna have some weight to it.
And this is such a perfect example of how nuts
people can be about their weight. There was a product
on TV not too long ago, and all it was
saying was that taking this product can help you lose
(16:20):
weight because it's gonna get rid of all of the stuff,
all of the waste products that build up in your body. Truly,
who cares unless those waste products that are building up
and again, product uh questionable at best. So your clothes
aren't gonna fit in any differently, you're not losing fat,
but you're gonna look at the scale and because you
(16:41):
flushed some of these built up waste products in your
intestines and other areas of your body. That's gonna make
you happy because you look at the scale crazy crazy,
But the waste products can can add to that weight
gain over time. Medications huge back to the water retention, water, water, water.
(17:05):
That is why that is part of the title. So
medications you're on can affect it for you. Women, Yes,
I'm sorry your cycles. I don't have to tell you
that can have a huge effect hormonally. And then let's
go to the alcohol, and then let's go to the food.
So there's so many things that are connected. And finally, illness, flus,
(17:29):
things like that, and that can be a positive or
negative again. I mean, one of the smartest things that
quin ever said to me was if they could only
put a low grade flu into a pill form, it
would be the greatest weight loss product ever because you
don't want to eat. So eight things that can affect
(17:49):
your weight fluctuations day to day, and one of the
primary mechanisms in most of them, if not yeah, all
of them are by and large water. Okay, So you
just have to know that and understand that if you
are someone who is going to weigh yourself daily, you're
(18:11):
not gonna always see it going down. It's just can't happen.
It's not gonna happen, all right, And muscle is more important.
I have to say that. You know, my weight is
primarily the muscle I have put on, and I am
willing to you know, I talk about how I race
and do these events. I go slower because I weigh more.
So that's a trade off that I'm willing to make.
(18:33):
And yes, I will drop some weight as I talked
about in that podcast, for races that are more important
to me. But the most important thing to me is
I want metabolically active muscle. I want to be as
healthy as possible. I want to be injury free. So
if I go a little slower in a five k
race or a marathon on them whatever, I'm okay with
(18:54):
that because that number on the scale is not what's
ultimately important me, and it's much higher than I would
have thought. But I know, and here's the thing, and
I will reinforce this several times throughout the show. I
know I'm eating healthy, i know I'm exercising, so I
don't really care what that number on the scale is.
(19:15):
It surprises me, but you know, it also tells me, wow,
I've put on some muscle and you have to understand that.
All Right, one more quick break, and when we come back,
we're gonna talk about the studies, and we're gonna talk
about how you either are someone who is going to
use the scale to motivate you or you're not. You
never hear this discussed, So you're either going to use
it or you aren't. I'm gonna tell you why. Final
(19:37):
break will be right back. All right. We're talking about
weight loss, We're talking about weighing yourself. We're talking about
the scale. We're talking about water because yes, so many
(19:59):
people want to lose those excess pounds, and you should,
but you have to know what it's going to affect
the things that you use to measure that, and the
scale will always be something people use. Now, there have
been incredible advances in just the home scale since I
started in this industry, And now you have body fat
(20:21):
scales that are tied end. The one I get on
also has body fat. Is it perfectly accurate? Not that one.
I have a much more expensive one that I use
that's more accurate as well. But even that number, I
don't really care about what the original number is. What
matters most is when I start to refine what I
(20:43):
eat or lose weight for a race or whatever, is
that number going down. And for body fat, that's going
to be a little more accurate or a little better
metric than you're just relationship with gravity, because those eight things,
as I talked about, that affect your day to day
body weight aren't affected in the same way or as
(21:06):
much depending on which one for body fat. Okay, but
let's talk about the studies, right Okay. First study, the
title is self explanatory Daily weighing Maybe Key to Losing weight?
And this was an American Heart Association presented at a
conference of THEIRS and it was in Science Daily November two, eighteen.
(21:27):
I'm just gonna give you the takeaway. Study concluded that
daily weigh in's may be beneficial. Researchers tracked just over
a thousand adults over a year and found that people
who weighed themselves once a week or less did not
lose weight, while people who weighed themselves six or seven
times a week averaged a one point seven percent weight loss,
(21:48):
not even a huge amount of weight loss, but they
lost weight. And take that for what it is, and
just let me give you now the psychological side. This
was in Current Obesity Reports two thousand teen March title
Self Weighing Helpful or Harmful for Psychological well Being? A
Review of the literature. So this one looked at a
(22:09):
bunch of studies to see what affect psychologically weighing yourself
had on people. Now we know of eating disorders. Were
looking at all those kind of things, but negative versus
positive as far as mood related variables. And here's the takeaway. Again,
they looked at a bunch of studies and found that
one out of ten studies that examined the relationship between
(22:31):
self weighing and mood related variables, Um, I'm sorry, let
me say that again. Out of ten studies that examined
the relationship between self weighing and mood related variables, four
studies found evidence of a negative relationship, five studies did
not find a relationship, and one study found evidence of
(22:53):
a positive relationship. So good, So good you go? How
is that good? Tom? How is that possibly good news?
Because you're gonna figure out what works for you. If
you're a client of mine and we're figuring you out,
that's my job is to figure out what affects you
(23:15):
positively or negatively. And this is such a great example
of why artificial intelligence is never going to completely take
over having a personal coach that is asking you the questions,
that is watching you know how you respond, because the
(23:36):
psychological component is enormous. As I constantly say, in other words,
you know technology can track your metrics, but how good
is it at tracking your psychological mood state. Now you
can answer questions, say, how do you feel today's stuff
like that, So there's a way to start that process.
(23:58):
But this is such a perfect example of there's two
sides to the to the coin. Right, Yes, for some people,
weighing yourself every day is beneficial. My wife does it.
For me. I don't do it at all unless I'm
training for a race. Then I get on it every day.
(24:19):
And if you listen to that that episode on how
I Lose weight for a race, I talk about this,
but I don't even look at the number. I look
at the number once a week. So I step on
it every day. Sometimes I look down, most times I don't,
but I want to see the progress because here's the thing,
here's how we bring this, to bring this all together.
(24:41):
If you're honest and you're consistent and you're following a
solid plan to begin with. I know when I am
getting ready for an event, whether or not i'm I'm
following my plan. So if I get on the scale
and it's two pounds up from the day before, but
I know that for that the last three days, I've
been getting in some great workouts, I've been eating healthy,
(25:03):
I don't care because I know that I've expended the calories.
I know that I've eaten better, and I know that
in a week or two weeks or three weeks that
will be reflected because weight loss is not linear. So
the takeaway is this, you need to figure out for
yourself whether or not weighing yourself every day or once
(25:24):
a week or not at all works for you. The
studies aren't going to tell you that. You're going to
know that. Does it give you more anxiety? Do you
get super depressed when you see it go up? If so,
then it's not for you. Or you do it much
less frequently and do it like I do it. Get
(25:45):
on every day, but look at your phone once a
week and see what that number is, and even that
number every week might not be down. But when you
have a long term plan, right, so I generally take
twelve weeks or so training for an event. You know,
that can be a usually like a you know, a competition,
(26:08):
but it can also be a video shoot or something
like that. But I know that if I stick with
the plan over the twelve weeks or so, that it's
going to be there. But even week to week there
could be a fluctuation or not enough. And that is
why when you see the charts generally speaking up down,
(26:29):
up down, plateau and then you get this precipitous draw,
perfect way to end the show. That right before that
precipitous draw, when the vast majority of people quit because
it's the plateau. The body is just about to get
where you want to go. You have to be consistent.
(26:49):
You start with the right plan and that is cardio,
that is strength, that is the healthier eating tweaking all
three consistently and it will happen. It can't not. It
goes against the laws of just energy. But you have
to give a time, all right, So I hope that
(27:10):
was somewhat helpful. Four pounds I lost in an hour,
but it wasn't fat, it was water fluid. So don't
get down on yourself if you are sticking to your
plan and you know it. Do a self assessment, be
honest with yourself, and finally, don't beat yourself up. There
is no perfect You're gonna have those weeks or those
(27:33):
couple of days where you fall off, the rails fall off,
the wagon, the wheels fall off, whatever you want to
call it. That's everybody. But you don't give up, and
you don't self sabotage, and it will happen, all right.
Weighing yourself, water and weight loss. I need to hydrate
(27:53):
even more. And by the way, let me give you
that real quick fittip. For every pound you lose, you
to replace a pint of fluid. So if you lose
four pounds during a workout, you want to replace about
four points of fluid. Most of you aren't gonna lose
that much some of you are, but replacing those fluids
after super important. All right, I hope you enjoyed it.
(28:16):
Thank you so much for listening. Please subscribe to the
show if you haven't already. Please rate the show if
you haven't already, and you can reach out to me
more and more of you are I love it, feedback,
show ideas, whatever you want to reach out about, and
I take those questions and put them into listener mailbag
shows as well, So thank you for that. We have
(28:37):
a bunch of good shows like that and many more
to come. Tom h Fit is my Twitter and my Instagram,
Tom h Fit and Fitness disrupted dot com. You go
right there as well. Thank you so much. My job,
my goal to take all of this craziness, these myths,
misconceptions and make sense of it for you so that
you can use it to have your best life. That's it.
(29:00):
I'm just selling happiness and wellness and for you to
look better, feel better, and live longer, and not only
live longer, but have those years be quality years so
you can do whatever you want to do as long
as you want to do it. All right, Remember there
are three things we all control. How much we move,
(29:23):
what we put into our mouths, and our attitudes, and
that is awesome. I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(29:46):
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. Weighing yourself,
water and weight loss. That's the topic of today's show.
(00:22):
They are concepts that are connected, but I would argue
not connected enough in the discussion about weight management, about
how and and why we should weigh ourselves and how
frequently and who should do it, and the psychological components
of that. I'm gonna give you some studies on that
and just how it's all connected. And so often the
(00:45):
ideas for show has come to me during exercise, during
a workout, and I was running today really hot and
at noon, so super hot, super humid, and the hottest
time of day, and I had weighed myself before. So
this goes to what we're talking about, to test your
(01:06):
sweat rate. So I've talked about many times how my
sweat rate ridiculously high, and part of that is from
getting acclimated to training in the heat and being fitter
the faster you sweat. It did a whole show on
that about sweat and the mechanisms behind it and do
you have to sweat for it to be a good workout?
If you missed that show. I recommend that one highly.
(01:28):
And so one way to test your sweat rate is
to weigh yourself ideally naked before a workout, then go
out for a an hour long hot workout, and then
weigh yourself naked again and see how much weight you
lost during that hour. And so I did that today.
(01:49):
I've done it many many times, always testing, always, you know, experimenting,
and today I lost four pounds. Now that's pretty common
for me. And what is even a little more surprising
is because it was so hot, I actually went out
with fluids. So should truly do this test? You shouldn't
(02:10):
take in any fluids because it's gonna obviously offset your
results a little bit. But no, I uh, I was
still getting my workout in and it was too hot
not to bring something with me. So I drank twenty
is of a sports drink during the run. So if
I had not, it would probably have been closer to
five pounds of fluid lost during the run. And as
(02:36):
I did this, I said, you know, I have to
do a show about this, and it's been on my
list of shows to do in a different way, but
the connection, I said, you know, there there's so much
going on here, and that's what I love about this
show is that we take all these parts and then
we use common sense, and then we look at the studies,
and then we use common sense again and we figure
out what works for you. But we got to talk
(02:57):
about the science behind this. So the scale instantly talking
about weight loss, constantly talking about the scale, and and
how yes, we want to be our healthiest weight, but
how do we stay motivated? How do we quantify that,
what is going to affect those numbers day to day?
(03:19):
And that's what today's shows about weighing yourself, water and
weight loss. Let me start with a quick story. Back
when I was teaching group fitness classes in New York City.
And this is way back. We're talking like late nineties people,
so group cycling spin as it's uh, you know, the
(03:39):
trademark name Johnny G was just starting to take off,
like right in the infancy. And so I would teach
to this packed class New York City, different clubs, but
one club in particular, and when my class was over,
people would sprint out to weigh themselves because it was
(04:00):
a hot room. It was an hour long class. They
would sweat like crazy, many of them and they would
see that reflected on the scale. But what should that
actually say to you? That's water, that's fluid. You didn't burn.
I didn't burn four pounds of fat in my run today.
(04:28):
To lose a pound is thirty five hundred calories. It's
a simple math. It's depressing, I know when you actually
do it all out right, thirty five hundred calories. So
what does that math? Let me do that in my head.
I feel like Howard Stern when he's doing math in
his head. So four times three, it's twelve two. So
(04:49):
we're talking fourteen fourteen thousand calories and I no, wait, yes,
I did that right. Let's say roughly fourteen thousand, but
I think I'm right. Fourteen calories. No, do you know
how many calories I probably burned in that run? Six hundred,
right around six hundred, which is good. But there's such
(05:13):
important math people, six hundred calories, but the scale showed
four pounds quick break. When we come back, we're talking
about why and how you're going to use these numbers,
even though they might not reflect what you're trying to achieve.
(05:34):
But it doesn't matter. There's a way to do that.
And we're gonna look at the studies about not just
the the uh the effect of weighing yourself daily were
weekly and how that affects weight loss, but the mental
side to it and who should do it. And as
I said at the start, this has not talked about
in this way, and so we're gonna take a unique
(05:55):
look at weighing yourself, weight loss, water and more. Quick
break will be right and we are back. Yes, I
check my math during the break. I was one of
(06:15):
those people that for my s A T s. English
verbal much higher than math. Not incredibly, but that was
my forte. It took Latin for many many years. That helped.
But yes, so fourteen thousand calories is what the scale showed.
If that, if that were fat. So this is why
the scale can be so confusing. And let me start
(06:40):
by saying weight loss is never linear. What does that mean.
It means you are not going to see a lower
number every day even if you follow the right plan,
and that is it's gonna say, a huge part of
the problem. But that is the problem for so many people.
(07:03):
And that's why this show is so important. To learn
the science behind it and then to figure out the
psychological there's two sides that I'll talk about at the
end of the show to figure out which you're on
when it comes to it, and this is this is
one of those topics that's actually confusing to exercise physiologists
like me who are trying to figure out the best
(07:24):
advice to give you. We're gonna talk about it all,
and we're gonna figure out what works for you, just
like everything else, what exercise works for you, what healthy
foods you enjoy, and then what strategies you are going
to utilize based on your psychological makeup to track your progress.
(07:45):
And let me say to jump ahead a little bit,
but I did that show on I think it was
eight other ways to measure your progress other than the scale,
and it's totally connected to what we're talking about here
and why we're talking about it. But weight loss is
not winniar. So I also did a podcast on you know,
how I lose weight for my races and when I
(08:07):
do so, you know, I have a scale that I
step on it and it tracks goes to my phone WiFi,
and so I can see a graph, a line graph
or whatever typograph, but I use a line graph and
it's ups and downs, its peaks and valleys. In other words,
the line is never continuously going down. And that is
(08:29):
confusing and that is disappointing and disheartening to so many
people who are doing the right thing and then see
the scale go up. Why does that happen? Well, the
quick answer is, just like you can see four pounds
come off from fluid loss, you can see one, two, three,
(08:56):
four pounds go up due to drum or will please
things like fluid retention. And that's why you have to
understand that it's not linear and that if you are
following your program, it really doesn't matter what the scale
says on any given day. It's what it says over time.
(09:20):
And I understand how confusing and disappointing that can be
and challenging, and that's part of the reason so many
people give up too soon. But let me give you
another little insight into the whole diet world and diet books.
(09:41):
One of the main reasons the low carb diet is
so effective short term is because you restrict carbohydrates. Did
they say low carb? I think I did low carb.
The hot run got to my head a little bit.
One reason low carb works so well short term is
when you restrict your carbohydrates, you flush your body of water.
(10:05):
I hope this is all like lights are going off
for you. So so many of those low carb diets,
when you follow them, they're super restrictive. In the first
week or two, carbohydrates attract water molecules. When you lower
your carbon take, you flush your body of water. You
know what that shows up on the scale because you're
(10:29):
not losing seven pounds in a week of fat just
because you lowered your carbon take a little bit. Multiply
seven by that's how many calories you would be decreasing
by and you're not. So it's fluid. It's genius. As
(10:51):
far as selling diet books, it's genius, really super smart
when you figure it out, but it sells those books.
It shows you those results that you're looking for right away.
You get that fix. You see it on the scale,
but it's not what you're truly going for. I hope. Now.
(11:12):
Let me I say that because back when I was
training clients, I would have those clients and I would
have this discussion. They would just say, I want to
be this weight, and I would say, wait a minute,
let me give you a hypothetical. If I could take
Let's say, for a female, if I could help you
(11:32):
drop two sizes, but you're going to gain two pounds,
you wouldn't that, you wouldn't want those results. And there
are people that said, no, they didn't care. They just
wanted to be that number. And I understand, but that
is a it is part of the problem. And yes,
how many times have I said on these shows, you
can be a lighter weight, skinny, unfit, you can have
(11:57):
very little muscle, you can have high blood pressure, you
can have cardiovascular issues regardless of the weight you are.
That doesn't mean to say that all those pounds that
are above your ideal weight lead to a whole host
of negative health issues. So yes, we still want to
be that healthy weight. But let me just give you
(12:21):
myself as an example. I am not tall. Someone just
reached out to me and said, how tall are you?
I'm like five eight five eight and a half on
a good day. Right now, I weigh a hundred and
eighty five six pounds. I have been doing a lot
of weight training, So for my height and my weight,
(12:42):
I'm obese, I'm overweight depending on which charts b M I,
but my body fat is relatively low compared to my
weight because of the strength training. That even surprised me.
I didn't think I weighed that much, but my clothes
did a certain way. So we keep coming back to
(13:03):
the number on the scale. And I'm gonna finish up
with the studies that say some of you should use
the scale as a tool to to motivate you, but
some of you should not, and that's not talked about.
And I'll give you the study that shows, yeah, it's
effective for people, but then I'll give you another study
(13:24):
that talks about the psychological component, how it's not great
for certain people. Yet another example of you gotta figure
out what works for you, and that doesn't mean you know.
So often in exercise and nutrition they will say that
you know, what works for someone you know doesn't necessarily
work for another. But they're talking about like that your
(13:46):
body metabolizes things totally differently, not true, so so often
they are using that as an excuse to sell crazy
programs that have zero scientific backing. But now we're talking
to site ecological and as we know, the psychological part
of all of this, it's just about everything. I'm actually
(14:08):
going back to school to study more about the psychology.
So excited Harvard Extension School Special Certificate in Human Behavior.
Couldn't be more excited. And you know I've talked about
how he did my masters in exercised science and sports psychology.
Because the brain and the body and figuring out your
(14:30):
motivations and what's going to work for you long term,
we take the science, we take common sense, and then
we find out what works for you. So this is
such a perfect example of that. But let me go
into some other things other than flushing your body of
carbs that can affect your weight day to day. Secondly, sodium,
(14:53):
sodium intake, water retention. Hello, that's why you can get
on the scale, especially after a weekend. We'll talk about that.
Talk about that. Let's just go right there. Actually, so
you have a weekend, you drink some alcohol. Alcohol can
affect your weight in numerous ways. As we all know
(15:15):
those of us who do imbibe on occasion, alcohol is
not processed by your body the same as other things.
It can slow your digestion, and it can lead to
water retention. And as many of us know, not only
can it lead to water retention in and of itself,
but you have some wine, you eat a bacon, egg
and cheese, the next morning, some salty foods, those comfort foods.
(15:38):
So the alcohol is gonna add to your weight gain
a little bit. The foods you eat are gonna add
to that weight gain, but it's that water retention in
more ways than one. Okay, sodium, then food and liquid.
You know, what you have in your stomach will affect
your weight. We'll talk about the ideal ways to where
(15:59):
you're self. If you're going to be someone who does
then kind of gross. But the waste products that build
up in your body are gonna have some weight to it.
And this is such a perfect example of how nuts
people can be about their weight. There was a product
on TV not too long ago, and all it was
saying was that taking this product can help you lose
(16:20):
weight because it's gonna get rid of all of the stuff,
all of the waste products that build up in your body. Truly,
who cares unless those waste products that are building up
and again, product uh questionable at best. So your clothes
aren't gonna fit in any differently, you're not losing fat,
but you're gonna look at the scale and because you
(16:41):
flushed some of these built up waste products in your
intestines and other areas of your body. That's gonna make
you happy because you look at the scale crazy crazy,
But the waste products can can add to that weight
gain over time. Medications huge back to the water retention, water, water, water.
(17:05):
That is why that is part of the title. So
medications you're on can affect it for you. Women, Yes,
I'm sorry your cycles. I don't have to tell you
that can have a huge effect hormonally. And then let's
go to the alcohol, and then let's go to the food.
So there's so many things that are connected. And finally, illness, flus,
(17:29):
things like that, and that can be a positive or
negative again. I mean, one of the smartest things that
quin ever said to me was if they could only
put a low grade flu into a pill form, it
would be the greatest weight loss product ever because you
don't want to eat. So eight things that can affect
(17:49):
your weight fluctuations day to day, and one of the
primary mechanisms in most of them, if not yeah, all
of them are by and large water. Okay, So you
just have to know that and understand that if you
are someone who is going to weigh yourself daily, you're
(18:11):
not gonna always see it going down. It's just can't happen.
It's not gonna happen, all right, And muscle is more important.
I have to say that. You know, my weight is
primarily the muscle I have put on, and I am
willing to you know, I talk about how I race
and do these events. I go slower because I weigh more.
So that's a trade off that I'm willing to make.
(18:33):
And yes, I will drop some weight as I talked
about in that podcast, for races that are more important
to me. But the most important thing to me is
I want metabolically active muscle. I want to be as
healthy as possible. I want to be injury free. So
if I go a little slower in a five k
race or a marathon on them whatever, I'm okay with
(18:54):
that because that number on the scale is not what's
ultimately important me, and it's much higher than I would
have thought. But I know, and here's the thing, and
I will reinforce this several times throughout the show. I
know I'm eating healthy, i know I'm exercising, so I
don't really care what that number on the scale is.
(19:15):
It surprises me, but you know, it also tells me, wow,
I've put on some muscle and you have to understand that.
All Right, one more quick break, and when we come back,
we're gonna talk about the studies, and we're gonna talk
about how you either are someone who is going to
use the scale to motivate you or you're not. You
never hear this discussed, So you're either going to use
it or you aren't. I'm gonna tell you why. Final
(19:37):
break will be right back. All right. We're talking about
weight loss, We're talking about weighing yourself. We're talking about
the scale. We're talking about water because yes, so many
(19:59):
people want to lose those excess pounds, and you should,
but you have to know what it's going to affect
the things that you use to measure that, and the
scale will always be something people use. Now, there have
been incredible advances in just the home scale since I
started in this industry, And now you have body fat
(20:21):
scales that are tied end. The one I get on
also has body fat. Is it perfectly accurate? Not that one.
I have a much more expensive one that I use
that's more accurate as well. But even that number, I
don't really care about what the original number is. What
matters most is when I start to refine what I
(20:43):
eat or lose weight for a race or whatever, is
that number going down. And for body fat, that's going
to be a little more accurate or a little better
metric than you're just relationship with gravity, because those eight things,
as I talked about, that affect your day to day
body weight aren't affected in the same way or as
(21:06):
much depending on which one for body fat. Okay, but
let's talk about the studies, right Okay. First study, the
title is self explanatory Daily weighing Maybe Key to Losing weight?
And this was an American Heart Association presented at a
conference of THEIRS and it was in Science Daily November two, eighteen.
(21:27):
I'm just gonna give you the takeaway. Study concluded that
daily weigh in's may be beneficial. Researchers tracked just over
a thousand adults over a year and found that people
who weighed themselves once a week or less did not
lose weight, while people who weighed themselves six or seven
times a week averaged a one point seven percent weight loss,
(21:48):
not even a huge amount of weight loss, but they
lost weight. And take that for what it is, and
just let me give you now the psychological side. This
was in Current Obesity Reports two thousand teen March title
Self Weighing Helpful or Harmful for Psychological well Being? A
Review of the literature. So this one looked at a
(22:09):
bunch of studies to see what affect psychologically weighing yourself
had on people. Now we know of eating disorders. Were
looking at all those kind of things, but negative versus
positive as far as mood related variables. And here's the takeaway. Again,
they looked at a bunch of studies and found that
one out of ten studies that examined the relationship between
(22:31):
self weighing and mood related variables, Um, I'm sorry, let
me say that again. Out of ten studies that examined
the relationship between self weighing and mood related variables, four
studies found evidence of a negative relationship, five studies did
not find a relationship, and one study found evidence of
(22:53):
a positive relationship. So good, So good you go? How
is that good? Tom? How is that possibly good news?
Because you're gonna figure out what works for you. If
you're a client of mine and we're figuring you out,
that's my job is to figure out what affects you
(23:15):
positively or negatively. And this is such a great example
of why artificial intelligence is never going to completely take
over having a personal coach that is asking you the questions,
that is watching you know how you respond, because the
(23:36):
psychological component is enormous. As I constantly say, in other words,
you know technology can track your metrics, but how good
is it at tracking your psychological mood state. Now you
can answer questions, say, how do you feel today's stuff
like that, So there's a way to start that process.
(23:58):
But this is such a perfect example of there's two
sides to the to the coin. Right, Yes, for some people,
weighing yourself every day is beneficial. My wife does it.
For me. I don't do it at all unless I'm
training for a race. Then I get on it every day.
(24:19):
And if you listen to that that episode on how
I Lose weight for a race, I talk about this,
but I don't even look at the number. I look
at the number once a week. So I step on
it every day. Sometimes I look down, most times I don't,
but I want to see the progress because here's the thing,
here's how we bring this, to bring this all together.
(24:41):
If you're honest and you're consistent and you're following a
solid plan to begin with. I know when I am
getting ready for an event, whether or not i'm I'm
following my plan. So if I get on the scale
and it's two pounds up from the day before, but
I know that for that the last three days, I've
been getting in some great workouts, I've been eating healthy,
(25:03):
I don't care because I know that I've expended the calories.
I know that I've eaten better, and I know that
in a week or two weeks or three weeks that
will be reflected because weight loss is not linear. So
the takeaway is this, you need to figure out for
yourself whether or not weighing yourself every day or once
(25:24):
a week or not at all works for you. The
studies aren't going to tell you that. You're going to
know that. Does it give you more anxiety? Do you
get super depressed when you see it go up? If so,
then it's not for you. Or you do it much
less frequently and do it like I do it. Get
(25:45):
on every day, but look at your phone once a
week and see what that number is, and even that
number every week might not be down. But when you
have a long term plan, right, so I generally take
twelve weeks or so training for an event. You know,
that can be a usually like a you know, a competition,
(26:08):
but it can also be a video shoot or something
like that. But I know that if I stick with
the plan over the twelve weeks or so, that it's
going to be there. But even week to week there
could be a fluctuation or not enough. And that is
why when you see the charts generally speaking up down,
(26:29):
up down, plateau and then you get this precipitous draw,
perfect way to end the show. That right before that
precipitous draw, when the vast majority of people quit because
it's the plateau. The body is just about to get
where you want to go. You have to be consistent.
(26:49):
You start with the right plan and that is cardio,
that is strength, that is the healthier eating tweaking all
three consistently and it will happen. It can't not. It
goes against the laws of just energy. But you have
to give a time, all right, So I hope that
(27:10):
was somewhat helpful. Four pounds I lost in an hour,
but it wasn't fat, it was water fluid. So don't
get down on yourself if you are sticking to your
plan and you know it. Do a self assessment, be
honest with yourself, and finally, don't beat yourself up. There
is no perfect You're gonna have those weeks or those
(27:33):
couple of days where you fall off, the rails fall off,
the wagon, the wheels fall off, whatever you want to
call it. That's everybody. But you don't give up, and
you don't self sabotage, and it will happen, all right.
Weighing yourself, water and weight loss. I need to hydrate
(27:53):
even more. And by the way, let me give you
that real quick fittip. For every pound you lose, you
to replace a pint of fluid. So if you lose
four pounds during a workout, you want to replace about
four points of fluid. Most of you aren't gonna lose
that much some of you are, but replacing those fluids
after super important. All right, I hope you enjoyed it.
(28:16):
Thank you so much for listening. Please subscribe to the
show if you haven't already. Please rate the show if
you haven't already, and you can reach out to me
more and more of you are I love it, feedback,
show ideas, whatever you want to reach out about, and
I take those questions and put them into listener mailbag
shows as well, So thank you for that. We have
(28:37):
a bunch of good shows like that and many more
to come. Tom h Fit is my Twitter and my Instagram,
Tom h Fit and Fitness disrupted dot com. You go
right there as well. Thank you so much. My job,
my goal to take all of this craziness, these myths,
misconceptions and make sense of it for you so that
you can use it to have your best life. That's it.
(29:00):
I'm just selling happiness and wellness and for you to
look better, feel better, and live longer, and not only
live longer, but have those years be quality years so
you can do whatever you want to do as long
as you want to do it. All right, Remember there
are three things we all control. How much we move,
(29:23):
what we put into our mouths, and our attitudes, and
that is awesome. I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
(29:46):
listen to your favorite shows.
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