Many who start a new diet or exercise regime, immediately get obsessed with the weight scale. The weight scale is not the best choice to follow your progress.
This article has a goal to show you that the weight scale can be your biggest obstacle for toning your body. We’ll also provide a few examples how to stay motivated.
Be careful with the weight scale and believe your eyes.
Lower number on the weight scale starts fast and then slows down
When starting a diet, we notice fast changes on the weight scale only because of the eating habits change. Every beginning of diet or training program can be motivational. We see the pounds going down and we get happy.
The first weeks of the new regime give significant results with decrease of the body weight. Frequently, the start means elimination of all sugars and fats, supplying the body with good food and increased water consumption, we increase our activity with gym visits. Our metabolism quickly adapts to the new regime, and all these factors force the body to decrease the body weight in form of fats and excessive water.
However, the weight lifting training will also help you to increase the muscle weight, and because of chemical processes you will start losing 1-2 pounds weekly. And then we start losing motivation…
Be psychologically ready for slowing down of the progress
After the first few weeks of the regime, the progress slows down and seems to not be leading us anywhere. We start to think that the body stopped reacting to the diet and that something is wrong. Logically, if the diet is not working, why go on with it?
This process of thinking makes us to want to give up. We start eating food that we shouldn’t be again, and this will destroy the previous process and turn back in double of the weight that we lost.
Here’s the trick that will help you succeed. When we reach this obstacle, start using the weight scale. The weight scale is a good motivator at the beginning, but as weeks go by, it starts being an obstacle.
Instead, start taking pictures to follow your body progress. Start with the first day of the diet. Photograph yourself every 2-3 weeks in the same position.
If you’d like, you can also measure your legs, waist and hands and write it down with your pictures.
When the progress on the weight scale stops, you are getting muscle mass at the same time when losing fats, and the pictures will help you not lose your courage. Not only will you have visual progress, but you can follow it by measuring.
Toning the body after the obstacle
When losing weight gets slower, that is when you have the most progress. The numbers on the weight scale in some cases can go up too, and the reason it’s that you are building up muscle mass. No need to be afraid from term “muscle”! Here’s why:
- Women’s body does not produce as much testosterone as man’s, so it is impossible to get “man muscles”, so don’t be afraid to do lifting.
- The muscles will give you those nice curves you want
- Every pound of muscle contains 50 additional calories. This means you will spend more calories per day. Building up muscle mass is not only the key for long-term results, but also tones the body and provides the desired curves.
Muscles weigh more than fats
You need to remember this forever!
The difference is in the thickness. The muscle is roughly 2lbs/liter, while fat is 1lbs per liter. This explains the different looks with the same body weight.
That is why you shouldn’t get frustrated when the weight-scale numbers don’t go as you would like. Using only the weight-scale to track your progress is not the most effective way.
