A few months back I and my Mother-in-law were clearing out all the junk at home and she came across a suitcase with quite a few tops and a few pairs of jeans all that I wore during my initial days after wedding.
MIL : (surprised) do you think Nrutya (my 5 year old daughter) would wear all this?
ME: I want to fit into all of that.
MIL: (Shocked!!!Her expression spoke a million words).Lets give it to someone when you lose weight you can buy new ones. Don’t starve yourself to fit into them the trends have changed!
ME: Ma the idea of shopping is definitely something I love but I need to measure my weight loss.
MIL: Use the weighting scale!!
The weight scale is the most used instrument in the weight loss journey. From day one of the diet we measure ourselves. If you own a digital scale even 100 gms of weight loss seems a big achievement! I have always been obsessed with the weighing scale and measured myself only on the scale at home ( Our weight differs on different scales ). About a month ago the scale got damaged and all I wanted to get was a new scale. Seeing my obsession, my husband said lets not buy a scale for a few months. Now that put me in a fix.
- The big question is does the weighting scale always tell us how much is our fat loss?
- Does it measure our body fat percentage?
- Does it tell us our stamina?
Obviously it doesn’t ( Unless you own a Body fat weight scale ). That leaves us again at square one How to measure weight loss in the correct terms?
Weight loss is not how much less you weigh. Weight loss is loss of fat tissue and excess body fluid. When you eat healthy and wisely and maintain an active lifestyle the muscle mass increases and stamina builds. The difference between muscle mass and fat tissue can be defined in simple terms like golf ball and tennis ball both weigh the same but a golf ball is more dense like the muscle mass and fat tissue loosely packed like the tennis ball.If you lose 2 kgs of fat tissue and add 1 kg of muscle mass your total weight loss would be 1 kg on the weight scale however you have in fact lost 2 kgs of unwanted tissue which cannot be weighed accurately.
The best way to measure weight loss is measure the following and keep a record
- Hip
- Waist
- Chest
- Thighs
- Biceps
You don’t have the time and patience to do the above measurements? Worry not keep you favorite pair of old jeans and top or your favorite dress that you want to fit into 🙂 And if your cloths are fitting and your scale hasn’t changed much, Who cares!!!!
PS: Share your weight loss measuring ideas!!!