Losing weight versus losing body fat

Losing weight and losing bodyfat are two different things.  For most folk we want to lose body fat but how do we really know if we are losing it?

Bodyweight scales have traditionally been the way to track our weight, they are cheap and accessible to all but they really don’t give us a clear picture of what is happening in relation to body fat and here is why….

Interesting fact……Our bodies are made up of 65% water! It is not all held in one place and is split between 2/3 intracellular (water within your bodies cells) and 1/3 extracellular (in blood and lymphatic system). 

 There are many factors that can impact the amount of water stored….

Hydration status

We all know the importance of keeping our bodies hydrated, but even a 1% drop in hydration can cause variability on the scales.

Menstrual Cycle

It is quite common for woman to experience water retention during their menstrual cycle, the peak of this is on the first day of menstrual flow and the trough being midway through the follicular stage.  It is not uncommon to gain 3-5kgs across your cycle.  Hence why its important to know where you are in your cycle and compare weights from the same stages in your cycle.

Carbohydrate Intake

As increase in carbohydrate intake, also means an increase in water – for every 1 g of carbohydrate, our body retains 3g water.

Salt Intake

Ideally aim to keep your salt intake on an even level (along with lots of veggies and potassium), excessive acute consumption leads to water retention. 

Stress

When we are stressed, the hormone cortisol is increased which causes an increase in water retention. 

Resistance Training

Resistance Training is another stress on the body, both the inflammation and the increase in stored glycogen leads to an increase in body water.

Finally, undigested food in the gut can also lead to an increase bodyweight on the scales

Hence you can see that if at the weekend you consume a lot of salty food and had a lack of sleep why your bodyweight may have increased on Monday morning.  However, scales on a long-term basis can be a great tool for looking at the bigger picture and especially when combined with another measurement tool noted below.

So, my advice is not to be a slave to the scales, understand the pros and cons and use them to track long term progress.

If you do want to use scales, ideally weigh yourself, every day or every few days, first thing as you get up, before you eat or drink anything, ideally with little clothing on but also remember…..

Your scale weight does not define you as a person!

If, however weighing yourself regularly starts to affect your mental health, or if you have had issues in the past and if your weight defines how the rest of your days goes then please chuck those scales in the bin and look at other methods to use!

So how else can we measure our body composition?

Measuring tape

Measuring your body can be a great way to determine inches lost, especially your waist to hip ratio.  Accuracy is the main drawback, make sure you are consistent in the way you measure; self-measurement is not always accurate so get your partner to measure you.

Waist – Measure at the navel or 1cm above or the narrowest part

Hips – Measure at the widest part

Chest – Measure under the armpits

Bicep/Thigh/Calf – measure the widest part – flexed.

Favourite Clothes

Do you have a pair of jeans or a special dress that you struggle to fit into? This can be a goal to be able to fit back into them, or sometimes clients say that their clothes fit better after losing bodyfat.

Photos

Take before, during and after photos but make sure they are in the same place, with same stance and same lighting.  I would recommend doing these once a month, they do not need to be posted on social media (unless you really want to!), you can keep these private to track your progress.

Calipers

These measure skin folds on your stomach, hips, thighs and triceps.  Calipers are perfect for people who are already lean and looking to get leaner, then do not work on obese people, but to be accurate you really need to get it done by an experienced person.  I will be honest I have had this done on my PT course - I found it humiliating and never want to experience that again so will not be offering it as a service!

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)

These are quite common machines in regular gyms, the equipment sends a small harmless electrical current through your body and uses the resistance to estimate total body water and then estimates lean body mass.  However, there are two major problems here – measuring body water is influenced by your hydration status and by a number of the factors explained earlier, secondly food in the digestive tract can alter the results.  Hence these tend to be misleading and not fully accurate.

In summary combining bodyweight measurements with photographs will let you see what direction you are moving in terms of body fat, use scales if you feel you can but don’t be a slave to them!

Jude

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