Scales. Love or Loathe?

Maybe it's a bit of both. More your love/hate relationship.

Can you have a healthy relationship with your bathroom scales?

Perhaps.  But only if you understand body composition. Most diets, and I mean the fad diets that have you losing weight quickly through eating very little and exercising lots, focus on losing weight. As long as that number on the scales is going down, it doesn't matter where the weight is coming from right?

Right?

No. Not right. Any kind of rapid weight loss is generally attributed to water loss and muscle loss. The two things your body needs most of all. All of our cells require water to survive, so you kind of need to hang onto that, and our body shape, strength, posture and immune system is governed by the amount of muscle mass we have, so you kind of need that too.

Too many people are hung up on the number on the scales, and not enough attention is paid to the real problem. Carrying too much fat.

Too much visceral fat makes your heart, lungs and intestines work harder to get you through the day.

Too much body fat means more pressure on joints, causing premature wear and tear.

Too much body fat puts you at greater risk of type 2 diabetes, cardio vascular disease and premature ageing.

Changing your body composition to have more muscle and less fat will change the way you look. Clothes will fit better. You may even need to go shopping to buy smaller sizes.

Having more muscle will improve your posture when walking, when sitting, when playing.

More muscle means a stronger immune system. It means greater strength to do things you want to do in life.

More muscle makes you look and feel younger.

More muscle may not change the number on the scales, but it will change the numbers in your life.