To Weigh or to Measure? (FAQ Friday)

As I've mentioned, briefly, I am no longer a supermarket dietitian.  Actually my job has been completely transformed over the past month, and gone are the days of personal dietary consultations with clients trying to lose or gain weight.  As part of my new job I meet with students who need help finding gluten free, peanut free, dairy free, etc. foods, now that they are away from the comfort of their own home and familiar environment.  While I may not be doing private consultations as part of my full-time job, I'm still hoping to do a few hours here and there for friends, family, or anyone who would like me to come over to their home and do a cabinet or kitchen "makeover".  I guess you could call me the very part-time "traveling consultant dietitian".  I do enjoy meeting with people for one-on-one consultations, very much, and I'm lucky to have a profession that still allows for that every once in a while, when time permits.  Lately I've been thinking about new methods to use in order to give people specific goals on what to eat and how much. I usually start out by weighing clients on a scale, then giving them a new weight (and calorie) goal based on their age, height and sex.  However, having seen the effect the number on the scale can have on people (women and men) I'm thinking of skipping the scale from now on, and just using a tape measure.

I've written some posts about the scale before.  Please read them if you'd like......

Do you weigh yourself?

What does the scale really reflect? 

While the scale has been a great tool for me in the past (and honestly, still is something I use for myself maybe once or twice a month) I've decided I'm not going to be purchasing one for clients to use when they visit with me.  Here are some basic reasons why I refuse to buy a scale for personal consultations;

1)  I hate weighing myself. I hate getting on a scale. I hate when the number on the scale effects the rest of my day, no matter how hard I try not to let it.  Because I have been happy weighing myself only when I go to my parent's house (they have a scale) I'm afraid that if I buy one for my home and say it's "for clients only" I will be enticed to get on the scale more often.  That being said, if my clients want to weight themselves they can do so, at their own home.

2)  I always cringe when a client gets on the scale, all excited, then sees a number he/she doesn't like.  Not only do I feel bad for him/her, but I feel bad for myself because I then have to explain why this may have happened.....I feel like a broken record.  And this awful situation is almost always followed-up with a "but my clothes feel looser!", which to me means "yeah! You are losing!", but to them the number on the scale still bears more weight (pun intended).

3)  Fat does not weigh more than muscle (ie: 1 pound of fat = 1 pound of muscle. Obviously).  But, if you have a 4 x 4 piece of fat and compare it to a 4 x 4 piece of muscle, the muscle will weight more.  Therefore, per square inch the fat does weigh more.  A scale does not help you determine whether you have lost fat and gained muscle.  You may be lifting more and eating everything right, but your weight might stay the same because you've lost fat and gained muscle.  Ugh.


4)  Raise your hand if you've ever gotten on a scale at home to see one number, then jumped on a scale at your doctor's office (literally 30 minutes later) and there is a 1-5 pound difference (I know all of your hands are raised. Mine sure is).  Scales are not to be trusted, they all seem to weigh differently!


5)  Raise your hand if you've ever gotten on a scale one day, then jumped on the next day (same scale, same time of day) and you notice you have "gained 5 pounds".  My hand is raised.  Does that mean you've gained five pounds of fat?  Unless you ate 17, 500 calories over your calorie budget....NO!  Most likely you're just retaining water because you ate a higher carbs or sodium meal the night before (or perhaps it's hormonal fluctuations. It's fun being a women.)  Read this article for other reasons your weight can fluctuate.


Instead of getting people on a scale I'm going to measure their waist, and possibly their waist to hip ratio.  Go ahead and determine your waist to hip ratio here.  Make sure you are measuring your hip at it's widest part (typically that's the widest portion of your bottom), and your waist should be measured at or above your belly button.  Be sure not to breath in, just stand normally and relax.

Source

I think just measuring someone's waist on the initial visit will be enough of a baseline to use for goals.  The recommendation, for health, is less than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men.  So I envision clients coming in, getting their waist measured, learning which foods to include in their diet and which to minimize (based on their own personal needs) then coming back in a month and see if they lost inches.  Heck, even a positive change in energy and attitude may be enough to keep someone motivated (I've seen it!).  Compare this to getting on a scale and seeing a +1 pound after a month of positive changes and lots of hard work.  That's just the worst, and let's face it, it often means absolutely nothing in regards to how far you've actually come.  FitSugar posted a few other ways to measure weight loss in this article (all good options, in my opinion).

I bought a pink measuring tape. It's just so much more friendly than a scale.  I mean, it's pink!

Oh, in other news, have you seen my new "Stand-up" desk?  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought a bed table/tray (you know, one of those trays you bring to someone who wants breakfast in bed) and I put it on top of my work dest so I can stand while I work. You're jealous, right?! You want one too, I'm sure (that's what I keep telling my co-workers..."you're jealous!"...although I know secretly they think I'm just insane).

I have to give credit where credit is due; I got this idea from my friend Kelly from where I used to work. Brilliant I tell you!  I hadn't completely unwrapped the desk when I took this photo, hence the cardboard still on it.

QUESTION:  Do you weigh yourself? What do you think about a dietitian without a scale?  Also, would you ever stand-up while at work, all day??

Have a great weekend, GO BUCKS, and thanks for reading!

The Candid Rd

What Does the Scale Really Reflect?

Back in October I did a post about weighing yourself, and why I choose not to weigh myself often. In my opinion it's not good to focus on a number as a way to gauge your fitness and health (well, at least not the pounds number, other numbers may be helpful, such as blood pressure and cholesterol). Many people tell me that they weigh themselves everyday, and that it can have a major effect on their mood. But does the number on the scale really reflect what you think?


What does your weight (the number on the scale) reflect? Fat, muscle, fluid, skeletal tissue, and other tissues/organs

What changes when your weight changes? Fat, muscle, and fluid. The others do not change with weight, but they may change with age.

Body Fluid

• Changes regularly, throughout the day.

• Is effected by hormones, diet, heat, medications, and exercise.

• If you weigh yourself in the morning, you may easily weigh 3-4 pounds less than you do later at night! Fluid can fluctuate tremendously throughout the day.

• Women who are pre-menstrual can experience a 3-8 lb fluctuation in fluid weight.

Muscle

• When you are losing weight, you will loose muscle. Help combat this loss by including a workout regimen, with weights, that lasts 60-90 minutes, 5 days a week.

• People who are overweight actually have more muscle than people of normal weight. Why? They need to be able to support their extra weight.

• When you exercise to loose weight, you may not see the weight loss right away because your energy from fat will be used to power your workouts. Working out will help your muscles grow larger in size (no increase in the number muscle cells, only muscle cell size). Muscle weighs more than fat, therefore the scale may not show that you have lost weight.

Fat

• Fat loss is seen when you consume less calories than you burn.

• Fat loss can be measured multiple ways, but the most common is via bioelectrical impedance. Your local gym's personal trainers should have a machine to do this, or you can buy a special scale.

Bottom Line: If you want to weigh yourself everyday, that's fine, but keep in mind the number may not accurately represent your efforts to maintain, loose, or even gain weight. If your mood or your diet for the day tends to change depending on the number you see on the scale each day, you may want to consider weighing yourself once every other week, in my opinion.

Healthy Body Fat Percentages

For Health

<55 yrs women: 20-35%
>55 yrs women: 25-38%
<55 yrs men: 8-22%
>55 yrs men: 10-25%

For Fitness

<55 yrs women: 16-28%
>55 yrs women: 20-33%
<55 yrs men: 5-15%
>55 yrs men: 7-18%

Source: ADA Sports Nutrition; A Practice Manual for Dietitians

Bottom Line: These body fat recommendations may not be as low as you thought, am I right? Fat is important for brain function, insulation, and nerve impulse transmission (to name a few). Don't ignore the value of fat!

Coming Up
Tomorrow I will share with you some new products that you will start to see in stores soon! Have a great day everyone, and thanks for reading.