In our previous blog, we talked about the importance of setting SMART goals in alignment with what you intend for the year. Strategies like this can be especially useful when attempting to follow through on a goal such as weight loss. This is a worthy endeavor since obesity is an epidemic in our country and is often directly correlated to conditions like heart disease and diabetes. However, the problem we observe when helping people manage their weight is that they usually end up using their bathroom scale as the only measure of their progress. This is not the best strategy. Let’s explore why.
Your Scale is Not Telling the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.
Measuring your weight loss by the bathroom scale alone gives you a narrow view of your overall health. Imagine two adult males standing side by side that are the same age and height. When they step on the scale, it indicates that according to a standard called the Body Mass Index (BMI), they are both overweight. When you find out more information, you realize that one of the men has a sedentary lifestyle, eats fried fatty foods and is suffering from chronic pain while the other man eats healthy foods, works out regularly and lives a pain-free life. Obviously, if we just judged them by the scale alone, it would be unfair to base their overall health according to how much they weigh. Furthermore, if both of them had a goal to manage their weight, we would use a different strategy for each of them to help them reach their goals.
Start Looking Beyond the Scale
When we start to look beyond the scale, we start to see that a person’s weight is composed of things like your bones, tendons, ligaments and organs. Because our bodies are made up of over 60% water, our hydration levels play an important part in our weight and health of our cells. A person’s body fat is an important factor in their weight, but when we desire to reach a healthy weight, we have to take care of the whole body to ensure that results are long-lasting and sustainable. If we focus intently on losing fat by restricting calories or even skipping meals, we may find that we lose weight, but we lose muscle in the process (a process called sarcopenia). When this happens, not only does it make it harder to sustain a healthy weight, but losing muscle also has an effect of sapping our energy, increasing our stress levels and even making us more prone to illness.
Consider This:
What if…
- You could effectively measure whether your recent weight loss was the result of the reduction of body fat, water, or lean tissue?
What if…
- You could customize a lifestyle program that doesn’t follow fads, but accurately monitors the most effective changes for your body.
What if…
- You could find a cost-effective way to determine whether your lifestyle changes are moving you in the right direction.
Well, you can stop wondering because there is a way
Body Composition Analysis is an effective tool that gives you not only a more complete picture of your weight but also tells you about the general state of your health and fitness. We’ve found that it is an inexpensive and accurate way to gauge a person’s progress and effectiveness on their lifestyle changes. From the results, we can help people make quicker, more effective and measurable changes as they move towards reaching their health goals. Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk more about the readings of a body composition analysis along with potential strategies you can incorporate along your weight loss journey. Stay tuned.
In Service,
P.S. If you are curious about how we might address your health issues, schedule a free consultation today.