Scales… Aren’t your friend!

Hi everyone, it's just Sheree. I haven't done a post for a while so I just thought I'd do a really quick post because it is amazing as a nurse and a fitness trainer, and I've been training for 15 odd years now, how many people still really rely on their scales.

And scales, hi Kerry, scales are not going to tell you anything much at all. They will give you an overall view of what everything in your body is doing.

Now I work on cardiovascular ward, so a cardio ward, and we have people losing three kilos overnight, some up to five kilos when there are all sorts of fluid tablets that they're on. So really, scales tell you very sweet stuff all. So as trainers, we are taught all the time not to look at the scales.

Scales will not give you if you're building up some muscle and losing fat. Now we all know that as you get a stronger body and you start to do some strength training, you'll often gain weight on the scales before you actually start to see anything that you've lost weight on your body. So the fact is you can be gaining lean muscle mass.

You are looking good, you're feeling great. Your clothes that you wore once upon a time that you couldn't fit into six months ago, you can now fit into them again. You know that you have lost some of your fat percentage, but you look down at the scales and you feel very discouraged because all you see down at the scales is the fact that you are still got the same weight or that you have gained weight.

So some ladies have told me that have been particularly skinny before and that they can't fit into their skinny leg jeans anymore because they've gained some muscle, so quadriceps and gained some glutes, so some bum muscle. So seriously, I just get amazed still when I see posts from people that say they bought a brand new set of scales and they're so happy with them and they rely on the scales to tell them how they're going. So I would be saying to you, throw away the scales.

If you really want to see if you're losing fat and you're gaining some muscle, if you really want to tell if you're losing fat, the best three things I can possibly tell you are go find those clothes you could fit into 12 months ago when you weighed a bit less and then try them on. And as you go along, you'll be amazed that you can fit back into them again if that's what you're doing, if you are starting to lose fat. Now, the other way that people that like statistics may want to use a tape measure, you can use a tape measure around your belly button and I'd use it the same spot each time.

Put it around your belly button. I think it's easier. Fitness Australia will tell you to put a measuring tape around the narrowest part of your waist.

But for women that get a bit older and going through menopause, I find that it's often not probably up around their ribs as a narrowest part of their waist often. So I think just stick around the belly button. Then you know you're in the same place every time.

If you want to do around the hips as well, you can go around the most sticky out portion of your bum. So go around the most sticky out portion, do one there and you can do one around the chest as well. And you will soon find out if that starts to decrease with how many centimetres you're there.

And the one other thing is photos. Now, I don't do that myself. I don't like to take photos of myself.

But if you did want to, that is an awesome way for you personally to see whether you've lost weight is by taking a photo from the front, the side, the back. And photos don't lie either. And you can take those if there's a really tight pair of jeans, then you'll have the top sticking out of the top.

And then as time goes on, you'll see that less and less. Now, I was gobsmacked last night because I decided to look at a few things about China. I just want to know just some points on how poor people are in China.

There's lots of poor people in China. I remember looking at a family that only ate potatoes because they farm potatoes and they ate potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner because the Chinese government don't really give them any support. And so on top of that, I then looked at the amount of obese kids there are in China these days.

They've gotten more affluent. These kids in middle income families were really quite obese. And what they do is totally wrong.

I couldn't believe what they were doing. So they get these Chinese kids to go along to, I guess it's kind of a bootcamp, where they work out for four hours a day. I don't know how they do it.

So they work out for four hours a day. Then they showed this group all hiking up a mountain. That's perfectly fine, but I'm watching what is going into their mouths.

So they're all eating processed foods. So chips, all sorts of junk, real junk food. And I'm thinking, and all they could talk about throughout this was they have to move, have to move.

Well, we all know that moving is fantastic. It gives you so many benefits to have a strong body that moves. But you've also got to look at your diet as well.

You've got to look at trying to have as many unprocessed foods as you can. You've got to try and look at trying to put in healthy fats, from avocados, nuts, things like that. High protein, trying to include that in every meal.

So that will come from things like your meat, fish, and you'll also get quite a bit of plant food as well that's high protein. And also trying to eat healthy carbs. So trying to eat as much, I guess, whole foods as you can.

So that's the way to go. But this show that I watched on China last night just made me feel gobsmacked that they are focusing so much on movement. And then there are people that just focus just on diet and don't let you move at all while you lose weight.

Well, you need both, but if you're going to be, I just really, my main aim on this today was just to come in and say, don't worry about the scales. The scales won't tell you the full picture, okay? So your scales are better off to be kept wherever they are.

Take them to the dump, throw them out. I don't care what you do with them, but they really don't tell you much. Actually, don't throw them out.

If you went into hospital, they may ask you your weight. So it's nice to kind of have a weight once a year. But if you're someone that gets on the scales every day, don't do that.

Go more for how do your clothes feel? How do you feel? It's a far better way to do it.

That's all I want to do today. And I just want to say intuitive eating is definitely the way to go. So Bisbee eating, if you wanted to get on track and just make some simple things, start right where you're at today and just make some small changes.

So intuitive eating is where you eat just until you feel full enough and you're not going to go beyond that. So eat until you're about 80% full. And the other things are just what I mentioned a few moments ago, but don't worry about the scales.

They don't tell you much. Throw them away. And yeah, that's about all I wanted to say.

Have a great day. And if you don't know where to start on your health and fitness journey, just make one small change today. Okay.

See you. Have a great day, everyone. Bye.