Most people reading this will have heard that the BMI scale is a little outdated, and to a large degree that is true.

If you are a non active individual who is overweight then the BMI scale (still extensively used throughout the medical profession) can be a guide as to someones physical condition. Insurance companies still use it, as do health clubs, pension providers etc etc.

However if you exercise, either cardio or resistance work, then the scale becomes obsolete for you. The BMI scale is unable to differentiate between muscle mass and fat mass, and clearly an individual with 50lb of muscle is healthier than an individual with 50lb of fat.

On the scale, any BMI reading that is over 24.9 is classed as being overweight, and 30 or over is obese.

Now I personally know quite a few individuals who regularly lift weights and enjoy some cardio. Their bodyfat levels consistently remain around 10-12% (that is six pack territory for men), but because of their overall weight they are classed as obese by the BMI scale. You can imagine the problems this causes with increased health insurance premiums etc.

This leads in very nicely to the problem with the scales. Like the BMI charts, scales can not differentiate between fat mass or muscle mass and this means that jumping on the scales only tells you one thing, what your overall weight is.

If you are new to resistance work (lifting weights or even general HIIT workouts) then your body can respond quite dramatically in the early few weeks. It is quite possible to gain around 5lb of lean muscle tissue as a result of the new stimulus you are putting your body under. 

This means that whatever the scales are telling you has been lost from your dieting efforts, the actual real amount of fat you will have lost may well be higher. Now in the early weeks that’s fine because the body tends to also shift a load of water weight as well and this means you still show a net loss on the scales but at some point there is a balancing period where the following happens:

• Your rate of muscle ‘gain’ slows to a more realistic rate (around 1lb to 2lb a month)
• Your water loss slows down and balances out
• Your fat loss slows to a nice steady pace (1-2lb a week)

Now when this happens you are left with a situation where the movement on the scales seems incredibly smaller than the early days and typically people think at this point the diet isn’t working and they jump ship to something else.

The truth is THIS IS FAT LOSS, this is the point that everyone gets to and is the pattern that everyone eventually settles in to.

Jumping on the scales each week/month will still show a loss (hopefully, if you are following your diet and it has been written properly) but it won’t be huge as you will still have some muscle development occurring. Your body will be changing shape, your body fat percentage will be dropping but the scales, unable to tell the difference between fat and muscle, show you one simple figure and most people will ONLY equate that to how much fat they have lost, which is wrong. 

What is actually happening is you lose a load of fat, put a little muscle on, and the difference between the two is what you see on the scales.

So if you are exercising as well as dieting remember there is a bigger picture at play here, it is NOT all about the figure on the scales, it’s about how you LOOK!

.

If you have found this post useful then please share it using the icons on the left (desktop) or at the very bottom of this screen (mobile), and if you do not do so already please follow The Switch Plan across our various social media platforms for daily diet, weight loss and fitness related articles and tips, using the 3 buttons immediately below!

[et_social_follow icon_style=”slide” icon_shape=”rounded” icons_location=”top” col_number=”3″ outer_color=”dark” network_names=”true”]