THE SCURGE OF THE SCALES

The greatest health related myths, the most misleading advertising and the worst piece of gym equipment ever invented, the scales, all revolve around one term, "WEIGHT LOSS."  Whenever anybody talks to me about their health and fitness, the term "WEIGHT LOSS" is inevitably thrown in there somewhere.  Every new diet, every new Ab busting machine and every reality "WEIGHT LOSS" shows  biggest selling tool is the term "WEIGHT LOSS."  We are obsessed by it but we are confused by it.  It is so engrained in our sub conscious that it has lost all meaning and thus is associated with everything to do with being healthy.

Weight is a unit of measurement yes? Kgs or Lbs, that is all. So when we are talking about the human body, what does our weight tell us? How much muscle we have? No. How much bone mass we have? No. How much water we are holding? No. Our percentage of body fat? No.  Our BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate)? No. Our resting heart rate? No.  Our blood pressure? No. Nutrient levels? No. Our VO2 max? No. How we look in that dress or that pair of Jeans? NO NO NO NO NO!

SCALES TELL US HOW MUCH WE WEIGH. THAT IS ALL!!!!

So why do we insist and obsess over our weight?  When you get on the scales what are you learning? The problem is, as I stated previously, every health and fitness product advertised by mass media sells "WEIGHT LOSS." They brainwash you into associating what the scales tell you with how fit you are, how good you look and most dangerously, how healthy you are. Why? Because it is much easier to lose "weight" then it is to lose FAT.  I am yet to see a new fad diet promise FAT LOSS, which is exactly what everyone is after. FAT LOSS PEOPLE, FAT LOSS!

The irrelevance of scales is highlighted when we look at how many people in the community actually NEED to track their  body weight.   So far I've come up with Jockeys, and any other sport that has weight divisions.  That's it!  Someone else suggested fighter pilots, but I haven't been able to confirm this, regardless, this is a frighteningly short list of people who actually NEED to use scales! What percent of the population do you think is made up by Jockeys, Pro Fighters and Weightlifters? And yet all of us have a set of scales in the bathroom,  The Biggest Loser and shows like it use the scales as their only form of assessment, and every product on the market promises weight loss, not FAT LOSS. 

When we get fitted for clothes, does the shop assistant weigh us or measure us? hmm But so often we relate our weight to looking good.

We need to start thinking in terms of FAT LOSS, not weight loss.

Here are a couple of facts about how the makeup of your body relates to the number on the scales:

Fact:  Muscle weighs more than fat... sort of... what this really means is muscle is much more dense than fat, so 1kg of muscle is much much much smaller in size than 1kg of fat.

Fact:  Fat is one of the bodies fuel sources, along with protein and carbohydrate.  To use more fat we must burn more energy then we consume i.e. If you eat 2000 calories a day, you need to burn more than that to have an effect.  To burn more energy we need to increase our base metabolic rate ( the rate at which we burn fuel at rest) . This is done through exercise and muscle mass. Muscle needs a lot of fuel. The higher your muscle mass, the higher your metabolism.  Oh but the scales won't like that because muscle is heavy.

Fact: Muscles work on a supply and demand basis.  If there is no demand for them i.e. If we don't use them, they atrophy (shrink, waste away).  So yes, you will "weigh less" as a result of not exercising.  Will you lose fat? NO. Will your body fat percentage go up? YES. With less muscle, more of your body composition will be made up of fat. 

Fact: The body is made up of 80% water, so stop drinking it and yes you'll lose "weight".  First you'll get headaches, then back pain, then your vital organs will begin to shut down, but the scales say you weigh too much so who cares right? This is most relevant to females.  Depending on where you are at with your cycle ladies,  hormone levels will cause water retention, every litre of water weighs 1kg.  With this in mind, ask yourself again, Why is my weight relevant?

Fact: A flat stomach has nothing to do with what you weigh, it's how much body fat you have covering the six pack that all of us are born with.  Yes that's right, we all have a six pack, some are just better insulated then others. 

Fact: Your Jeans do not know how much you weigh, they know how big your waist is and how toned your butt is.

Fact:  A set of scales is not going to tell you if all those bicep curls you've done have been working.

Fact:  A set of scales will not tell you that your about to drop dead from an artery blockage.

Using the term" weight loss" and the use of scales is the most dangerous, misleading, overused and overrated practice in the health and fitness industry today.  I'm on a mission to change your mentality from weight loss to FAT LOSS, and get scales out of everyones fat Loss tool box.

Get skin folds assessed, get a body scan, get a bio electrical impedance test done, take girth measurements.  Do anything but get on the F'ing scales! Make your goals clothing size or performance related.

The next time you see or hear  an ad for losing weight without exercise, or dropping 10kg in the first week or your money back, read the muscle and water facts again and think about what these idiots are actually trying to sell you.

If your trainer or doctor has put you on the scales (except if you are pregnant) they have already failed you. Find a new trainer, find a new doctor.  Better yet, ask them how your weight is relevant and watch them stumble over an answer.

A NUMBER ON THE SCALES WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU SEE IN THE MIRROR!

Peace

PUTTING LIVES AT RISK FOR RATINGS- THE BIGGEST LOSER

I've read that one of the keys to writing a good blog is to keep it short to cater for this generations increasingly short attention spans.  This is fine in theory but when it comes to discussing everything that is wrong with The Biggest Loser in a succinct fashion, I am struggling, BIG TIME!

When The Biggest Loser first graced our televisions many years ago, I was like many of you, enthralled, inspired and grateful that finally someone was using reality television to do good.  Then I became educated, about the human body, about weight loss, about fitness, about the psychology of training obese clients and about the damage caused by going about things the wrong way.  I had to stop watching.  I have been disgusted and appalled ever since.

The simple fact is, the Biggest Loser feeds into the laziness of us humans by providing yet another quick fix.  Just like the latest pill or surgery or fad diet, The Biggest Loser gives the impression that it's possible to lose huge amounts of weight in a short period of time and that at the end, you'll be healthy, fit and cured of all the issues that led to you being obese in the first place. WRONG!

Fact: Muscle weighs more than fat.  So when we look at the scales, what are we measuring? The number we see tells us nothing of how much body fat we have. It bears no reflection on how fit we are.  Our weight has nothing to do with whether or not we are getting enough nutrients from our diet  and yet this is the sole mode of assessment used on this show.  My clients are not allowed on the scales. When they tell me they want to be 65kgs I ask them why?  "Because that's my healthy weight range". Forget what a piece of paper says. How about looking the mirror and being happy with what you see. You might be 100kgs, morbidly obese according to your BMI, but what if your 100kgs of ripped muscle and can bench press a truck?  I am yet to see 1 winner of The Biggest Loser that didn't look like they had an eating disorder.  They look drawn with no muscle tone and like they could fall down at any moment, but the scales say they're healthy. Throw out your scales.

Safe and Healthy weight loss is considered 1-2kg a week.  Much more than this places huge amounts of stress on a body that is already under the pump.  We need time to adapt to our new energy output and fuel supply or lack thereof.  Losing 10kg a week does not allow for this adaptation, leading to the body going into shock.  All of our systems slow down instead of speeding up as we go into survival mode. And let's look at this 10kg that these people are losing.  Fact: 1 litre of water = 1kg.  These people are not losing 10kg of fat! It is not possible to do so in a week.  They are losing water weight.  Due to their sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition, they are bloated, retaining water,  and as the only aim is to get big numbers, I can guarantee that they are all dehydrating themselves intentionally.  Safe and Healthy?

The last time I watched The Biggest Loser was a few years ago.  The very first day of training they made these poor people run 5km. I haven't watched it since.  To explain what is wrong with this and indeed most of the training on this show, I want you all to lay down on the ground and get your partner to lay on top of you with all their weight. Hard to breath? Feel your heart rate rising? Feel the pressure in your head increasing? Now imagine trying to exercise feeling like this.  If this is what it feels like to be lying still while  obese, how is the cardiovascular system supposed to cope with running 5km? How are their ankles, knees, hips and back supposed to cope with the force created by in some cases 190kg pounding into concrete?  They don't.  Case and point, last week the entire black team on this years series was injured! Every single one of them!  The damage done to joints and muscular structures by training in this fashion does not disappear when they leave the house. Clients in this kind of shape need thorough movement and postural assessments, a joint stability program and to be eased into their exercise program.  The unfortunate fact is that joint stability exercises, proper movement assessments and slow walks around the park don't make for "good television".  The injuries can be chronic and in some cases irreversible and if your heart goes, well...   The waivers that these people are forced to sign must be 100's of pages thick. which leads me to the next point.

 Unfortunately, we can't even take the inspiration from the show that they try and sell to us. "People rising against the odds to lose weight and change their lives."  Here's why.  If I locked any of you in a house for 3 months, didn't give you access to any of the temptations of the real world, starved you and gave you access to training 24/7. Guess what? You'd lose weight! These people aren't rising above anything! They are provided with EVERYTHING and motivated only by the money at the end.  To be successful motivation needs to be intrinsic, meaning that it comes from within you, not from external sources.   They need a counsellor not a Personal Trainer. This is proved by the fact that once out of the house and all the FREE help is no longer there, most end up bigger and heavier than before the show.

The producers of this show, know all of this. Worst still, the trainers on this show, who are now worth millions, know all of this! They have completely sold out as health professionals and I'm not sure how they sleep.  They are part of a mechanism that feeds false hope and places unrealistic expectations on millions of people around the world each year. They are putting lives at risk, they are causing more harm than good and they are getting away with it. It's a disgrace. 

We need to stop buying into this shit and being so F'ing lazy people!! THIS SHOW IS MAKING BIG LOSERS OUT OF ALL OF US! There is no quick fix! Leading a healthy lifestyle is a full time job. No magic pill, potion or TV show is going to do it for you, regardless of what they claim.  Get proper advice! Not from a magazine or someone that's  being payed millions to make "good television".  FIND THE MOTIVATION TO BE BETTER AT LIFE WITHIN YOURSELF AND STOP LOOKING FOR SOMETHING OR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THE HARD WORK FOR YOU! Peace