Why you shouldn’t worry about weight increase on scales

I know many people who dislikes Mondays but I am not one of them, unless I step on the scales and I do not like what I see – a weight increase..(Why, you cruel world, WHY? ) As on every Monday I have always the weight-in time to check my progress/regress of my workout & dieting program and I must admit that the result on the scales can affect my mood quite a lot ( not for a long, tough, but still enough to make my face frown if negative result).

This morning was not the pleasant one as I did not like what I saw, especially because been busting my butt in a gym in a hard workout sessions and clean eating all last week to catch up with my regress after Japan. Of course I felt robbed and down despite the fact that I know that scales reflects just a number but mirror and your clothes are the real indicator of your progress.

Scales shows just a number but mirror and your clothes are the real indicator of the progress you are making.

But sometimes you just need to be reminded and read for yourself what’s the real measures of a progress and also reasons for increased weight on the scales, so I did a small research and put together some lists that hopefully will help you too to keep looking ahead and not down on the scales number!

 

Reasons for increased weight on the scales

• muscles weight more than fat (but it’s more compact therefore you look slimmer) 
• increased sodium intake caused your body to retain water. (Think pizza, sushi, soy sauce, processed foods, veggies, fruits, etc.) 
• restroom ( our body stores quite amount of weight in large intestine..) 
• dehydration (not drinking enough water, so body stores the water)
• alcohol night before (in result you are dehydrated) that ends up leaving your body with your internal water. e.g.  For every 200 milliliters of beer consumed, the average person releases 320 milliliters of urine.
• Stress – huge impact to the weight loss
• Menstrual cycle ( bloating) – well don’t need to explain that, right?
• Illness
• Glycogen Stores which comes from daily carb intake and are stored in various parts of body. Each gram of carb storage causes your body to retain between 2.7 – 4 times that amount in water, therefore each gram carb intake you can multiply by water and get your additional weight. (Mike from On The Regimen explains it very well in his article).

For a better understanding about the scales and how to interpret your results you should take into account not only your constant weight-in measurements but also waste size measures and your feeling in gym. IS your strength increasing? 

Dick Talens has made this nice chart that will explain you how to interpret your results and how to act further. (Thanks, dude).

 

As for me as a rational person who needs clear answers and facts this is definitely helpful tips and chart that will use myself to keep on going forward and not feel bad for myself because even to myself I need to remind that a scales shows just a number, SO i have decided to stop weighting for 1 month and keep with my program, diet and photo check-in every Sunday to track progress. 

 

What about you? How is your dieting/ weight loss/increase journey going?