Latest / Cameron's Conversations: The last weight loss podcast you'll ever need. / Episode 50: How to be less of a stress head around the scales
Transcript
- Cameron Cummings: Welcome to the Cameron's Conversations podcast. And in today's episode, I want to talk about being less of a blinking stress head around the scales. So there is one thing that I see more often than anything else, and that is people have a truly shocking relationship with the scales. If you were to describe it in a normal relationship, you'd probably use the word toxic, or you'd be quite concerned about your pal being in relationship like that, because it's so bloody up and down. Now, what we do not want is we do not want to be stressed out or indeed changing what we're doing because of what the scales say on a day-to-day basis. One of the things I cannot stress enough, and I do want to be quite deliberate and quite clear about this is having a really poor relationship with the scales and getting stressed out, properly stressed out of them is probably holding you back from making progress. That's something that's really important, because sometimes what happens is this, is people recognise that they're not the best with the scales, but they don't tackle it. And the issue with that is, is let's say someone's not in coaching right, so they don't have like a coach, me, they're to kind of nudge them in the right direction when they have a bit of a wobble over the scales, because the scales fluctuate up for whatever reason. What happens is this, is they're cracking along really nicely, on average they're dropping weight quite well. then they have a weekend away, they come back, the scales are up on Monday, they're a bit deflated to say the least, and then the next day they're still up and they're really miffed now, and then another day they've dropped a little but not as much as they'd like and they're fully pissed off now and they've just been off the diet. Now, the problem with that is, that actually the reason it's fluctuating could A, be obviously quite likely related to your weekend away being about higher in calories, et cetera, and the weight spike you've had is actually more to do with food in your digestive tract. your glycogen stores being sort of filled up as well. Now glycogen stores are this stored form of carbohydrates. So we break it down into glucose in our blood, then it's stored as glycogen. So what happens with glycogen? I mentioned this in the podcast before, you have one gram of glycogen, you have about three to four grams of water storage alongside that. So if I have a weekend away and I have some nice pizza and whatever else, then I will likely see a bigger spike on the scales and it has nothing to do with fat gain. I'm not meaning necessarily a big calorie surplus or anything like that. I'm just seeing fluctuations in weight. But the issue is, is that person who is doing really quite well is now feeling so deflated and defeated because they are so reactive to what the scales say. And this is a big problem. And one of the things I often stress about that is for a lot of people that are on a roller coaster, they are absolutely bloody delighted when they drop a couple of pounds, let's say, and then they are absolutely distraught when it jumps back up. And that is a problem. The analogy I always use for this, and I've said this before in the podcast is, If your skills go down, it should be like finding like a two pound coin or maybe a fiver if it's a big drop, but it shouldn't be like finding a 50 pound note. Like, yes, it's good the skills have gone down. Good, that's the goal. That's what we want. But you cannot be that excited because guess what? When it works the other way around, it's going to feel like you've lost a hundred pound note because that's exactly what that negativity bias that we all have, right? Is we can all kind of get in our own heads and be a bit more like negative outcomes are more impactful on our mood and what we perceive of things. So it's a problem, isn't it? Because what happens is, oh, like I've not done so well, I've seen weight go up, I'm feeling really defeated, I'll stop dieting, or I'm gonna pack it in, or I can't be bothered, I'm gonna eat my feelings, and all the rest of it. So one of the things I want to stress is, even if you are sitting here thinking, oh, that does sound a bit like me, and you kind of go away from this podcast, and you do nothing about it, that's a problem. Like, we need to tackle that relationship with the scales. It shouldn't be that way. Those numbers fluctuate because they say more than what fat loss does, right? They say, okay, actually you're better hydrated or worse hydrated. You had some salty food the day before. Your glycogen stores are fuller. You've not been to the toilet. Glamorous, I know. You have been to the toilet. Maybe that's why you ate. Maybe you don't normally go to the toilet until nine in the morning, but for whatever reason, you had more fiber, you go as soon as you get out of bed and your scales are down. People get really excited about that, but they're maybe not objective about it. Maybe it's dropped more than normal because I've just been to the toilet. Not glamorous, right? Not glamorous, but quite important. So you can quickly see that we could pick apart in both directions, you know, you could easily say if someone said, I've had a great drop, could almost pick apart and say, well, maybe this is why, maybe that's why, blah, blah. So I think it's really important that we kind of take a step back and improve our relationship with the scales because it is a huge problem if you are stressed out completely by them. Now, there is an argument for not weighing yourself at all. Okay, sure. Like that does work for some people. And I absolutely have used it with clients where the relationship and the skills are just so poor that it's just not good for them. And they're not in the head space for it. Sometimes we reintroduce them down the line and because they've lost a chunk of weight and they're in a better head space around their nutrition, the way they look, the way they feel generally, they're almost in a more receptive place. It's like where they were before they were not able to be receptive to it because they already had too many negative emotions around body and feelings and stuff around food. it's almost too much right on top of it. But by and large, and I do mean like 90 % of- clients would do weigh themselves daily. Like, obviously, when I say that, to contextualise, they don't take scales with them everywhere. Some people say, oh, but what if you're going away for hotel for a night? I'm like, oh, I don't bring my bloody scales. I cannot be bothered packing scales into my bag. Now, I absolutely know some clients do. They're going for a week away and like self-catering and maybe what are in the midst of a fat loss phase that they're really trying to push. Sure, yeah, cool. But like otherwise, you know, you don't be, oh, I'm over the baggage allowance and Ryanair are going to charge me 67,000 euros. because I've got a pair of scales, or a set of scales, the back in my bag, right? That's a different story, right? But anyway, so the point is this, is that we want to have a good enough relationship with the scales that it does not derail our progress, and being objective about that understanding that it is normal for them to go up as it is down, and that it works in both directions. And one of the things I sometimes get people to do, which is completely counterintuitive to anything they've done before, and it seems strange, is... When you see a big drop on the scales, pick it apart. What I mean by that is, do you know what? I hadn't lost very much weight for the last week. It's probably a bit of a lagging measure. I can see there's been a big drop, but it wasn't like yesterday was anything magic. I stuck to my normal calories, normal-ish steps, you know, was quite active, but I had this huge drop. Maybe it's a lagging measure of all the hard work I've done over the last seven days, or I've had a really, really big drop. I actually had quite a low calorie day yesterday. Actually, I did a lot more exercise than normally. Actually, you know, I had a bit less, you know, carbohydrate or whatever it is that might have caused a bit of a fluctuation in the scales in the downward direction. The reason I get people to do that is if you can do it on the way down, which is what feels like winning, it makes it when they do go up a little bit, you a bit more rational about it. And a lot of people have never thought of that ever. They've never even considered it. They're too busy doing the happy dance after they've seen a half kilo drop or, know, whatever it is, right? And that's an issue because there's all this emotion around it. And one of the things that I kind of wanted to be a bit more boring than that, and it sounds strange as someone who coaches weight loss and fat loss, right? I do so much of like when clients start with me is that, right? Obviously I work a lot on the training and nutrition, sorry, the training side of it, relationship with food, all these other bits, right? But when people come to me, by and large, there is a weight loss goal as a large part of it. Then often the goals move on and they worry about, you know, performance and next things and exciting things and new challenges that we can chase down, which is really, really cool. And sometimes that's... getting in crazy good shape, sometimes it's doing something different or just being very fit and strong and healthy, whatever it is. But the point is, that, like I'm literally a weight loss coach, those words, weight loss, and I'm still telling you that it can be good to pick apart your losses, never mind your gains. So there's something a little bit different for you to have a bit of a think about for this week. And if you are struggling a bit with your weight loss right now, there's two things you can do. The first one is you can click on the link and book a one-to-one call. and we'll have a bit of a chat. And there's absolutely no pressure here. I do currently have a waiting list for one-to-one clients as well. So I can't guarantee I'll be able to take you on tomorrow, although I will be able to take you on, I'm sure, in the semi-near future. But we'll have a very relaxed chat about where you're at, what you're struggling with, and if nothing else, you'll have a clearer picture of what you need to do next. And if you are also struggling a little bit and would kind of like to see and understand a bit more about how you should structure your nutrition and weight loss phase, then there's also a link. which you can click on, and that's gonna be for my free fat loss guide as well, which is gonna talk about how to structure your nutrition and what to expect in terms of weight loss as well that is realistic to, not just a number that, you know, your hairdresser said, like, ⁓ I lost a stone doing keto, and of course, yeah, well, let's be honest, we all know it's just water weights you lost, but that's by the by. So, if you're interested in either of those things, jump into the show notes, otherwise, I'll speak to you soon.