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Breaking Free From The Scale: Better Tools For Measuring Progress · Your Strongest Body

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You are listening to your strongest body.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Betsy Foster, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade, helping people build strength, speed, muscles, as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness, nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of your Strongest Body.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: You know me, I'm Betsy, I'm your coach.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I have a guest in studio today, so if you hear any little giggles in the background, I've got somebody in here today.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We're going to jump in right away.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to keep this quick, but we're going to talk about three the problem.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the problem with the scale and why a body weight measurement, why a body weight measurement is not going to give you the most accurate picture of your physical change.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Now it is totally under and I'm going to give you ways where you can better measure progress from a fitness standpoint, from a physique change standpoint, all of that.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: It is really understandable why you might feel really connected to the number on the scale because it is the measurement that we rely on most often when you go to a doctor's office.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: When you probably in school or in PE class or something like that, any measurement of health has typically been around that number on the scale.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It's also just very ease of access to get a number on the scale.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: No wonder we sort of rely on it.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: When you go to the gym there's probably a scale in the locker room that is easy to access.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: If you are losing weight, that number on the scale changes.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: The challenge with losing weight versus when we talk about losing body fat is that it isn't always equal.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Losing weight could also mean losing water, water retention, losing muscle mass.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: You could be losing muscle mass and that could change the number on the scale.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: When we talk about losing body fat, what that typically means is that we aren't losing muscle mass.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Losing body fat is going to change your physique while also giving or helping to maintain that kind of what many people call a toned look or a more athletic look.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Losing body weight is going to be all over body.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Losing body fat is probably going to be a little bit more physique changing, at least when we talk about that sort of more athletic look and generally, when we're talking about losing body fat, we are.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: We are, since we are maintaining muscle and or adding muscle because the body weight could change.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Your weight actually could go up if you increase muscle and still lose body fat but those health markers are improving.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: They're improving because we are better off with more muscle mass and less body fat.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So what are some ways we can then measure progress and physique change, progress without the scale?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the other ways that we can measure that progress and the ways in which we can probably measure it a little better.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: One of them is with a more accurate body composition measurement.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Now, this is something that you may not be able to do easily in your home.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Some scales bathroom scales, some sort of like high-end scales do offer a sort of bioelectrical impedance measurement that can measure changes in body fat and muscle mass, but that's a little tricky to achieve at home.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: You can seek these out at either a gym in a university setting sometimes some private companies offer and there's an opportunity to take a look at not just your physical weight but the amount of muscle mass you have and the amount of body fat you have, and you can then measure the progress that way.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Another way to do that body composition measurement is with a caliper, and sometimes these are offered in gyms or you can get them from a private company, but they're actually going to kind of pull at the body fat, measure that and be able to, with a formula, taking those measurements and adding them together, finding the average, they're going to be able to tell you, give you an estimate of your body fat percentage and then, if you are exercising, you're doing resistance training and you are doing some kind of high protein and or calorie deficit, you're probably going to see changes in body composition and then you will be able to track that progress.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So that is a way.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Another way, a more easily done at home way, is to do some circumference measurements, meaning you're going to use a tape measure, something that you would wrap around yourself and in a few designated spots, measure your size.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Then you can actually see the physical changes.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: If you're trying to put on muscle some spots or reduce fat in some spots even though we can't necessarily pick those places that we reduce fat, we can't spot reduce fat so then what you're going to do is measure certain spots and you'll be able to see those physical changes in size, and you could combine that certainly with body weight measurements.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: The challenge again is that when we're talking about the density of muscle in our body, sometimes when we add lean muscle it doesn't add size per se.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: It changes the shape of our physique and we might misinterpret those numbers on the scale.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And lastly, one of the great ways to measure progress from a resistance training program, from a focused diet or improved nutrition plan is to take stock on quality of life.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So thinking about do I have more energy?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Do I have more strength?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Am I continuing to feel stronger and faster?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Can I lift heavier weights?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Am I sleeping better?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Am I feeling satisfied at the end of meals?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, all of that goes together.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: It's not to say that one is more important than another, but it's certainly.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: We want to look at the whole picture and that is what is lacking when we are focused solely on that single number on the scale, because it literally just tells us our relation to gravity.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: It gives us no better insight.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So I think it tends to be more useful for us to accumulate a Lot of different measurements.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Then we take those measurements and we can put them all together and get a clearer picture.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna keep it short today Because my my guest coach is getting a little antsy, but I want you to think about those things.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I want you to know that tomorrow, when this episode comes out, it's gonna be Monday, march 25th.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow, march 26th, my built bodies program officially launches to the public.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: This 12 week Full-body training program is designed to help you build visible muscle, get stronger and have your most confident summer.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: We're doing all of the training part, so you're getting four workouts a week, a really progressive designed program to help you reach those goals.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: But it also includes the nutrition components.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: So I'm giving you the tools to Properly fuel your workouts, build the muscle that you want, lose the body fat that you want, and then I am also providing all of the other tools that help you support that transformation so that, 12 weeks from now, you are really experiencing your strongest body, with with strength improvements, physique change and the kind of energy and confidence in the body that you have created, so that you have just the most fulfilled summer of your life.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: So you can Check back with me, but you're going to be able to access the website when it is ready.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: It's going to be be foster strong, calm, slash built bodies.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Be foster strong, calm, slash built bodies.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: And that program opens and launches.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So it launches to the public on Tuesday March 26th.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The program actually opens on the 8th, but you have Five days to take.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: The cart will close on Sunday March 31st.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So that maybe was a mouthful, but I will put the link in the show notes and then you'll be able to click on it and get that access to that page on Tuesday March 26th.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Alright, thank you, as always, for listening.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Until the next time, go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you later.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Bye.