Is weighing yourself every day or every week a good idea? Does it really matter?
The topic of 'scale weight' vs appearance in the mirror or measurements has been visited many times. Relax, I'm not going to bore you with the same old 'muscle weight takes place of fat' eg. scale weight is irrelevant etc. So, here's my humble take on the subject.
The weight that's showing on the scale largely doesn't matter too much in the short term. What's more important is what your current nutrition plan is because that's what's really going to affect your numbers and body composition in the long term. Little things like water weight and that chocolate cake (or the whole bar lol) you *may* have consumed yesterday, may skew short term figures a little bit, but all in all, in the long run it doesn't matter too much unless you consistently mess up your macro's of course!
So what does all this shit mean exactly?!
I'm getting to it, don't worry :-)
I have basically simplified the nutritional side of things to 3 easy-to-understand main categories, depending on your goal. With 2 of these, scale weight *should* change, if all else is constant and you are following your nutritional plan properly.
Firstly, I'm going to talk about a 'Body-Recomposition' plan. This is basically what you think it is. Which is 'shifting the ratio' of fat:muscle, in favor of muscle, with your body-weight remaining constant. Choosing this plan means you are happy with your scale weight but would like to drop 'X' amount of body-fat and replace it with 'X' amount of that clean sexy lean-muscle mass! Cool!
What about the other 2? Now for these 2, your 'scale-weight' would most likely change.
One being a 'lean bulk' plan. Not to be confused with the standard term known as 'bulking'. Quite the difference in fact. This plan involves packing on a high amount of lean-muscle, with very minimal (if at all) body-fat. I do understand that this may not make sense to everyone. This is largely because of the state of the fitness industry and how they have the general population believing in statements that are not backed by any conclusive research. This however is a topic we shall revisit at another time.
Last but not least is the fat-loss plan. This plan is generally recommended to men roughly over the 15% mark and women over the 22 - 25% mark. It is designed to focus primarily on shedding fat whilst maintaining existing lean-muscle mass. However, the only drawback is that the potential amount of new lean muscle mass that one can gain from this plan is not as high as a body-recomp or lean bulk plan. If you are on a deadline, and need to strip fat as fast as possible, whilst retaining lean-muscle mass, this is the plan to go for. Don't get me wrong though, you WILL still build quality lean muscle with this plan, that's for sure :-)
Hope this clarifies a few things and explains my take on the whole 'scale-weight' topic.
The topic of 'scale weight' vs appearance in the mirror or measurements has been visited many times. Relax, I'm not going to bore you with the same old 'muscle weight takes place of fat' eg. scale weight is irrelevant etc. So, here's my humble take on the subject.
The weight that's showing on the scale largely doesn't matter too much in the short term. What's more important is what your current nutrition plan is because that's what's really going to affect your numbers and body composition in the long term. Little things like water weight and that chocolate cake (or the whole bar lol) you *may* have consumed yesterday, may skew short term figures a little bit, but all in all, in the long run it doesn't matter too much unless you consistently mess up your macro's of course!
So what does all this shit mean exactly?!
I'm getting to it, don't worry :-)
I have basically simplified the nutritional side of things to 3 easy-to-understand main categories, depending on your goal. With 2 of these, scale weight *should* change, if all else is constant and you are following your nutritional plan properly.
Firstly, I'm going to talk about a 'Body-Recomposition' plan. This is basically what you think it is. Which is 'shifting the ratio' of fat:muscle, in favor of muscle, with your body-weight remaining constant. Choosing this plan means you are happy with your scale weight but would like to drop 'X' amount of body-fat and replace it with 'X' amount of that clean sexy lean-muscle mass! Cool!
What about the other 2? Now for these 2, your 'scale-weight' would most likely change.
One being a 'lean bulk' plan. Not to be confused with the standard term known as 'bulking'. Quite the difference in fact. This plan involves packing on a high amount of lean-muscle, with very minimal (if at all) body-fat. I do understand that this may not make sense to everyone. This is largely because of the state of the fitness industry and how they have the general population believing in statements that are not backed by any conclusive research. This however is a topic we shall revisit at another time.
Last but not least is the fat-loss plan. This plan is generally recommended to men roughly over the 15% mark and women over the 22 - 25% mark. It is designed to focus primarily on shedding fat whilst maintaining existing lean-muscle mass. However, the only drawback is that the potential amount of new lean muscle mass that one can gain from this plan is not as high as a body-recomp or lean bulk plan. If you are on a deadline, and need to strip fat as fast as possible, whilst retaining lean-muscle mass, this is the plan to go for. Don't get me wrong though, you WILL still build quality lean muscle with this plan, that's for sure :-)
Hope this clarifies a few things and explains my take on the whole 'scale-weight' topic.
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