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Fitness Lemming
May. 6th, 2008 03:51 pmSeems like I'm reading about a lot of people on LJ who are agreeing to a challenge to lose X amount of weight by some particular date.
I've commented in some of the journals that I read, but I decided to post a entry as well.
It makes me cringe whenever I hear that someone is trying to lose weight, especially when they have explicit goals about it. While I think that Weight Watchers does some very good work, their "weekly weigh-in" makes me want to scream.
It's really important that everyone realize that the number on a scale isn't a measure of how healthy you are. It's a number derived from a broad range of items, and is very hard to decipher. Making the number go down does not mean that you are getting healthier. It might be indicating that, but it might also be indicating that you're dehydrated, or that you're losing muscle mass or bone density, none of which are good for you.
My first thought whenever someone says that they want to lose weight? It's "cut off your leg". That will reduce the number on the scale. OK, I rarely (well, usually) don't say that out loud, but that's my first thought.
You may think that I'm just being difficult, that I know what you really mean, but I don't. I don't know whether you mean "I'm sick of buying bigger clothes every year" or you might mean "I miss seeing my toes" or you might mean "I want to live a longer life" or you might mean "I want other people to find me attractive". Heck, you might even be thinking "I don't want to spend as much money on food as I've been doing".
Without really understanding your goals, it's difficult to know how to plan to achieve them, and how to know whether you're making real progress towards them. It's also hard to make an informed decision when two goals conflict (for example, the goal of "enjoying life" vs. the goal of "seeing my toes").
For those of you who want a way to avoid using the scale, I recommend Scooby's advice.
In typical![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apparentparadox fashion, I have some particular fitness goals in mind for myself, but I won't post them.
I've commented in some of the journals that I read, but I decided to post a entry as well.
It makes me cringe whenever I hear that someone is trying to lose weight, especially when they have explicit goals about it. While I think that Weight Watchers does some very good work, their "weekly weigh-in" makes me want to scream.
It's really important that everyone realize that the number on a scale isn't a measure of how healthy you are. It's a number derived from a broad range of items, and is very hard to decipher. Making the number go down does not mean that you are getting healthier. It might be indicating that, but it might also be indicating that you're dehydrated, or that you're losing muscle mass or bone density, none of which are good for you.
My first thought whenever someone says that they want to lose weight? It's "cut off your leg". That will reduce the number on the scale. OK, I rarely (well, usually) don't say that out loud, but that's my first thought.
You may think that I'm just being difficult, that I know what you really mean, but I don't. I don't know whether you mean "I'm sick of buying bigger clothes every year" or you might mean "I miss seeing my toes" or you might mean "I want to live a longer life" or you might mean "I want other people to find me attractive". Heck, you might even be thinking "I don't want to spend as much money on food as I've been doing".
Without really understanding your goals, it's difficult to know how to plan to achieve them, and how to know whether you're making real progress towards them. It's also hard to make an informed decision when two goals conflict (for example, the goal of "enjoying life" vs. the goal of "seeing my toes").
For those of you who want a way to avoid using the scale, I recommend Scooby's advice.
In typical
apparentparadox fashion, I have some particular fitness goals in mind for myself, but I won't post them.