Throughout the last seven weeks of our Paleo Challenge, and in general, people are obsessed with the number on the scale. And I have to admit that at times I’ve been guilty of the same thing. It’s gratifying to step on the scale and watch the number go down, week after week. You assume that you’re getting fitter, leaner and more healthy but any number of things could be responsible for weight loss/gain.
When a new person joins the gym with the hope of losing weight, oftentimes it can be discouraging to actually see the number stay the same or even go up, in the beginning!
For untrained people, adding muscle is easy and in the beginning of starting a new program that’s exactly what will happen. And since muscle is more dense and heavier than fat, you could actually gain weight in the beginning.
Gaining muscle and losing fat can make it seem as if you’re not making any progress, if all you do is go by the number on the scale.
So, instead of stressing out over stepping onto the scale, day after day; focus on other, more meaningful, measures of progress.
- How do you feel?
- How do you look?
- How do your clothes fit?