You aced your diet.
You drank all your water.
You smashed in the gym.
You dotted all your “i’s” and crossed all your “t’s” (we like to call it “checked all your boxes”) but you weigh in and the scale didn’t move. WTF, right?!?! How is this even possible?
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Please understand that the scale is merely a tool to measure your success. It is not THE measure of success - even if the goal is to lose weight.
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Huh? “But that’s what I hired you for, Matt, was to you help me lose weight?!?!”
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Weight loss is a decrease in your overall body weight. This weight includes muscle, fat, and water in your body. That’s what your regular scales show you: you’ve simply lost some pounds.
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Fat loss usually designates a reduction in body fat. This might look like an unnecessary specification, but it is indispensable for understanding the failures and successes people face on their journey to slimmer and fitter body.
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Your weight consists of muscle, fat, and water, and you can see your pounds disappear due to the shrinking of one of these elements. The point is: losing water weight is mostly useless, losing muscle weight is harmful. Only through shedding fat you can unlock the physique goals you desire. You need to add lean muscle tissue and reduce the amount of body fat to achieve the defined, fit, toned look that you may be seeking.
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Unfortunately, you cannot always see fat loss on a week to week basis. This comes as we drop pants sizes, dress sizes, etc. So while we may THINK we did not make progress, in reality we more than likely did - it just didn’t show up on the scale.
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In closing, I’ll give you the same advice my coach has given to me…
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“Chuck the scale”
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Meaning - get on the scale once a week (the day you are supposed to check in. Stop getting on it every day to see if you have made progress since yesterday. The only measure of progress you need to track daily is: did I eat on my plan, did I drink all my water and did I train as hard as I possibly could? If you can give 3 “YES” to those questions, believe me when I say…YOU MADE PROGRESS!