scale in front of sad woman

The scale, a litany of tears!

Many of us can identify with the pain and suffering of spending a lifetime at war with the bathroom scale. We join groups, buy special food, and exercise ourselves into oblivion and the scale undoes all of our self-confidence. Most of us are trying to get to a weight that we remember being our “happiest”. Some of us have never seen that weight, but have a “magic number” in mind that we believe will give us peace. Our happiness and success in life seem to be attached to that damnable square of plastic in the bathroom floor.

Many Measurements!

We think that we are finding out how much fat we have on our bodies when we get on the scale, but that’s not true! The number of pounds that we weigh tells us little to nothing about how FAT we actually are. This works both ways. You may look bigger than Instagram’s flavor of the morning, but actually have less body fat and it’s also common to be “skinny-fat”, a condition where your body looks small but has an unhealthy body fat percentage. The scale won’t help much in either of these situations. I have always had a little more muscle than most people who are skinny-fat, but I was skinny for a moment one time. The rest of my life, until I came to David’s Way, I have been over-weight. I have lived the drudgery of waiting for the scale to tell me how I feel every day.

Simply the BEST!

I recently ordered the Sequoia Fitness TrimCal 4000 Body Fat Caliper from Amazon. It’s Amazon’s Choice for calipers for good reason. I watched a Physical Therapist, demonstrate how to use it on You Tube at Bob & Brad, “Cheap, Easy Way To Measure Body Fat On Female (Male). Good Skin Fold Caliper.” I was thrilled with the result! I have an electronic scale that is supposed to measure body fat. The Physical Therapist in this video said that those are usually very inaccurate. That was good news to me because that thing said that I had more body fat than I thought I did. The Sequoia Caliper saved the day and my ego! It’s easy to use, especially after watching the Bob & Brad video. The caliper is spring-loaded so it’s more accurate than one that depends on the pressure that you may exert with your fingers.

You can also take body circumference measurements that may not be accurate because sometimes a weight lifter might have a larger neck that can throw those calculations off. There are expensive medical procedures for determining body composition such as  DXA, Hydrostatic Weighing, Air Displacement Plethysmography, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, Bioimpedance Spectroscopy, Electrical Impedance Myography, 3-D Body Scanners and Multi-Compartment Models. The Multi-Compartment Model is the most accurate but is often unavailable and expensive when available. For my needs, the body fat caliper will do just fine. It cost me about $12 and it’s highly accurate. The positive confirmation that David’s Way works and that my continued loyalty to the program is paying big dividends is worth much more! The scale alone cannot do this.

What does it matter?

I’ve known women who didn’t care about how much muscle they had as long as they were as small as they wanted to be. Good muscle tissue creates a compact body, so with the proper amount of muscle, you will look smaller. Muscle is vital to all physiological processes in your body. It’s critical in blood sugar management by providing a storage space for glycogen. Carbohydrates are stored rather than left to float around in your blood so your blood sugar levels remain more stable.  Muscle provides support of your musculo-skeletal system and helps to take pressure off of the joints. That translates to fewer aches and pains and better mobility. The same activities that build muscle, tend to build bone. Resistance training increases muscle mass and bone density and helps to preserve mobility and ward off osteoporosis.

When you contrast these benefits to the hazards of obesity, the importance of having a muscular lean body at a low body fat is clear. Obesity plays a role in death and disability. It is known to be directly involved in the development of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, fatty liver and even some mental illness such as depression. Which scenario sounds more appealing?

The Truth

Your scale will only tell you a partial truth and any way that you manipulate it, a partial truth is a whole lie. To be the best that you can be, find out how FAT you are. A body fat caliper is an easy, inexpensive way to do just that. Then the scale won’t dictate the order of your days.

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Beyond The Scale