The Right Weigh to Weigh...In

Life is becoming complicated. Who would've thought there was a right way and a wrong way to do something as simple as weighing yourself?  As is often the case, there's more to this weighing-in than meets the eye.

If the only thing standing between you and physical perfection is the bathroom scale, you're about to discover that the little machine in the corner of your bathroom is no longer the enemy-that is, IF you follow these tips:

• Weigh yourself only once a week-weighing yourself more often than  that, will make you crazy. When weighing multiple times a week, daily, or worst of all, multiple daily weigh-ins, craziness, is almost guaranteed. The scale reflects normal fluctuations in the amount of water retained in your body cavities, circulatory system and tissues (this is especially true for women, who must contend with monthly dipping and surging estrogen levels leading up to and/or during the menstrual cycle that encourage water retention.)

• Since staying motivated is half the battle in achieving your fat loss goals, feelings of discouragement and frustration inevitably ensue when the number on the scale doesn't move or worse; goes up. Readings taken under certain circumstances can be inaccurate and can create an obsessive preoccupation with a "number;" an often inaccurate number at that. Set yourself up for success not sabotage.

• Keep the scale's limitations in mind- Most scales on the market, even the more expensive models; still have a margin of error of between 3-5%.  While that doesn't sound like much, the way a man with 10% body fat looks, versus a man with 15% body fat is significantly different.  Furthermore, this discrepancy can be important to someone bordering on an unhealthy body fat level. Keeping that in mind, most scales effectively provide a baseline you can rely on to show how much relative weight or fat you have lost since your last weigh-in; as opposed to what the number was last reading compared to the current reading.

• Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach: The key to accurately monitoring your fat loss is to keep all the "variables" as consistent as possible every time you weigh-in. For example, weigh yourself on the same scale each time, on the same day of the week, as close to the same time of day as possible, and under the same circumstances as possible.  Examples of such circumstances include not eating or drinking anything prior to weighing in, weighing after "eliminating"-make sure you use the bathroom beforehand (emptying your bladder and your bowel, ideally.)  Also weigh yourself naked-it's much easier than trying to estimate the weight of the clothes, shoes, jewelry, cell phone etc., that you're wearing and then subtracting them.

• The back-up plan- In addition to a weekly weigh-in, a more complete picture of your progress can be obtained by taking your waist measurement with a fabric tape measure at the same time you do your weekly weigh-in and record both metrics.  As with above, keep the "circumstances" the same as you did with the scale measurement i.e. use the same measuring tape, the some spot (around the widest point of the waistline-often the belly button), same day, same time, after eliminating, on an empty stomach, etc.  Measuring serves another purpose: if, for some reason, the scale didn't go down at all one week, know that as long as your waist measurement is going down, you're losing fat.

• Consider investing in a body composition monitor.  Body composition monitors such as the BC-551 model made by Tanita give an even more complete picture of your fat loss progress than the traditional scale-and they're very reasonably priced.  Standard scales don't give you the whole story. The Tanita body composition monitor measures body fat, BMI, lean muscle, and more.

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Fitness expert and Athletic Development Specialist Jini Cicero, CSCS, teaches intermediate exercisers how to blast through plateaus to create incredible transformations. Are you ready to take your fitness to a whole new level?  Find out now!  Take Jini's "Are you Ready?" Quiz at www.Jinifit.com.

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