Traditional scales are a scam!
Ever since the 6th grade I’ve been the type of person that weighs themself everyday. Literally everyday. I did/do that because it allows me to keep long term track of my weight and I don’t tend to gain more than 5 pounds because I’m so aware of how much I weigh. When I start gaining weight I know immediately and can make the necessary changes. I think we all have different types of relationships with the scale… whether I have a healthy one with it or not well that’s another topic for another blog.
But I’ve been traveling and in transition for the last four months and as a result I haven’t had access to a scale on a daily basis. I recently signed up with a new gym and they offered me two InBody Scale analyses for the FREE! So of course I hopped on that deal!
Keep reading to see what I experienced and learned during my analysis.
MY EXPERIENCE
So this is how my experience went.
A trainer contacted me two days prior to my appointment and gave me basic instructions to track my food and drink lots of water. I went to the InBody website and they have a pre-appt informational video (which I’ve posted below). Some instructions they give are:
-Don’t drink for 45 mins prior to resting
-Don’t eat 2-3 hours prior
-Don’t workout atleast 3 hours prior
-Stick to your normal eating routine the day before
When I arrived I got on a scale and held these little handles for about a minute. Then from there I filled out a questionnaire that really aimed to identify my existing fitness and nutrition habits, what my current goals are, and how do I prioritize my goals. I was then given my Body Composition Analysis and the trainer proceeded to break down the stats.
WHAT I LEARNED
From the breakdown of my stats, this is what I learned.
-I have inflammation in my body and I need to drink more water.
-I don’t consume enough protein for my lean body mass (LBM). As a general rule we should be consuming 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass in order to maintain. When I tracked my food my average daily protein intake was 90 g, but LBM is 119.
-My basal metabolic rate is 1550 calories which is the minimum number of calories my body needs to function at rest. So I need to consume that amount of calories to function at a basic level. Based off of my tracking of food for the few days prior to the meeting I wasn’t eating enough calories. Who would’ve thought I’m not eating enough?!!!
-I haven’t really identified a specific goal. I think I’m really just trying to maintain. She gave me a website (Tdeccalculator.net) that helped me identify my maintenance and cutting calorie consumption and the corresponding macros.
-We talked about my workouts and how I should organize them. She stressed that it’s important to work primary muscles prior to synergistic/secondary muscles because if you work those first, you’re simultaneously working the primary, so when you finally go to work the primary muscles they’re already tired and your form be compromised leading to a greater risk of injury.
WHAT I LIKE
I really learned about my body. It was like a speed date introduction to my body. I didn’t have to make assumptions. It gave me exact insight on how to adjust my eating habits. My trainer was professional and informative. She knew what she was talking about and I came out of the session with a decent understanding of how I should move forward. I was given tools to help like a list of food options to eat to help meet my macros, a website to help identify and count macros, and the opportunity to sign up for personal training.
It was a fairly quick process and I left it feeling encouraged which is not often how one feels after being weighed.
MY TAKEAWAY
A traditional scale is pretty much useless. Why? Because it’s not an indicator of health. It gives you a number that doesn’t distinguish between fat, muscle, or water which is what our bodies are made up of. It literally just gives you a number with no background information.
60 seconds on a high tech scale and 20 minutes with a professional gave me more information about my “weight” than the scale has given me in the past 20 + years.
So here’s some food for thought… or questions to ask yourself (because I asked myself these questions after my experience).
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
(1) What type of scale person are you?
i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, not at all
(2) Does your method of weighing yourself assist you in your body composition goals?
If you haven’t tried the BCA you definitely should. There are a lot of gyms that offer this service, but maybe you don’t have a gym and you only do home workouts. They have started making at home affordable scales that measure more than just weight.
I’ve dropped a link to an article that’s identified and rated the top 5 smart scales of 2021.
Throw your scale away! It’s time to weigh ourselves the “SMART” way!
