How often do you let the scales dictate your happiness? Don't be this person, there are other measures of tracking progress! Take a look at why your gravitational pull doesn't always determine fat loss/gain.
Set Point Weight
The scales are a lot of people’s nemeses. Something they allow control their mood and life. A number some people use to determine their worth. That number tells you simply how much you weigh – it doesn’t reflect your personality, your mindset, your strength and your progress and it definitely does not determine your worth. Many people get down beat when they see an increase in weight and they let this affect their attitude towards their training. It comes before performance, mood and PBs – when really it should be bottom of this list and here’s why… Everybody has a set-weight range. This is why a size 10 can appear in many shapes and sizes. What is your 'set weight'?
Your set-weight is the weight range your body likes best and performs optimally at. It’s the weight you naturally maintain weight when you are not consciously dieting and the weight your body feels is balanced and happiest at. Now this weight isn’t one figure – it is a range – and can fluctuate between roughly 5-6KG (another reason not to beat yourself up on scales). Your body fluctuates across time, seasons, stress levels, hormone levels and living conditions and this is completely NORMAL. Your set-point weight is controlled by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This controls your metabolic efficiency - depending on eating and exercise habits – and maintains a comfortable weight and body fat percentage to perform optimally without any effort from you. This is of course when you eat intuitively and freely listening to your bodies hunger queues and rest signals. Pushing your body behind it's set-weight
When you push your body outside of its set-point range regardless of size, the body kicks into survival mode. When this happens you interrupt the natural process of the hypothalamus and your body fights to return to homeostasis (its natural state of balance). The results of this are not only poorer all round health but also potential weight gain (another red flag for fad-diets). Over long periods of severe dieting or restricting, your brain fights the threat of future dieting and prepares itself by raising your set-point weight, which is the bodies natural response when fearing starvation. This set-weight is pre-set in our DNA and is completely individual. So it is 100% ridiculous to believe societies theory that we are all meant to be “thin”. Body diversity exists because of science so healthy looks different for every one. Never compare yourself and your body to someone else’s as we are completely individual and what is healthy for one, is not necessarily healthy for another. There is no chart or BMI scale that can tell you your healthy range. The way to know is listen to your bodies cues and honour them – here you will be at your happiest and healthiest.