MikeIsLosingIt.com

I have an expensive scale that we got a few years ago: the Tanita InnerScan – Body Composition Monitor. It tells me things like my Body Fat Percentage, my percentage of Water Weight, my Visceral Fat, Lean Body Mass (muscle and bone), DCI (daily calorie intake to maintain current weight), and more. Well, at least that’s what it’s supposed to tell me. Most days all it really tells me is how much I weigh, followed by “ERROR ERROR ERROR.” Now if I was an overly sensitive person I’d probably view that as something like the scale telling me, “272 lbs!!! Man, you are much too fat for me to figure out all those stats for you…what’s the point? Go have a rest, because you MUST be tired from carrying all that around.” But in reality I’m just a little annoyed that it doesn’t work for me.

Now don’t misunderstand me here. The scale works great…just not for me. Just..not..for..me. Everyone else? No problem. Me? “Error Error Error.” When we got the thing it was really irritating. I kept wondering, “why doesn’t it work for me??? Why just me?” So, we called Tanita and I spent a long time on the phone with them weighing myself…over and over and over and over. Sigh. No luck. They were stumped. They actually had to discuss it with Japan and then call me back. Finally they had me send them the scale so they could look it over…then Japan wanted it sent to them to look it over. They were all very nice about it and sent me another scale right away, but the whole thing was a bit silly. Their conclusion? I must drink a LOT of water. I mean WAY more than a regular person, so I’m probably carrying around a lot of water weight and the scale gives me errors on the readings because I fall too far outside the norms for it to work. Weird! But the funny thing is that they were right. I do drink a lot of water, and soda. I’m almost always drinking something. I have done that for decades.

I’ve experimented with it some, and occasionally I can get it to work. It never works in the morning, but if I make a conscious effort to cut down on how much I drink for a day or two then I can usually get it to work sometime in the afternoon or evening. Strangely I feel like I’ve won some sort of victory when I step on the thing, expecting to see “error error error,” and instead some numbers pop up. I almost shout every time it happens. “Hey, come quick…the scale’s telling me how fat I am! Woo hoo!” 🙂

So what’s the point to all this craziness? Losing “weight” in and of itself shouldn’t be my main goal. Losing FAT is what I need to be doing. That and gaining (or at worst just maintaining) muscle. Most people simply diet to lose weight and never realize how much muscle they are losing along with it. I refuse to have any part of that. My goals are fitness goals, not just some number of pounds I’m trying to get to on a scale. If I ended up losing 150 lbs on the scale, but didn’t know that say 20 lbs of that was muscle, I’d still be overweight without really understanding it. My net fat loss would actually be 130 lbs. If I started out needing to lose 150 lbs of fat I’d be patting my self on the back without realizing that I was actually still 20 lbs overweight. It’s actually a growing problem for many people, called “hidden obesity.” On the other hand, if the scale shows I’ve lost 130 lbs, but concurrently I’ve gained 20 lbs of muscle, I would have truly lost 150 lbs of fat. That’s much better weight loss even though it looks like I lost 20 less, and it’s a safe bet I’d be in tremendously better shape.

A few weeks ago, the last time I made the effort to get my scale to show me something other than errors, here’s where my numbers were:

Weight: 280
Body Fat: 41.9%
Lean Body Mass (LBM): 162.6 lbs.

My tentative goal right now is to get down to around 10% body fat, but I’ll adjust that goal the closer I get to it. I’ll regularly be watching my numbers to make sure my LBM continues to rise , or at the very least doesn’t fall. Those numbers mean that at my current amount of muscle, getting down to around 180 would get me to my goal.

So, if you’re on a weight loss regimen like me, don’t just cling to some arbitrary weight goal that you got off some BMI chart and assume it is where you should be. Figure out your body fat percentage and LBM by caliper testing, weighing in water, or using a scale that doesn’t say “error error error” all the time. Go to the doctor to find out, get a trainer to test you, or fnd some other way, but don’t be afraid to find out. Mainly, get that arbitrary end-weight out of your mind. Body composition is what really matters in the end.

And finally, one little note about scales like mine…they are a relatively inexpensive way to measure these things, but consequently that means they aren’t terribly accurate, since various factors can affect the numbers (such as the water consumption in my case). The best thing about them is that they can be used as a tool to measure YOUR relative progress, not to measure your “According to Hoyle” actual numbers. As I get closer to my goals I will almost certainly have myself tested somewhere so that I can get a highly accurate reading of my body composition. If I went by the scale alone I might be struggling to get down to 10% body fat without realizing that I passed it long ago, or the reverse. I might be congratulating myself for reaching my goal easily when in fact I’m not even close to it. As a tool for measuring relative progress they are great…just don’t plan on using their numbers as your source for bragging rights.