Myths of the Scale
Why we as trainers tell clients to stay off the scale.
The scale is a double edged sword that many people and clients become obsessed with. As a trainer who strength trains 6-7 days a week and eats enough calories on most days to feed a small village, I've even fallen into the trap which is the scale in the past. The scale is an extremely beneficial tool in many situations but can also be a huge hindrance to progress at the same time.
Weight Loss Clients
Weight loss clients are the number one population to fall victim to the scale for many reasons. There are two camps to this argument. Taking a starting weight when they first start their training program is a basic step that a trainer in any gym will inevitably do. However, in our experience, someone coming in and saying "I want to lose 20 pounds" as a goal can be a huge distraction to their actual progress. This isn't to say that a goal like that is unreachable by any means. In our opinion, the final product can be whatever you are willing to work for, but this is why we have issues with it.
A client I trained for over a year who ended up losing lots of weight, gaining lots of muscle and ended up getting in great shape kept stepping on the scale and not seeing "progress". Eventually, I told him to stop using the scale all together because all it was doing was being detrimental to his motivation. While he felt he wasn't progressing because of the scale- he was getting leaner, putting on pounds of muscle, and was going from surviving about 4 minutes of circuit training to a continuous 10 minutes of flipping tires down a field.
A massive misconception is that the easiest way to lose weight is to go run on a treadmill for hours every day. Will you burn massive amounts of fat? Of course. Will it be miserable in all aspects and force most of the people doing it to quit? Yep. The EASIEST way to burn fat, is to build some muscle to have it do the work for you. Fat is worthless at burning calories, it is there to be used as long term fuel. With more muscle, your "resting metabolic rate" raises, which is the calories you are burning just at rest not exercising.
It is a difficult task convincing clients of this concept. If you tell someone that they may stay at the same weight, or even gain a few pounds to burn fat they immediately cringe at the imaginary numbers they have in their head when they get home and step on the scale. Our job is to convince them that the scale is a horrible representation of progress. Yes, in a macrocycle (long term) training, get them back on the scale and see the actual weight loss progress they have accomplished. But short term and even through 6-8 months, I tell my clients to measure progress on how they look and how they feel and screw the numbers on the scale.
HOWEVER, there is a certain percentage of people who will start working out to lose weight and see a massive drop of 6-8 even 10 pounds on the scale in the first month. Now, these numbers in all honesty are just unrealistic as far as fat loss. It's scientifically impossible to lose that much fat that quickly. What this client has done is shed a ton of water weight with minimal fat loss. This isn't a bad thing, they're training...they're feeling good about themselves...they're motivated. But as a trainer, you have to make sure they understand that once that water weight is off the progress is going to slow down drastically. In their next training cycle, if they only lose 2-3 pounds they are going to want to know why and you don't want them to be discouraged.
Weight Gain/Muscle Gain Clients
Here's the other camp of clients, in general high school through college level kids who are having trouble getting bigger and putting on muscle. This is a much easier clientele to work with and to be honest having the problem of putting on weight is a hell of a lot more fun than needing to drop it.
If you have a super fast metabolism and think that you're eating a lot but not getting bigger, chances are that you aren't eating a lot. It took myself a full 2 years of training and eating to realize what eating a lot actually meant. Days of force feeding at 11 o'clock at night to get in some extra calories and crushing 5 peanut butter sandwiches between meals was when I actually started to put on weight.
Now, this can be a misunderstood concept as well. To put on muscle, the simple fact of the matter is that fat is coming with it. You can minimize that through clean food and higher levels of cardio, but "bulking" diets aren't called "muscle" diets for a reason. Your clients going to have to understand that if they put on 10-12 pounds in a month or month and a half-its not 10-12 pounds of muscle.
THE SCALE IS THE DEVIL
No, we're kidding...were not trying to say that the scale is some sort of anti-christ and you should never use it...in all honesty I use it all the time. But, it shouldn't be the MAIN measurment for progress unless your 1% of the population that is trying to turn pro in body building or need to stay in a weight class for a certain sport. In general, it's a good tool to know progress over long periods and to help you refine your diet and training routines.
So how should I measure progress?
Now, assuming you aren't a professional body builder and you don't weigh each grain of rice you eat, do a body fat percentage measurement 3 times per day, and know exactly how large your left tricep is down to the centimeter...you should measure yourself on how you feel and look. After you train for a very extended period of time (years and years), diet and weight fluctuations become something that you can just deal with without becoming super obsessed. If i want to gain weight, I basically know how much I need to eat. If I want to cut back, I'll switch my diet based on the trial and error I've done for years. Either way, see how your own body is reacting to different diets and training cycles and refine that process as you become more experienced...don't let numbers on the scale run your mind and run your training regiment.