In my 7 years as a personal trainer, I’ve never seen a client happy long term with their health and fitness journey when they have an aesthetic based goal. For one, how do we measure what “looking good” looks like? Too subjective and vague. But okay, you argue, what about a number on the scale to work towards? This is usually what most clients ask for help for - figuring out how to lose X pounds on the scale. The problems with using scale as the SOLE WAY to measure progress are these:
Your body weight changes daily. If you track your weight everyday for 1 month, you will see it goes up and down DAILY. It can fluctuate up and down even if you are doing everything perfectly. Which leads to #2…
Perfection does not exist. No one eats perfectly everyday for the rest of their lives. Which leads to #3…
Example of a typical scenario: A client eats “perfectly” for 2 months and then goes out for a birthday meal. The next day she steps on the scale and is up 5 pounds due to more carbs, salt and water. She loses her mind and decides to throw out all the 2 months of hard work away because of what she read on the scale. She couldn’t believe all those months of hard work still equated to a higher number. But what she’s missing are all the benefits of the last 2 months — feeling stronger, gaining muscle, preventing injuries, having better sleep and energy, etc. Not to mention having a consistent workout routine!
When you lose fat and gain muscle, your scale number can stay the same or go up.
Scale isn’t the full picture of your fitness journey. It’s one data point.
It’s not really about the number. Hear me out! We have conditioned ourselves to associate a number on the scale = happiness in our body image. Which are not facts. You can be happy with your body at many different numbers (there is a range for health) and body composition as long as the following happens:
People want to feel good about themselves in their clothes but they think the ONLY way to get there is through losing X number on the scale (which is how we address it through performance based goal vs scale based goal)
People want to move around functionally and not be in pain
People want to be capable of doing fun things in their lives, without embarrassment or judgment of others
There are also many mental health hurdles that happen when you are overweight that you associate with your own self-worth that needs to be further examined by a professional therapist. But ultimately my point is that it has nothing to do with a single number on the scale, but more the inner hangups of your mind of what that means for yourself. We are human!
To be clear, I am not saying the number on the scale doesn’t matter at all or that we shouldn’t lose body fat. If you are 300 pounds then yes, numbers do matter for a variety of health reasons. What I am saying is when you make a single number on the scale as your sole goal, or picking goals that are ONLY looks base, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of ups and downs with food and exercise, and as a byproduct you will end up hating the fitness journey….probably for the rest of your life.
I want you to enjoy the process and actually like working out and fueling your body. When you enjoy something, duh, you do more of it!
Performance based goals associate positivity with your body image. You are appreciating it for all it can DO. When you love your body, you will subconsciously start doing all the right things for it — eating better, sleeping better, moving more, etc. At least, way more than if you hate your body and have an emotional meltdown due to what the scale is telling you.
How this works: You, a client, comes to me who is 20 pounds overweight and wants to lose that weight — I say, great, how about we pick a goal of “personal best in your barbell squat” to work towards?
The next 3 months we focus on getting some best and heaviest numbers on the barbell squat (while also strengthening your body overall and doing other lifts). We also work on food to help you perform your best.
What does this do? It makes you focus on how strong you are, it makes you focus on the fun of trying to PR, and you shift your mind away from “OMG I HAVE TO LOSE X NUMBER.”
And guess what? You have fun in the process and you will naturally lose some fat from being a healthier you.
Sometimes we have to shift our focus in another way to get to the result we want. It’s performance based so we have the evidence and data to support your progress and replicate this moving forward.
Are you ready to pick a performance goal? Email me at happyhelen@gmail.com!