Often those who embark on a natural weight loss diet program jump on the scale after a week of following their routine, believing that a decline in weight is going to prove just how potent their eating strategy truly is. A few days after beginning a new plan, the scale might even indicate a significant improvement, which seems to confirm that the new plan is burning fat quickly. Yet, few realize that the opposite may actually be true!
Let’s take as an example a low carbohydrate diet strategy, which has become common in recent years, and is what many opt for when seeking to burn fat fast. Often in only a few days, several pounds of scale weight can be shed, which is a tremendously exciting indication of a positive improvement, that is, if the weight was actually body fat. Unfortunately, because carbohydrates store water in muscle cells, anytime the body experiences a decline in the carbohydrates consumed through dietary sources (fruit, rice, etc), stored carbohydrates are released into the bloodstream, which reduces water weight dramatically. Therefore, the significant weight reduction that often occurs quickly after beginning a low carbohydrate diet plan is actually all water, and not body fat. Since the goal of any weight loss strategy is to burn fat from problem areas, this does not sound like good news.
What’s worse is that continued adherence to such a diet plan often burns away significant amounts of muscle, which weighs even more than fat (due to its density), so stepping on a scale and seemingly seeing continued progress is anything but when examining the composition of the weight that has been shed. In addition, lost muscle slows metabolism (the rate at which the body burns calories), making body fat reduction slower and more difficult.
So, what’s the alternative to using a scale? The barometer of how potent a natural weight loss diet program is rests upon its fat burning potential, therefore it’s important to isolate areas that accumulate fat the easiest (such as the stomach) with a measuring tape and caliper to determine if the circumference of that body part and the actual fat that exists between the skin and muscle tissue is declining. This measurement combination is far more reliable than body weight in determining whether or not fat is being shed, and is an important consideration to make before you decide to step on the scale and see how productive your fitness week has been!