A while back, the Mild Wife and I decided to get a fancy shmancy smart scale (something like this). We both like to keep an eye on our health, and the scale is one of those numbers that provides some hints about general health. Sure, the actual weight number can be misleading, but that's where a smart scale fills in some of the gaps. If you measure both your overall weight and your fat percentage, you've got a decent picture of what's happening with your body.
Now, we both know that the numbers aren't supposed to be completely accurate. However, so long as they're consistent, you can make deductions about how your diet and exercise are treating your body. Let's say the scale consistently says that you're five pounds heavier than you actually are. That's nice, but it's the same five pounds every single day. If my weight is lower on a Tuesday than on a Monday, that still means I lost some weight.
So far, the scale has proven useful, but I get a big kick out of it for a couple of reasons. First of all, ours let us configure the units. I immediately chose the metric system, so my weight is reported in kilograms instead of pounds. Sure, it means a bit of mental math to get back to the number I am familiar with, but ever since the Montreal trip, I am convinced that the metric system is superior. It's a simple reason, really: my brain understands how cold -4 degrees Celsius is much faster than it does 24 degrees Fahrenheit (the numbers are slightly off, but you get the idea). In fact, I now have a decent gauge of how many kilograms I am supposed to weigh.
The second, and far more amusing, reason, is that the numbers that the scale report for me are weird as all heck. There have been some days where I have been very sedentary, but I have still managed to lose half a kilo of fat and pack on half a kilo of muscle. There have been days where I've eaten fairly well and exercised, but the numbers barely moved. This has led to all sorts of theories about what could cause these discrepancies, and the explanations have gotten progressively funnier.
The first concern was that the scale was broken or off somehow, but the Mild Wife's numbers all make sense. The scale itself seems to be working, as best as we can tell. It just happens to report funky numbers for me. The next theory was that I needed to change my protein intake, but after playing with some of that, the numbers seem to be up and down again. Ultimately, I don't think the fluctuations have that much to do with whether I'm consuming much protein or not.
That led us to my favorite of explanation of all: I'm stepping on the scale wrong. At one point, the Mild Wife even watched me step on the scale to make sure I wasn't somehow leaving part of of my foot off the scale or otherwise messing up the measurement. I was not, and she was satisfied with how I stepped on the scale. I still saw some odd fluctuations, though.
Ultimately, I think I've decided that I'm not going to worry that much about day-to-day changes, but focus on the long-term trends. So long as my body fat is going down, my muscle mass is staying constant or going up, and the percentage of water is staying about the same, I'm good. Even if that means the scale tells me I've gained two or three kilos in the process, I'm fine with that.
Incidentally, I did find one article that had some potential explanations for the weight fluctuations, but I'm not entirely sure how much of that applies to me. Either way, it gives me some clues about what might be happening. It's still not as funny as the idea that I'm stepping on the scale incorrectly, though.
Now, we both know that the numbers aren't supposed to be completely accurate. However, so long as they're consistent, you can make deductions about how your diet and exercise are treating your body. Let's say the scale consistently says that you're five pounds heavier than you actually are. That's nice, but it's the same five pounds every single day. If my weight is lower on a Tuesday than on a Monday, that still means I lost some weight.
So far, the scale has proven useful, but I get a big kick out of it for a couple of reasons. First of all, ours let us configure the units. I immediately chose the metric system, so my weight is reported in kilograms instead of pounds. Sure, it means a bit of mental math to get back to the number I am familiar with, but ever since the Montreal trip, I am convinced that the metric system is superior. It's a simple reason, really: my brain understands how cold -4 degrees Celsius is much faster than it does 24 degrees Fahrenheit (the numbers are slightly off, but you get the idea). In fact, I now have a decent gauge of how many kilograms I am supposed to weigh.
The second, and far more amusing, reason, is that the numbers that the scale report for me are weird as all heck. There have been some days where I have been very sedentary, but I have still managed to lose half a kilo of fat and pack on half a kilo of muscle. There have been days where I've eaten fairly well and exercised, but the numbers barely moved. This has led to all sorts of theories about what could cause these discrepancies, and the explanations have gotten progressively funnier.
The first concern was that the scale was broken or off somehow, but the Mild Wife's numbers all make sense. The scale itself seems to be working, as best as we can tell. It just happens to report funky numbers for me. The next theory was that I needed to change my protein intake, but after playing with some of that, the numbers seem to be up and down again. Ultimately, I don't think the fluctuations have that much to do with whether I'm consuming much protein or not.
That led us to my favorite of explanation of all: I'm stepping on the scale wrong. At one point, the Mild Wife even watched me step on the scale to make sure I wasn't somehow leaving part of of my foot off the scale or otherwise messing up the measurement. I was not, and she was satisfied with how I stepped on the scale. I still saw some odd fluctuations, though.
Ultimately, I think I've decided that I'm not going to worry that much about day-to-day changes, but focus on the long-term trends. So long as my body fat is going down, my muscle mass is staying constant or going up, and the percentage of water is staying about the same, I'm good. Even if that means the scale tells me I've gained two or three kilos in the process, I'm fine with that.
Incidentally, I did find one article that had some potential explanations for the weight fluctuations, but I'm not entirely sure how much of that applies to me. Either way, it gives me some clues about what might be happening. It's still not as funny as the idea that I'm stepping on the scale incorrectly, though.
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