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Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Weight is Nothing More Than Gravity Pulling an Object Toward Earth!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I remember when taking my first Physics course my professor defined weight as “the force of gravity being exerted on a body.” When I heard this simple definition, I started stating to my clients that “weight is nothing more than gravity pulling an object toward earth!” On smaller planets (or moons) you weigh less than what you do here on earth, however, your body fat, your health, and your muscle tone remains the same.
Unfortunately, you may judge yourself by how much you weigh. You are hearing it more and more often, that muscle takes up less space than fat, that we are not all built the same, “be proud of who you are,” etc. However, this does not change the stigma that has been created or the emotions you may feel when you look at the scale.
It is possible that weight might be a good measure of whether you should create or change your health and fitness program. This really only applies if you are excessively overweight. Even when you are considered to be obese, other types of measurements other than weight should be taken.
Two other types of measurements that come to mind are body fat testing and tape measurements. Even with those, you may need to use more than one kind of testing. For example, with body fat testing I use Biolectrical Impedance Assessing (BIA)and Calipers. (The BIA is that thing that some of you have seen that you stand on or grip to measure body fat and Calipers are those “pinchy” things that you might have seen.) Both types of measurements can be accurate, but definitely inaccurate if the person measuring is taking it at face value only or is not trained well.
To give you an example of what I mean, the BIA scale that you stand on, only measures body fat through the legs. As you can imagine, this can be biased toward women and the assessment may not be too accurate. As for tape measurements, this is not too difficult to foul up when done at the right locations.
With tape measurements though, you need to compare it against weight and body fat composition, height, sex, etc. Why you ask? Well, if you are a 5’6” female, then a 26 inch waist is good. However, a female with 29 inch waist with the same height can have a lower body fat composition, which means she is fine. It’s a difference in body types.
The error that I have seen made by other weight loss management programs, is that they don’t fully understand the measurements and that they are comparing you against averages (or those charts that you see hanging up). This can be dangerous, as not everyone is made the same and your program needs to customized to fit the you, not everyone else. Furthermore, they may not give you an accurate assessment of your lean body mass (LBM). Your lean body mass includes muscle, bone, and all other tissue other than fat.
I understand this personally, as I am considered to be borderline obese when I am tested against what is know as the body mass index. However, my body fat percentage is nine percent. So, does this mean I need to lose weight? I provide this illustration to point out that many physicians and weight loss programs may over estimate the weight you need to lose. In other words, setting unrealistic expectations.
Moral of this blog is this- when you go on a “weight loss” plan, don’t go on a weight loss plan. Rather, you should go on a fat loss plan. That is what you want to lose. Be sure you have your body fat measured and do tape measurements as well. Test every 4-6 weeks as you are engaged in a regular fitness and nutrition plan. At first, you may not lose much weight, but you will see that you are losing inches and decreasing in body fat. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you weight, but how you look and feel.
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