Here's Why You Didn't Lose Weight (or Gained!!!) in the First Week(s) of Your New Program

The Lies Your Scale Tells You and 5 Steps For Weight Loss Success

What if you found out that there was someone very important in your life that was lying to you? Think about that for a moment. Be honest. What would you do? Would you confront this person? Would you be able to believe anything this person said to you ever again?
If you weigh yourself every day, or even several times each day, you will likely see weight changes of up to 5 lbs. The reasons for this include water retention, the level of inflammation in your body and whether or not your digestion is moving smoothly.  Well, guess what… you are being lied to, lured into false beliefs, measuring your worth based upon these lies and you keep going back for more. Who am I talking about?

Your scale! 

Does this sound familiar? It's New Year's Eve. You're chowing down on Chinese Food and the last of the Holiday cookies, and maybe a drink or two...or seven.  You have set a huge weight loss goal for the upcoming year, you're excited to get started. But there are dark memories lurking in the corners of your mind. For years, you've tried diet after diet and year after year, the truth of your success was in that number you were faced with every week. If that number moved up, you felt like a failure, worthy of punishment, worthy of restriction and deprivation and negative self-talk. If the number moved down, you felt successful, unless of course, your number didn’t move down “enough”. If you didn't reach your goals fast enough, you gave up. 

But this obsession isn't your fault! 

You have been fed a bunch of lies. Mainstream media bombards us every day with messages that to be truly happy and healthy, we need to lose weight and pay attention to the number on the scale.

If you can relate to this, you’re not alone. 

It wasn’t until I faced my own struggle with weight that I understood what "dieters" went through on a daily basis.  I was taking medications and one of the side effects was weight gain. I quickly put on 75 lbs. There were times when I weighed myself every day, sometimes several times. Each time the scale went down, I celebrated. Each time it went up, I berated myself with everything I could have done better. All the hard work I put in each day to eat healthy food and all the workouts I sweated through suddenly had no meaning. When I was able to start getting off of my medications, I quickly dropped 40 lbs.  And while I was thrilled, I still wanted to drop the rest of the weight… and fast! 

For years, I tried diet after diet. There were so many times I would get to the end of my first week and decide that because I wasn’t seeing any weight loss on the scale, that I must have been doing it wrong and I would give up and go back to living on junk food and lattés. Who cares what I ate if I wasn't losing weight, right? 

Wrong!

I had no idea that I had actually been making good progress over time because my only tool of measurement was the scale. I wasn’t seeing big numbers towards my weight loss, so in turn, I thought I must have been doing it all wrong, which meant I wasn’t good enough (insert negative self-talk here). The truth is, I couldn’t have been more wrong! Once I realized that the scale was lying to me, I realized that I had actually made amazing transformations each time I had cleaned up my eating habits. Once I paid attention to other tools such as measurements and photos, I realized that changes were happening. I studied a set of before and after photos I had taken during a period of time when I was committed to my health and wellness. My before photo showed a bloated stomach and my after photo showed a much tighter midsection, but the scale had only shown a loss of 2lbs!  In the last couple of years, I have gone from being bloated and sluggish, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol to having perfect blood pressure, good cholesterol numbers and although I have only lost half of the weight I gained from the medication, I am able to wear the clothes I wore before taking the prescription drugs. 

I tell you this story because chances are, you can relate and I want you to know that you are not alone!

But enough about me.  Here’s the truth about your scale: It is mean and nasty and doesn’t tell the truth about your health. The number you see each week does not undo all of your hard work. It does not magnify that little bit of chocolate you had on Tuesday. And it does not define your success. 

Here are some big reasons why your scale is a liar: 

1. You just started working out again
 Have you ever worked out really hard, only to see a gain on the scale the next day? Wouldn’t it make sense that by burning calories, that you would weigh less the next day? Logically, sure. But here’s what really happens… When you work out, you create micro tears in your muscles. As these tears heal up, they leave behind a tiny bit of scar tissue and that is how your muscles get toned and grow. Any time your body is injured, inflammation happens. Your body rushes fluid and white blood cells to the site of the injury so that it can heal. Your body sees the micro tears from working out as injuries and rushes fluid and white blood cells to the muscles to aid in healing. That is part of the reason your muscles are more pumped up after your workouts. This process can temporarily add a little bit of weight to your scale.

2. You're dehydrated. 

Water retention can contribute to scale weight. Believe it or not, you retain more water if you are dehydrated. Your cells and tissues need water in order to work correctly and if you aren’t drinking enough water each day, your body will hold on to what it does have so that it can maintain life. Note: The same goes for lack of nutrients – and food! Your body stores all the fat it can to use for fuel since it doesn’t know when it will get its next meal. This is why eating well balanced meals throughout the day is so important. 

3. You need to detox. 

If your digestive system is clogged up, you will see it on the scale too. The colon can hold onto several pounds of waste. It is important to stay hydrated and make sure you are eating enough fiber to keep things moving along. Make sure you are supporting your organs of elimination.

Arbonne's 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond products are specifically designed with botanicals and herbs that support elimination and help your body detox all the yuck that builds up over months and years of not-so-healthy eating.

4. Muscle Volume vs. Fat Volume I am sure you have heard it a million times: “Muscle weighs more than fat.” It sounds true, but think about it: five pounds of muscle weighs the same as five pounds of fat. Five pounds is five pounds. That’s physics. There’s no getting around that. The big difference is how much room (or volume) each takes up in your body and the rate at which you are burning fat, as opposed to the rate at which you are packing on muscle. Muscle tissue is much more compact than fat tissue, so if you are made up of a lot of muscle and not much fat, it is possible to weigh more than someone who looks larger than you, but has more fat tissue than muscle. The way this works on the scale is that if you are eating well and working out, you may be adding muscle to your body before you are burning the fat off. This can throw you off because you are seeing gains on the scale. 

If the scale is your only tool of measurement, beware! 

You might think you are failing and quit right before your body crosses the line into burning off your extra fat tissue. Your body needs to burn calories in order to maintain its muscle tone, so the more muscle you put on, the more calories you burn. Pair that with a healthy eating plan, products that support detox and elimination and you will become a fat burning machine. It may take more time than you want it to, but you are going to eventually see the results pay off in your favor. Your body will begin to shrink and tone and guess what… your scale may lie to you once again, showing you either a tiny weight loss, or maybe even a gain. 

And that’s okay! 

Finally, a word about all those people you know and all those people you see on TV who have lost hundreds of pounds on whatever quick-fix plan they are following.  Yes, it is probably true and if you fall into the category of obesity, you will likely see some loss at the beginning of your journey. But following a program that promises a quick fix can eventually backfire on you because it doesn't balance your body's systems. Eventually you will crash, and even be less healthy than before you started.

 The most important thing here is to make sure you  choose a plan that is healthy, covers all your nutritional and detox needs and that you pair daily movement with your healthy eating plans. Your plan should be sustainable for the long-term and not just a crash diet. It should support your system, feed your body with enough clean fuel, and support elimination of toxins.

Make things easier on yourself by following these 5 simple steps to success: 

1. Set A Realistic Timeframe. Put your new plan into chunks of smaller time frames, like 30 days at a time, and celebrate your victories (even the small ones). 

2. Measure Your Success. Take measurements at different intervals. Make sure you have more tools than just the scale to measure your progress. Taking measurements is great! Comparing how your clothes fit at different times during your plan works too. 

3. Write It Down. Write down your results in a notebook so that you can look back at your progress over time. Keep a journal and track your food, exercise, thoughts and progress. Be honest with yourself without judgement. 

4. Know Your Numbers. Check in with your doctor and keep track of the numbers that really matter: your blood pressure and cholesterol are two big ones.   

5. Find Support. Working with a Health Coach is a great way to check in on how you are feeling and help you sort out any negative self-talk that may derail you.  Joining a Facebook group full of like-minded people following a plan together can be a huge help with motivation. Chances are if you have a question or concern, someone in the groups has dealt with it too and can offer support. 

Above all else, don’t measure your worth by what number your scale shows you. 

You are worthy and deserving of vibrant health, energy to do the things you want to do, and total happiness. And deep down, you know you rock!