Want to Lose Weight? Don't Focus On Your Weight!

          It is what people have been doing for years. You realise that you are putting on weight. Clothes are tight and you are feeling big, so you weight yourself and begin a new regime; watching what you eat and exercising more. Why then after a week or more of being very good have you lost just a tiny amount - or even worse, actually put weight on?

The often over-looked truth is that when you exercise you are doing much more than simply burning calories. The least surprising thing to remember is that exercise increases muscle. If you are switching from a very inactive life style - sitting at a desk, driving to work, taking the lift and not the stairs, sitting instead of standing - then your muscles will have been in a weak and undeveloped state. As they begin to work, carrying your body and moving you around, they will get larger. Muscle is more dense than fat, so you are very likely to see very little change in your weight to begin with. Check carefully, however, and you may be able to see signs that your clothes are a little less tight. This is a good sign that you are moving in the right direction.

It is less well known that exercising also increases the density of your bones. Your body doesn't waste resources building structures that aren't needed, so if you don't exercise your bones are not made to be very strong. They don't need to be. However, as you start to stand more, walk, jog, go the gym, take dance or yoga classes, your body starts to add strength to your bones, They become more dense and heavier. My yoga teacher mentioned just the other day that a lady with osteoporosis had been advised to take yoga to strengthen her bones. In six months she put on 14 pounds but got no fatter. The extra weight was nearly all extra bone, and some extra muscle.

The moral of the story is not to be discouraged if you are trying to get healthier but your weight seems to stay steady. Focus instead on how you feel, how much energy you have and how much stronger you are getting. Health and fitness are about much more than how skinny you look. Just look at professional sportsmen and women. Many don't have an ounce of fat on them, and they are as fit and healthy and good-looking as it is possible to be, but they are not usually skinny.

Put away the bathroom scales and the tape measure. Forget about losing weight and concentrate on getting healthier!

Want to Lose Weight? Don't Focus On Your Weight!