Why Didn't I Lose Weight?

(Adapted from an article by Dr Tom Cooper)

I read an article by Dr. Tom Cooper that I thought was very relevant. The most common cause of discouragement in his program is lack of weight loss on the scales. He has had women lose two dress sizes in a month, but because they "failed to lose weight” on the scales, they quit the program. If you think about it, this just doesn't make sense!

A person who is successfully losing fat every day will begin to shrink in size. As fat is burned, the body must get rid of the waste products (mostly water) through the kidneys. Sometimes, this wastewater is retained for some time and it artificially raises the number on the scales. Unless you are aware of what is happening, you can lose your motivation and quit your weight loss journey.

Think of your body as a living warehouse - one you can weigh on the scales every day. Inside the "building” you have: stored fat, protein, water, salt, bone, brain tissue and waste products. During every day of your life you put in a certain amount of water and get rid of a certain amount of fluid. When you burn fat, this fat is changed to water and waste products, and these by-products are then eliminated. If you exercise, healthy muscle tissue is built up into what I call "good weight.”

All of these items in your "building” affect what you weigh, depending on how much of each is present at the moment you step on a scale. Water retention from medications, excess salt intake, hormones, or menstrual cycle changes can force the net weight upward, even though you are losing fat during this time. Bowel irregularity can produce a temporary increase in net weight of as much as two or three pounds. A full bladder can add and extra pound or so. The "good weight” from muscle tissue growth can add poundage too.

What does this mean to you then, when you step on the scale? You basically have a number given to you by a hunk of metal. If the number is less than before, you have lost "weight” on the scale. You can usually believe this indicator of progress, but you CAN'T believe it if you have been exactly on your program and the scale doesn't show it.

Please don't fall into the "scale-watcher” trap. If you only look at the weight on the scale, you are doomed to failure. Think more about body composition changes than about scale weight. Look at the way your clothes fit - are they looser? Are you able to get into things that had gotten too small for you before you started your weight loss program? If so, you have lost fat, and this is the name of the game: fat loss instead of weight loss. The scales typically will lag from one to four weeks behind the changes in size, so don't give up your program for the wrong reasons.

This can be a frustrating journey, but success comes to those who don't quit. Don't ever give up. You can do it!

Dr. Doug