Weight measures the heaviness of an object.
It’s an easy and accessible measure because all you really need is a set of scales.
This has meant that it has proliferated because it is an easy value to measure and compare.
More accurate measures such as various laboratory techniques, require specialised equipment, and are an expensive and often inconvenient way to assess body fat.
Magazines and editorial have therefore focused on losing weight as a means of measuring your success (usually with the goal of reducing body fat, which is in fact the measure that most people are actually concerned with).
Whilst in some cases weight can reflect the degree to which you have lost body fat, it is in fact a poor measure because it does not actually measure fat loss.
It is a popular practice to use weight to measure the difference in heaviness at two distinct points of time. The results are competed often using an underlying (and mistaken) assumption that the difference in weight is due to fat loss.
However weight is influenced by many factors and is rather poor indicator of fat loss.
Some of these factors include the scale you use, water retention, time of day and your diet.
Try this experiment –
Using an accurate scale weigh yourself. Now, step back onto the scale holding a 600 mL bottle of water.
If your scale is accurate, you should weigh 600 g (0.6 of a kilogram) more.
Should you drink this 600 mL of water and again step on a scale you should weigh 600 g more.
Does this mean you have gained 600 g of fat? I think not!
Or try this experiment –
Before you next urinate, weigh yourself. After you urinate, weigh yourself again.
Is this difference due to fat loss?
Obviously, it would be ludicrous to suggest that in the examples provided the difference exhibited through use of the scales was due to fat loss.
Other factors such as the degree of your hydration (or dehydration), your excretion patterns, and in fact the composition of your diet will all influence changes in weight.
A diet rich in carbohydrates will retain somewhere between three and four grams of water for each gram of carbohydrate retained. Not only does this the increase scale weight but will often result in a “puffier”,more bloated appearance which is the reason many popular fad diets eliminate carbohydrate.
In doing so, the water normally bound to the stored carbohydrate is eliminated from the body, reducing weight and pacifying those who use weight as a measure of their success.
Weight can however assist in reflecting fat loss if it is not the sole measure used.
Other measures have been developed to assess obesity assessment such as height to weight ratios, waist to hip ratios, and waist size.
Another popular measures such as the body mass index also used and do not acquire any specialised equipment.
Remember weight it is not an accurate indicator of body fat loss if used as the sole measure.
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