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An Important Thing To Do Before Starting Your Workout: Get on the Scale!

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Yes, it is important to get yourself on the scale if you’re new in the Fit N Fab journey and especially new at working out. Why? Because it signifies your starting line, where you are at the moment. When I’m talking about the scale, I’m not talking about the scale that only shows your weight, because weight is only showing your total body mass but there are others that you also need to know that make up the total body compositions: the weight of your fat, muscle, bone and water. If your sole reason of working out is only to lose weight, I don’t think you should bother. But if your reasons of working out are to get fitter and leaner, then what’s on your agenda should comprise of  how much fat you want to reduce, how many kg of muscle you want to obtain and what BMI number you want to be at. The details are important!

One of the things that I noticed when I first began my Fit N Fab journey was that I don’t want to have bad skin! Don’t you often realise that people who workout too much and put themselves on a strict diet (simply by starving themselves) often look older than they actually are based on the looks of  their skin and hair? There’s nothing wrong with rigorous workout or putting yourself on a strict diet as long as you’re doing it correctly. But when you’re doing it solely to lose weight without watching all the right numbers then that’s when it gets dangerous.

Like I’ve mentioned before, your body comprises of fat, muscle, bone, and water. Sometimes though you’re losing weight, you may not target the right mark, which is fat. The case might be that not only you shed some kg of fat but you also lose water and muscle. The easiest way to tell that you’re losing water too much too soon is when your skin becomes dull. So before you start with your workout, get on that sophisticated kind of scale where it can measure your body compositions. When you’re talking about body composition in relation with physical fitness, the four items that you want to notice is fat, muscle, bone, and water. This composition is what makes up someone’s leanness.  Imagine two people of the same weight but have totally different body figures. Why? Because one could have more muscle mass which explains why this person could look leaner than the person with more fat composition.

There are certain guidelines to guide you through the finish line. For instance, for me who is 31 years old, the number that I want to achieve are these:

  • BMI: at healthy weight it should be 18.5 – 24.9.
  • Fat: 20-40 years at 21%-33%. I was at 34% at the beginning of the year when I started this journey and my goal is to reach at least 25% but of course the finish line is if I could go all the way to 21%. Currently my fat percentage has gone down to 29 – 30%.

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At the end of the day, what you want is to lessen your fat and not losing your muscle and water while you’re at it. If you’re exercising the right way, your fat should be able to be converted to muscle. For instance, in the last 9 months, I have been putting a break on my eating habit and started to commit to Pilates twice a week. I’ve lost around 10 kg of fat from my initial fat count but I only lost around 8 kg in weight. That’s because some of it has been converted into muscle and it’s important for you to have more muscle and strong one to be able to carry your body. But I bet there must be someone who is able to explain it in a more scientific way than my layman explanation.

Left: July 2012 | Right: June 2013

 

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