Much to my surprise, I’ve gotten bombarded with questions about…
…the scale.
Oh, the horror.
As I’ve said… I’m a proponent of “fit,” not thin. So… I make a big deal about lifting weights. I mean.. a big… big deal.
I get e-mails asking me if I’ve mourned my lost curves, and the reality is that no, I didn’t have to hold a funeral survice for my curves. I’ve still got great ones. I work hard for ’em, and I love what my hard work has produced.
Truthfully… the scale feels like a car crash in slow motion every time a weight lifting woman steps on the scale. The pressure to continually see the numbers decrease coupled with the desire to actually build muscle in a respectable fashion is… difficult to handle, to say the least.
That being said… let me offer up Exhibit A:
You’ll just have to deal with my ‘fro… long time readers already know how I am with my hair. LOL
I weigh more in the picture on the right… than I do in the picture on the left. Why?
Muscle!!!
Listen…. if you are a weight lifting woman, let me tell you something. A cube of muscle that is an inch tall, an inch long and an inch wide…. weighs almost twice as much as a cube of FAT that is an inch tall, an inch long and an inch wide. If you don’t believe me? Visit a butcher at a grocery store and ask them. Think of the last time you chopped a chunk of fat off of a piece of meat, and think of the last time you chopped a chunk of muscle off of a hunk of meat. You and I both know which weighs more.
So, as a weight-training woman, why would you torture yourself with the scale?
In the comparison photos above, there’s almost a 15% difference in my body fat. Yes: My body fat, on the left, is approximately 38% on the left; on the right, it’s approximately 22%. That means that approximately 22% of my weight is comprised of fat. I’m okay with that progress, because I’m still progressing.
And speaking of progress, just because I know some will want to see a real comparison…
No, I don’t mourn the curves I had… ’cause I’m still perfecting the curves I’ve got!
As someone who is serious about her weights, I’m abstaining from the darn scale. Who’s with me?