The results are in … what’s the verdict?

April 30, 2013

The results are in … what’s the verdict?

Well, it’s done. I am closing the books on my experiment. The results have been … intriguing.

I decided to blog about my effort to lose the 10 pounds I brought back from a Walt Disney World vacation because I felt like so many people I know, especially women, tie their happiness and their self-worth to a number on the scale. I wanted to find out a few things:

1. Would a system of “Eat clean – drink water – burn calories” work to reduce my weight?

2. Which of those factors would be most influential in my day-to-day weight change?

3. How much would my weight fluctuate from one day to the next?

4. What kind of influence would my morning weigh-in have over my eating, water intake, exercise and attitude each day?

Exactly 24 hours after I started this experiment, I stepped on the scale and saw that five pounds had vanished overnight – from 145 to 140. Whaaa? How could that be? I certainly didn’t expend 17,500 calories in a day. The explanation? Lots of salty food, diminished fluids, and the cabin pressure on the plane ride home had contributed to my retaining lots and lots of water. One day at home, eating my normal diet and drinking plenty of water, flushed (literally) that excess fluid from my system.

After that initial drop, I fluctuated between 136 and 141 for the next 30 days. There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to gaining or losing a pound or two from day to day … maybe the only trends I noticed were that I tended not to lose weight if I hadn’t drank enough water the day before, and I also tended not to lose if I had eaten heavy or salty food late at night.

But I also would see gains of one or two pounds after days of eating sparkling clean and drinking plenty of H2O. Maybe that was muscle? Perhaps.

I came away from this experiment with two new realizations:

1. Weighing yourself every day makes you crazy – and miserable.

At 6:30 a.m., seeing a loss of a pound or two gave my day a positive start. But this would sometimes backfire, as I’d have the opportunity to munch on a cookie or extra handful of crackers, and I’d think, “I can afford this.”

No loss, or a slight gain, only brought frustration. What was I doing wrong? I would renew my commitment to my regimen, but under a negative impetus. If I faced a choice during the day of healthy vs not, I wouldn’t choose based on my own well-being, but on whether I thought it would move the needle on the scale.

This is not what motivates me. Wearing clothes I’m happy in, seeing nice muscle definition, feeling energetic and strong – that’s what I want more of, and that’s what makes me work harder.

2. Blogging about your diet and exercise makes you hyper-aware of everything you eat and do.

I used caloriecount.about.com to look up the number of calories in my food and also to estimate the calories I burned with my activity. This was eye-opening – I hadn’t known that sesame oil was so calorie-rich, for example. But it was also a royal pain in the ass.

It did play a role in the choices I made, though. Should I eat that donut, knowing I’ll have to fess up to my readers?

And here was my other dilemma. I make a living as a fitness support coach, so I do feel like I should be walking the talk. But I’m also human, and part of me feels like my customers might relate to me better if they knew I was struggling with the same temptations. I decided to stay completely honest about my habits and how I felt about them. I hope those of you who’ve been following my progress have recognized some of the same habits and weaknesses in yourselves. You’re not alone!

So no, I did not ever see 10 pounds gone in the month of tracking my efforts. Am I happy with my nutrition and exercise over that month? Yes, very much so. Blogging helped me stay the course and keep myself accountable to my goal, however irrelevant that goal actually was.

Because the whole point of this experiment – the thesis I secretly wanted to prove – was that you should NEVER TRUST THE SCALE. The number of pounds you weigh is not a reliable indicator of your overall health and fitness. It can give you a general range to shoot for based on your height and body composition, but obsessing over 5 pounds one way or another just isn’t necessary unless you’re a high school wrestler.

What’s my next goal, then? I’ll take the advice I give my customers and coaches on my team: Don’t set a results-oriented goal. Set an action-oriented goal. Instead of saying, “I will lose X number of pounds” or “I will wear a size X,” I will keep working on increasing my water intake and gaining more muscle tone in my legs. I have to say – 135 or not, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been with my physique. And it would be an honor and an inspiration to help someone else get to where they can say the same.

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