Why My Scale Sucks and So Does Yours!

A week into the new year and already feeling a little down I “only” lost 5 pounds. The idea of “constantly” weighing ourselves has been pushed deep in the brain thinking this is the only measure of success that we should worry about. Well, let me just tell you a little secret, it’s the WORST measurement of success. It’s a dream breaker. It’s a little bitch! 

That “number” that you get accustomed to seeing drop everyday will come to a complete hault for days, weeks sometimes, and when it does… you motivation wants to go right out the window and that’s totally not right! 

Let’s chat about what actually happens when you start a plan like keto or the Xtreme Skinny HCG Drops. You lose a ton of weight that first week and then poof! It stops for a few days. Why? 

Water Weight

The first few days of a very low carb diet, you’ll be losing a lot of water weight. Carbs and sugar hold onto about 2-3 grams of water per 1g of carb. INSANE RIGHT? So when you’re not consuming carbs the first 72 hours of your low carb diet your body will use up those glycogen stores and release all this water weight along with the glycogen stores. Make sense? 

Now, depending on how carb heavy your previous plan was, depends on the results you’ll see that first week. Rest assured that most of that “weight” you’re seeing coming off that first week is water. 

The Swoosh! 

Have you ever heard me talk about the swoosh in the Bee-Xtreme Community? I honestly don’t know another “term” to use because when i think of this, I think of a water balloon bursting. This little process is mostly seen with the Xtreme Skinny Drop program and the process seems to be a little quicker than the regular keto diet only because with the drops, you’re burning around 2000 calories a day. So let me just tell ya what the heck a “swoosh” is. 

Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of “proper dieting”, each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result – you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat.

 The good news is that this water replacement is temporary. It’s a defensive measure to keep your body from changing too rapidly. It allows the fat cell to counter the rapid change in cell composition, allowing for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size. The problem is, most people are frustrated with their apparent lack of success, assume they have lost nothing, and stop dieting. 

However, if you give those fat cells the water that they need to “fill up” and some time, like 4-6 weeks, ignore the scale weight fluctuations, your real weight and shape will being to show steadily. Be PATIENT!! Your body is changing even if the number on the scale does not. 

Patterns and Obsessing

I always go back to nursing school when I start to think about obsessing over that scale. I have some folks that will weigh themselves in the morning, in the afternoon, after a bowel movement, at night before bed, and all day long. STOP DOING THIS!! You should only be weighing yourself once a day. Hell, weigh in once a week if that number really gets in your head. 

Your body fluctuates 2-5 pounds throughout the day depending on many factors such as:

• How much you ate the through the day
• How much water you’ve consumed throughout the day
• If you had a bowel movement
• If you’re stressed to the max
• If you’ve exercised 
• If you take over the counter or prescription medications
• and even the WEATHER can help you weigh less or more through the day. It’s crazy. 

You should be weighing first thing in the morning after your first urination. This is your true weight for the day. Don’t worry about the rest guys.  

Weighing on the keto diet

Like i said, that first week of keto is usually water weight being lost. Your cells don’t know what the heck is going on in there. It takes about 72 hours for your body to deplete all stored carbs from the body and then guess what, they figure out that you’re no longer consuming carbohydrates for energy so they start searching for an alternate energy source, which is ketones. The liver will start making ketones around day 3-4 so that you have some energy to run off of. But that’s not all that happens.  

The cells’ mitochondria will start transforming. This may take a few days. The mitochondria in the cell is the powerhouse that fuels you. If it’s no longer getting glucose it’ll be searching for ketones. If you’ve ever used keto stix to check your urine and they become dark purple, congrats! Your body is producing ketones like it should. But after a few weeks those sticks get lighter and lighter. Why? Well, your body quits EXPELLING them and starts USING them for energy. So even though the sticks are getting lighter and lighter that does NOT mean you’re not in ketosis, it means your body is functioning correctly and the mitochondria has changed over to being fat-fueled or what’s known as fat adaption. 

Again- be patient when it comes to fat adaption and focus on non scale victories in the meantime. 

Non-Scale Victories

The little tid bits of success you may not even be realizing… 

1. You feel stronger. You know those endless set of stairs at work or the subway station that you dread walking up every single day? Guess what, after a few weeks they’ll be a piece of cake. You’ll have more energy than you know what to do with. 

2. Your clothes will start fitting differently. Before starting your journey, grab that old pair of jeans and take a selfie. See how much of a “spare tire” you’re carrying around up there and take progress pics in those same jeans every couple weeks. 

3. If you’re working out: pay attention to muscle definition. I hate when people say muscle weighs more than fat. That’s not true. A pound is a pound. A pound of feathers is completely different than a pound of bricks though, wouldn’t you agree? Muscle takes up less space. It’s more dense. Notice your gains (in the pics and not the scale)

4. You may not be noticing but I can guarantee other people will notice. Visit some old friends and I bet they congratulate you on your weight loss. We see ourselves every single day and our head can be distorted about whether or not we’re losing. I bet your friend will see the progress, no doubt. 

5. Mood changes/ happier. We tend to focus solely on outside appearances. But there’s a lot to be said about the shape of your inner self too. Take a step back and analyze how you feel as you go throughout your day. Is your mood brighter? Are you more confidents? Are you sleeping better? These factors are flashing indicators that positive changes are happening. When you get in the habit of making better, healthier choices, it becomes easier to replace al of that negativity you tend to pile on yourself with happier thoughts.