The Weigh In... Part 2 (the Great Scale Debate)

So Salmon Fest has run its course, and I am up and at em' early to get my weigh-in finalized. Pat, one of our fabulous trainers was working, and we had a great chat about why you will be hard pressed to find a scale on the fitness mezzanine. The fitness staff had voted on not having the scale out in the open. Of course I asked why... and the argument makes sense.

I will do my best to paraphrase....

When you are physically active you burn fat and build lean muscle mass. This does three things (much more of course, but three for now). First you will find that your energy increases, second you will in fact gain weight since muscle weighs more then fat, and third as you burn fat your measurements and inches will shrink.

So when you look at the results of physical activity, relying on a weight measurement can very much be misleading and even discouraging. Sometimes the numbers, when we speak of weight, lie.

It goes back to what my former professor Ali Wilson said many, many, many times in Sociology of Sport: "Its all about the process". Or if you go to a basketball camp with J Mottl as a coach, "Process, not Result". It is much, much better to focus on the process of getting to the destination, then the destination itself.

Now I really wanted to sum that up because the video cut off this great conversation with Pat. This is definately only one side to the 'Great Scale Debate' however. This is a good reminder for me when I finally sit down and redo my goals. I will definately be setting process goals.

Anyways check out the video, sorry there is so much feet. Because I asked so nicely we brought out the scale from the back and I set my weight and body fat baseline!