Alright. To be frank… It just drives me crazy to hear people complain about how they haven’t lost a single pound in X amount of days while doing a large amount of exercise. Stop panicking and just think this through a moment.

Just take a look at the above pictures. Then, consider the fact that your body stores and excretes water at varying rates on a daily basis. Now, tell me how a scale is going to tell you how much fat you have or how healthy you are. That’s right, you can’t. Weighing a piece of meat doesn’t tell you how lean you are, so why do that with your body?

Also, take this into consideration. One pound of fat contains 3,500 calories, so in order to burn off that pound of fat, you need a caloric deficit of 3,500 calories. Ever weigh yourself in the morning and at night? If you have, you’ve noticed that the number usually changes. And with what I just told you, you should now realize that those fluctuating pounds are not your body gaining or losing fat. It’s the amount of water in your body fluctuating. You take in and excrete varying amounts of water each day, so that’s what you’re seeing on the scale. Burning off several pounds in a one day period just isn’t possible. But if you want to (safely) lose weight, put yourself at a 500 calorie deficit each day and you’ll lose 1 lb of fat in a week. After all, it’s fat we wanna lose, right?

Look at the last picture in this set. As the woman’s body fat percentage goes down, she appears thinner. If that fat is being replaced by muscle, she’s not going to see it on the scale, only on her body. And the same goes for you.

So please. Before you complain about how you’re plateauing, or about how you can’t lose that last 3 pounds, try measuring yourself and taking progress pictures. Then, if you still don’t see a difference, feel free to message me, or any other educated fitblr out here. We’ll be willing to help you from there.

**It’s okay to be unaware of these things, but it’s my goal to educate you so that you can go about a healthy lifestyle in an efficient, smart, and easy way.**