It’s come to my attention that Weight Watchers does not track inches lost over the week, but rather focuses squarely on the scale, giving no credit to a gain in muscle. Does weight watchers understand or even promote an active lifestyle? and if they do, they simply MUST understand that a body building muscle is going to drop inches as it burns more fat, which wouldn’t register on the scale.
Imagine the psychological impact of a man or woman who’s been increasing their exercise frequency and intensity, watching what they eat, counting the points and proud of what they’re accomplishing as they get stronger, only to be totally discouraged at a weight gain a week later.
I Question The Weight Watchers Approach
Does Weight Watchers take into account an increase in muscle mass and a decrease in inches as a successful week? or is it just the reading on the scale that counts?
Muscle weighs the same as fat, let me be perfectly clear about that.
1 pounds of muscle is equal to 1 pound of fat, just as 1 pound of hammers is equal to 1 pound of feathers.
A pound is a pound.
However, a pound of muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less space.
As one exercises, he or she begins to stimulate the body to compensate for the work load and it does so by building more muscle. That muscle in turn is metabolically active, and begins to burn more fat, even while sleeping. As the body burns the fat, it becomes smaller in size because a pound of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle. The body burns the fat as long as the body remains in a calorie deficit each day.
We shrink, yet it’s possible to weight the same, trading 1 pound of fat for 1 pound of muscle.