For those of you who watch that scale day by day just aching to see the number reduce in size… here is a little reality check for you. Let me first state that this article is primarily for those people who are already at or near a healthy bodyfat level for their age and height. Fat reduction for people who are really obese is very different than the rest of us.

Fat loss is a slow, not fast process. Let me assure you that the fat on your body is resistant to burn off and subject to come back very easily at the slightest sign of weakness. In simple terms, a single pound of fat accounts for 3500 calories consumed above what your body needed for other functions. So if you see that scale jump 2 pounds in one day and you think it was all fat then that would require a calorie deficit of 7000 calories for the previous day. This means that if you ate 2000 calories the previous day then you would have had to do 9000 calories of activity to account for the deficit. Professional athletes who train all the time don’t burn this many calories. The only thing in your body that can so drastically change in weight and volume in such short periods of time is water. To illustrate what I’m talking about, weigh yourself first thing in the morning and then at various times throughout the day. You will soon notice that the scale change can easily jump around plus or minus 3-5 pounds. I’ve had mine jump as much as 8 pounds in a single day.

So remember the next time you jump on that scale that your body is made up of many different things, most of which is water, and much less of which is fat. This is the reason that body fat specific measurements are taken by professional trainers to rely on progress rather than the scale. The scale is a very crude and unreliable instrument for measuring small incremental changes in body composition. I recommend weighing yourself no more than once per week.