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Weight Loss Exercise

2 Huge Factors That Can Cause Weight To Fluctuate On The Scale


If you often weigh yourself when trying to lose weight, you may have noticed that your weight fluctuates on a daily basis. In fact, your weight in the morning may be completely different from your weight at night. However, it’s usually when there is a gain between one day and another that often makes us sad and frustrated. That doesn’t necessarily mean that your weight loss efforts are wasted. There are several factors that cause weight to fluctuate on the scale.

Water Weight

bathroom-scaleIf you go on a fad diet that involves lots of liquids and a very low calorie diet, you may see very good results initially where you lose many pounds within a single day. This is because what you have lost is not fat, but water. When you eat a regular diet again, water weight is usually gained back.

Several other factors cause one to retain water including dehydration, increased consumption of sodium, as well as menstruation (for women). You can prevent water retention by drinking lots of water and restricting your intake of salt.

Muscle Weight

Often exercise is a big part of a weight loss program, and if it is a big part of yours, chances you will sometimes see a gain in weight displayed on the scale. This is especially true if you frequently incorporate weight training as part of your exercise program. This gain in weight is not because you’ve been slacking off on your diet and putting on fat; instead, it’s possible that you have been putting on muscle.

Muscle is denser than fat, so even if you gain a bit of muscle you will probably see a bigger number on the scale. Don’t worry if this is the case. If you are concerned, use a measuring tape as a supplementary way to track your weight loss progress. If you are losing inches, even though your scale says you’ve gained weight, then it’s probably muscle that you’ve gained!

There may be other factors that lead to weight fluctuations, but these are the main two. So the next time your scale seems to be yo-yoing back and forth, don’t stress about it. If you can’t help stressing about it, then instead of weighing yourself every day, weigh yourself every week to get a more stable picture of how you are doing with your weight loss. In the end, your weekly weight is what matters, and not your daily weight.


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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Keep A Food Journal


Though exercise and weight training are very important factors for increasing your fitness and losing weight, you absolutely cannot outwork a bad diet. Your body needs certain nutrients to thrive, and it needs them in the right quantities to create the physique you want. A food journal can help you to understand exactly what’s going into your body, leaving you better equipped to plan your workouts and calorie goals.

When you write down everything you’re eating each day, you automatically become a lot more mindful about food. It’s easy to snack away on junk all day without really thinking about it, but when it comes time to write down every single thing you’ve eaten you might be shocked! This alone is motivation enough for many people to lose weight.

What To Track In Your Food Journal

Food Journal

How to Track your eating in a Food Journal

If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important that your food journal shows that you created a calorie deficit for the day – that is, that you ate fewer calories than those you burned off through exercise. If you’re trying to build muscle, on the other hand, you’ll need to eat extra calories. Although you might think you can track this mentally, a journal is far more effective.

If you’re into bodybuilding then you’ll also want to keep track of your macronutrients throughout the day. When working out your bodybuilding aims, you’ll know how many proteins, fats and carbohydrates you should eat each day. A journal will ensure you’re keeping on track. If you’ve made progress, or are suffering from a lack of progress, then you can even look back through your food journal to try and find out why.

So, on a most basic level you should include the name of the food, the size of the portion and the number of calories it contained. You can also include details of protein, carbs and fats, and you can make use of a digital kitchen scale or a smartphone app if you want to note down more detailed stats.

If you’re an emotional eater then you can also use the food journal as a place to note down how you feel when you eat certain foods. This will leave you more connected to your emotions and in a much better position to understand the triggers that cause you to eat more than you should.

Yes, a food journal does take effort. However, if you start a new weight loss or diet goal without keeping track of your progress, the chances are strong that you’ll just give up without really trying.


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Weight Loss Exercise

Free Weights or Weight Training Machines



Should you do only free weights at the gym or use weight training machines? Something you need to keep in mind and never forget is that when you exercise, you are training for life. You still may spend an hour a day in the gym, although that will still leave another 23 hours or so for your muscles to function without using any fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any type of exercise, the movement of your body during the exercise is known as the range of motion. The more difficult the range of motion is, the more effective the exercise will be, because your body has to work twice as hard to perform the movement.

Bicep curls – Free Weights or Weight Training Machines

Take for the instance the classic dumbbell bicep curl. If you aren’t familiar with the exercise, it is performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down by your sides. You’ll contract your biceps to bring the dumbbells up to your shoulder height, then repeat the exercise as many times as you wish.

Using that same movement for exercise on a bicep curl machine, you should sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, then perform the same movement as above to move the handles in an upward motion.

Now, looking at the muscle contractions in this exercise, you are contracting essentially your biceps if you are using the curl machine, and that is pretty much all you are doing. When you use the machine you are sitting down, which will limit just how much your shoulders give. The machine has several muscles used in this exercise limited to the biceps, as well as the muscles in your forearms and fingers.

Limited Range of Motion with Machines

Free Weights or Weight Training Machines

Weight Workout Machine

Most of the time, when using machine weights, you will always be limited as to what type of exercise you can perform. You must always follow a strict procedure, which is pretty much the same with free weights. Unlike free weights, machine weights offer a certain degree of resistance.

One of the best thing about free weights is the fact that you move a little chuck around to select the weight you want to use. Instead of dragging it over to your exercise area, you simply select it on the machine. When you are tired during a workout, this can be a blessing.

A lot of people argue in the fact that free weights are the best for your body. While this is normally true, many people out there feel that machine weights are the best. There are pros and cons with both machines, although free weights have been around a lot longer and have been proven time after time to achieve dramatic results.

Body builders for example, have used free weights over the years to build very impressive bodies. If you ask most of them about machine weights, they would probably laugh at you and tell you that you need to quit joking around.

Should You Use Free Weights or Machines?

In a nutshell, free weights will use more of your muscles than the weight training machines do, which makes them more effective overall. This doesn’t mean that the machines are a waste of use, as they offer some great advantages. In some cases, it is best to stabilize the muscles that are being used in a movement, which is where machines are the best to use.

The decision on which to use for you should be based on what you hope to achieve with lifting weights and where you plan to use the equipment, such as home or at a gym. Both systems are great for your body, although the free weights are best to use if you want the best possible workout, and always ensure that your muscles are getting the right workouts they need.

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