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Body Composition
Why You Should Use Body Fat Versus Scale Weight as Your Marker of Progress
Scale weight is far from the best marker of progress—here’s why it’s flawed.
Everyone talks about weight, so much so that people are convinced that if they just lose—or gain—a set number of pounds, they’ll be in peak physical condition. And while that could be true, people forget one thing: your body weight is a proxy for what you’ll look and feel like in real life.
For example, one person who weighs 70 kg could look completely different from someone else who weighs the exact same, even at the same height. And while you should definitely pay attention to your weight, you should pay more attention to your body composition—this is what your body is made up of.
In this post, we provide 3 reasons why you should use body fat percentages and body composition analysis instead of scale weight as your marker of progress. Once you switch it up, you won’t want to go back.
Relying on weight sets you up for disappointment
Body composition is the amount and distribution of fat mass, lean mass, water weight, and body fat %. Dexa Scans also show bone density and are a very useful tool for diagnosing the early signs of bone loss or osteoporosis [5].
In more recent years, body composition has become a key indicator of health outcomes in adults and children [6]. For example, unlike exclusively measuring your weight, body composition analysis could reveal deeper health insights.
We should be more concerned with what our body is made up of instead of our total body weight.
This is further supported by how people can be the same weight but look very different. For example, you may lose a few lbs of fat but simultaneously gain equal weight in muscle mass.
Your body composition is always changing—it’s why when you try to lose weight, you might see very little progress on the scale, but you look completely different in person.
See the images below for examples of people who weigh the same in both pictures yet look entirely different.
False plateaus
Many people experience false plateaus when they decide to lose weight. You may be eating in a calorie deficit, working out multiple times a week, but not seeing any progress for a week or two, only to suddenly drop a bunch of weight in one go. This is known as the “whoosh effect.”
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For a long time, people thought that fat cells were holding onto water weight—this is why your weight would not fluctuate despite sticking to a diet and workout routine. Although more recent research has proven that fat cells don’t hold onto water, the Whoosh effect is still accepted, despite nobody knowing the exact reason it happens.
With a body composition analysis tool such as Spren, you can measure key metrics such as fat mass, muscle mass, and body fat percentage for more accurate and measurable insights into your physical journey.
Issues with bioelectrical impedance
Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is one of the more convenient methods of measuring body composition. Although, it does have several limitations.
For example, numerous studies have found BIA to be inaccurate in the obese and severely obese population. This is due to a handful of reasons, including the assumption that the hydration factor of the fat-free mass is constant and not different in obese people and also that water distribution and body geometry also differ [2]. An increase in total body water is likely to result in an underestimation of body fat and an overestimation of fat-free mass, especially in the morbid obesity state [1].
Aside from the obese population, BIA results may be inaccurate if a person is dehydrated or not optimally hydrated. One study found dehydration to account for a 5 kg underestimation of fat-free mass [4].
Body contours
Body contours are the natural shape of your body. When you gain or lose weight, your body shape changes.
We all have unique body contours—some people look different at the same weight than others, as shown by the previous examples. For instance, some people may have a thinner waist, wider hips, and so forth.
If you’re trying to lose weight, your body contour will change slightly, but you’re likely to retain more fat—and muscle—in certain areas of your body. It’s just how it works.
Instead of watching the scale, you should take progress pictures and use body composition analysis to see how your body changes, even when the scale reports no weight gain or loss.
Issues with water weight
The average human body is made up of 50 to 60 percent water [3]. However, what most people don’t realize is that your water weight can fluctuate massively throughout the day.
To provide an extreme example of water fluctuation, Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton, has previously said he loses up to 10 lbs during a single race. The weight loss he’s referring to is water weight—it’s lost due to extreme exertion, including the intense gravitational pull, hyper concentration, and battling the hottest of conditions while sat wearing layers upon layers of protective clothing.
And while you may not be a Formula One driver, the average adult's water weight is likely to fluctuate by 5 to 6 pounds each day. That’s still a significant number, and you didn’t even hop in a Formula One car.
If you measure your weight loss—or gain—using a set of scales, water weight will have a dramatic effect on the results. For example, one day, you could be up or down a few lbs, showing an inaccurate number on the scales. This can be demoralizing and, without an understanding of water weight, may lead to someone quitting their new diet or workout plan.
Similarly, you might have increased water retention due to eating too much salt, or you may be dehydrated after having a few drinks on the weekend. These will also affect your readings on the scales.
It’s important to understand water weight and how it changes. But more so, taking water weight out of the equation and relying on body composition is a much more accurate approach when it comes to measuring your progress.
Your health
Many people assume that the skinner you are, the healthier you are. But this is not true. Take anorexia, for example—carrying too little body fat and overall mass poses several critical health concerns.
Similarly, you can be skinny—not weigh much—but be at risk of chronic disease typically associated with obesity. Usually, this is a result of carrying too much body fat but also too little muscle mass.
If you are skinny fat and were to step on a set of scales and then calculate your body mass index, you would likely fall into the healthy weight category. This is a major limitation of traditional weight measurement methods.
On the other hand, body composition analysis assesses fat mass, body fat %, and lean mass to determine how healthy you actually are. This is a much more accurate indicator of your overall health—it shows you several useful insights.
Use Spren to accurately measure your progress
Scale weight is not an accurate marker of progress. Not only does your weight not matter as much as your total body fat and lean muscle mass percentages, but you may record inaccurate readings due to fluctuations in water weight and the “whoosh effect.”
For a more accurate marker of progress and deeper health insights, you should use a body composition analysis tool.
Spren uses your smartphone camera, validated machine learning algorithms, and computer vision to provide accurate and reliable body composition analysis results. Find out more and begin your first scan today.
References:
- Coppini, L.Z., Waitzberg, D.L. and Campos, A.C.L., 2005. Limitations and validation of bioelectrical impedance analysis in morbidly obese patients. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, 8(3), pp.329-332.
- Deurenberg, P., 1996. Limitations of the bioelectrical impedance method for the assessment of body fat in severe obesity. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 64(3), pp.449S-452S.
- Lent-Schochet, D. and Jialal, I., 2019. Physiology, Edema.
- Lukaski, H.C., Bolonchuk, W.W., Hall, C.B. and Siders, W.A., 1986. Validation of tetrapolar bioelectrical impedance method to assess human body composition. Journal of applied physiology, 60(4), pp.1327-1332.
- Shepherd, J.A., Ng, B.K., Sommer, M.J. and Heymsfield, S.B., 2017. Body composition by DXA. Bone, 104, pp.101-105.
- Wells, J.C. and Fewtrell, M.S., 2006. Measuring body composition. Archives of disease in childhood, 91(7), pp.612-617.
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