#83 Scale Sanity

The scales can ruin a perfectly good morning, and not because you suddenly gained fat overnight. Larry Doyle and Daniel get brutally practical about what your weigh-in is actually showing: body weight, not body fat, and a messy mix of water, digestion, food volume, sodium, training inflammation, sleep, stress, and hormonal changes. If you’ve ever seen the number jump after one “good” day and felt like you’d messed it all up, this chat is built to give you back a bit of calm and control.

We talk through why we prefer multiple weigh-ins per week, and how daily weigh-ins (done consistently) give a clearer weekly average and a better read on true weight loss progress. You’ll hear simple, real-world examples like how a litre of water instantly adds a kilo, why weighing on different scales can show completely different numbers, and how even an uneven floor can skew a result. We also get into the trap of chasing a specific body fat percentage, why body composition matters more than a magic number, and how clothes fit, progress photos, and how you feel can be stronger metrics than the scales alone.

Finally, we lay out realistic fat loss expectations using a percentage of body weight, why smaller people often see slower numeric drops, and why impatience leads to unnecessary changes like slashing calories or piling on cardio. If you want a smarter approach to fat loss, weight tracking, and scale fluctuations, hit play, then subscribe, share it with a mate who hates the scales, and leave a review. What’s the one thing that most often makes your weigh-in spike?

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Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, Larry Doyle. Each week, I'm gonna bring in friends, guests, and experts to help enhance your health, fitness, and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversations.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

That causes probably the most frustration for people. It's the goddamn way in scales. Daniel, let's jump into it.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Yeah, I think it is probably the most common piece of feedback or common stressor we come across with every client we're dealing with that you know the scales goes up after one single day, they think they've fucked it. But like if it goes down by like a gram, they'd celebrate it. But if it goes up by that gram, like they think they've failed. So I think there's a lot of misconceptions around like what the scales actually represents. Uh so hopefully it'll have uh people have a bit of peace of mind come to the end of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

We're both proponents of people weighing themselves more often than not. I would actually prefer people to weigh themselves multiple times per week as opposed to once a week. If someone says I can only do it once a week, it's a single metric, but it's not really telling us the whole story because we look at it with a helicopter view as opposed to a keyhole view. It's not that one day in isolation, it's a multitude of inputs over the week that gives us a far better average because you absolutely will have, and this is something you need to understand if you're going to use the weighing scales, you will have fluctuations and variance. It's not a two plus two equals four, it's not I tracked my calories, did my steps, trained my sessions, therefore I should have an output from those inputs that is perfectly logical. The scales is incredibly illogical at times, and that's because you will have a wild variety of different factors, and it's not your body fat. The body fat is the least variable in all those factors. That's the one that's going to be the most consistent in terms of what it does because you cannot gain or lose wild amounts of body fat in a very short period of time, but body weight, you can influence that wildly over a very short period of time. And it gives us a lot of insight as the coach, and it's our role to be able to explain to people here's what's actually going on. But also when we zoom out, here's what's actually happening, and there is a result there as opposed to uh it's been a stall or it's been a failure with the week. Because people have this association of again, up is bad, down is good, that's the only thing we need to look at, but there's a far bigger picture. So, what are we actually looking at when it comes to the variables that are going to drive and influence the scales for us down there?

How To Weigh Yourself Properly

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Like I always say to people, like there's only like the scales can go up for like literally hundreds of reasons. It can also go down for hundreds of reasons, but like fat loss is never going to be like 100%, you know, you can't measure fat loss purely on the scales. Like body weight and body fat are two very distinctly different things. Like, obviously, they're going to be closely linked when we're looking at fat loss. That over time you should see the scales trending down, but that doesn't mean it's going to go down every day. That's why we need to kind of track every single day so we can get the averages and compare week to week. But like when it comes to the scales changing, it could be something as as crazy as like the temperature, even in your room, the climate you're in can even affect it. Like it's it's absolutely insane. If the floor isn't any way uneven in one part of the house compared to another, even in the same room, if you just move it from one tile to the next, that can affect your weight on the scales. So when people kind of understand that, it kind of does kind of ease the pressure a small bit in weighing themselves. Um, but more often than not, what I see people doing is like they'll weigh themselves like multiple times a day, they get very like hyper-focused on it, they'll weigh themselves at night, they'll weigh themselves in the middle of the night, and they'll never keep anything kind of like consistent. So when you're trying to kind of measure body weight, you need to kind of keep the variables as consistent as possible. So ideally, we like to do it first thing in the morning when you wake up after using the toilet before you eat or drink, preferably like naked or wearing at least similar clothing, like your boxers or your underwear or whatever, because again, all this is going to uh add up. And roughly around the same time, like obviously there could be like a small window, maybe half an hour, even in that word, some cases. Um, but again, that's not gonna say that it's gonna be the most accurate because like if you even had like a single day where digestion was off, for example, and you didn't have like complete bowl movements, that's gonna be reflected on the scales because you're gonna have like waste still inside in your uh digestive system that hasn't passed through. And I always get people to do this little experiment that like right stand on the scales in the morning before you use the toilet, see what it is, then use the toilet, step into scales again, see what it is, then drink like a glass of water and see what it is. Like in the space of like a minute, you have seen three different numbers on the scales. It doesn't mean you've gained and lost body fat, it just means you've gained and lost body weight. And again, that's why you need to understand the scales, just represent body weight at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if you have like a bioimpedance scale where you're like standing on something and holding on to like a uh a little handle that's gonna measure your body fat and water and muscle mass and bone density and stuff, like they're still gonna be wildly inaccurate.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Just a quick intersection on that. They're a load of bollocks if you're looking at your body fat been measured off though. So if you are using them, well, you don't think into it too much. Anyway, back to regular schedule programming.

Body Fat Numbers And Goal Confusion

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And even like the thing is like when it comes to like people uh never mind just like body weight when people are looking like body fat, like I want to get to a specific number. Even if you use like a DEXA scan, which is kind of like uh accepted as being like hardly the most accurate, there's still variants inside there that they'll still say, right, there's still gonna be like a degree of error allowed for in this thing because it's going to be very, very hard, and I probably would say like impossible to give an exact number of your body fat percentage. So that's why like I always say to people, and especially females, because I think it hits home a bit better, because they'll always um people will always kind of look back on their previous selves, they'll always say, like, well, when I was 21 or 25, I was this particular weight, or I fit into this particular size clothes. And then you ask, okay, why is it specifically that weight or that time period, wherever it's like, Oh, that was the time I got married, and like I was incredibly happy with how I looked. And it's like, right, you probably still weren't 100% happy because like stress was probably predicting to see higher on your wedding, and it's like, oh, my arms didn't look the fucking best, but it looks better than where you are now, maybe, or you might have been happier, quote unquote, then looking back, but you probably still weren't 100% happy then. So I always kind of ask, right, was it the body weight or was it the look you're kind of looking for? And it's like, right, it's the look, it's right. So that means that the body weight is secondary to that. So maybe if we have a look at say having a look at your progress pictures, or have you look at body tape measurements, or even having you know, a pair of jeans, for example, that you can kind of see how you actually feel in them. Because if you can see that right, my jeans are actually getting looser, that means you're actually progressing. Whereas like we have clients time and time again who like scales might stay relatively unchanged, but it's like I dropped the dress size, I dropped the gene size, my clothes are looser. It's like so that kind of proves that the scales shouldn't kind of take part of the pun, all the weight when it comes to measuring progress.

What Really Moves Scale Weight

Using Averages To Reduce Stress

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yeah, and it's a it's a really interesting factor to look at that. And like I don't introduce myself to people as like, hi, my name is Larry, I'm 91.5 kilos. You know, people don't give a fuck what you weigh, and like you don't walk around with a marathon number on the front of your t-shirt or jumper or hoodie saying, you know, here's my body weight for the day. People say, You look great, you know, whatever, the jeans look fantastic on you. Yeah, but I'm on two kilos every than the one to be. It's like, well, is the goal to weigh a certain thing or is it to look a certain thing or to fit into a certain thing? So there's going to be multiples with that. Now, to cut into it, if you're vastly overweight and you have a lot of body fat to lose, the scales absolutely should be coming down linear because you've got way more excessive body weight, body fat, uh, fluid fluctuations, all these things, uh, than someone who is closer to their goal weight. Someone that may be closer to their goal weight, they will see far less. As a percentage, it might actually be quite similar, but the swings will be far less. But if you are with a lot of body weight to lose, you know, 15, 20, 30 kilos, whatever it might be, the scale should be pretty much linear in terms of the approach if you're in a deficit, if you're consistent. But there still will be some fluctuations and variance. Um, and that's what I want to look into to kind of clarify for people, because again, you know, they just don't really understand what's driving the weight up and down. Um, a liter of water is a kilo. Pure metric, pure way of uh conversion the weight with it as well. Too. If you drink a liter of water right now, much like you said earlier, I'm gonna be exactly one kilo heavier. I haven't gained any body fat. But if you eat food later the night before and you weigh yourself at the same time the following morning, if there's a lot of volume to that food, if you haven't had the same bowel movement, whatever, you're gonna be heavier, most likely. Sometimes you might be lighter, who knows? Again, it's you're gonna see some variance with that. If you had more salty foods the day before, chances are you might be uh retaining a little bit more fluid. Now, salt gets a big wrap with all this. People forget that they had, you know, a family portion of KFC the night before, and they're just blaming it on the salt and the sodium. It's probably the family portion of food as to why you're up two kilos as well. But when it comes back to uh hormonal fluctuations for ladies with your menstrual cycle, with some bloating around that time of the month, there will also be some irregularity potential around your digestion. And again, you can see quite a large swing with full or partial bowel movements, with that bloating, with that fluid retention that you're going to have as well. Um, some people might stick to their calories really well, but they might actually alter their composition of their food. So I'll use the analogy, and no one would actually do it. But let's say you had 2,000 calories worth of oil the day before and you had 2,000 calories worth of salad uh the the following day after. Chances are the day after the salad, albeit better foods, your weight is actually going to be up because there's way more mass to that food compared to the density of the oil. Again, just to use that as an example, you might go out and have uh what could be seen as a bad meal, but it's very dense in the overall amount of volume that's there. Versus again, when you're eating to your normal foods and your healthy foods, quote unquote, I'm doing the air quotes for those who can't see me. Um, you might actually see the scales bumping up because again, there's more food volume, there's more internal food mass, there's a lot of other variables that can drive that up. Um, some other, you know, very simple uh things that we overlook. Again, like you said, uh temperature can have a massive impact. We are sweating more, we are sweating less. You know, we produce up to two liters, I think it is, of saliva per day. We are salivating more, we salivating, like the if you really want to go into the weeds of it, is this all the stuff that people are actually tracking? No, and it's it's gonna be uh huge variables every single time. But again, when we can zoom out and have more data points, we can have a far more accurate input as well to you, because if you only weigh yourself every single Monday, you could see a wild variance and fluctuation uh in an in a downward trend, or maybe even an upward trend as well too, that's gonna give us far more insight. And what can often happen if we only have one or two metrics of that and we're purely going off weight, and now you see that, well, last Monday I was 90 kilos, this Monday I was 90.1 kilos, I've gained 0.1 of a kilo. We look at the weekly average, you could actually be down a kilo. So again, this is something that people really overlook. Now they might be going to make changes that are just unnecessary. They might be jumping the gun, uh, they might just be overlooking a lot of uh other factors as well. So when we can provide that education and have those data points, we can give people a little bit more input to say, well, actually, here's what's really going on. I understand you're frustrated about the scales, it's gone up this morning, but based off the last three weeks, we're actually down two kilos. Based off the last week, we're down a kilo and a half, whatever it might be. So again, it's to understand that if we're going to use a tool, it's to actually understand all the different variables that can be at play when it comes to this as well, right? Um, so what do you hear from clients? Let's say some of the frustration that's coming in, obviously scales has gone up. I've done all the things. What do you generally go with that approach then to give them some reassurance, Daniel, when it comes to that?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Well, that's why, like, as you're saying, that like the scale is a tool, and that's why we have like multiple other factors we like to kind of track, and like that's something we're going to dive into in another podcast as well. That, like, you know, things like the sleep, hydration, stress, even like, say, what phase of their training they're in and all that kind of stuff, and like how muscle uh uh soreness is, recovery and everything, because if we see that like weight has gone up, but like they have been tracking, like particularly across the week, activity has remained the same, but like maybe they're into like say the last couple of weeks or whatever of their training block, whatever, and I think sky high, like scales obviously probably will go up because there's gonna be a lot of information there. So, again, if we weren't kind of like keeping track of all these variables and we didn't have all the data and the metrics and stuff there, they would assume then, like, right, something's gone wrong here. I'm getting fat again, I'm not making progress, I'm actually regressing. But we can actually look at all the variables at play. We can assess that no, it actually kind of makes sense why you're gonna go up. So maybe what we'll look at instead is maybe have like a deload week. Maybe we will actually increase calories of torch, bring down the volume of your training, because we're kind of coming towards the end of your training block anyway. And more often than not, what you see is people are reporting maxing, like, oh, my fucking weight has actually dropped down like by a kilo or two kilos, even across the week, because the all the inflammation has just washed off the body, they're a lot less stressed, the body's in a much better position, they're getting better sleep. Um, so I think like a lot of people in these situations just kind of think, right, I need to push harder, I need to push harder, I need to push harder, and that's when the wheel is starting to fall off because there's only so hard you can kind of push. And that's again why if you're just tracking the scales and if you just believe that the number on the scales is telling you like you're making progress, that's when kind of things can actually start to go backwards.

When Weight Is Up But Progress

Realistic Weekly Fat Loss Targets

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, so again, having those multiple metrics, and again, your clothes is a huge one there for a lot of people. Um, it doesn't, you know, you don't have to take, excuse me, take out a measuring tape because again, measuring tapes, people are gonna pinch a bit lighter, pinch a bit easier, they're gonna move it up a bit higher, a bit lower, whatever, to suit their own narrative with it. But you put on clothes and you fit that jeans on, the pants on, the shirt on, it's gonna give you some pretty accurate feedback. They don't change if that's feeling looser, you've dropped body fat, uh, despite of what the scales are saying. If the visuals look better, if you're feeling like you've got a little bit more confidence, etc. And that like that's all improvements as well, too. So there is multiple metrics that we can look at from that point of view. And again, we'll always get people, how do you actually feel? Do you feel leaner? Do you feel lighter? And to not allow the and it's it's very difficult for people at times because they are very um influenced that way or kind of biased to say, like, okay, scale's down good, scales up bad. But it's how do you actually feel? And it's much like checking in before you check your sleep data for the night before. How do I feel? Do I feel well rested? Okay, I'm gonna allow that to influence my mood as opposed to checking my sleep data and it's like, well, now all of a sudden I feel tired and need more coffee, uh, where people feel influenced by the scales and all of a sudden it does influence their mood. So it's for them to be more objective about it when they're actually looking at that input and that data and have those collection points there to say, well, actually, okay, that's one day that has spiked up loads. I either know why or I haven't a fucking clue as to what's going on, but I'm gonna zoom out a little bit more and actually realize, okay, the weekly averages are still trending in the right direction. Um, so again, like it is easy to manage once we're looking in the correct manner and using it as a tool as it is, without letting it influence our decisions or biases to say, well, okay, it scales has gone up by half a pound today. I need to cut my calories hard now and go do more work and more output, more activity, generally doesn't lead into a more favorable outcome from that point of view. But then it does tell us at the same point if stuff isn't moving in the right direction, maybe I have seen a plateau. And this is what I want to look at is what should people see if everything is in check, if they're in a moderate deficit, if if they're ticking all the lifestyle boxes, what numbers should they actually see on a week-to-week basis, Daniel? Because this is like something people get confused with. They'll think they should be losing like four pounds a week because they'll see Mary and Weight Watchers or Johnny and Slim and World, whatever it might be, and he's down 12 pounds again this week. Um, that's not real fat loss. What is the actual numbers that people should see when the majority of it is in check when it comes to real-world fat loss?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I always kind of favor instead of picking like a specific number, like a kilo or a pound, I kind of go off of like a percentage of their body weight. So, like, usually we like we like to work between like 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week, and like that should tell you then already, right? A bigger individual is obviously going to see a bigger drop on the scale than a smaller individual. So, like if you're a 50 kilo female, that could mean like you're losing like 0.25 to like half a kilo a week, and like that's totally fine, that's actually optimal, that's what we're looking for. But like to them, that's gonna seem like pointless. That's like I'm not losing anything. It's like, no, but like over the course of a month, you could be down two kilos, and like for a 50 kilo person, like that is huge. Whereas if someone on the other end is like a hundred kilos, like a kilo to them is still gonna be a lot, but like compared to like that your 50 kilo person, they might be like, Wait, why am I not losing a kilo a week? Like, they're my partner is losing a kilo a week, and like it doesn't make sense, it's not fair. But I think that's just the thing you're gonna have to accept is like as a percentage, your weight loss is probably gonna be the exact same, but the number you're gonna see on the scales is gonna be vastly different. So I think if you can actually look at the percentages of your body weight per week in terms of like a loss, that's when you're actually gonna get a much accurate kind of representation of what to expect week to week. And again, it's not it doesn't mean that it's gonna be seen every single week because there might be a week where it doesn't come down, but then the next week it might actually be down like a kilo and a half, so the percentage has actually gone up. So that's why when we're kind of looking at changes, we don't really want to kind of like jump the gun too early and like make a change. Like if we don't see the scales going down on average in a week, maybe a way two, three weeks potentially. As long as we know that you're ticking all the boxes, that you are actually tracking your calories, you are 100% in a deficit, you are being honest with what you're doing, then we can be sure that you are going to be in a deficit. As long as you're actually reporting all the information accurately, we know that you are going to be in a deficit, and it is going to be a matter of time that we just see the scales kind of jump down, but it might just be you know two weeks' time, three weeks' time. But I think a lot of people will just, like as I said, pull the plug too early and the leader kind of saying, No, it's not working, or I need to make a change, or I need to do more cardio, need to drop my calories even further. So I think you need to be kind of patient in these situations.

Scale Calibration And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_02 18:31

You'll hear that saying, Oh, um, I'm I put in a really good shift this week. I'm really disappointed. I'm only down half a kilo. And I'm like, you do that every week, you're down 25 kilos off of the year. That's a significant portion, yeah. But it's those mounted efforts all the time, and you will have the weeks that seem a little bit more stagnant, and then you'll have the weeks that seem a bit more accelerated as well, too. And it's quite funny, like people get freaked out when they only lose a very small amount or the scales go up a very small amount, but they never get freaked out when they lose like a kilo and a half, which is really interesting to me. It's like, you know, they kind of take it, whatever. But again, it's like you will roll with the punches, and this is where we're looking at those averages all the time. There will be big weeks, there will be smaller weeks, and that will balance out over the whole thing. Initially, you will see a bigger shift at the start. And it's not that you're plateauing, but you're actually reaching what is true fat loss then as you're actually moving along throughout it after six, eight, ten, twelve weeks as you're further into your phases, you will see points of diminishing returns. And this is where people may get a little bit more impatient. Well, I was losing two kilos a week previously or one kilo a week previously, and now there's much less to lose. And that rate and as a percentage is still moving in a pretty good fashion, but just the numbers actually getting smaller because you as an individual is actually getting smaller too. So again, it's not putting all your stock into I should lose X because two plus two equals four per week. And this can be a huge frustration. Um, Daniel, I think there's loads of great points in this so far. That's going to help people an awful lot. Uh, it's understanding that the scales is a tool, it's not the be all and end all. There is other metrics that you need to look at. So it's taking pictures and maybe take a picture every two weeks, make sure it's in a similar, uh, comparable fashion with that as well. Too. Uh, another one that people get really frustrated with is that they might go to their parents' house or it might be in their partner's house or boyfriend or girlfriend's house over the weekend and away themselves on a different scale. They are all calibrated differently. You will have a wild variance between one scale and the other, whether uh it's the exact same model or not. I once upon a time had multiples of the exact same scale for home and for a couple of gyms I was operating out of as well, too. The exact same model. In the exact same position on the heart of my fireplace, there was a three and a half kilo variance from one scale to the other for me. In the exact same model of that scale, nothing had changed. I wasn't three and a half kilos heavier from stepping on one to the other. That was just the calibration. So if you buy a new scales, chances are you're gonna see a different number. It won't be calibrated the exact same, but now it's a trend you're basing off that. Am I continually losing weight at the higher or lower weight now? Again, and again, you're gonna see progression there with that. So it's to remove the emotional attachment, you're not walking around as someone who identifies as 78 kilos, whatever it might be. It's like that's your body weight and that's your relationship with gravity on that particular scale on that day. If you can have more consistent uh with the same scales as well, too, and you're gonna see better trends with that. So it's removing that emotional bias from the whole thing. Um, Daniel, anything you want to leave as a wrap-up on this one so far?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, I think uh like one thing I was kind of thinking there when you were giving that example of like having the three different scales, giving the three different numbers. Like I can already kind of see people kind of panicking, but but which weight am I? So if like there's three different numbers, which one am I? And it's like it doesn't matter as long as you're using the exact same one, that's all that matters. Like everything else is kind of irrelevant because it's the same as like at the moment I have say my phone, I have a garment, and I have like a fitness ring, it's not an aura ring, it's for another Chinese brand. But like they're all gonna give me three different like metrics in terms of like my steps. And like again, people are like, I don't know which one is my correct one. It's like it doesn't matter, just use the exact same one each time. And now we're looking at is trends over time. If I'm tracked with my phone and my phone says X, that's what I'm gonna go along with. If we need to increase the steps, we're gonna look at your phone and increase the steps that it says on your phone. If we're looking at three different weighing skills, we're gonna pick one of them and stick with that one and use the trend off that one as well. So again, it's like the exact number doesn't necessarily matter. We're not looking for the exact number, we're just looking for like trends over time. So as long as you're staying consistent with how you're tracking it and what you're using to track it, that's what's ultimately gonna matter. So don't get kind of caught up in the weeds. And like some people might take away from this saying, like, oh, the scales doesn't matter, but it's like the scale still doesn't matter. We still want to see a trend over time on the scales. So we're not kind of saying throw away your scales, but it just means understand what the scales actually represent.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Yeah, I think that's huge. And okay, one more before we wrap up on this one. Uh, people will be disillusioned at times, they'll think, oh, maybe I'm building more muscle tissue. And so that's why the scales are staying the same. There's only so much muscle you can build as well, too, particularly for females, and that's not to be sexist, it's just a reality of your hormone profiles. Uh, you're not going to be building gross amounts of muscle tissue. So if you think you're about the same weight, but you think you've gained three or four kilos of muscle, chances are you haven't. So again, it's just been aware. Once you have multiple um sources to actually work from, uh, using pictures, using using tapes, using the scales, using whatever as well to you, uh, it'll give us a very good input into that uh as well. But if you have significant amount of body fat to lose, if you're in a deficit, that scale should be moving down in the trends over time. Just day to day, you will see some variance and fluctuations based off a multitude of factors. Hopefully, this has given you some insight into the scales. Hopefully, it's allowing you to think a bit more rationally about it. We know people get emotionally charged with it all. But if there's any confusions, frustrations, questions that you guys may have after listening to this episode, make sure to reach out, hit us with an email, hit us with a DM. Always here to help you guys out. And it'd be an absolute pleasure to see them coming across and to be able to answer them for you. Daniel, it's been an absolute pleasure on this episode packed full of nuggets of wisdom as usual. Until the next one.