Weight Weight. Don't Tell Me.
Have you stepped on the scale a week into your exercise plan, and noticed that the scale doesn’t budge? Good. You are right on track. Why am I so confident of that? Well, losing weight is like buying a home. A home loan has us paying interest before the principal comes down. Exercise is interest, paid before the scale shows a reduction in the principal. That’s because exercise builds muscle, and it is muscle that increases our metabolism and our metabolism that burns fat. If you want to see progress sooner, get a new scale!
Some scales use a technique called bioimpedence to distinguish between muscle and fat. Even if the weight reads constant, with exercise the percentage body fat will decrease. The scale uses this same technique to assess hydration: The better hydrated, the lower the body fat. Muscle increases with exercise before a regular scale would budge.
Another good scale is the tape measure around the waist. Exercise is an excellent form of ‘girth control’. Women with waists 35 inches or greater and men with waists 40 inches or greater are at risk for adverse health effects. If you fall into this category, make your doctor part of your fitness plan. Your doctor will check your blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, to see if you have the metabolic syndrome. If you do have this pre-heart disease, pre-diabetes condition, medical supervision and certain medications can save your life. Daily exercise is an excellent form of ‘girth control’.
If walking is part of your daily exercise, consider a step counter. A step-counter is a matchbox-sized digital device fastened to the waist to record each time the hip is raised. The step counter is a string around the finger. If you intend to walk 5,000 steps a day and the step counter only records 2,000 by evening, go grocery shopping, take the stairs, find a distant parking spot, walk the dog, or mow the lawn. Ten thousand steps a day is equivalent to a workout at the gym.
Similar to buying a home, chose your exercise wisely. Use the home buyer’s motto: location, location, location. Is your exercise convenient enough that you will do it frequently? Is your exercise located close enough to your passions, that you will continue it? Is your exercise located close to those with whom you wish to spend time and partner for success?
Just like interest paid on your home loan, exercise can be tax deductible. If exercise is part of a medically-supervised weight-loss program and your combined exercise, diet and medical expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, inquire with your tax accountant.
Despite the high interest rate, exercise is an outstanding investment. Exercise brightens mood, lowers blood pressure, builds bone, controls blood sugar and protects the heart. The evidence is so impressive, that many doctors write their patients an exercise prescription.