Today we are investigating the problem with losing weight. In this episode, I offer a new perspective: Stop focusing on the bathroom scale. I cover challenges with losing weight and provide a reframe for weight loss, diet, and exercise. Then, I teach you why body composition is the gold standard measure of your health, fitness, and physical improvement — and the only one that needs your attention. 

First, I detail three problems with losing weight and how to focus your mindset on muscle building. I provide new perspectives for losing weight and share a few reasons why BMI is problematic for women. I also illustrate body weight vs body composition and how to accurately assess your body composition. You get to decide what your body looks and feels like… and I cannot wait to see the photo of you marching your scale out to the garbage bin. 

If you are frustrated by increasing belly fat, or obsess over your diet and the number on the bathroom scale. This episode is for you.

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now!

If you resonated with anything shared in today’s episode, I hope you’ll rate and leave a *glowing* review of the show on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to follow and subscribe to keep up-to-date when new episodes drop on Tuesdays! 

Topics Covered:

• The fitness industry’s obsession with body fat 
• Three problems with losing weight  
• A reframe around body fat and losing weight
• Three new perspectives around losing weight 
• Why BMI is problematic for women 
• Two ways to assess body composition
• How to gain FREE access to Strength Without Stress

Resources Mentioned:

• Journal of Clinical Densitometry article
• Get FREE access to my 14-page nutrition guide HERE 

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Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

Losing weight does not necessarily mean you'll be healthier, more athletic or better in general. In fact, as you lose weight, there's a very good chance that you'll lose muscle too, which means you're just a smaller version of yourself, not necessarily a leaner version. 2017 meta analysis in the journal Advances in Nutrition states that the potential health benefits of diet induced weight loss could be compromised by the weight loss associated loss of lean body mass ie muscle. In this episode, you'll learn a better way to look at the process of bringing your body fat down to a healthy level or to the level that you desire. Hello, and welcome to episode two of this brand new podcast. It's very exciting. I have been wanting to create this podcast for at least seven years. And wow, I am so happy to be here.

And I have to admit I'm even more excited that you're here. So thank you for being here. Without you, I'd be lost. Please be sure to listen to the first 10 episodes as each is dedicated to a core tenet of my philosophies and reflects the most important concepts I'm seeing now in health, fitness and nutrition. Also, if you stop right now and post a review below, you'll get free access to my brand new program called strength without stress. It's a four week strength training plan with minimum recovery so you get maximum strength.

Without the stress of confusing elaborate or overly intense workouts, simply rate and review this podcast on Apple podcast Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now. Then screenshot your review and come over to Holly perkins.com forward/review and send it to me, you'll get immediate free access to this brand new program. But let's get into the problem with losing weight. The health and fitness industry has a strange obsession with body fat, you'll often hear people measure their success with statements like my doctor or trainer says that I'm 35% body fat and that puts me into the obese category.

Or I want to be ripped at 15% body fat so I can see my abs and I'm over here wondering why are we focused on the small numbers when they represent the smallest part of your body fat, and the majority of you 60 to 70% or more is muscle. Wouldn't it feel more expansive and positive and exciting to say my goal is to become 70% muscle around here. That's how we do it. If you're frustrated by increasing belly fat, worried about your health, want to lose weight, or obsess over the number on the bathroom scale. This episode is so for you. In this episode, I'm offering you a new perspective that will inspire us all to stop focusing on the number on the scale, and instead start using body composition as the gold standard measure of health, fitness and physical improvement in general. It's true that your risk of disease increases as your body fat increases. We know this from research.lyBut it's also true that your risk of disease decreases as your lean muscle mass increases. So let's focus on becoming more muscle rather than less weight. Which by the way is less of who you are. Rather than shrinking. I invite you to strive for more, more muscle because that does mean more health. It has been my lifelong passion to see a world where the number of women strength training in gyms around the world rivals the number of men. I dream of a day when doctors no longer weigh you at your yearly checkup or scold you when your BMI is too high. I look forward to the day when I no longer hear the words lose weight. And women call me because they want more muscle. How cool would that be? Because here's the deal. When you focus on improving your body composition, everything else in your life gets better. The problem with losing weight is 1) that you also lose muscle. And if you don't already know, muscle is life. And number two, the end result usually isn't

a leaner, meaner version of you. It's simply a smaller version. I'm not saying that you can't become leaner when you lose weight. I'm saying that if your mindset begins with “I want to lose weight”, there's a good chance that you'll adopt habits that lead you down a specific road, one of weight loss, one that in my experience really isn't a very helpful or successful one.

Today, I'm talking about changing the way you think, and the way that you verbalize your goal of improving the quality of the weight that reflects your physical body. See what I did there. Instead of losing weight, I invite you to reframe this whole conversation around your body becoming healthier and better. Today, you're going to learn why body composition should be the only measurement that you pay attention to, you're going to learn why you should literally laugh at your doctor when they refer to a BMI chart. And when is it time to march your bathroom scale up to the curb and into the trash for good.

The problem with losing weight is that one, it means your brain is focused on quote unquote, losing something. And it's a human protective mechanism to avoid losing anything, we know this from human behavior or research, and psychological science. This focus on something negative losing isn't productive or effective. Number two, whether you realize it or not, you've been brainwashed to associate certain behaviors with weight loss. For example, a common pattern I see when women come to me because they're quote unquote, struggling to lose weight. And when I assess their habits, most of the time, they are eating low carb doing too much cardio, overly restricting their calories and obsessing over the scale.

Do you agree? When you shift your intention to building muscle, it tricks your brain into looking for different strategies. Typical weight loss programming usually puts you in a very catabolic state. If you don't know this word, it basically means that your body is breaking down tissues in order to lose weight. And oh, by the way, not to get into it too much here. This is the basis of intermittent fasting. So what you might not know if you're someone who's into intermittent fasting, is that it completely revolves around this idea of catabolism, which is breaking down your body. And this means that there's usually a breakdown of muscle tissue to number three, losing weight may not mean that you'll improve your body composition.

In fact, I've had several women come to me who lost 20 or 30 pounds, but their body fat percentage was still higher than the number associated with a decrease in disease. You may have heard the term skinny fat before. And as much as I hate it, I think we can all understand what it means. And I think it's relevant here. skinny fat refers to our body or this idea that the body is small in terms of size, or in terms of body weight, but where the body fat is still high. They're skinny by someone's standard, but they are also fat by a body fat percentage measure, which oh by the way, is medically documented.A few years back, when I still use the bathroom scale, I had a number in mind that represented the size that I wanted to be at the time, that number was 118 pounds.

Up until then, I linked to the number 118 as being lean and mean and top of my game machine. After a stretch when my weight was higher, let's say I think it was up around maybe 128 or so I decided to get more focused on my diet and strength training so that I could get back to that 118 number. So for a number of weeks, maybe it was even a month or two. I stayed super consistent with my programming and I had been super focused on building muscle. I woke up one morning. I distinctly remember it. I can literally see it in my mind's eye right now. I woke up and I was feeling good. You know those days when you wake up and you just feel skinny? Like you would assume that the scale has gone down. I remember waking up and feeling lean and

mean and tight and kind of deflated and thinking, Oh, wow, this is the day, my weight is down, and I look good. Looking in the mirror, I can see my abs, my arms were showing more definition, they looked tight and toned. And I just felt internally, I felt awesome. And I knew I had lost weight. My hunch was that I had reached that 118 number again, and I got very excited about weighing myself. So I stripped down, I jumped on the bathroom scale, super excited. So excited to see that number I looked down, so ready to pat myself on the back. And instead, my jaw dropped. When I saw that I had only lost four pounds, and my weight was 124. And yet, I looked and I felt amazing. And I was thrilled with where my body was. And I am certain that my body composition was better. And that was the day that I literally laughed at the scale, and realized how silly it is. And I No joke, marched that bathroom scale down to the trash bin and never looked back, I have a photo to prove it. The problem with losing weight is that it means your scale of measure is either body weight, or BMI, when instead you'll be healthier, look better and feel great if your scale of measure is body composition. So let's look at three new perspectives here. First, I want to underscore the fact that achieving a low number on the bathroom scale could be an important thing for you.

Obesity is a real problem. And we have so much research to prove that it increases your risk of life threatening diseases, it reduces your lifespan, and it decreases your quality of life. Being “over fat” - is the technical term- is a problem for your health. If you're 40, or 50 pounds or more over your ideal body weight, you want to stop and take a look at it, quote unquote your body weight is a problem by the standards. Simply lowering your weight could mean a longer life. That's very real. That being said, it still stands that you'll be focusing on losing something. And there is a law of diminishing returns when you're focused on losing weight. You can only lose weight for so long, and at some point the process slows to a halt. Your increments of weight loss gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller as you get closer to your ideal body weight.

A problem I see often is when a woman comes to me after she has lost a bunch of weight, but is then frustrated when the scale slows or stops moving altogether. This is where using the bathroom scale as a measure of success becomes a real problem. And it's time to shift your focus. Once you get within 10 to 20 pounds of your ideal weight, it's time to focus solely on your body composition. So even if you need to lose more than 20 pounds, you might as well make the shift now to forgetting the scale and adopting body composition as your new reference. To be sure that we're all on the same page here I want to review exactly what body composition is. Right now based on your body weight.

There is a percentage of your body that is muscle, a percentage that is bone, and a percentage that is body fat. Regardless of your body weight. Research shows that you'll reduce your risk of disease and be healthier if at least 70% of your current body weight is lean muscle mass now, that's my personal spin on it. Everyone else is completely focused on this smaller number- body fat - and I say let's change the conversation and instead focus on how much of you as muscle because that's way more relevant and important. And your first goal should be to achieve at least 70% of any current body weight as lean muscle mass. This would also mean that about 30% of you or less is body fat. Technically, we also account for the percentage that is bone. But to make things simple, it's really easiest to just think of your body as 100% and divide 100% of you

your current body weight into these two things muscle and fat, it just makes it easier for reference. Historically, being healthy was defined as having less than 30% of your body weight as fat. Now, I want to change that conversation. Instead, we say, to be optimally healthy, the goal is to be at least 70% muscle. Focusing on body fat just feels like negative vibes. No. So I encourage you to get curious about how you can change your habits so that you become at least 70% muscle. This also helps to answer the question of ideal body weight, because how on earth could anyone know what your ideal body weight is, we do have to have some reference to measure people by so that we know how to advise you. So there does have to be a metric.

And this is why the BMI body mass index scale came about more of that silliness and a minute. To some degree, it doesn't matter if you weigh 450 pounds. If your body fat is within medically proven ranges deemed as healthy. If you're five feet tall and weigh 250 pounds and are mostly muscle, there's a really good chance that you're healthy, even though your doctor's reference charts will say that you're over fat and therefore unhealthy. Therefore, who's to say what your ideal body weight is? How could we know what that actual number is? But once you achieve that 70% lean muscle mark, you get to decide how much you want to weigh. If you lift weights, and if you're hanging out with me, we can assume that you are the scale becomes even more irrelevant, because muscle is heavy.

There's a saying that muscle weighs more than fat. Have you heard that? And if you were to judge that by volume, it would be true. For example, two inches of muscle will be much heavier than two inches of fat. Instead, think of it like this, five pounds of muscle is smaller than five pounds of fat. So muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, because it's all relative, but it's smaller pound for pound. So as you build muscle, you will lose fat and you will become smaller, but the scale might remain the same. This is why your body weight kind of doesn't matter. And losing weight is not the Holy Grail. 70% muscle is the new skinny. Say it with me, friend, write it down, put it on your refrigerator because it will change your life.

The second perspective I want to offer here is to also ignore the very inaccurate and outdated idea of body mass index BMI. In fact, I vote we should all laugh at our doctors if they judge our health using this reference. Just like your body weight, your BMI Body Mass Index isn't accurate and shouldn't be used to judge your health. Especially if you work out. Here's why. First, it's important to understand the origin of the body mass index.

This is really funny. It was created by a statistician not a doctor in Belgium, in the 1800s to determine the quote unquote average man, so as to determine who is overweight and therefore who gets different rations. Now, this data was based on ethnicity. In this case, it was Belgians. In this case, it was men and it was based on their height and weight only, which reflects a European descent. Houston, we have a problem. Today the BMI is still used to estimate your health risks, but it's simply your weight adjusted for your height. It doesn't take into consideration different ethnicities, different sex or athleticism. It's simply a quick and dirty measure to decide if your body is too large, i.e. over fat, if you're not tall, have a larger bone structure, and naturally or genetically have more muscle mass, there's a good chance you'll be considered overweight. For example, the BMI of a professional athlete who is lean with tons of muscle, think Serena Williams might indicate a high risk for disease. And I'm not sure any logical doctor would call Serena in her glory days fat or overweight. And keep in mind, this index was based on men only. So is it really relevant to women? Studies show that BMI levels correlate with body fat and with future risks, and is a quick and easy way to assign you a number and this is why it's still used. But these days, we have better technology at our fingertips that are way more accurate.

Another example of why BMI is problematic for us. On average, women have greater amounts of total body fat than men with an equivalent BMI. Also, on average, we're shorter than men. It's a flawed metric. And we have better ways to assess your body fat more accurately. This leads me into the third perspective here today. When should you ditch your bathroom scale and start monitoring your body composition, if you truly want to be healthy, it's now widely agreed that strength training is a must. In case you're not convinced yet or are holding back because you're worried about bulking up. Here are some benefits of strength training. As per the research, strength training lowers your risk for diabetes and metabolic disorders, you'll have a reduced risk of stroke, cancer and heart disease, improved bone density, a reduction of depression, anxiety and mood disorders, lower risk of injury, especially age related and better body fat management. This has all been proven over and over and over through research. I do believe that some women are more able to build muscle than others. And around here we honor and respect each woman's preferences and beliefs. So I understand if you are someone who doesn't want to get big and bulky.

That being said, it is incredibly hard to build muscle for any woman. But even more. So if you're over 40 You have to be going after it day after day, week after week, in order to build a noticeable amount of muscle. You literally have to eat, sleep, breathe and obsess over muscle in order to build enough that it's visible. In 30 years of coaching women 30 Years day in and day out six and seven days per week, I have only had one client who put on muscle so fast and easily that I had to change her programming. And while it was more muscle than she wanted to the outside eye, she certainly wasn't muscular, I would have given anything to have her genetics in her body is unbelievable and gorgeous.

Emily, if you're listening, you know, still the most common mistake I see women making today is operating from a fear of bulking up, I challenge you to just let go of this idea if it's you, and instead, try to bulk up. Check back with me in four months. And let's talk actually, let's make that a real offer.

If you 1) get a DEXA scan or a bod pod, which I'll talk about in a moment, and take four months and increase your lean muscle mass more than, let's say three pounds, as proven by a follow up DEXA scan and you're not happy. I'll give you a free hour-long coaching call to consult and advise you- how about that? Take that as an offer and a challenge to go after it. So let's agree that strength training is a foundational part of your weekly activities. If you're strength training, right, you're going to build muscle.

In my coaching programs, I have watched numerous women increase their lean muscle mass by five pounds, and a couple of times more than that in four months, five pounds or five pounds or more in four months or less. Now, before you hear that and get scared and think oh my gosh, I'm gonna gain five pounds of muscle. You should also know that the women that I'm thinking of each got smaller and lean

nerves, and the scale either stayed the same, or it also went down. So if you gain five pounds of muscle, and you lose two pounds on the scale, that means you've lost seven pounds of body fat, even though the fact that you gained five pounds. And this is why the scale becomes such a nonsensical metric that will drive you crazy. So I offer you this, at some point, the scale just becomes totally irrelevant. That day could be today if you want, even if you need to lose 3040 50 pounds or more to be healthy.

Adopting a body composition mindset now is going to serve you. And the journey to becoming a healthier version of you will be so much more joyful. Because you'll be focused on something positive, how can I increase my lean muscle mass to 70% more, instead of I need to lose weight and the scale just went up six pounds today because I'm constipated and had sushi last night. Right? Am I right? I envision a day when the only real measure we reference is an accurate body composition scan. So let's review what that is because it's not common knowledge yet. Right now, there are two broad ways to assess your body composition.

The first is a professional scan that you have to pay for. This includes a DEXA scan, which is for body composition not to be confused with a DEXA scan for bone density. Really important to know the difference. In particular, we're talking about DEXA for body composition, or a BodPod, which is known as air displacement. Or if you can find one hydrostatic weighing, which is not a lot of fun, and they're hard to find. The second way is a home or gym based scale type thing that you stand on, or you stand on and use handheld sensors. This includes the in body system and any home scale that you can purchase.

This is known as bio electrical impedance, because what it's doing is it's sending a little signal through your body to determine how much resistance there is, and therefore what your body fat is. Now, it's important to understand that bioelectrical impedance devices are highly dependent on your hydration. Thankfully, professional retail services are becoming more available and more economical. If you live in or near a metropolitan area, you can probably find a DEXA for body composition, or a BodPod for less than $100. Now, I realize this might not be affordable for you. But it is the most accurate way to know for sure what your body composition is. If you're able to do a DEXA. Again, for body composition, or a bod pod, please do that.

These are the gold standard measures, in my opinion, they're the only ones that are actually really accurate because the test to test reliability and accuracy is around 97%, which means there's only about a 3% margin of error. The second choice is a lot less accurate, there's about a 10 to 20% margin of error. In that second option, which is known as bioelectrical impedance, which is a scale that you step on, you'll see marketing for the InBody device, and many doctors are now using it in their office. It's better than most home scale models, but it's still not super accurate.

In fact, I've included a 2020 study below from the Journal of Clinical densitometry. Try to say that five times that shows a bias towards higher fat mass and women and higher fat free mass in men with the InBody technology, which means take it with a grain of salt. If you're going to use the InBody, which I'll talk about here in a moment, just know that it's going to report your body fat, a margin higher if you're a woman, you can often find an Inbody machine at local gyms and usually you can get a scan there for free. And that being said, Please don't pay for it. I think that it's just all kinds of wrong if there's a gym charging you for it, and many are these days, it's just not necessary. The truth is it's not really that much more accurate than a $50 home scale. So obviously it depends on your budget and your economics and also where you live in terms of what's available to you.

That being said, if the InBody is all you have the research states quote, it can be used as a surrogate when DEXA is not available. So, in my opinion, it's the runner up to a DEXA, BodPod or hydrostatic weighing. I suggest you get a body composition scan at the start of the new strength training program. Follow that program for at least three months, ideally four to six. And then if you've been consistent, go get a follow up scan.

It's powerful, the way that this shifts how you think about your body goals. And more importantly, you'll realize very quickly how silly that old bathroom scale is. And I personally cannot wait to see the photo of you marching your scale out to the garbage bin. That is all for today, my friend, I hope you enjoyed this episode. We are finally in a time when you get to decide the size, shape and expression of your body.

We are also in a time when women with muscles are celebrated. You get to decide what your body looks like, and feels like. And since we're leaving behind the days where skinny ruled and that's no longer the goal for many of us, it seems to me to be a vote in favor of building as much muscle as you possibly can. And I realize that you may not do that, but I promise your life will change in the most amazing ways. If you just try, here's to trying my friend.

Right now click your way to the Show page for this podcast wherever you're listening rate and leave a review, screenshot your review. I hope you say something nice and upload it at Holly perkins.com forward slash review. So you can start your muscle building journey now for free. Oh, and be sure to check out the first 10 episodes of this podcast. I am so thrilled that you're here. Stay strong, my friend.