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#156: Breaking up with the Scale - Why Weight Isn’t the Same as Fat Loss
792 Plays27 days ago
In this episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, I explain why the scale often holds people back from fat loss progress and why weight loss and fat loss are not the same.
I also explain how water retention can drive scale fluctuations for reasons like high sodium meals, stress-related cortisol, menstrual cycle changes (especially the luteal phase), perimenopause/menopause hormone fluctuations, creatine supplementation, and certain medications, and I stress that these changes are not fat gain.
I encourage using multiple markers of progress beyond the scale, including tape measurements, progress photos (including my method using video and screenshots), the monthly “jeans challenge,” and improvements in energy, mood, fitness, strength, and medical markers such as blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol, sharing examples of women in coaching reversing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes through sustainable lifestyle changes.
00:00 Why the Scale Messes With Your Fat-Loss Progress (Intro)
01:23 Weight Loss vs Fat Loss: The Key Mindset Shift
01:43 Reason #1: Body Recomposition (Lose Fat, Gain Muscle)
03:49 Reason #2: Water Retention—Salt, Stress, Cycle & Menopause
07:18 Creatine & Medications: More Scale Noise (Not Fat Gain)
11:17 The Scale Weighs Everything—So Track More Than Weight
12:07 Better Progress Metrics: Measurements, Photos & the Jeans Challenge
16:19 Non-Scale Wins: Energy, Strength, Fitness & Health Markers
19:56 If You Weigh, Weigh Daily for Trends (Or Don’t Weigh at All)
22:16 Set Healthy, Realistic, Sustainable Goals (No Quick Fixes)
26:48 Recap + How to Get Support (Coaching & Outro)
Links & Resources:
- Learn more about KHH coaching here
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- Connect with me on YouTube here
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Transcript
Introduction: Breaking Up with the Scale
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So in today's episode I want to talk through the one thing that seems to hold everybody back when it comes to their fat loss goals, sticking with it and actually really making progress and that is the dreaded sad step, the weighing scales.
Weight Loss vs Fat Loss: What's the Difference?
00:00:24
Speaker
So I want to talk a little bit around this and really kind of dig deep with it. I know I've probably covered this before, and but I would like to go at it from a different angle and in a little bit more depth so that you can really start to break up with the scale. and what I'll say is it's not a case that I'm asking anyone to break.
00:00:43
Speaker
stop weighing themselves. If you want to weigh yourself, you can, but we're going to do it for data. We're going to learn how to detach ourselves emotionally from it and really look at the facts. We're going to look at the science and every solo episode that I put out now will be science-backed.
00:00:59
Speaker
Not that it wasn't before, but I will be saying it is science backed. We want to keep that in mind that it's not when I'm saying something, i'm not just saying it to make you feel better. I'm saying it to you because it
Emotional Detachment from Scale Numbers
00:01:12
Speaker
is what it is. And we can know things and still feel certain ways. So I really want to help you to to really let go of this one, because this is one that needs to be let go of, I think.
00:01:23
Speaker
and The first thing I want to say is, if you're listening to me long enough, you'll have heard me say it. There's a huge difference between weight loss and fat loss. It's not the same thing.
00:01:33
Speaker
You can be losing body fat and the scales might not move. Is a frustrating? Yes. But this is why it's time to break up with the scales, at least emotionally anyway. Okay.
Body Recomposition Explained
00:01:44
Speaker
So what I want to get into is How can you be losing body fat and the scales not moving? Reason number one is body recomposition, my favorite thing in the whole world. So the body recomposition is the process of simultaneously losing fat and gaining muscle. Your body composition changes even when the scale stays the same.
00:02:06
Speaker
So basically, If you're strength training, if you're lifting weights consistently and you're eating at maintenance or in a slight calorie deficit, you can be dropping body fat and building muscle at the same time. You're going to get tighter, more toned. You're going to lose body fat. You're going to look great. You're going to drop dress sizes. Like I have seen women drop two or three dress sizes, like a woman dropping from a size 16 down to a size 12 and it only being four pounds on the scales.
00:02:34
Speaker
So like that's the kind of stuff we're talking about here. Okay. It can completely change your body. The science behind it, research shows that body recomposition is especially
Factors Affecting Scale Fluctuations: Water Retention
00:02:45
Speaker
achievable. It's most achievable to do this if you're a beginner to resistance training. So if you've never really lifted weights before you start lifting weights and you're in a calorie deficit and the scales are not moving, I can promise you, you're losing body fat and you're gaining a bit of muscle. Go with it, enjoy it while you can. Those who are returning to training after a break.
00:03:05
Speaker
And then individuals in a moderate calorie deficit with adequate protein. And this is why eating enough protein is so, so, so important because you need, if you're in a calorie deficit and you're not eating enough protein, you could just be no age or muscle tissue and we don't want that. So that ah keeping the protein high is super, super important. In relation to like a pound of muscle versus a pound of fat, muscle is 18% more dense than fat. So it's the same weight, but it takes up less space on the body and it's going to create that leaner, more toned appearance. So a pound of muscle is going to look much smaller on the body than a pound of fat. Likewise, 14 pounds of muscle is going to look a hell of a lot tinier on the body than 14 pounds of fat.
Hormonal Influences on Weight
00:03:49
Speaker
Another reason why the scales not be moving would be water retention. And I think some of you think when I say, oh, you're holding on to water or water retention, you think I'm just making it up to make you feel better. I'm not. I promise you, you may retain water for numerous reasons. And what I want you to remember is if you're holding on to water, it's not fat. Water retention is not fat gain. OK, so here are some of the reasons why your body might be holding on to excess water. OK, sodium.
00:04:17
Speaker
which is basically salt. High sodium meals cause kidneys to retain water to maintain proper balance. Okay. A single high sodium meal can increase the scale weight by two to four pounds temporarily. So you could have a salty dinner.
00:04:34
Speaker
And you could be up four pounds on the scales the next day. And it's not because the dinner was high in calories or you ate too much or you had too many carbohydrates or something like that. Salt is drawing water, okay? Drink loads of water the next day.
00:04:46
Speaker
Get out for a walk. Promise you the scales will be down the next day as long as you stick to your calories. so That's a huge one. And if things can be... salty that you wouldn't even think would be salty as well. So definitely don't, if you see a huge spike in the scales, it's always because of water retention. It's never because you don't gain four pounds of body fat overnight. It just doesn't happen. Another reason why you could be holding onto water is stress. So elevated cortisol from stress triggers water retention throughout the body. So stress could be major life changes. It could be relationship issues. It could be financial problems. It could be
00:05:20
Speaker
ongoing stressful life of having small kids or having teenagers or having a full-time job that you don't really like there's loads of reasons that could be causing stress when you're stressed your cortisol which is your stress hormone is going to be elevated and when your cortisol is elevated you will retain water so that is one major reason and then let's be fair most of us go around walking around like big stress heads most of the time and we don't even realize it Another one then is the joyous menstruation. So hormonal fluctuations during your menstrual cycle cause water retention and bloating, particularly in the luteal phase, which is just the the week or two coming up to your period. And weight can fluctuate two to
Impact of Creatine on Scale Weight
00:06:00
Speaker
five pounds. You could be holding on to five pounds of water before your period.
00:06:04
Speaker
So please calm down. It's not body fat. Stick with the process. Another reason are menopausal hormones. So fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone during perimenopause and menopause can affect fluid balance in the body and it can cause water retention.
00:06:20
Speaker
The problem with, at least with the menstrual water retention, you can kind of notice the patterns. Like I still have a regular cycle. I notice I get bloated coming up to my period that week before, but I also get bloated mid cycle around ovulation. And I just know it's part of it.
00:06:35
Speaker
And I know it's water and That's the joys of being a woman. As you get to perimenopause and menopause, it's a little bit more unpredictable, which can feel frustrating, which is a reason why you really shouldn't be using the scale as your sole measure of progress because it is so destroying. No pun intended there, but it is. It's so destroying unnecessarily so because you can be making fantastic progress. This woman that I was speaking about dropping from a size 16 to a size 12, four pounds on the scales perimenopause.
00:07:04
Speaker
OK, so like let's just you that that's myth that you can't drop body fat when you're in menopause is bullshit. You can drop fat. The scales can be slow because of this water retention that is really unpredictable.
00:07:18
Speaker
Another reason why scales might not be moving is creatine. So creatine supplementation increases water storage in the muscle cells by two to four pounds. This basically, yeah, it is water in the cells that supports muscle performance.
The Pitfalls of Solely Relying on Medications
00:07:33
Speaker
It's not bloating. So it's not a case that it's bloating you. It's actually in the cells. It shows a little bit on the scale. So if you start taking creatine,
00:07:40
Speaker
Your weight might go up a little bit, but then it'll stabilize. And as you continue to lose body fat, your weight will come down over time. It's not body fat and it's not bloating. So it's definitely not a reason to not take creatine.
00:07:53
Speaker
Very good for you. Highly recommend for creatine for muscle cell health, but also for cognitive health. All females should be taking it. And it's well affordable, creatine monohydrate, little teeny tiny scoop once a day, and it will do your body wonders and well worth the pound or two.
00:08:12
Speaker
Anyway, that was a side note. Another reason why you might be retaining water could be due to medications, blood pressure medications, and diabetes medications, you know, any kind of medication that you're on, even just antibiotics, steroids, obviously, as well, not bodybuilder steroids. I mean, you know, if you're a chest infection and you've got steroids. bodybuilder steroids, I presume are going to make you gain weight too. But my point is with these medications, it's not fat gain. Even if you're seeing visible bloating, remember it's not body fat. Okay. And it's temporary. It will, everything will settle as everything settles. And it is never a reason to not take the medication that you need. And yeah, as I said, it is not body fat. and So the main reasons are water retention for all those different reasons and body recovery.
00:08:59
Speaker
training, you're gaining a bit of muscle angel lose and losing body fat at the same time. And also like when it comes to like the clients that I work with, I get everyone in a very slight calorie deficit because you want to be able to actually stick to it long-term as you've heard me talk about before. You want to be able to stick to it long-term. So it's going to take time. So a lot of this is patience as well. It's like, you're not going to be dropping four pounds a week.
00:09:22
Speaker
It's not sustainable. Have you ever done a diet where you've dropped four pounds a week? a lot of people will have. How did that go for you? Yeah, probably not that well. You're probably ended up back to square one, if not worse.
00:09:34
Speaker
So there's a reason why there is no quick fix for this. This needs to be done slow and steady. Like it really, really does. And I don't want to go down a dark hole today. I'll do another another episode on it soon. I prefer to interview an expert on this before I really talk massively on this. But even with weight loss injections, OK, if you are taking a Zempic or Manjaro or whatever,
00:09:56
Speaker
and you are losing body fat. You're losing weight. As you're rapidly losing weight, if you don't put the healthy lifestyle things in place with it, you will be losing muscle tissue. You will be losing bone density. You'll be losing all of that along with body fat, which is not a good thing for your metabolic health, for your long-term health. for your health in general, I am not anti-weight loss medication. I'm not. Because I think everything has its place and it depends on the person, it depends on the circumstances. But what I will say is if you are someone who is taking Ozempic or Manjaro, you still need to lift
Alternative Indicators of Fat Loss
00:10:29
Speaker
weights. You need to do it more so than if you weren't.
00:10:31
Speaker
You still need to eat a high protein diet more so than if you weren't taking this medication. It's just super, super important to say That if you are not taking weight loss medication, but you're thinking about it and you're losing body fat in the slow and steady manner, you don't need it.
00:10:50
Speaker
You don't need it. There are people who do need us you If you are making progress, you don't need us And if you're able to stick to your habits and most people don't need it, that's what I'll say. And obviously it very, very much depends on the person, but whether you're taking it, whether you're not taking it, you still got to lift weights. You still got to eat healthy, healthy, balanced diet, and you still got to eat enough protein or your health will catch up when you still.
00:11:18
Speaker
So that's why with all of these reasons, with the scales being super slow, that it's really, really important to use other measurements of progress than just the scales. Because when you step on the scales, you are weighing absolutely everything inside you.
00:11:34
Speaker
You are weighing the size of your head, your brain, your bones, your skin. You're weighing your muscles, your organs. You're weighing your body fat as well. You're weighing the food that's in your stomach. You're weighing the poo that you haven't done yet. You're weighing everything.
00:11:52
Speaker
Yet when you see a spike in the scales or you don't see any movement in the scales, you're oh, I've gained body fat. I haven't lost any body fat. What about all the other things that are inside you that aren't body fat? They all count too. And that's what the scales does. It measures all of it.
00:12:06
Speaker
So keep that in mind, okay? But what... Can't lie. There are lots of different measurements
The Jeans Challenge: A Fun Progress Tracker
00:12:15
Speaker
of progress. Okay. youre Using them together with each other is ideal. Okay. So body measurements using a measuring tape, chest, waist, hips, thighs, arms. You can take measurements once a week, once a month, whatever suits you. Just make sure you're measuring the same part of the body each time. Otherwise it'll be really inconsistent and you won't know whether you're making progress or not. So just keep an eye on that. Like, you know, if you're measuring around your waist, do it across your belly button so you know that that's the same place in your waist or whatever. I'd say use centimetres rather than inches. You'll see, because centimetres are smaller, so you'll see numbers coming down quicker that way. Like body measurements, I'll take them or leave them. I prefer them to the scales, but there are loads of other ways that I much prefer. So next one would be progress photos. So I know you'll have seen me share progress photos on my page. Obviously, the clients that I do share, I have their permission. We always keep it super anonymous because I think it's very personal. It doesn't matter if you don't ever have to share your progress photos with anyone.
00:13:10
Speaker
But take them as soon as you are starting on this fat loss journey, take your progress photos. You will be so glad of them in a week or two weeks because looking at your photos side by side, regardless of what the scale said, you will be able to see the physical changes in your body.
True Health Indicators Beyond the Scale
00:13:26
Speaker
Do it at the same time every day, wear the same bra knickers or brand shorts and use the same lighting and do a front, a side and a back photo. The best way to do this if you have someone to just take them for you. If you are doing this on your own and you don't want anyone to take it for you, what I do when I'm taking progress photos is I pop my phone up on a shelf.
00:13:46
Speaker
I put it on selfie mode and I put it on video and it's on the shelf on selfie mode. But I press play to the video and I stand in the frame. I make sure my head to feet are in the frame of the video and I hold still for five seconds to the front. Then I turn and I hold still for five seconds to the side, five seconds to the back, five seconds to the other side, back to the front. And then I stopped the video and then I go back and I paused the video at each section and I screenshot the photos. And that's the best way to do progress photos.
00:14:16
Speaker
I would say do progress photos once a week, every second week or every month, whatever you prefer. Some people like to do them weekly to keep themselves motivated. Some people prefer to just get immersed themselves in the process and check in with themselves at the start of every month. Speaking of the start of every month, but the the measure progress I'm going to talk about now is my all-time favorite.
00:14:37
Speaker
And we do this at the start of every month in Nourish Her Coaching, and it is the Jeans Challenge. So there is nothing... that is going to be as honest to you than a really stiff, tight pair of jeans. Most of us have a pair of jeans or trousers or shorts or something that used to fit and don't fit anymore. Maybe they're jeans that don't go up anymore. Maybe they don't go over your bum anymore. Maybe they do go up, but they don't close. Or maybe they do close, but they feel really uncomfortable. Or maybe they fit you perfectly right now.
00:15:10
Speaker
But if you try them on at the start of every single month,
00:15:15
Speaker
And if a pair of jeans that used to not close on you are suddenly closing on you, then you have lost body fat. The jeans don't lie. It's just, there's no other way around it. It is the most fulfilling feeling, the joy that we get at the start of each month and when people share their jeans progress photos. And by all means, if you're listening to this and you're doing this yourself,
00:15:35
Speaker
please do send it to me in the DMs. And I'd love to be like, Kate, i've working away in the background. Look at my jeans challenge progress. I will never share anyone's photos without their permission. So do not worry. Like you can always send it to me in a DM. Just be like, look, look at the progress I've made. And I always love hearing about people working away in the background, making progress. So do the jeans challenge, take the photo, even if you're not going to share it with me or whatever, it just take the photo so that you have it. And eventually then you might need to get a new pair of jeans. You might need to purposely buy a pair of jeans too small. to keep going with this. Okay.
00:16:05
Speaker
It really is the most fulfilling way and the most accurate way to really see the difference in fat loss. And again, let me just redirect you back to that lady, size 16 down to size 12, four pounds on the scales.
00:16:18
Speaker
Okay. Another measure of progress is how do you feel? And this isn't one again, that I'm saying just to try and make you feel better. You know, what are your energy levels? Like, how is your mood?
00:16:31
Speaker
How confident are you feeling? Like these are all huge. Think about your fitness levels, your endurance, your stamina, your recovery. Are you able to now walk up the stairs easier than you used to? Are you able to run a little bit? Have you just completed a race and felt so much easier? Are you able to play with your kids or your grandkids and have the energy to do so? Can you go for a daily walk and really enjoy it? It doesn't feel like a struggle anymore. It doesn't matter what level you're at.
Is Daily Weighing Beneficial?
00:16:59
Speaker
As long as you are noticing a difference from where you started to where you are now in how you feel and in your fitness levels. Same with your strength. Are you getting stronger? Are you able for heavier weights now?
00:17:10
Speaker
Are the amount of reps that you were doing at that weight now starting to feel easier? Do you need to think about progressive overload and adding some more reps or adding a bit more weight or slowing things down so you can progress further? These are all hugely empowering things too. And your medical markers. So blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, like most of us over the age of 35, if ish 40, we tend to go and get our bloods done once a year. If you don't, please do. Okay. Don't be afraid of the doctor. Go get your bloods done once a year. It's really important. We've got to keep on top of our health. We can do all the preventative things, but we still need to go for our yearly checkups. I go every year. so
00:17:48
Speaker
Has your blood pressure come down? Or even like, even if you haven't been to the doctor yet, what about your resting heart rate? Has that come down? Your blood pressure when you go to the doctor, like, did you have high blood pressure? Has it come down massively? We have had women in the coaching service. I've had one lady that I worked with directly. And when she came to me, she was pre-diabetic and the doctor was like, you need to change your lifestyle. And she got in contact with me, started working with me. And she just fell in love with the process. She really just gave herself the time. She really just focused on steps and nutrition.
00:18:23
Speaker
And it was nothing super restrictive. She got to include things she enjoyed just over time. I don't know, was it six months or a year? No, I think it was about six months later she went back for her checkup. And she'd reversed it. She was no longer pre-diabetic.
00:18:37
Speaker
We had another lady in the coaching service very, very recently. A few weeks ago, she put into our group chat that she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, decided to change her life, joined us.
00:18:49
Speaker
And she is no longer diabetic. So, yeah like I'm using diabetes as an example, you don't have to have a diagnosis of anything, but you could be like working magic inside your body.
00:19:03
Speaker
You could be healing from diseases that were only just developing that you didn't even know about. And you're so busy stressing and crying over the numbers on the scales. look at the bigger picture, what's actually important, honest to God, why would you be crying and feeling like a failure and unhappy and not enjoying the process because of a number when all of these wonderful things are happening inside you? And if you actually felt grateful for these improvements in how you feel and how much better your clothes are feeling, how much fitter you're getting and you felt joy in that.
00:19:35
Speaker
it would make you want to continue to do it, which would continue to improve all of these markers. And ironically, scales will come down eventually. You know what i mean? So the numbers on the scale will follow suit eventually. You know if you've got weight to lose, you will lose weight. Stop fixating on it so much that you're taking the joy out of everything else.
00:19:56
Speaker
What I'll say is if you do use the scales, which is totally fine, weigh every single day. And the reason why I say this is the weighing every single day is to give you data. It is to learn how to detach emotionally from the scales and to give you data. Now, personally, I wish that no one would ever weigh themselves ever again, I'm being quite honest. but The only reason why in my videos that I actually weigh myself is to show people the ups and downs, to show people the stubbornness of it, to show people what a healthy weight looks like for me, which is, you know, like people are often quite shocked at how heavy I weigh.
00:20:29
Speaker
At the minute, I'm sitting at about 146 pounds and i'm five foot six. But I have a decent amount of muscle on my for frame. i like to eat food to fuel myself, to be healthy and to be strong.
00:20:41
Speaker
Super important and to be a good example for my kids. So and I like to think that I don't have too much body fat in my body. I have a normal person amount of body fat my body and I have a good amount of muscle mass.
Setting Realistic Health Goals
00:20:53
Speaker
My point here, the scales weigh every single day or not at all.
00:20:57
Speaker
Okay. And the reason is daily weighing reduces that emotional attachment to the single numbers and provides accurate trend data. Okay.
00:21:08
Speaker
it's going to like the way with regardless, your weight is going to go up and down. It's going to go up and down over time. It'll go up and down in a downward direction. You get can look by weighing every day. You can look at the weekly average and monthly trends rather than looking at daily fluctuations. You'll start to notice patterns as well.
00:21:26
Speaker
And it'd be interesting. You'd be like, oh after I had that, my weight spiked. Oh, I had a really bad night's sleep. My weight spiked. You know, oh, it's this time of my month. my weight spiked. You start to notice the patterns and then it doesn't become as big a deal.
00:21:40
Speaker
What I'll say to you as well about the scales is it's important to remember, okay, so if you are currently in a calorie deficit, so I'm talking to people who are looking to lose body fat. If you are tracking your calories accurately, if you are tracking your calories consistently, if you are moving your body every day,
00:22:01
Speaker
And if your other markers of progress are improving, like your measurements, your photos, your medical markers, your energy, your fitness, your strength, if all of those are improving, your weight will come down eventually if there is weight to lose. Now, this is another issue. OK, so if you have body weight to lose, it will come down.
00:22:21
Speaker
OK, just calm down a little bit. But I often encounter women who are already at a very healthy weight and they are looking to get to a little bit of an unrealistic goal, an unsustainable goal.
00:22:37
Speaker
And when I encounter that, I'm like, I don't do that. I don't do that because at the end of the day my coaching, the underlying value in my coaching is health. yeah I want you to feel good. I want you to look good, but I want you to be healthy because that is the foundation of it all. It's really, really important to set the right goals. Make sure your goal is healthy.
00:22:57
Speaker
So goals should support your overall health, not compromise it. So extreme calorie restriction, excessive exercise or unrealistic timelines can harm your metabolism, your hormones and your relationship with food. So trying to drop weight super quickly.
00:23:13
Speaker
really reducing what you're eating and then exercising to burn calories. This is all super, super harmful, not just to the relationship of food where you can develop disordered eating or eating disorders, but really damage your hormonal health, really damage your metabolism and make it really impossible for you to actually lose body fat on a sustainable amount of calories. It's the last thing you want to do because it's extremely hard to get out of that hole.
00:23:36
Speaker
Not impossible. I help people get out of that hole, by the way. So your goal should also be realistic. Set goals based on your lifestyle, genetics and starting point. OK, understand that if you only have a few pounds to lose, it's going to take longer than someone who has a few stone to lose. Like let's take five pounds, for example. If you only have a few pounds to lose and you're trying to lose five pounds, that's going to take longer than if you have a few stone to lose and you want to lose five pounds.
00:24:02
Speaker
You'll lose that quicker. earlier on in your journey. Okay. So that's really important to remember. And in relation to lifestyle and personality, really. So like I always use the example of myself and one of my coaches, Lindsay, my head coach, Lindsay, when she wants to lose body fat, gets really locked in, gets really focused. And she just ticks all her boxes, stays super consistent and gets it done.
00:24:24
Speaker
And then comes back to maintenance and she's there. When I want to lose body fat, like, cause we actually have a team photo shoot in April. And so we're kind of just doing a little tidy up, losing a little body fat. And when it comes for me, I need a long time to lose a few pounds because I am not willing to trade my lifestyle for my goals. So my lifestyle is a very healthy, balanced lifestyle, but I'm not willing to get extreme. I'm not willing to not meet my mum for a coffee. I'm not willing to not go out with the girls for dinner if something's being organised. I'm not willing to sacrifice those memories.
00:25:00
Speaker
I prefer to have as much time as I need and, you know, do it slow and steady because then you get to enjoy life. And then when you actually get to your goal, you maintain it so much easier because it's actually just your life with a little bit more balance and a little bit more structure.
00:25:16
Speaker
So, yeah, realistic goals. So don't be like, I got to lose a stone in eight weeks. Like that's really hard to do and not healthy. So just...
00:25:27
Speaker
Calm down. Take your time. Be patient. I know it's easier said and done, but it needs to be sustainable. Can you and maintain this approach for months or years?
Recap: Comprehensive Progress Tracking
00:25:35
Speaker
So is your goal sustainable? Quick fixes, extreme restrictions lead to rebound weight gain. I know so many of you listening know this. If you've done a juice diet, if you've done a super low calorie diet, you might lose weight. You can't keep it. And then you rebound. You gain it all back and usually more. OK, focus on building habits that you can maintain forever. What i say to my clients when they start.
00:25:58
Speaker
don't put something in place to lose body fat that you're not willing to do forever. The only thing that doesn't have to be forever is the tracking of calories. That's a really great skill to help you reach your goal. And after you get to maintenance, if you need it, well worth doing so that you can learn about how you eat and get the right balance of your macronutrients and your micronutrients are super important.
00:26:15
Speaker
But the tracking calories doesn't have to be forever. But you see the types of food that you eat, the amount of protein that you eat, amount of water that you drink, the amount of sleep that you get, the amount of steps that you usually average, the amount of times you get yourself to the gym.
00:26:28
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All of those things need to stay in place. So the great thing is there's no one size fits all. There's lots of different ways to skin a cat. And it's about finding it a journey and a routine that works for you.
00:26:42
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There's no, like there really is the right healthy lifestyle for everyone. And that's exciting. We should be excited about that. Okay. So I just want to do a little recap before we finish up.
00:26:54
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The scale does not tell the full story of your progress. That is the moral of the story. Body recomposition, remember, means fat loss without weight loss. Okay, so that you're losing body fat, weight might not be moving, but that doesn't mean you're not losing body fat. Water retention can mask fat loss and it's not fat gain. Water retention is not the same. Use multiple progress markers for a
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00:27:16
Speaker
complete picture. So we're not just using the scales. We're using, as we said, photos, measurements, genes, whatever.
00:27:22
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If you're using a scales, weigh daily, not emotionally. You're using it for data or else don't weigh it all. And when it comes to your goals, make sure they are healthy, realistic and sustainable.
00:27:37
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I hope that was really helpful for you. I know that that seems like a lot to take in. But do try and you can do this. It is so, so possible.
00:27:48
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And if you do feel like you need some extra support around this weight loss, around this, so I don't like the word weight loss, this fat loss journey that you are on, and do reach out. My Nourish Her coaching is we take in clients every month, usually around the start of the month. And so whenever you're listening to this, whether you're listening to it in real time or further in the future, if you go website,
00:28:12
Speaker
Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. I'm at Kate Hamilton Health. In the show notes below, I will link the coaching information. You can check out when our next intake is in this podcast, in this episode, but in any of the episodes, this is what we do. We do this at a much more personal level with you and we can support you in reaching your goals. Thank you so much for listening. As always,
00:28:36
Speaker
If you enjoyed the episode, please do share it with your friends, share it in your WhatsApp groups, share it on your stories. If you are, tag me at Kate Hamilton Health. Could you please subscribe to the podcast? It makes such a difference. All of those little things to help grow the podcast. And I thank you so much for being here and listening. And I will talk to you all on the next episode.