Gravitational pull 

vs HOW you look

We've all been guilty of staring at the numbers on the scale and feeling bad about it. Sometimes, for good reason. Being overweight can mean being unhealthy for sure. 

But what if you aren't unhealthy and the standard which we still hold ourselves against is in fact outdated and inaccurate? I am not suggesting being overweight with a high body fat percentage should ever be considered healthy, no, but the term "overweight" needs looking at for sure. 

Most weight related health indicators still refer to BMI - body mass index - as the guide for health vs illness. Because yes, being overweight IS illness - no amount of "body confidence" is going to change that fact. That term is also widely misused; being confident in yourself is absolutely a good thing but please don't pretend poor lifestyle habits and subsequent health issues are ever a positive thing to promote. Much like a cancer patient refusing treatment because they are really confident it won't kill them and then suggesting others should do the same. And in fairness, it might not kill them; does that make it a good idea though?

Back to BMI; this takes into account height and mass (how much you weigh) - two numbers to define your state of health. Assuming you are the average human who does average things, then sure it's an indicator of health. You land somewhere along the scale between 18 and 25 for "health" and below or above for not health. So here's the bit which it doesn't take into account - what if you aren't the average of everything? 

Gravitational pull has been stressing people out since the scales were invented. Those numbers play on people's minds like nothing else. And as I said before, sometimes they should but there are a lot of cases where it shouldn't. In sports and fitness, where most of us know a little more about weight, food and health than the now considered "average person" and yet those same pesky numbers drive even those more-in-the-know humans to stress. Why? We know that exercise is important so we do that, we know that healthy food and quantities are important so we keep an eye on that, we mostly look like we have a healthy lifestyle (as in not visibly overweight) - so why on earth do we still care what the scales say? Because as per that now well-matured BMI index - some of us ARE overweight. 

Muscle weighs more than fat. The beginning and the end of the story. If you're jacked but vertically challenged - you are considered overweight. If you are lean with low body fat percentage and tall, you're considered to be underweight. In both cases, both individuals are more than likely much fitter and healthier than the general population, but numbers are numbers so we stress about them.

Solutions

I have no magic answer to this one and it's a topic which comes up a lot with my clients and gym members. Seeing their shape change, seeing muscle definition and a clear reduction in body fat is often almost forgotten if the scales haven't shifted "enough". Figuring out what enough is and the why behind it is often the starting point to fixing that. 

Weight and more importantly what it's made of, is at the end of the day a by-product of our lifestyle choices and the relationship we have with food and ourselves. Understanding that if what you see in the mirror looks fit and healthy, the number really has no bearing on your life whatsoever. If what you see in the mirror is needing work, then use that number only to make better choices for yourself. It is at the end of the day an indicator and an inanimate thing; there's no need to make it into a monster. 

Gravitational pull will always be there (and that's a good thing I promise), but if you focus on what the mass it's pulling is made of - we're all onto better things.