Scale Not Budging!
Hey All: I have a 46 year old client who has been working hard for about 8 weeks. She looks and feels great, her blood pressure and RHR are down, her energy is up, and she’s wearing clothes she said she hasn’t worn in years. According to her she is 2 dress sizes down. But the scale won’t move! She’s bouncing between 204 and 200 for almost the entire time. I’ve played with her calories, her diet has improved (still not exactly where I’d like it) there are no thyroid issues….thoughts? My guess is I;m not getting the whole story about her food (though she’s pretty dedicated and committed) or someone in her household is fiddling with her scale settings. Ha! Seriously though…thoughts??
This is a good deal of information, but not really what I would ask for from you or the client. Have you considered a registered dietician referral? How many meals is the client eating? Are you advising post exercise nutirition? It has been fairly clearly documented that timing of meals and multiple meals are very important to weight loss. What about water? Is the client drinking enough water throughout the day? Not too much water, but enough to stay well hydrated and improve the feeling of fullness. Does the client eat emotionally? This is a very complex issue. Get more help of more education.
Were this client training with me, I would definitely take the same approach that LaRue is suggesting. I’m sitting in the gym right now, and I just had a young man come up to me and ask me to calculate his BMI for him. I did some measurements and provided him with the number, then went into my whole argument about how BMI can’t be relied upon as the only “number” in the numbers game, etc, etc. He left the gym feeling much better about himself after we correctly calculated his body fat!
I would focus on the progress that’s already taken place! At 8 weeks, it may be time to change the program up a little bit. If your client looks and feels great, ride that wave of success for as long as you can! Like LaRue said, the weight loss will come with time as long as she sticks to her training program.
I’m assuming that you have already given a rough estimate to her resting metabolic rate? Advise her to see a registered dietitian if she is able to. Educate her on the “3500 calories burned can be one pound lost” mantra. Have her complete food logs! Track intake of sodium, fat, carbs, protein, and calories at a minimum!
The responses are great. Dropping two dress sizes is probably a more important measure than changes on a scale, although I recognize that scale weight is an important consideration for your client.
In addition to all of the great suggestions already given, I encourage you to do a 5-site skinfold baseline: triceps, abdominal, thigh, subscapular, suprailiac. Look for changes in these measurements once a month to encourage your client to recogize that changes in body composition are the best measure of fat loss.
Take care.