I Eat Healthy and Workout: Why Isn't My Weight Dropping?

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. It takes up significantly less space in the body, muscle. And as you engage in strength training, and as you're focusing on building muscle, you might lose fat while also gaining muscle mass.

00:37And this can lead to a change in your overall body composition that you want to see without any significant change in your overall total body weight. What is going on, you guys? Yo, yo, yo. Hello. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikki Stott, co-founder of Warrior Babe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident.

01:12I am your host, Nikki Stott. And welcome to today's episode, episode 139. Where in today's episode, I am going to share with you why the scale may not move as much as you want, hope, or expect to for several reasons. And strength training playing a crucial role in this overall arching phenomenon of why the scale isn't moving as much as you want, right?

01:42And for preface to what I'm going to communicate with you guys here in this episode is strength training, obviously. But like strength training and doing it the right way and consistently for weeks and months on end. And why you can expect the scale to not move as much as you would expect. So what I mean by that is like I know a lot of you women listening that maybe you've dabbled in strength training. You've been doing it for five years, 10 years, 12 years, however long, right? You've incorporated in some way or another into your fitness regime.

02:17But maybe you've also done F45 or you've done boot camps or you've done running or, I don't know, X, Y, and Z along your journey, okay? But like maybe now I'm speaking also to Warrior Babes because our foundations and fundamental like methodologies within Warrior Babes strength training. We have every woman incorporate strength training. And kind of wipe out anything that I just mentioned like boot camps at 45 or Orange Theory because we know the overarching goal of what women want is to be more toned, to build more muscle.

02:49So the way you're going to do that is through strength training protocols. So what I'm saying is maybe this is your first time that you are doing strength training consistently and consecutively over weeks and months and years. And you would expect the scale to move more, however, it's not. And so I want to dive into several reasons why it's not. But I also want to touch on really quickly is something like to just like to paint examples. We have, we share our transformations that our coaches make inside of our company-wide Slack channel.

03:24We call it the client wins area. And coaches drop in pictures before and afters into this channel all of the time. Like there's multiple on a daily basis and it's so cool to see. And there's so many different, like vast different transformations and so many uniquely different transformations. But the ones that I love to see because it's just like, you know, I love to see them all. But the ones I really like to see is when you can see the differences in the pictures. But there's maybe been like a one to two pound difference in weight.

03:55Or like, you know, women are celebrating the fact that they're losing inches, but the scale is kind of staying the same. So I talked about this so many times on the podcast previously. I think there was a really good episode that I did back in December. And recently too, as to why the scale may not be fluctuating. But the one back in December, I use a lot of analogies. So if like you are someone of the brain that likes to see things in pictures and images, as I am, I love analogies. That's a great episode somewhere back in December.

04:27But for purposes of this, like I've talked about this so many times again, but I want to like just embed in your guys' brains and your minds that while you are going on the journey of strength training, the overarching measure of your progress is not going to come by the number on the scale. The way it's going to come is measurements and first and foremost, seeing your progress pictures, like taking the progress pictures.

04:57I know some of you guys start out your journeys never wanting to see a picture of yourself. And I totally hear you and your feelings are valid there, but there's a whole reason why you're starting this journey. And you want to be able to like capture your whole journey in story form. And the best way to tell the story form is through pictures, especially here when you're trying to change your body composition. Because the scale is not going to tell you the full story. The scale is only telling you how heavy you are in relation to how much bone mass you have, skeletal mass you have, how much your organs weigh, how much food you ate that day, like all of the things.

05:37It's just literally telling you a measure of how much you, how heavy you are, not the full encompassment of what you're made up of. Okay, so what I really want to paint the picture is, you know, those things, but also as you're on your journey and your strength training and you're incorporating that more consistently than you've ever done before, that scale is not going to be your number one measure of progress. Okay, and here are several reasons why.

06:08First and foremost, and I've talked about this so many times on the podcast before, but it's the difference between weight loss and fat loss. Okay, so really quick, just to touch on it again, weight loss is like, like you're losing weight off your body. But like all of like all of the things that when you lose weight get involved in that muscle mass gets involved in that when you lose weight, you're losing muscle mass. Your organ sizes get smaller, like your body gets just smaller, should I say, but there's not, you can still look like and end up looking like a skinnier, fatter version of yourself, right?

06:46You get to that maybe skinny fat arena. Whereas fat loss is like in weight loss, you're not preserving muscle mass. You're using the muscle mass as a part of losing the weight. Fat loss is you are eating enough of the right macronutrients and micronutrients in your diet to preserve that lean muscle mass that you have or are working on building to your body. And you're decreasing the body fat around it. That's what creates like that athletic, toned, beautiful physique, right?

07:20These are vastly two different arenas. And I think I talked about weight loss and fat loss like early, early, early, I think in one of the first like 20 episodes of the podcast. So if you want to dive into hearing me dive deeper into that concept, definitely go and check out that podcast. But one of the also things that kind of breaks and stems from that overall concept is how you probably heard muscle and fat weigh the same, right? If you go and Google five pounds of muscle and five pounds of fat, they weigh the same.

07:54However, muscle is much denser and smaller than fat, meaning that it takes up significantly less space in the body. Muscle. Muscle takes up significantly less space in the body. And as you engage in strength training and as you're focusing on building muscle, you might lose fat while also gaining muscle mass. And this can lead to a change in your overall, the body composition that you want to see without any significant change in your overall total body weight.

08:31And this is because a pound of muscle will be much smaller in volume, as I just said, compared to a pound of fat. I think of like, and I said this in the podcast in December, I think of muscles, you guys can think of it like this, the moms that are listening, to being like the books in your kids' book bags, right? They're small, they're dense, they're heavy, that's muscle. Whereas fat is like your kid's favorite teddy bear.

09:04It's fluffy, it's voluminous, and it's much bigger when you're setting it next to a stack of books, okay? And that's because a pound of muscle is smaller, denser, and takes up significantly less space and smaller in volume compared to that pound of fat that we're talking about, okay? And as you lose fat and you gain more muscle, your body composition changes and you may reduce in the overall size and become even leaner, even if your total body weight remains the same or decreases only like slightly, right?

09:40And that's what I'm saying to like the testimonials I was sharing with you a couple minutes ago is like you put these two side-by-sides together of the same individual, and you can see that they're losing fat, they're gaining muscle or preserving their muscle tone, and their body composition is changing, and they're reducing in size and they're becoming leaner, but their overall body weight hasn't really significantly changed. And so like I just want to pin that right there because think about how many of you guys may be on your journey

10:10and like you're not paying attention to the photos because the way you look, and you're only solely relying on what the scale is telling you, you are missing so much of your story. You're letting that number define you when you're probably putting in all this hard work and you're doing it the right way, but like you're not paying attention to the real North Star of progress, which is your progress photos. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause?

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11:15Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. And so like just think about that, like wrap your head around that because as you're gaining muscle and you're losing body fat, your body composition is going to change. But because of the density of muscle and it being smaller and takes up significantly less space in the body,

11:48your body is changing and your body composition is changing in the way that you want it to. But you're so attached to the measure of progress that you've probably been attached to your whole life. And so you're relying on that to tell you, you know, the progress that you're making. But it's not going to because you're kind of like you're you're what's the word I'm looking for? It's like you're gaining more dense muscle. So you're like outweighing the the the weight to go down on the scale. Does that make sense? Like I think that never really formulated it or articulated it that way.

12:22But like you're you're counter. I don't want to say you're counteracting it because you want that to happen. But like you're you're gaining more densely muscle. So like that number, like, for example, me, right? OK, I started my journey at 140 pounds. I now weigh 150 pounds. So I'm like 10 pounds heavier. But my body is drastically different because and smaller and leaner because I put my muscle mass on. But my previous 140 was like skinny fat because I just focus on losing weight.

12:53So if I like allowed the scale to defy me and my progress, I probably would have given up a long time ago. Because I really didn't see the scale move that much when I first started my journey because I was gaining more muscle. OK, so just like remember that. Remember that, please, as you are entering in the world of strength training, because like entering in the world of strength training is so freaking badass. It's so freaking awesome. Like sidetrack and side note.

13:25But I think it's important to say this here because strength training. It's challenging, but rewarding at the same time. Like you're you're you're stimulating your body to be challenged every single time you go in and do a workout. And you're you're you're you're then with the results that come from doing that within your body is like think like muscle on a human on a female body is an embodiment of strength of dedication of perseverance of determination of of growing and evolving.

13:58And like someone you can just look at somebody and like if you look at somebody. Tony Robbins said this and you can just like tell how they live their life. You look at a woman with muscle. It's like, damn, that that woman works hard. Right. So think about like that because. And then like bringing it back in. Continue on your strength training journey. And like don't let the scale get in the way is what I'm trying to say. OK, because you're going to probably, if not way, slightly the same or more like me in my case.

14:33And you're solely attached on the scale. It's just going to ruin your overall like journey, essentially, to gaining to getting to the results that you want to have. OK, so that was one of the main things I wanted to talk about. But another reason why when you're starting to incorporate strength training, why the scale may not move as expected is due to water retention. Like and that's a common and natural response when you're engaging in strength training and you're doing strength training exercises and routines.

15:05And understanding this process can help manage can really help manage expectations regarding the weight changes, the physical changes that you're seeing. So think about it like this. When you engage in strength training, especially in like high intensity workouts or incorporating new exercises. You are causing microscopic tears to occur in those muscle fibers. So you being you just consistently and consecutively and adhering to a strength training routine.

15:37And like every single time you go in to do this or you're incorporating new exercises, you are. I always say you're breaking down the muscle in the gym and you're building up that muscle, repairing that muscle afterwards through what you eat, how much you drink water and how you how well you sleep at night. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons.

16:07And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages, too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show. This is a normal, normal part of the muscle building process. However, in response, the body initiates inflammation and these healing processes to repair those damaged tissues and not damaged in a good way. You are breaking down the fibers of the muscle. You're causing those tears. And so in response, the body gets a little bit inflamed because it's starting the healing process to build back those tissues and build back those muscles.

16:43And part of this inflammatory response involves fluid acclimation, which can affect areas of the body. So think about it like this. Like you're doing a massive leg day. OK, and you ever get do a leg day and then you step on the scale the next day and it's slightly up. It's because you just worked one of the biggest muscles of the body. And so your body is starting to to aid in the recovery process. And it's doing all these things in which I'm saying it's pulling in fluids, pulling in water to those cells.

17:16And it's temporarily causing water retention to start an aid in the healing process of repairing that damaged tissue and building back the muscle. So the water retention that's happening here and the retained water is inside the muscles. It's helping. It's literally transporting. Think about like this. All the nutrients necessary for repair to into this muscle to for recovery. So the water is pushing into these into these tissues into the muscle and bringing in nutrients and bringing in fluids and it's causing this to all to recover.

17:54And this can lead to increases in your weight slightly temporarily and a slightly swollen appearance. OK, but I need you to keep in mind that this is so freaking important when you are trying to build stronger muscles. So when you maybe have had a killer leg workout or a killer back day and the next morning you're taking progress photos, just keep in the back of your mind.

18:26And then you're stepping on the scale maybe to weigh in. This is why, you guys, I'm just going to plug this here right now that, you know, starting out in a journey. And I've talked about this before, the different levels of which you will weigh yourself using the scale. So once you can get to the point of understanding it's just a tool and a resource, this will make sense. But, you know, starting out, you're weighing yourself on a on a weekly basis, one day a week. However, that one time that you weigh in, dude, given what you did the day before, say you did a leg day, do that one day that you weigh in.

18:58You could be naturally higher on the scale, given that leg day, given your body holding on to a little bit more water retention. And also this next point I'm going to talk about, which is glycogen storage. I've talked about this before, but for every single, you know, carb that breaks down the glycogen that then binds into the liver and it's stored, it holds on to water. Okay, so let's say you had a, I don't know, a heavy, you finished, you had carbs at the end of the night. And then you're weighing yourself the next day. You're probably going to see the scale go up. And then you're only using that one piece of measuring aspects in your week, seeing that number.

19:32And then next week, you know, maybe you, you had a later workout. And so then the next time you weigh in the next day, you see the scale go down. You're like a freaking later. You're like, yes, I'm dropping weight. But then the next week, you weigh in the day after a back day. And again, like all this water information. So it's going back up. You see how this like weekly, it's good at the beginning when you're starting a journey. However, these things can happen. So you need to understand what I'm saying here. Because if you are attached to the scale, then you're allowing your, your mental to, to see that you're not losing weight.

20:14However, it's because you're weighing in one day and maybe you had a killer back day, like I said. And it's your holding retention. So you're up. And then maybe the next week, you had a softer like recovery day the day before. So you actually dropped weight. But then the following week, you had a killer leg day. And then you're weighing in the next day and it's slightly spiked from what I'm talking about with holding on to retention, water retention. And then the following week, maybe you have a killer leg day and you weigh in again. Nothing's changed. You see how that freaking scale could really make you spiral because all of a sudden nothing's happening. I'm not making any progress.

20:45Guys, I see this all of the freaking time, especially with the clients inside of Warrior Bay. They're like, I haven't lost any weight. Well, have you taken pictures? And is there a significant change in the pictures? Because I guarantee you there is, even though your weight is going like this, up, down, up, down. The one thing that is never linear is your weight loss. It is always caused with spikes. What can be linear is your fat loss and getting an idea of your fat percentage and seeing that drop. So, but what I wanted to rope back in there really quick is what clients that have been with Warrior Bay maybe for years, like three, four years, right?

21:20They understand the scale as a tool. They understand everything we're talking about here and sharing this podcast. And so they actually weigh themselves daily so you can see the constant fluctuations of weight. And then you take the overall average of the seven days. And when you do that and you do that on weeks on end, you will see a nice little, it won't be a beautiful straight trend down, but it will be somewhat of a bouncy trend down, okay? If you have a lot of weight to lose, I need to put that in there. Because not a lot of people will have that if they're building more muscle.

21:52So keep that in mind too as well. Okay, so I just wanted to plug that in there. That helps a lot of you guys. I hope that also kind of paints a better picture of like, oh, I could be having a killer workout and it's causing me a whole lot of water retention. So I step on the scale tomorrow and this is why the weight's up. Just saying. So, okay, we talked about water retention. Another form of water retention is how glycogen is, so think about glycogen is like the form in which your body stores carbohydrates for energy, right?

22:25And so it stores it in the muscles and it stores it in the liver. And when you increase your carbohydrate intake, your body stores more glycogen to fuel your workouts. And for every single gram of glycogen stored into your body, approximately three grams of water are also stored in the body. So, after an intense workout, like I've been saying, or when you carb load, or when you have a cheat meal, or a treat meal, whatever you call it, and you may notice an increase in weight due to increased glycogen and associated water storage.

22:59This is not fat gain, my friends, but it is a natural and totally normal temporary fluctuation in body weight, which is related to energy storage. Okay, so just because you're eating carbs, it's not making you fat. Carbs get broke down, glycogen gets break down and stored in your body from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, which is then stored for energy.

23:32Glycogen is in the form that your body stores carbohydrates for energy. And for every single, which gets stored in your muscle, it gets stored in your liver. And as you're eating more carbs, this is why women get so afraid that they eat more carbs, because they think they're getting fat. No, you're not getting fat. Your body's just storing more glycogen, so you have more energy to power through your workouts. I think about it like this. I use this analogy in the podcast in December. Think about yourself as you as Super Mario, but like you're small Mario. And then you go and you eat carbs, and you're feeling it all up in your body.

24:07And then you go and hit a muscle power up or a mushroom. And all of a sudden, you're super big. And you have all of this energy. You can storm through everything. That is what carbs is doing for your body. It's giving you the energy that you need to fuel your workouts. It's not making you fat. But for every single gram of glycogen that is stored that comes from carbs, you're holding on to water. Just keep that in the back of your mind. It's not fat gain. It's just a natural temporary fluctuation in your body weight related to you storing more energy to crush your workouts.

24:40Okay, so really, those are the three main things I kind of wanted to talk about today. And I feel like this really encompassed. There's other aspects to why, you know, you may see, you may not see the scale move as you would want or expect. But understanding these three main things, I think, is the most important thing that you can understand. One being that the more muscle that you build to your body, as you gain more muscle, it takes up a smaller space than fat does.

25:22But it's way more dense than fat is. Think about the books. Muscle is more dense and leaner than fat is. Fat is like a teddy bear. It's like this voluminous little beautiful cute little teddy bear that you want to hug. That's fat. It's fluffy and muscle is more dense and compact. So as you gain more muscle, you're also decreasing body fat. But because muscle is a little bit more dense, the scale probably won't move that much.

25:54So just like remember that, okay? And then remember that as you are working out hard, as you are incorporating strength training more consistently and more constantly and you're a warrior babe, you're killing it with these strength training exercises three, four, five times a week. And so your body's pulling in more water. This is why it's so important to stay hydrated and to drink water like 100 to 128 ounces.

26:25I don't care about this half your body weight. And da, da, da, da, da, da, da. If you are an individual that is inside the gym crushing it with strength training, your body and you're sweating, you need to rehydrate your body from that sweat, but also to give your body and cells the necessary hydration protocol, essentially, to aid in these healing processes and recovery processes. So drink your water.

26:57Drink your water. And if you're like, Nikki, I can't drink water because it keeps me up all night. I've heard that so many freaking times. Stop drinking your water at like six o'clock at night. Drink it from the moment you wake up. First thing that you have in the morning before you have your coffee. Hydrate yourself and then caffeinate yourself. And then drink all throughout the day. Make alarms. Put notifications on your phone so that you're reminded to drink your water. And then stop at 6 p.m. And I guarantee you, you won't be peeing in the middle of the night. Okay? No excuses. I can't get around me anymore.

27:27And then, you know, every carb, man. Every carb that you eat is not making you fat. It's just being stored and then holding on to water to give you the appropriate energy resources that you need to go crush a killer freaking workout. Okay? So, that concludes everything that I want to share with you guys today in terms of why the scale won't move as expected. And how and why strength training plays a crucial role in the overarching phenomenon of things.

27:58So, please, if anything, don't let this scale dictate your progress as you move forward in your journey of changing your body composition, becoming a stronger, more confident version of yourself, building more muscle, and being able to keep up with your grandkids. Because you need that muscle to keep up with your grandkids and being able to run around and really add years to your life with you adding more muscle to your body, more skeletal muscle to your body. Muscle is an organ. It's an organ of longevity. So, don't let that freaking thing, that tool, that resource define your whole story.

28:36Because it's not telling you major, major, major aspects of your story. Okay? And take the progress pictures, please. Please, my friends. Take the pictures. Yes, they suck at first. But I'll tell you, if you keep going and you do it for six months, eight months, 12 months, two years, three years, and you see the after picture, be like, damn, I'm so glad I took that before picture. All right, guys. I love y'all. See you next time. Hey, guys. Real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident, do it alongside one of our 30-plus professional coaches.

29:17Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have. And all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. And to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now. Thank you.

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