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Why To (Maybe) Stop Using A Scale

me on the left before i decided to stop using a scale and on the right is a smiling man who decided to stop using a scale and is shirtless and more muscular

The picture on the left was me somewhere in the winter of 2015/2016 and I weighed 225 pounds. The picture on the right is me in August of 2020 and I have no idea what I weigh. Here is a little about my personal weight gain and weight loss story, and my decision to stop using a scale.

I started CrossFit when I was 23 and weighed right at 170 lbs. At the start, I would weigh myself religiously. I had a little muscle mass, mostly from high-school sports, and working physical labor jobs. I could crush body weight movements, as well as anything cardio. But when any substantial weight was added to a workout I struggled. This was difficult for me to handle, I had always been physically capable and never really struggled with exercise. But, CrossFit has a special way of humbling anyone who participates.

I was obsessed with the scale

My eating habits didn’t help things. I have discussed this previously which you can find here. Intermittent fasting, along with a strict paleo diet, left me wiped out after my workouts and unable to gain any real strength. During this time, I had only gained about 5 lbs of muscle. So after about 6 months of CrossFit, my goal became to gain weight and lift heavy. So I started eating, A LOT!  

I have never measured my caloric intake but here is an idea of how many calories I would take in. At the time I was working on Sundays. Before I went to work I would usually eat a lunch or two. I would also pack some food to snack on at work. Typically, it was grilled chicken, rice, eggs, a couple apples, 2 green smoothies, and a 2 lb bag of clementines. While at work I would also get a burrito from Chipotle, and then go to Smashburger where I would have a burger, fries/haystack onions, and a milkshake. When I got home I would have a couple of bowls of cereal, and usually some ice cream or donuts before going to bed.

Well I did gain weight and the weights I was moving went up. I quickly hit 190 lbs. Then 200 lbs. I got to 215 pretty easily, but my goal was to weigh 225 lbs. It was a struggle to make it to 225. I ate until I felt like throwing up, then I would sit down and let my stomach settle for about 30 minutes. Every day, usually multiple times a day, I would weight myself. I was obsessed with my weight. And I simply could not stop using a scale.

As you can tell, the 225 pounds was not a healthy life for me. While my weightlifting had increased, my cardio was abysmal. My life in general was a struggle. Walking up stairs or a hill at work had me winded. Bending over to tie my shoes had me holding my breath and trying to move my gut out of the way. My clothes started to get very tight. But I still weighed myself. Hitting 225 was nice. I reached my goal! But my body and certain aspects of my life were different. It left me looking for change.  

I decided 225 was the turnaround point for me, and that I needed to lose weight. I wanted to get back to looking good and being able to perform all movements well. In a few months, I dropped from 225 to 185. And still I checked the scale every day. 185 left me feeling weak in my lifts, and with little muscle endurance.  

Why I decided to stop using a scale

Over the years I have fluctuated between 185 and 200, but where I feel best at is 190 to 195. I can move enough weight for an athlete of my caliber, but my cardio and body weight movements still feel strong and fluid. About a year ago I decided to stop using a scale. I have an idea of what I weigh only because I have weighed myself so many times in the past. 

Now I am not concentrating on the number the scale gives me. I am concentrating on being happy and enjoying all aspects of my life. Obviously, health and fitness is a major part of my life. Feeling good and operating well in my workouts makes me happy and at peace. Another big part of my life though is food, and enjoying it with my family and friends. Being able to do so without worrying if the scale will change by even a pound makes me happy.

Can a scale be helpful in our health and fitness journeys? Of course it can, but it shouldn’t be the end all be all. The scale is like a photograph. It captures a split second of your life. Sometimes that second is good, other times it’s not so good. But that second doesn’t determine anything else. 

You might find it helpful to stop using a scale and stop worrying about the numbers. Worry instead about how many people you make a positive impact on in a day. Your life will be much happier that way.   

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5 Effective Fitness And Nutrition Hacks

fitness and nutrition hacks a bowl of healthy fruit surrounded with muffins

So, you want results and you want them now? You want to know which fitness and nutrition hacks will work in your favor to get you shredded as soon as humanly possible.

Well, luckily, there are steps you can take to optimize your muscle growth. We all know patience is a key part of building muscle. Still, it’s natural to itch to see results from your hard work in the gym.

In this post, we’ve rounded up some tried and tested fitness and nutrition hacks to speed up your journey on the road to ripped.

1. Eat enough protein

This macronutrient is crucial for building muscle. Cut out your sugars, slash your starches and processed carbs: protein is your best friend when it comes to making gains.

You don’t need to consume hundreds of grams of protein every day. If you do this, your body will just store it as fat. Scientific research shows that 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is best for someone who is trying to build muscle. So, if you’re sitting at 200 pounds, you’re looking at 160 grams of protein each day.

Opt for low fat sources of protein. Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, fish, milk, yogurt and eggs are all great options. If you’re struggling to get enough into your diet, a great nutrition hack is to stir a bit of protein powder into a yogurt for a quick and high-protein snack.

2. Do compound lifts

To build muscle, you should regularly do lifts that work several muscle groups at once. These are called compound lifts and include deadlifts, bench presses, squats, military presses, kettlebell swings and pullups.

There are many benefits to compound lifts. These exercises are an effective form of cardio, improve flexibility, and help you to build muscle fast.

When performing compound lifts, lift as heavy as you possibly can. Do more sets, and less reps. 5 sets of 5 reps is a good rule of thumb. At the end of your 5 reps, if you physically couldn’t do another then you know you’re lifting heavy enough. If you think you could do more, you need to up your weights.

3. Pre-exhaust your muscles

This popular fitness hack involves performing an isolated exercise, and following it with a compound exercise that works the same muscle group. For example, you could do leg extensions before doing squats. 

When you do your compound lift, your muscle fibers will be damaged from the isolated exercise you just did. This means they’ll be primed for optimum muscle growth. 

You’ll also feel each rep more on the compound lift. This helps you to perform high-quality sets.

4. Get enough rest

Sleeping well and taking enough time out of the gym is highly important. This is one of the easiest fitness and nutrition hacks for building muscle fast.

On your rest days, do some light cardio to stretch out, such as a half-hour walk or even some yoga. There are many great ways to help your muscles recover.

Many people also recommend cold showers as part of a rest routine. The cold water increases blood circulation which allows you to recover faster and get back to working out. Cold showers also strengthen your immune system and promote endurance.

Whether or not you’ll be jumping into a cold shower, make sure you get enough sleep. Building muscle involves tearing apart your muscle fibers in the gym, and rebuilding them better and stronger from the protein you fuel yourself with. This rebuilding process happens when you sleep, so it’s absolutely vital to spend enough time in bed.

5. Take progress pics

Of course, taking photos isn’t going to directly affect your muscle growth. However, this is a great fitness hack to help keep your motivation up. Taking pictures of your body at the start of your fitness journey to look back on is a concrete reminder that you ARE building muscle.

When change happens slowly, it can feel like your hard work isn’t making a difference at all. If you take some pictures of yourself from different angles, after a few weeks you’ll start to see how far you’ve come.

Documenting your progress is a great way to motivate yourself to hit the gym when you’re having a lazy day.

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Can I Gain Muscle While Getting Shredded?

gain muscle mass and get shredded at the same time

Most guys dream of getting healthy, fit and shredded. When they start working out, they picture themselves rocking chiselled biceps like a Greek god and abs you could grate cheese on. They want to be ripped and lean, and for good reason –  this looks great. But gaining muscle mass is super fun too. Being able to bench more and more impressive numbers as the weeks go by is a highly rewarding process. And who doesn’t want to get big and strong? It would be ideal, for many, to gain muscle while getting shredded.

Lots of people feel torn between hitting a low body fat percentage so they look amazing and toned, and getting big. It’s natural to wonder if you can gain muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time. This is hotly debated, and there are many different opinions on if it’s possible to get big and shredded all at once. Is it possible?

Yes, You Can Gain Muscle While Getting Shredded

But only to an extent!

To increase muscle mass, you need to lift heavy while eating enough to fuel your gains. Muscle requires a lot of energy and calories to create. You’ll be gaining weight, but you’ll be getting super strong. Unfortunately, it’s common to put on body fat during this process. You’ll be eating in such an excess of calories that your body likely will store some as fat.

Getting shredded is basically the opposite process to getting big. To get shredded, you need to minimize your body fat percentage. This means consuming fewer calories than you’re expending. Your body then “eats” its own fat stores and turns those into energy.

Luckily, there is a middle ground. You don’t have to treat gaining muscle mass or losing body fat as mutually exclusive. If you do this, remember that your strength gains and fat loss won’t happen at the speed that they would if you were focusing on a single goal. However, you’ll be looking incredibly fit and amazing.

If you eat a balanced diet that’s high in protein, do a range of exercises including strength training, and get enough rest, you should be able to gain muscle mass while getting lean at the same time. 

What Should I Do?

There are a number of things to bear in mind if you’re trying to gain muscle while getting shredded. They are:

Don’t cut calories (too much)

To lose weight, you need to lose body fat. To lose body fat, you need to consume less calories than you’re using, so your body resorts to using its fat stores for energy. 

However, if you’re trying to gain muscle mass at the same time, it’s a bad idea to not give your body the fuel it needs to turn your strength workouts into gains. You’ll be burnt out and tired. If you do decide you want to cut, cut no more than 300 calories from your daily BMR.

When trying to balance losing weight and gaining mass, you shouldn’t necessarily expect the number on the scale to go down. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you may even gain weight. Just continue to eat a balanced and healthy diet with minimal to no sugar, and notice how you look and feel, not how much you weigh.

Eat enough protein

This macronutrient is crucial for building muscle, so you need to get enough of it. Aim for 20 grams of protein per meal, four times a day. Don’t cram all your protein into one meal, but have it throughout the day so your body has a constant supply. Many people recommend consuming extra protein after a workout.

Great ideas for lean protein intake that will support your muscle mass goals without ruining your body fat loss goals include: 

  • Fatty fish such as tuna, tilapia and salmon
  • White meat such as chicken and turkey
  • Dairy – milk and yogurt are great choices
  • Eggs – one of the cheapest forms of protein, eggs go with almost anything

Do a range of exercises

When you’re trying to gain muscle mass and get shredded all at once, you need to perform strength exercises for your gains, and cardio to lose body fat. For muscle gains, compound lifts are the most effective. Remember to focus on heavy squats, deadlifts and bench presses. Isolated movements can also be great, just make sure to vary what you do.

To burn body fat, you’ll want to do a range of cardio movements. Biking, swimming, rowing and running are all great options. If you prefer, try some high intensity routines that incorporate burpees, pushups, situps, kettlebell swings, and many more. 

There are many great CrossFit classes to put you on the right track for gaining muscle mass and getting shredded at the same time.

Get enough sleep

One of the most overlooked aspects of fitness is getting enough rest. Most athletes are recommended to get between 7-10 hours of sleep per night. 

Chronic sleep deprivation can “undo” the effects of dieting and lead to weight gain, which is not what you want. Sleep also gives your muscles time to restore and repair. Cells regenerate best at night, which helps you gain the mass you’ve been working hard for.

For best workout results, create a sleep schedule and come up with some techniques to relax you and help you wind down at night.

With hard work and patience, you’ll soon be looking shredded, big, and amazing.

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Will I Get Bulky From Lifting Weights?

will i get bulky from lifting weights?

Many guys walk into the gym with the goal of getting big and strong from weight lifting. However, not everyone wants to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you’re a woman, or big guns just aren’t your style, you might be worried that you’ll get bulky from lifting weights.

Luckily, the idea that weight training instantly makes you huge is simply not true. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll end up bulky from your training if you don’t want to. Getting big is much harder than it looks. When starting out a regime, you can tailor it to meet your personal fitness goals so you feel happy with your results.

Increased Muscle Doesn’t Mean ‘Huge’

When you start a workout regime that involves a lot of lifting weights (including Crossfit) you are likely to see some muscle gain. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get huge.

Muscle mass actually plays a key role in your general health. Building muscles helps your body to burn energy and fat. As muscle mass increases, the faster your body can burn calories and energy. Muscles help us lose weight, stay healthy, and be active.

Muscle mass doesn’t mean you’re going to look huge. If you have a high muscle mass percentage and low body fat percentage, you’ll almost certainly look leaner than you did before you started working out.

Being strong and having a high muscle mass is not the same as looking manly. It may be worth thinking about how you define bulky. Strength is always a good thing!

A Bulky Diet = A Bulky Body

If you wanted to bulk up, you would need to seriously increase your daily calories. The more calories, the bigger the bulk. 

For many people who are trying to get big, eating enough is one of the hardest parts of their fitness journey. If you aren’t trying to bulk up, then you won’t be anywhere near the levels of caloric surplus you’d need to be reaching.

Everyone knows that a healthy and fairly low calorie diet is a crucial part of losing weight. Working out won’t get you far unless you combine it with clean eating. The same idea applies to gaining mass through weight training.

Getting Bulky From Lifting Weights Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Like with any aspect of fitness, whether it’s cutting fat or toning up, new mass takes a few months to notice. 

To get bulky from lifting weights, you need to work hard and be patient. This can be a difficult truth to swallow when you’re excited to get muscular. But, if you want to avoid getting bulky it can be a blessing.

If you notice that you’re gaining more muscle mass than you want to, you can simply adjust your workout plan or your diet. Bear in mind that people sometimes mistake body fat for mass. You can cut down on your overall mass by eating a healthy, high protein diet.

Weight Lifting Has Many (Non-Bulky) Benefits 

There are lots of weight training methods and variables. Each of these will have different, beneficial outcomes. Weight training can be a great way to lose weight, improve your mood, and get flexible and stronger. It can even make a great cardio workout.  

Yes, lifting weights is a great way to build muscle. This means lifting heavy weights at a low to moderate rep range. If you want to be toned, not bulky, start out with low weights and higher reps in a slow and controlled manner. If you continue to eat a healthy diet, you’ll gain muscle mass but also lose body fat – helping you look leaner.

Train For The Results You Want

You can use a weight training regime to reach many health and fitness goals. You can use weightlifting to train for competitive powerlifting or a bodybuilding competition. In these cases, you’re likely to be training hard, 4-6 times per week.

However, many people do Crossfit or lift weights to stay fit, healthy and confident. There are many plans to suit your needs. If you just want to improve the overall shape or your body, lifting weights is one of many parts of a holistic and well-rounded workout plan. 

No matter what your fitness goals are, weight training can be a great way to meet them.

When you train for the results you want, you won’t end up bulky from lifting weights. You’ll end up with a well-shaped, toned and fit version of your natural body.

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Getting The Most Out Of Heavy Training Days

man wearing face paint and no shirt squatting on heavy training days with barbell

There can be a tendency among new CrossFit athletes and trainers to avoid heavy training days entirely or execute them incorrectly. However, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program.

People sometimes characterize CrossFit by its programming of mixed-modal workouts for time (“met-cons”). However, this is a limited view. Heavy training days devoted entirely to strength training are essential to CrossFit and are integral to CrossFit’s prescription of constantly varied workouts. 

Why do heavy training days?

Heavy days are necessary to build top-end strength and power. Power output decreases with time. This meaning an athlete’s work capacity in a very short time domains sets the limit for his or her entire curve.

It is possible to have high levels of short-duration power and little power elsewhere (e.g., a powerlifter), but it is impossible to have low levels of short-duration power and higher levels of longer-duration power. Therefore, heavy days are essential to a general physical preparedness program. 

All of that said, it is important to understand that heavy days can be completed with most any weightlifting or gymnastics movement, such as weighted dips and pull-ups, or lifting odd objects (e.g., sandbags, tires). More often than not, a barbell is the best and simplest equipment for this task. The barbell’s ease and range of loading is impossible to match. Heavy days may also include all variations of standard barbell movements (e.g., hang, power, lifting from a deficit, pulls).

Heavy days are not the only time athletes can drive strength adaptations. Even within a metabolic-conditioning workout, depending on the task and capacity of the athlete, any number of exercises may build strength.

Push-ups for novices build pressing strength similar to a bench press. Attempting a 95-lb. thruster for a new CrossFit athlete builds squatting strength. As an athlete’s strength increases, however, push-ups and 95-lb. thrusters tend to favor other adaptations, such as stamina. Greater loads are necessary to further increase top-end power. 

Try a one rep max

Finally we can discuss the benefits from a one rep max. A one rep max is vital in helping achieve overall growth in strength. Whether it’s your first time setting a PR or surpassing a current one, it will help boost your heavy training days from now on.

Push your body a little harder by adding a few more pounds to your lifts. Over the next few months you will break down old plateaus. Eventually, at the next load week, you just might be surprised and see a new PR. Over time, with completing several different one rep max lifts, you’ll be so excited to review your year end records and see all the accomplishments you’ve had. And then, you’ll continue to set the bar a little higher.

Are you new to working out, and unsure about lifting weights in general?  Check out 7 reasons you should lift weights by clicking here.

By Nate Crodray

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