Now here is an example that your scale is not always the best guide. I’ve hit a bit of a plateau in my weight loss. Although I’ve worked hard, my weight has remained around 148. This was a bit disconcerting, and puzzling, because it seemed my clothes were looser. Then I got a body composition check.

The test results showed I’d lost 4 pounds of fat, but gained four pounds of muscle! And of course, since muscle is more dense than fat, I had reduced in size and firmed up, but the increased muscle kept the scale the same.

My friends at the gym say that is a common situation. When you’ve lost a lot of weight… over 50 pounds in my case… there are times your body needs to adjust to your new diet, exercise and activity level. In this case, it is loading up on more muscle and shedding fat.

So I feel better now. I know my work is giving me benefits, even if the scale isn’t helpful. I’ll let this go for another week, but if the weight doesn’t start going down we may need to re-evaluate my diet and exercise plan. But for now, a stronger, fitter guy is walking the streets!