Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Hello, Fabulous. Summer's here, I guess. Not technically, but we're really close, and I hope you're enjoying the sun on your face, the longer days, and all that summer promises. It feels promising. And I do enjoy the early days of summer. Today, we're talking about the scale, our trusty bathroom scale. Not like a food scale, but the one you get on and see a number pop up. And after today's podcast, I don't want you ever to be surprised by the number on that scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:38]:
That may be a big ask, because a lot of the time, many of us, all the time, we're surprised, right? We're crossing our fingers, right? We're getting on, and we have no idea which way it's going to go. I want that to change, especially if you're going to be losing weight. It's so helpful because there is so much information to be had. The scale can have so much power. If the number goes down, we're happy, and if it's up, we're sad or dejected or hopeless. By the way, it wouldn't be the number creating these feelings, it's the thoughts. We're thinking about the number. That's a really important distinction.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:25]:
We're actually not going to go into that here because in episode 133, just a couple episodes ago, I discussed the model and how it works, how thoughts create feelings. It's a super important concept. So after this one, go back and listen to that one. But getting on the scale and having it go down can feel like an intrinsic reward. You know, if it's down, it feels like we're rewarded, or if it's up, it feels like a punishment. And it's often just surprising, like, no idea. Let's hop on the scale and see what's gonna happen. We leave it up to the scale to tell us how we did.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:04]:
Did we do good, I'm putting that in quotes. Or bad, I'm putting that in quotes. It's something external we're turning to, to give us a grade or a pat on the head or a slap on the wrist. And I want us to reclaim that. I don't want the bathroom scale to have that much power. I want you to have it. I want it to be located inside you. I don't want you to be surprised about how the week went, about what the scale says.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:33]:
I want you to know it. But to know ourselves, even before we step on the scale. I want us to know what's going on with our bodies, what the week was like. I want us to Be aware of it and conscious. And then when we get on the scale, it's a confirmation rather than a surprise. We really don't want a small device on our bathroom floor to determine our mood or to be our judge. Scales can be really useful. They're a useful tool.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:06]:
They give us a number, and we can use that to track our progress, especially over time. It's better over time. Weight loss generally happens in a sawtooth pattern with a general trend of going down. So it's like up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, but. But generally down. So the bigger picture is down, the smaller picture is a sawtooth. And that if we're letting the external. The scale determine our moods or our motivation, it's.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:35]:
Then it's going to be. It's a wild ride. I don't want this to be a wild ride for you. I want this to be a known process, a predictable known thing. And we use the bathroom scale as a. Just as a tool. I recommend weighing once a week during the weight loss phase. And if you want to skip more of the sawtooth pattern, the wild ride, then even weigh once a month, I know that's a big stretch.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:01]:
Most people don't do that. I understand why it's hard to not get on the scale sometimes and. And a week to me is a good amount of time. But if you did get on each month, you would have less of a sawtooth and more of a downward trend. There is inevitable variation in the weight of our bodies on a daily basis. We want to know how much fat we have on our body. That's why we're losing weight. That's why we want to go on the scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:30]:
We care about the fat tissue. We. We don't care about the muscle and the bone and the skin and the organs. We're using the scale as a proxy for fat weight. And therein lies the problem. The bathroom scale is imperfect at that. But it's impractical to get regular DEXA scans or hydrostatic testing to determine percent body fat. So we use what we have, and we can use the bathroom scale to our advantage.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:57]:
And the best way to do that is to use it to confirm what you already know. That is so important. That way we're not surprised. We're not letting it determine our mood or our worth or anything like that. We are using it as a tool to confirm what we already know. So before we hop on the scale, and again, I suggest once a week, same close or lack thereof, same day and time frame. Studies have shown that we weigh More on Mondays than on Fridays makes sense about the weekend, and less in the mornings than later. So take that for what you will.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:39]:
Doesn't matter. You can do, you know, Thursday afternoon, we just want to be able to compare apples to apples. So if it's every Thursday afternoon, great. I would recommend, if you were asking me, morning, any day but the morning. A nice time to do that, really. The reason being is that we're a little dehydrated in the morning. And not that I want you to be dehydrated, but you're starting at a more. That's the most level you're going to be in the day, comparatively.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:13]:
So that's why I recommend it. But really, you don't have to. If it's the same time and day each week, you're going to be good before getting on the scale. In order not to be surprised and get the most from our efforts, learn the most and be grounded in our experience, we want to do our evaluation. Okay, this is before we're getting on the scale. This is how you're going to confirm what you already know. This is how you're going to know what you know. I call it a food date.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:45]:
Episode 74 is all about food date. So you can check that one out. It's a time we devote to ourselves, to ourselves and our relationship with food. And it just takes a couple minutes. And in it, there's a very important structure that I would highly recommend you follow, which is we're going to write down what worked, what didn't, and what we're going to do differently in the week. So you're looking at your past week that just went. You're going to look at what worked, what didn't, and what we're going to do differently. And that order is really important because we're training our brain to find what worked.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:26]:
Our brain's default is finding the problems. I'm sure you're familiar with that. We can find problems with everything, and that's the way our brain was designed. So that's not a character flaw. That's the way the brain works. We do want to train it to find the things that work because that's so helpful to us. We can show ourselves things are working, we can celebrate them, we can highlight them, and then we can continue doing them. So it's really important to start with what worked and then go to what didn't and what we're going to do differently.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:00]:
And this is the time when we're showing ourselves what decisions we made. We're reminding, remembering, seeing what behaviors, what decisions we made, what the week was like. You know, was it a hard week? Was it a vacation week? Was it a travel week? Was it, you know, a birthday week? I mean, there's lots of things that could have happened in the week. We're looking at what we managed and what we didn't. And we're doing that in a very kind, compassionate, understanding way. There's many reasons why we do it in a kind way. First of all, it's always better to be kind to yourself. Honestly, I could say that blanket.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:37]:
It's always better to be kind no matter what happen. It has us in a better space to move forward. Also, the past is the past. It's over. So there's no point in being critical, harsh with ourselves. What we can do is learn from it. We can see what happened, get, get curious. That's such a great feeling to question ourselves from curiosity because that's when we're going to learn.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:09]:
So kindness and curiosity are excellent ways of looking at the weak past. And then we're going to get a lot of information. When we do it this way, when we evaluate and then get on the scale, we're using weigh ins as a way to hone our inner skill of knowing our body and how it processes certain foods, decisions we made, times of year, all that sort of thing. We're learning about our body. When we're paying attention to how foods and decisions and activities affect us. And the hunger scale is the basis of that, right? We're learning how our body communicates hunger and satiety, being satisfied, not full. We're learning how our body communicates. We're just extending that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:58]:
We're learning how it processes, how it feels, what it goes through. And all that information is so important. When I eat this food, this happens when I'm on my period. This is what my body does. When I travel, this is what I can expect. All that is you're learning about yourself as you're doing this process. And just as a refresher, because I've likely said this before, your organs, skin, bones usually stay the same weight muscles generally do, except if you're building and they can retain water. Also, when you do exercise, like when you get sore in your muscles, they're retaining water because they are repairing and water rushes in to bring all the things that are necessary for that repair so muscles can retain water.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:47]:
But the changes on the scale then tell us two things. If the bones and skin and organs are the same, then the scale is really just Telling us about two things, the weight of fat tissue and water weight. Those are the two things that we are seeing the changes in. When we see changes in the number on the scale, a pound of fat is created or lost with 3,500 calories eaten or burned respectively. Right. If we eat 3,500 calories above and beyond what our body needs to survive in a day, then we'll gain a pound of fat. Or if we are in deficit of 3500 calories, then we will lose a pound. Okay, so that's a good piece of information to know.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:43]:
And I say that because it's a lot of calories and we don't count calories around here. But in general knowledge that's a lot. And you would be very aware if you ate 3,500 calories in one sitting, it would be a lot of food. And this is what I mean by bringing this to your attention. You would know if you ate non stop all week. So then it wouldn't be a surprise if there's weight gain. But if you didn't, then the hypothesis will not be weight gain. You will be aware of what's going on.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:20]:
Now here's the second part, and this is very important. Remember I told you the scale shows us the weight of fat tissue and water weight. So 16 ounces of water is one pound. Sixteen ounces, that's about one of those bottles of water. Not the teeny ones, but like the mid sized ones, not a huge one, but sort of the regular plastic water bottle. Hopefully you're not using plastic water bottles by the way, using metal or glass, that's the best. But I still have that picture of the plastic water bottle in my head and that would be a pound. So a liter is about two pounds.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:00]:
So five pounds of water is only about two and a half liters. If you're bloated, like your whole hand, both hands are bloated, your rings don't fit, if your feet are swollen, that is evidence of a lot of water on board. Because in order for all of your skin to be puffy, that's a lot of water. And so I'm sure you've seen it before, but you can gain, I'm putting that in air quotes, five pounds overnight. Now that is not fat. Unless, honestly, unless you pounded ice cream the night before and even then I'm not sure it would show up the next day. But I mean you'd have to have five. Okay, so what is.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:43]:
That's over 15,000 calories. You can see what I'M trying to say it's just not possible. Water is the thing that shifts the quickest overnight. You definitely can have water weight and then it can take a day or even a few to come off. And that's a little trick I always use. If you've gained pounds overnight, it's water. And often we can know why. And so here are some reasons why we gain water weight.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:16]:
Salt intake. This does not mean not to have salt. It just means be aware. Salty foods, particularly the night before a weigh in. It doesn't mean don't have it. It just means, again, this is part of the evaluation. Like, oh, did I have, like Chinese food is notorious for being salty, delicious and also salty. No problem eating it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:40]:
But be aware that you might have extra water on you the next morning. Salt intake can do it. Medications particularly. So we're not talking about chronic medications that if you've been on them a long time, contribute to your weight. So that's not what we're talking about. I'm talking about PRN medications as needed. You know, like, if you have a cold or you have an allergy, taking especially cold medicines and antihistamines will have you retaining water. That's just a good piece of information to know, certainly.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:16]:
And this is a huge one. Fertility meds, hormone shots, hormones in general. Omg, those can make you. I know you know this. They can make you retain water a ton. And certainly if you're in the middle of stims, if you're, you know, literally your ovaries way more just from the water and the fluid and everything is in there. And this is a place where I particularly see it. It's is if someone's in the middle of a cycle, IVF cycle, and they're on hormones, they know they're taking shots and they have big changes in their weight on the scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:55]:
It is from the hormones and water. And we know this, especially if you do an evaluation. Cause you'll know the decisions you've made, you'll know the behaviors you've had. You know, the kind of week you've had. It's so valuable to see this. Exercise is another one of the things. Remember muscle building and retaining water in the muscle fibers themselves. That can happen.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:22]:
And I always saw this so challenging. People would be so excited. They're starting an exercise program and they're gonna lose weight. And then they weigh in and they're so disappointed because they either didn't lose or they may have gained. And that really was from the newness of the exercise and the muscles adjusting. Remember, if we know this piece and we also know all the other behaviors that went on through the week, then we can make our educated guess about what's happening. And then in terms of water weight, travel is another one air travel will have. You retain water.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:58]:
It's so interesting. I don't recommend weighing yourself the morning after you flew home or flute, you know, wherever. I recommend waiting a couple days for the water weight to come off. And with travel, especially, because sometimes it happens that you end up eating more. You're usually eating different foods, so it can feel a little shocking and disappointing. But some of that is water weight from the air travel. It also can happen in car travel, especially long drives. So wait a couple days.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:31]:
But when we do our evals, knowing our circumstances, the decisions and behaviors, and we know what causes water weight gain, we just went over a list. We can predict what the scale will say. And then there are a few surprises. We don't generally get surprised. That way, we're not making an exact prediction, but a general one. And then we're not surprised, and then it doesn't affect our mood and we're not completely dejected, Then the bathroom scale takes its rightful place as a useful tool rather than judge and jury. And that's part of what I want to save you from that terrible feeling of hopelessness when it feels like you've done everything and the scale doesn't show it. That doesn't matter.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:21]:
What matters is, is what actually happened in the week. And if something happened in the week that you were not happy with, then that's not a problem. That's why we do the evaluation. What worked, what didn't? What are we going to do differently? What did we learn? What were the circumstances surrounding that that made it more difficult? What are we learning about ourselves? And when we're learning about ourselves, that's the value, and that's always what we want. We just want to learn more. We're honing the skills of understanding our body and. And its communication with us. And that's how we lose weight and keep it off forever.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:58]:
Which, you know, is my goal always. So, in conclusion, scales can be useful when they're used appropriately. And we want to use them to help us, not hurt us. And the best way to do that is to confirm what you already know. We're using the scale to confirm what we already know. And how do we find out what we already know? We evaluate our week, we make a hypothesis, and based on our decisions, our behaviors, our circumstance, which way do we think the weight will go and then you hop on the scale after we already know this and you're getting so much good information that way you keep the power with you. You are in charge. You see how your thinking and behaviors and decisions impact you and then you can change from there, tweak from there.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:53]:
You keep that power instead of giving it to the square on the bathroom floor. Weight loss feels so much better this way. It feels more like something you can do rather than a whim of the universe which can feel so scary. That's the scale. That's what I don't want any surprises for you. I want weight loss to feel easy and be sustainable and it absolutely can and this is one small piece of it and if you want help with it, I'm here to help you lose weight with me. Go to stephaniefeinmd.com weightlossforfertility.com or find me on Instagram or LinkedIn. @stephaniefeinmd I'm sending you so much love.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:20:33]:
Have a wonderful week.
