Projo Fitness Blog

Losing weight and falling in love may have more than one thing in common. Yes, they can both be very elusive, but also, I am starting to think, they may happen just when you've stopped trying.

For the past several months I've been unhappy with my weight -- I've been lifting weights, building muscle, and scale was going up. My husband, who's lifted weights for years, says this is normal. It's only a few pounds, he tells me. But when my clothes started fitting me differently, I couldn't just chalk it up to muscle mass.

I tried cutting back on my food intake and adding more cardio in my workouts, but the scale wasn't budging. I had just about given up when -- out of the blue -- I dropped back down to my ideal weight. I was hardly keeping track at that point.

How did I do it? I was busy ... working nights here at the Journal's Sports department ... and not really focusing on food. Plus, I wasn't eating the large, sit-down dinners I typically have with my family.

The weird thing: I also cut back on some of my workouts because my schedule had been turned upside down and I was pretty tired. Halloween was also in the equation, with my candy nibbling and all.

I wondered if this has happened to other folks. I have a friend who's returning to college now that her kids are grown, and she too, reports she is very busy and losing weight.

The article, "Giving up on weight loss may be the best way to lose weight" on eHow.com leads further support to my little theory.

Author Paige Waehner cites a Preventive magazine item -- quoting a 2003 study out of the University of Rhode Island, no less -- that shows that short-term focusing on the bathroom scale is bad for long-term weight goals. Small changes that add up to a healthy lifestyle do the trick.

So, if ignoring the scale helped me I highly recommend it ... it's almost as good as falling in love.

 Tags  scales University of Rhode Island weight loss

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