How Often Should I Be Checking The Scale And Other Totally Valid Health Questions

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Welcome back , thank you , as always , for being here . As you heard in that intro , you're listening to your strongest body .

Today I decided to give a new format a try , just for some of the episodes , so I thought about having some question and answer episodes . I think questions that come from you can be really helpful , because they're what you actually want to hear .

Since I didn't ask ahead of time , what I decided to do this time was to take the three most common questions , or three of the most common questions I've gotten over the last 13 years , and answer them here .

But I'm also going to do it with a timer , so I'm going to set a five minute timer for each of these questions these three questions that I'm going to cover today and answer it the best I can , the most succinctly , with the most packed information in five minutes , and when the timer goes off , I will be finished , because one I want you to be able to get

through the episode quickly . Also , I think there are a lot of things here where we sort of , as trainers in particular , over explain . I'm going to bore you to death with the details when you ask a question that you're hoping applies to your particular situation and that you can use the answer . So that is the goal here with these questions .

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my watch timer and , like I said , these three questions really commonly asked .

So you may have already heard them and heard someone's answer to them , but you also may have thought of it and never asked before , and I think this should give you an idea too , hopefully , of the kinds of questions or the maybe some inspiration for questions you might have for me that I could answer later in this kind of format .

So let's see how it goes . I'll kind of get your feedback today or whenever you listen and we'll go from there . But I think sometimes what we're really looking for are the answers to our own questions . So , oops , see , I hit a 10 minute timer . All right , five minute timer .

I'm going to read the question first and then I'll put my timer on so that it doesn't take any , so that the question doesn't steal my time . So question number one how often should I get on the scale ? Ready set go , all right . So this question how often should I get on the scale really depends on your given goal .

I'm going to pose a question to you as part of the answer , and that is is weight loss or the number on the scale , your physical weight , an important part of your goal ?

If not , then I actually would say you can go without weighing yourself on the scale If you want to get weighed annually at your doctor's appointment or semi-annually at your doctor's appointment , particularly if no one has addressed any concern about that .

And let's also note that I won't be taking the time in this question to talk about sort of the challenges with body weight and BMI as a more problematic system for measuring and determining aspects of your health . So if weight is not of concern to you , then you can or cannot weigh yourself .

It's an important reminder that our body weight is just one metric for a complete picture of health and it may not tell us as much as we want . Now , when should we weigh ourselves ? When weight loss is a goal Again , this is not me saying you should be losing weight . This is not me saying you shouldn't lose weight .

If your goal involves losing weight , then you may want to . Then the thing that you're going to want to measure for sure is your physical weight , and then , how often should we do that ?

Typically , the best information that we're going to get from our scale particularly those that we have at home , the kind that you can purchase for yourself at your house is going to be collected averages . So , if you want , you have a few options .

You could literally weigh yourself every single day at the exact same time , with the exact same close on or no close on at all , and then you could take the average of a week every day . Every time , once you get through seven days , you're one week , you take the average and then that's where your measurement point is .

Now that's going to be inclusive of more of the fluctuations that we experience in body weight , because we can experience body weight fluctuations upwards and downwards of five pounds based on water , based on food , all those kinds of things . So best practices typically are going to be first thing in the morning after you've used the bathroom , with no close on .

Now , if you take that consistently at that same time every day , you're getting a pretty good measurement , and then you're going to average that and take your average of the seven days . Alternatively , you could take that measurement once a week , same day of the week , same day , same time of day , and you could use that as your measurement as well .

It doesn't take into consideration every single day and you're not getting that average , but if you are consistently doing it at the same time , it's likely pretty reliable . That is if that works for you .

Now what I want to say is , even if you have a weight loss goal , I want you to tune into whether or not you feel like seeing the number on the scale either not move or not move in the direction that you want it to . Does it derail everything about your life and your decision making ?

If that is the case , then maybe going to the scale that frequently is not going to be helpful . We've got to look at whether or not these are triggers for different behaviors for us .

So if you can look clinically at that number and remember that it is not indicative of your worth or the work that you're doing or anything like that , then by all means , you can take those measurements at that rate , at that consistency . If it feels like it is getting in the way of you doing things , it is likely not going to be worthwhile .

There are so many other measurement tools we can use , and we have to remember that there's so much more than our weight that is indicative of our health , of our performance and of our progress . So , then , I also encourage you if you are someone who leans to the side of struggling with the scale , you may want to choose a goal other than weight loss .

All right , that is my buzzer . What I'll finish that with is goals like performance , increasing muscle mass or changing body composition . Those can be tricky too , but they are going to be a little different than the weight on the scale .

We can talk about goals like getting pushups or pullups or deadlifting more , or we can talk about goals like running a race or things like that , but I'm not going to get into that , because that was the question , and maybe what I'll come to another time are what are some goals , what are even some physique goals that aren't weight loss goals , and we can talk

about that , but that's not the question . All right , that was five minutes , great . So I'm going to get to question number two . I'm going to read it and then I'm going to put my timer on . What supplements should I take ? Getting timer ready , ready , set and go .

So , inherent in the term supplement is supplemental meaning in addition to what we're already getting . So what I talk to people who ask me that question what supplements should I take the first thing I ask is about their nutrition . I'm actually going to speak first about what you're doing with food in general .

Are you getting a lot of fruits and vegetables , fiber ? Are you getting the amount of protein that's going to be most beneficial to support your performance and your muscle growth and your muscle recovery ? Are you , do you have energy , all of these things ? What kinds of foods are you eating ? How do you feel after eating these foods , et cetera .

After that we can talk about supplements . So it's always important to think about big picture . If your nutrition feels out of whack and or probably something that you want to prioritize , that's coming first , then we can go to those supplements because , again , they are supplementing what we are missing from our nutrition .

I want to quickly say that I am not a medical doctor , nor am I a registered dietitian . I am a certified nutrition coach , so I can talk to you about these supplements , but I am not recommending for your individual situation these supplements .

This is something you'd want to talk to a registered dietitian about , or your primary care doctor or something like that , and sometimes you might have to find a more holistic practitioner who's going to talk to you about these things . But I'm just going to lay out what we know . So the most researched supplement out there is creatine .

Creatine is so important for muscle building , for training , for anyone who is active . It enhances strength , it increases muscle mass and it can improve your exercise performance . It also has cognitive benefits long-term cognitive benefits .

Like I said , it's highly researched , so recommendations about it and how it can be added to your diet are really are really useful as well as can be trusted .

You know you always want to look at the sources from where you're getting your information , but we know a lot about creatine creatine monohydrate and you can use it as a supplement to enhance your performance .

It's something , in particular , that women may have shied away from before , because it was thought of as like a bulking sort of supplement for people , but it's really so important for our ability to recover and train hard .

That's something you can think about supplementing your just overall protein intake with a protein supplement , whether that be a whey protein , a casein protein or a pee or vegan protein , because , as we talked about in the protein episodes , most Americans , at least , are getting less protein than the recommended amount , as well as , for anyone who is trying to be an

active individual , we're likely not getting our requisite amount of protein , so we can supplement that . Some other supplements that tend to be popular in a lot of nutrition spaces are fish oil . Again , that has to do with the fact that we don't tend to get the requisite amount of those fatty acids in our diet , and that can be helpful , sometimes vitamin D .

So let me go back to the fish oil real quick . Fish oil contains those omega three fatty acids for which we just don't get a lot in maybe most people don't get the required amount and it improves brain function and blood pressure things like that .

Vitamin D is something that's often recommended , especially because even people who live in sort of sunny climates don't get out enough and don't get that needed amount of vitamin D . Again , with any of and I should say with any of these things .

There are blood tests for which you can get your information from and then be able to supplement in the amounts that are appropriate for you , because in a lot of these things we're talking about blanket recommendations for large swaths of the population and we aren't talking about your individual needs .

So you can get these blood tests done and then get the appropriate supplementation . That's my five minute timer . Sometimes people suggest a probiotic , sometimes a whole multivitamin for overall sort of filling in the cracks of your diet , things like that .

Again , it's gonna be individual , it's going to require the guidance of a professional and it's going to require diligently looking into the reputation of the company that's selling the supplement .

I'll do just a tiny side note of like there are also just a lot of supplements out there that are total BS and they may really provide you with a placebo effect or some peace of mind and whatever works for you . Great .

Just realize that You're going to have to be a critical thinker and a critical consumer when adopting any of these things , because there is no wonder drug when it comes to health and fitness and it is a more holistic approach , an individual approach and a slow and ongoing process . Nothing is going to change your life tomorrow .

If you have more questions about you know . The other thing is , if any of these really resonates and you're like , oh , betsy , I want to hear more about that , then let me know and I can expand on a full episode , all right .

Question number three this is the last question of today's episode , and that is should I do cardio or weights first , ready set and five minutes ? Okay ? The answer is which is the most important for your goal ? Then take that one and do that one first .

So let's think about it in terms of a few different kinds of goals For someone who has a body physique goal . They want to change how they look and maybe they want to look quote unquote more toned , which just means lean muscle . They want to put on lean muscle . They want to change the way their physique looks .

The idea , or at least the sort of more , more more popular narrative at one point , was like cardio , cardio . Cardio burns more calories and you want to do that . Then the narrative became cardio is going to kill your gains , if you're unfamiliar with the gym lingo , simply meaning anytime you do cardio , you're taking away from your muscle building .

Neither of these is entirely wrong . Neither of these is entirely true . So if we have that physique goal of building lean muscle , losing some body fat , we want to prioritize our resistance training . That is going to be the biggest style mover in terms of changing our body composition .

But if we're trying to lose body fat and some weight in general , supplementing with cardiovascular training ie running , walking , stair , master , whatever you want is going to be helpful because it does burn more calories while your resistance training .

If you're training hard , I mean you burn calories , but if you looked at it like minute for minute or five minutes for five minutes , you're going to just burn more with that total full body movement , with the heart rate elevated in cardiovascular training .

So what we want to do in the case of someone who wants to change that physique , and as long as they enjoy these kinds of exercises , we're going to prioritize our time with our resistance training and then we're going to supplement at the end of the workout or at another time with some cardiovascular training .

Because the biggest thing to think about when making this decision about which of these two things do I train first , we want to be freshest , meaning less fatigued , for our most important element .

That's why , for someone who is maybe training for a marathon , their priority is going to be that cardio , those miles , and then their resistance training is going to be appropriately scaled but likely afterward .

So they're going to be training in that fatigued state while they work on stability and support and they're doing , you know , some single leg exercises , but it's not the priority . They don't need to make the biggest strength gains , they don't need to do highly effortful and neurologically demanding exercises .

They're going to do their neurological effort , their , their neuromuscular , their most neuromuscular effort with their running at the beginning . So that's the simplest rule of thumb is what matters more , do that first .

Now , if we want to get into the weeds a little bit , we can think about the fact that some there's some information and research to suggest that if we finish our hard strength training workout and then we go run a bunch , we are already depleted and we're not giving our muscles the recovery time that they need and we're kind of stealing from ourselves in that

way . Again , if you're going to try to be sort of a hybrid athlete who wants to do both things , you might be able to balance that , but if building muscle , building strength , is number one priority .

You might actually want to wait an hour or two , or do your cardio at night , and then we have to ask ourselves , with any of these , what is the intensity level ? So cardio can also be going for a walk . It is going to be your less intense cardio If we're trying to get our heart rate elevated .

We might be talking about faster walking or incline walking or jogging , and the intensity is going to make a difference for us . When I am training myself , typically , I will always do my resistance training first , and then I will do any cardio after , or I'll do it later in the day , if I'm doing any at all , if I need it .

Typically , I'm going for really low intensity , just increased movement over the day . Oh , that's my timer . What let me finish this statement , though , is saying on the days in which I am going to train more , do more conditioning , and I am going to go hard on my sprinting , I put that first , because it needs the effort first .

I don't do those very often , but they're peppered in to provide the sort of balance I need to my program , but I wouldn't put my sprinting at the end of a really hard workout because one I couldn't give my sprinting its full effort as well , as I would have already fatigued too much . So it really depends , but that's the biggest rule of them there .

What is the most important thing ? Prioritize that first , then prioritize overall how much time you have , and do you want to be so wiped that you can't do anything for the next two weeks or do you want to find balance ? All right , so I'm not running over my timer too much . I only went like an extra 40 seconds for each of these .

Tell me how this went for you . If you listen to this and it was helpful , or if you listen to this and you're interested in asking a question , let me know . You can reach out to me on Instagram . I am the best at foster underscore strength . I mean the best at responding . You can email me at betsy at bfosterstrongcom . I can also answer that on occasion .

I just have a very full inbox , but I am working on it and is 100% going to be a goal of 2024 . So if you've got questions in the future , let me know and then , like the next time I have a few questions , I'll do a question episode all

together . Lastly , I want to remind you of the giveaway if you share the podcast on Instagram , via text , via email , and you let me know you did it . You show me a screenshot , you share it on your Instagram stories . You are entered to win one of four $15 Starbucks gift cards that I will draw names for on November 13th .

So you have from now , whenever you listen to this , till November 12th . I so appreciate that you take the time to listen and I am so grateful that you would even think about sharing it with somebody else . Alright , go build your strongest body and I will talk to you next time . Bye .