DRINK WATER TO LOSE THAT FAT 4/13/13
-Teri Patterson, Fitness Professional

I did a great experiment this week. My scale was showing a 2.6lb weight gain for no reason. I monitor my fat & water percentages every day to see where I'm at. If your scale does not measure these things, then stop. Go get a scale that does this and keep reading.

Before going forward let's talk fat. How do you "lose" the fat? Where do you think it goes? Urine. When your doctor or fitness professional tells you to drink water to lose weight...they are explaining that when the fat is ready to be released from your cells, it has to have that water to remove it. Otherwise it "sits" in those cells and won't leave. The more water you drink, the easier it is for your body to remove that fat.

To function with daily activities you need to see your body's water percentage over 50%. Now remember this is just to keep your body functioning. If I'm drinking more green tea and more water I can keep that number at about 57-58%.

For about a week prior, I saw my weight up and water % down...with my food & activities the same. You know that feeling...get on the scale and the weight goes up for no reason when you're doing thing "right", right?

I quickly realized that my water/green tea was lagging. So on Thursday morning I grabbed my favorite refillable 24oz bottle. I still drink my organic coffee but I refilled that bottle 3 times before heading to the pool to teach class. (water total - 96oz before supper time)

VERY IMPORTANT: Unless you are on a restricted sodium diet by your doctor, it is absolutely necessary to monitor your electrolytes & salt levels. How do you know "you're low?" As we drink more water, you are also peeing out minerals..including salt. If you feel groggy, light headed and/or dizzy..you are probably not getting enough minerals. So on my drive to the pool & mixed up 2 scoops of Beachbody's Energy & Endurance electrolytes powder with some pure Himalayan Salts in about 8oz of water. This replenishes your electrolytes that you lose when peeing out that extra water. Monitor, monitor, monitor how you feel.

Taught class and feel AWESOME! I had 10 fun ladies in class and we kicked it. (water total - 104oz)

Now on to Friday morning...I got on the scale before eating anything and my fat % went down .10the of a percent, my water percentage went UP 2% and my weight? down 1.6 pounds! So what did that tell me?

I "flushed" out more then 1.5lbs of fat, retained more water so my organs & brain can function better and feel more energetic.

So make sure you aren't just watching weight numbers without monitoring your fat & water percentages.

Questions? Want to finally look & feel good? Contact me at teri@body-systems.net

This question comes from one of my class participants in Aqua Power last night. I'm sure everyone at some point has yelled this at their scale. You've been working out for weeks and you've hit this "weight wall".

Well what you've done is gotten over that initial weight/water loss that comes from that first 2 weeks of working out. Now that your body is getting into the workout groove...it feels like the weight loss has stopped which it hasn't really.

There are many reasons why your body isn't losing weight. For the sake of this post I'm talking about the beginner that's in about week 3 or more of working out. This isn't the advanced exerciser that may be experiencing a plateau.

The main reason is probably because your body is building muscle and muscle weighs more then that fat you were carrying around. You'll see a point that the scale doesn't seem to be cooperating with you...but actually as you gain muscle and lose that fat, your scale will show a slow down or increase and that's due to the increase in muscle.

Another main reason. When you exercise, you are creating inflammation in the body as the muscles are worked and healing themselves constantly after every workout. If your workouts include a lot of strength training, you'll experience a bit more aches due to the muscles breaking down and then repairing themselves. This process will cause a little inflammation in the body which increases the fluid/water retention in the body as a whole. This retention of fluids will show up on the scale.

Another main reason that some people see no obvious weight loss on the scale is due to an injury that the body is trying to heal. If you have allergies...or head cold or a simple scratch on your leg. The body will use all of it's "energy" to healing and not in weight loss. This idea goes hand in hand with the previous process of muscle gain. The process of building muscle strength is also a "healing" process. The body views this as a healing process and will concentrate on healing the muscle before expelling fat cells.

So just be patient and keep going with your program. The best investment is a scale that measures weight, fat % and water %. You then have a measurement to go by each week and know that an increase in your water % is a good thing.

Also...don't rely on that weight number. How are your clothes fitting? Last night the person with this question then said her arms are more toned. So I explained all of this and then said that visual weight and how you fit in your clothes is the real bonus. It's not what the scale says you number is...it's how you feel and how you fit into your clothes. That' the real scale!

Leave a comment on how you handle the scale not "moving"