What you weigh is your business. I never bring up weight with a client. I respond if it is a concern for them.
Photo by Andrea
My experience with weight is limited. My highest weight was 150. I’m now near what I weighed at 20.
I remember an older friend telling me, when I was around 30, that, in her experience, you gain 10 pounds every decade.
In my experience, there are no hard-and-fast rules. Everyone’s body is different. Again, everyone gets to decide what they are comfortable weighing.
If you want to weigh less, strength training is the best way I know to boost your metabolism. In contrast, if you are aging and don’t do resistance training, you will gradually lose muscle, which slows your metabolism. You or your friends may have noticed and complained about a slower metabolism. If you strength train, you create opportunities to burn calories. First, during your training session. Second, after you train, you keep burning calories as your body repairs muscle tissue and rebuilds energy stores. Last, training can increase your resting metabolic rate.
I train regularly, walk my dog, and am active. I enjoy feeling hungry at mealtimes.
Cardio is great and important for heart health and can burn fat. I noticed that adding more dog-walking time to my day helped me lose a bit more weight. Walking and strength training are both part of my routine. I am also a hiker, and I've found that my strength program has improved my power when climbing hills.
Now I do eat healthy as well as lift. You can’t train your way out of a bad diet.
For clients who struggle with afternoon or late-night snacking, I recommend my snack hack. If you want to go for a carb like potato chips or crackers, pair it with a protein like hummus or cheese. Pairing the two can help you feel satisfied for longer and manage how much you eat.
A client who was consistent with her exercise was concerned that her weight wasn’t coming down. She was snacking after dinner before bed. We reviewed her schedule, and I recommended setting a time to stop eating. We discussed different ideas. Did she need to turn off the TV or screens? Brush her teeth at the designated time? What habit cue would signal that eating time was over for the day?
Another client realized the value of checking whether she was thirsty before eating. She learned that, in the afternoon or mid-morning, she was sometimes thirsty rather than hungry. I recommend drinking a glass of water first, especially if it isn’t mealtime.
Stick-to-itiveness is key to building strength and supporting body composition changes. Changes to the scale are less predictable. Your experience will also depend on how challenging your weightlifting is, how many sessions you do per week, and how long each session lasts. Importantly, strength training helps to preserve muscle during weight loss.
I seek to balance my activity level with my consumption. I train out of duty and love. I like that I can enjoy a scoop of ice cream without worry.
Strength creates choices.
The truth I am training for is that life is meant to be enjoyed.