Have you been trying to start your fitness journey and not seeing the number on the scale go down? There are actually many non-scale goals or victories that can actually be more beneficial than actual weight loss. Instead of judging your weight loss success based on the number on the scale, switch your mindset to other non-scale goals that you can crush every day. Whether it be mental, physical, or emotional benefits there are many more non-scale goals that you will benefit from from a healthy lifestyle. Here are some non-scale goals that are better than actual weight loss:
Faster and Stronger
It sometimes feels discouraging when you are working your butt off at the gym trying to lose weight and you don’t see any impact on the number on the scale. The more you train and the healthier you get, your performance will increase as well. You will get stronger and faster and be able to do workouts you never were able to do before and every day tasks become easier as well. One day, your workout now, will become your warm up. It is important to stay consistent and keep getting better.
Physical Changes
When you eat healthy and especially work out on a regular basis you will start seeing physical changes in your body composition. Starting to strength train is a great way to lose weight but also a great way to gain muscle which adds to muscle definition and your waist will feel smaller even if the number stays the same. There is no better feeling when your nice jeans fit or are on the looser side. You all might have heard that muscle weighs more than fat, that is not true. The difference is in the amount of space a pound of muscle takes up compared to a pound of fat. Muscle is more condensed and takes up less space giving you a firm and toned body.
More Energy
Are you feeling lethargic with no energy? Most people find exercise and eating clean not only has weight loss benefits but gives you more energy and your mood gets brighter. It is a known fact that after losing weight your energy levels increase due to many different factors including more confidence and motivation. The more weight you have on you is literally weighing you down and the more you live a healthy lifestyle, the more energy you will have to live your best life.
Less Aches and Pains
As you get older some people take on a healthy lifestyle approach to relieve aches and pains in their bodies. A full training approach including flexibility training and strength training incorporated with clean eating can help reduce inflammation and help ease aches and pains. The number on the scale means nothing to how your body actually feels. If you wake up in the morning and are in pain or your body hurts, that can make a huge impact on every aspect of your life. In the end, the more body weight you carry around, the more pressure on your joints you will have and it can add to lots of aches and pains.
Fitness Goals
Not everyone’s goal when exercising and eating right is weight loss. Whether your fitness goal is to deadlift 300 pounds or run a 10 k, living a healthy lifestyle and reaching your fitness goal is more of an accomplishment than losing weight and you should be proud. Continue your fitness journey and work your way up the ladder to bigger and better fitness goals. These events will be your journey of success rather than a number on the scale.
Weight loss should not be your only goal when starting your health journey. There are many more goals you should strive for than a number on the scale. There are more benefits of living a healthy lifestyle than just weight loss including seeing your body composition change, feeling better and being happier. That is the most important. Whatever changes you make to your life, make sure you enjoy the process and are proud of yourself. Stay Strong!