What? Isn’t that backwards? To look great we should want to lose weight, and in most cases this is true. If you are three hundred pounds and six feet tall, you need to lose weight. How many times have you seen people, maybe you have experienced this first hand, that have corrected their diet and have started a weight training program only to find that they are gaining weight instead of losing it? I have seen this many times. The results are very discouraging. The person finally takes the plunge after being told innumerable times that they must lose weight and then, after following a well thought out regimen, find that they feel and look better, but that they have increased their body weight. There are two considerations here that are important.

First, the concept of "losing weight" is faulty. If you are obese, then yes, your goal is to get rid of that blubber and whatever it weighs. On the other hand, if you are a few pounds over weight with "love handles" and other unsightly pockets of fat hanging off your body, then your weight may need adjustment. You start a program to lose weight, thinking that if you do, then the fat blobs will disappear and you will weigh less and look the way you want to look. Sometimes this works just the way you want it to work, sometimes not. For some people, losing weight results in feeling better and gaining weight because they are weight training and building muscle mass. The muscles, especially if you have never exercised, will respond rapidly to working out with weights. The fat, however, will tend to remain because it is very resistant to change. A body that has been used to storing most of its food as fat will continue to do so until you have altered your dietary and exercise patterns for an extended period of time – maybe a year or more. As stated earlier, muscle will respond quickly to exercise and the increased muscle naturally will weigh something, and this adds weight to the body. Meanwhile, the fat stores remain until you have developed an intense routine of aerobic exercise (and changed your eating habits) to gradually burn off the stored fat. So, the end result is an increase in body weight. The person will feel better and they will be healthier but the mirror and the scale will report discouraging results.

Second, a change in thinking is necessary. One should never think of the scale as the judge of whether they are healthy. Instead, use your mirror and your clothes as the determinants of how you will alter your habits for health. When embarking on a regimen to improve ourselves we need to follow a simple plan. Here it is: strip down to your birthday suit and stand in front of the mirror. It should be a full length mirror so that you can see your entire body. (Do this in private so that you don’t scare anyone!) Now, take an objective, detailed look at yourself in the mirror. Do you like what you see? Yes, then keep doing what you have been doing up to now. No, then make a list of what you want to change about yourself. Include in the list things like: need more muscle, waist should be slimmer, and so on. Be objective and reasonable. Writing things like: need to look like Arnold (when you are only five feet tall) is not reasonable. Next, how do your clothes fit? Are they getting too tight? If so, then you need to lose a little body size so that your clothes feel right. Using the mirror and your clothes as a gauge for your goal of improvement will reap many good results. Your stress level will be lower and you will look great.