In article >,
Doug Freyburger > wrote:

> Dan Abel wrote:
> >
> > But what I've heard
> > especially from women, is that the tool to measure the effect of
> > exercise is the mirror. Take off all your clothes and stand in front of
> > it. Move your body around and watch. Many women say that they are
> > thinner, even though the scale doesn't confirm that. That is because
> > muscle is heavier than fat.
>
> I would say the tape measure works better. It's a generalization that's
> bound to have very many exceptions but a woman's body image seems to be
> the worst very of every detail she's seen in the last 10 years or so.
> Women have invisible bruises that have been gone for years, fat spots
> long since worked off, you name it. Apply the same generalization to
> men and their body image is the last time we saw ourselves in a mirror.
> Men wear rumpled pajamas, need a shave and don't have combed hair. Even
> at the office, even though we have since gotten dressed and groomed.

There's a lot of truth to what you posted. Especially for people in
denial.

> > Sorry to sound like a broken record, but morbid obesity means excess
> > fat. People look at weight because everybody has a scale and can
> > measure weight. It isn't so easy to measure excess fat.
>
> Almost everyone diets to loss size not weight and the method is to lose
> fat. The tape measure is objective but not well used. The scale is easy
> to use but there's a lot of noise. Error in the scale itself. Water
> retention bounce. Contents of the digestive track. Scales are not
> accurate to better than about 5 pound ranges.

Yes. Not much drives me crazier than people who boast about losing a
half pound since yesterday due to their diet!

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA