After working with weight-loss clients for more than 16 years, there’s something I hear all the time: “I only lost a couple of pounds, but my clothes are so much looser. How is that possible?”
Or the opposite:
“The scale went down, so why don’t I feel like my body changed very much?”
The answer is that the scale only tells us how much you weigh. It doesn’t tell us what that weight is made of. When you lose weight, you may be losing body fat, water, muscle – or some combination of all three.
And that’s why I don’t want my clients to focus only on losing pounds. I want you to lose fat while protecting the muscle that matters.
Weight Loss and Fat Loss Are Not the Same Thing
Let’s say two people each lose 15 pounds.
One person loses mostly body fat and maintains their muscle. The other loses fat, but also loses a significant amount of muscle.
On the scale, they both lost exactly the same amount. But did they have the same result? Not at all.
This is why I always tell my clients that we need to look beyond the scale.
Sometimes you may only lose a few pounds, but your clothes fit differently, your waist gets smaller and your body starts changing. That progress matters.
Why Am I So Concerned About Muscle?
Because muscle is incredibly important – especially as we get older.
We need it for strength, movement and everyday function. Maintaining muscle is also an important part of healthy aging and metabolic health.
So when someone tells me, “I lost 20 pounds!”, of course I’m happy for them.
But I also want to know: What did you lose? How much was fat? How much was muscle? What happened to your visceral fat?
That tells me much more than the 20 pounds alone.
How Do We Lose Fat Without Losing Too Much Muscle? Protein Matters
When you’re trying to lose weight, protein becomes especially important because we want to give your body the nutrition it needs to maintain muscle.
But I also don’t believe everyone needs exactly the same amount of protein.
Your age, body size, activity level, health history, medications and goals all matter. I look at the individual first and then decide what makes sense.
And whenever possible, I like to spread protein throughout the day instead of trying to get most of it in one meal.
You Need to Use Your Muscles
Walking is wonderful. I encourage it all the time.
But walking and strength training do different things.
Resistance training – whether that’s weights, machines, resistance bands or appropriate body-weight exercises – gives your body a reason to hold on to muscle.
You don’t have to become a bodybuilder.
You just need to challenge your muscles consistently in a way that’s appropriate for you.
Faster Weight Loss Isn’t Always Better
This is another thing I see all the time.
People want the scale to move as quickly as possible, so they start eating very little.
But if you’re dramatically restricting calories and not getting enough protein and nutrients, you may not be losing only the weight you want to lose.
I would much rather see someone lose fat steadily while protecting muscle than celebrate a huge drop on the scale without knowing what was actually lost.
This Is Especially Important If You’re Using a GLP-1
If you’re taking a GLP-1 medication such as Wegovy, Zepbound, Ozempic or Mounjaro, I think this conversation becomes even more important.
These medications can significantly reduce appetite. For some people, that means they’re suddenly eating much less than they used to.
But eating less doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting what your body needs.
I work with clients using GLP-1 medications on things like protein intake, hydration, meal structure, nutrient intake and muscle preservation.
Because again, I don’t just want to know how much weight you’re losing. I want to know what you’re losing.
This is one of the reasons body-composition testing can be so helpful for someone using a GLP-1. We can follow changes in body fat and skeletal muscle instead of relying only on the bathroom scale.
BMI Doesn’t Tell Me Everything Either
BMI can be useful, but it has limitations.
It uses your height and weight to put you into a category. It doesn’t actually know how much muscle or body fat you have.
I’ve seen people whose weight or BMI doesn’t immediately concern them, but once we look at body composition, we discover that their body-fat percentage or visceral fat is higher than expected.
I’ve also seen the opposite.
Someone may weigh more than they think they “should,” but they also carry a good amount of muscle. This is exactly why I don’t like judging someone’s progress from one number.
Why I Added the InBody 580 to The Reset Spot
After so many years of helping people lose weight, I wanted to be able to show my clients what was actually happening inside their bodies.
That’s why I brought the InBody 580 Body Composition Analyzer into my Westport office.
InBody allows us to look at things a regular scale simply can’t show us, including skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, percent body fat, visceral fat area, segmental lean analysis, body water balance and basal metabolic rate.
And I think one of the most valuable parts is being able to repeat the scan. Your first scan gives us a baseline.
Then, instead of saying, “Well, you lost five pounds,” we can look deeper.
Did your body fat go down? Did you maintain your muscle? What happened to your visceral fat? Are we moving in the direction we actually want?
Now we’re measuring progress very differently.
Sometimes the Scale Barely Moves – and You’re Still Making Progress
This is probably one of my favorite things to show clients.
Someone gets on the scale and feels disappointed because they didn’t lose as much as they expected. Then we look at their body composition.
If they’re losing fat while maintaining – or sometimes building – muscle, that tells a completely different story.
The scale didn’t lie. It just didn’t tell you enough.
And that’s a very important distinction.
What Do I Want My Clients to Focus On?
Of course I understand that people come to me because they want to lose weight. The scale matters. I just don’t want it to be the only thing that matters.
I want to see body fat coming down. I want visceral fat improving. I want muscle protected. I want you getting stronger. I want your clothes fitting better.
And most importantly, I want us to create something you can actually maintain. Because the goal isn’t simply to weigh less.
The goal is to improve what your weight is made of.
Ready to See What the Scale Can’t Show You?
If you’re working hard to lose weight – or you’re using a GLP-1 and want to make sure you’re protecting your muscle – body-composition testing can give us another piece of the picture.
At The Reset Spot in Westport, Connecticut, I use the InBody 580 Body Composition Analyzer to help clients look beyond weight and understand changes in muscle, body fat, visceral fat and more.
Your weight tells us something.
Your body composition tells us much more.
Lose fat. Protect muscle. See what you’re made of.