Piggybacking on Marcus’ post on goal setting, I wanted to address one of the most common goals I hear from clients: weight-loss. I hear this from both genders, but mostly from the endangered species of healthy women. I say endangered because the norm touted by today’s culture is that of an underfed undefined waif that can’t even deadlift her body weight. While most of you CrossFitting athletes understand the difference between fat loss and weight loss, I still find it necessary to clarify a few things.

When most of us started CrossFit, the first two months delivered amazing changes: our clothes fit better, we had more energy, we ate better, and we grew STRONG. The only thing that may have shaken your new found confidence is that your scale kept spitting back higher numbers! How can this be?

We all know that with CrossFit you lose fat and gain muscle, which weighs more than fat. However, all the impact movements (box jumps, sprinting, bounds) and weightlifting placed stress on your bones, which your body reacts to by making them denser and stronger. This, though nominally, also adds to your overall numerical weight.

At the barbell cert last weekend, one guy raised his hand and said that a starting strength regimen (along with a gallon of milk a day) got him fat. When asked if his back squat, deadlift, and press went up, he confirmed that they did…exponentially. Without even asking about the athlete’s body weight, one of Rip’s coaches concluded that the weight he gained was predominantly muscle. He arrived at this conclusion because the amount of muscle mass that the athlete had to put on to achieve that gain in performance attributed mainly to the weight (MUSCLE) gain.

So, ditch the scale for a while and just tune in to how your clothes fit, what foods you’re consuming, and how your performance increases.

WOD 12.01.09

Push Press 5×3
OHS 3×5

Jeremy
21-15-9
OHS
Burpees