Rita Wolberg traded in her scale for a tape measure. It helped her slim down not once, but twice.
When she was 31, Rita, an IRS program analyst from Alexandria, Virginia, decided to join Weight Watchers to unload some extra pounds that had accumulated over the years. “I just overate, and I didn’t know what I should eat to be slim,” she explains. She followed the program to the letter, taking off 22 pounds in 12 weeks.
After the birth of her son some 5 years later, Rita developed chronic sinus infections. Four sinus surgeries later, she found that she had gained 30 pounds. “I had put on so much weight that I moved up 3 clothing sizes,” she says. She went back to Weight Watchers, and this time, she took off 30 pounds in 18 months. “I wasn’t quite as vigilant about sticking with the program,” she admits. “I knew it would work. I just had to be patient.”
On both occasions, Rita used a tape measure—not a scale—to monitor her weight-loss progress. She found that by checking the circumference of her bust, waist, hips, and thighs once a week, she had a more accurate record of her changing body shape. “Even the second time, when the pounds came off slowly, I could count on my tape measure to show that I was improving,” she says. “Some part of my body was getting smaller, even if the scale didn’t show it.”
Rita, age 45, now serves as a program leader for Weight Watchers. “I started there as a receptionist in 1988, and they let me stay even when I regained weight,” she says. “That really inspired me tunity to tell others how valuable a tape measure can be as a weightloss motivator.
WINNING ACTION
Trade your scale for a tape measure. A scale won’t tell you how your body composition has changed, but a tape measure can. As you lose fat and gain muscle, certain body parts get smaller. To check the size of your waist, wrap the tape around the narrowest part of your waist, roughly halfway between your bottom ribs and your hipbones. For your hips, wrap the tape around your hips and butt at their widest points, usually slightly below the actual hipbones. Write down younmeasurements, then track them from week to week.
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