The majority of women that I train have one goal - to lose weight. Weight gain / loss is like economics; caloric deficit dictates a rise or drop in the weight. I think that at first they just want to stop gaining weight, rather then selecting a target weight that is in their mind unachievable.
A key phrase in understanding the psyche of the unhappily large woman
is "I am looking to get more toned." One of my mentors at UCLA told a
group of young future fitness leaders that there is no such thing as
tone. Toning of muscle could best be described as hypertrophy, or
increasing the density of muscle fibers, as opposed to increasing the
overall size of the muscle (hyperplasia). What people often mean to say by tone is to lose weight not gain muscular definition, and since this is ultimately impossible, here is the disconnect; as a person becomes stronger the muscle that replaces adipose tissue (fat) burns more calories, but muscle tissue is also heavier. As people lose size they often do not lose weight after the initial 10-30 lbs. In fact sometimes they gain weight. So, in my eyes, this is an issue driven by media portrayal of ideal body image. Circumference measurements are in my eyes the best way to show an overwieght woman that she is making progress, and the checking the scale everyday can actually be counterproductive. Then again, I am a young male ectomorph, so I can only speak so much on this topic.
