Sensible Fitness: Progress Worth Tracking
Are you a slave to the bathroom scale? Learn effective and accurate ways to track your weight loss so you don't waste your time or motivation! 

Question:
I have been dieting and exercising fairly regularly but do not notice a big change. What are the best ways to track progress in your opinion?
— Kimmi

Answer:
Kimmi, I have seen many unique ways to track weight loss. One of my favorites was a woman who tracked her progress by how her wedding ring fit. She swore she had gained weight because her ring was tight, only for me to put her on the scale and find she was actually down four pounds. With the biggest battle of weight loss happening in your head, I like to leave the wandering mind out of it when tracking weight loss progress.

Tracking your progress accurately can be very important, especially if you have a considerable amount of weight to lose. Restrictive or improperly established diets can cause you to lose weight too quickly, resulting in your body breaking down muscle for energy, which is never desirable. A body fat test is the best way to track your progress because it will tell you how much of you body is fat and how much is muscle, and then your can monitor both of these.

I prefer skinfold measurements to test your body composition, and there is an article on this topic in my archives if you wish to read more.

There are some other practical ways to monitor your progress. Many people like to take circumference measurements, and while this can give you good information, you must be attentive to doing it properly. If you are measuring your thigh, for example, you must measure it in the same place every time. If you measure it an inch higher or lower than you did before, you will get inaccurate information. Depending on the shape of your body, circumference measurements can be very hard to do consistently the same each time, even for a professional.

Of course the scale will tell you how much you weigh and this can track progress, but it is only effective if you are not strength training. If you are strength training, you will gain muscle tone, which has weight, and therefore, the true amount of fat you have lost will be greater than the weight loss seen on the scale. I had a discouraged parent ask me why her daughter was not losing weight, when actually she was down three dress sizes. A body fat test revealed she had lost eight pounds of fat and gained eight pounds of muscle tone, while the scale had not reflected at all. I only recommend placing emphasis on the scale if you are trying to lose weight without strength training.

Two practical ways to track progress are with before and after pictures and monitoring how your clothes fit. Pictures can be very inspirational but sometimes you have to have significant changes to see noticeable changes with them. Your clothes will offer you a lot of great feedback. Because the waistline of your favorite pair of pants tends to settle in the same place on your body each time, you can notice changes in how your clothes fit very easily. This will not hold true with clothes that have elastic in the fabric or waistband. You will see big changes in your clothes if you lose fat, gain muscle tone or both.

In my opinion, the worst way to monitor your progress is with a mirror. My experience has shown me that many people struggle with an inaccurate perception of the reflection they see. The thinnest of people often see excessive fat when it is minimal, and the fattest of people sometimes often see only a pound or two of weight to lose. Don’t let your eyes play games with your mind, but instead, use them to look up the Sensible Fitness Web site! While you are on the Web site, you can take a free fitness assessment free fitness assessment that includes a Body Mass Index, which is a tool the medical community worldwide uses to determine if you are overweight. This is a great way to track progress for the general population but may not be best if you have a considerable amount of muscle.

Lastly, many of my clients wonder how often they should monitor their progress with a body fat test. My general answer is when you notice a significant change in the way your clothes fit, a significant change in your strength level (which would indicate a change in muscle tone), or a significant change in your weight. If all these remain the same, not much is going on!

Doug Gibson
		About the author:
		Doug Gibson is a columnist for Cincy Chic and President of Sensible Fitness Personal Training Center in Blue Ash, Ohio, which specializes in women’s fitness programs. E-mail him at doug@sensiblefitness.com.
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Last update: 16-09-2008 13:45

Published in : Magazine Items, Health