On your journey to a better, healthier you via weight loss and exercise, there will be times when you want to measure your progress. Who doesn’t want to know how far they have gotten to their ideal size for weight? This is where you will want to track your weight loss to get a better picture of how you are doing. It is always important to start off with an initial measurement, and then just keep tabs on it throughout a period of time. This post will give you tips on different ways to keep track of your size. You may be surprised at what you learn about yourself along the way!
1) Let’s just start off with some cold hard facts. Did you know that muscle weighs more than fat? So, if you put a pile of muscle next to a pile of fat, it wouldn’t take nearly as much muscle to outweigh the fat. This is because muscle is more condensed and packed with more solid material than fat. So it is actually possible for person to be overweight but not too fat. The perfect example of this is bodybuilders… They spend their whole lives maintaining body fat. So they may have 5% percent body fat but due to the weight of muscles a normal scale will have them as drastically overweight for their height. This is where knowing your body fat percentage comes in handy more than just stepping on scales.
2) How can knowing your body fat percentage truly help you? This allows you to get a better idea of what you really need to lose and whether your workout program is truly doing as it claims. It is also entirely possible that you are remaining the same weight but your body fat to muscle ratio has just changed for the better. You may be wandering how in the world do you measure body fat percentage? There are many ways. You have calipers which measure the thickness in diameter of an object. There are online calculators that are normally used with the assistance of tape measurements. There are bioelectrical impedance scales which use different data within your body to come to a measurement. If you decided to go this route then you will want to measure under the same circumstances each time. This means at the same hydration level, skin temperature and food intake. This makes it more difficult to keep track of though. There is also dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. This is used to measure the mass of bone within your body to give you a measurement. There are so many ways to track your weight loss tips and goals.
3) If all the above sounds like too much work then you can simply just take a picture. You can take out some time and once month take a few pictures of yourself. These are not just for vanity reasons but for record keeping. You can put on a few somewhat tight fitting clothes and take a few shots. Then as you progress through your weight loss plans take another in about a month. As the time progresses you should notice your body changing. You will notice that you fit into your clothes and will feel more comfortable all around. You will get a great sense of satisfaction that you are making progress and it will motivate you to do more. The average body fat range for women is twenty five to thirty-one percent and for men it is eighteen to twenty-five. You will want to keep track of all this in journal, especially for your weight loss goals.
In conclusion, you have tons of ways to track weight loss for yourself. It is important that you do this. Otherwise you cannot know if you are making true progress. There are many ways to do this. You can use normal scales which can be purchased at your local store. Unfortunately though this is not ideal for measuring body fat percentage. You will want to find calipers, bio-electrical impedance scales, or simply take a few pictures to see your progress. You should know that muscle weighs more than fat. So this means that it is possible to stay the same weight but actually lose fat and gain muscle, which will make you look great! This is where body fat percentage data really takes you to a whole new level of knowledge about your body.