When you are trying to lose fat, what is your first “tool” you use to see if you are getting results?  I hope you didn’t say the scale.  Don’t get me wrong, the scale is “OK”, but there are better tools to measure success.   If you get too wrapped up in the scale, than you can get over obsessive and get discouraged.  I know someone in New York who actually gained some weight but her clothes fit better and was actually leaner.  And guess what?… those Body Fat Scales – they don’t work too well either.

Here is how a body fat scale works:  A small electrical current is passed through your body. The electrical current passes more quickly through fat free tissue like muscle than it does through fat or bone tissue. So the amount of resistance to the electrical current relates to how much fat-free mass a person has and their body density.  But here is the tricky part:  all of these things can have an impact on how it reads out:

• Current hydration levels
• Current fitness level
• Age and Gender
• The last time you worked out

So, you can basically forget that idea.  It might be able to get you in the neighborhood of your body fat percentage, which is a start, but you won’t be able to accurately measure progress.

Here is the best way to measure progress:

1. Go ahead and get your next size down in pants/dress.  Try them on every 2 weeks.  And in your current clothes, they should start to feel looser.  You should see an improvement every 2 weeks.  If  not, then it’s time to adjust your program and/or nutrition.  (99% of the time, it’s your nutrition.  Put away the Cheez-Its.).

2. If you really want to get solid progress numbers, then measure your waist, hips, thighs and/or neck.  Write those down or keep them in a spreadsheet every 4 weeks.

3.  The most crucial part… take a before and after pic (preferably a front and side view).  Take this pic every 4 weeks and continue to compare.

Don’t rely solely on a “body fat” scale or any scale for that matter.  It’s all about the clothes and the pictures.

If you dropped only 5 lbs, but went down almost 2 sizes, would you care about what the scale says?

Imagine your fat loss transformation like a roll of paper towels.  When you take away the first layer of paper towels, you really don’t see a difference.  Even after you take away 2-3 layers, you don’t see a difference.  But over time, as you continue to take away the layers, that roll of paper towels WILL look smaller.  The bottom line is that you never give up and keep at it.

To your success,

Mikey, CFT, CFNC, CTT