How To Make Sure Your Fat Loss Program Is Working
Someone from Twitter recently came to me kind of confused about why they’d only lost 1 pound even though they fasted 3 times in a week, and although I gave the best response I could – I want to lay it out in detail on the blog so everybody knows why this happens.
Ok so first we’re going to start off with the proper way to weight yourself, then I’m going to tell you why sometimes you might not actually lose as much weight as you think you should be losing – even if you’re still losing a lot of fat!
How To Properly Weigh Yourself
Your body can fluctuate anywhere from 1-5 pounds or so throughout the day (due to food and fluid intake, water retention, etc.), so the time of day you weigh yourself is very important. I’ve weighed myself one morning and been confused on why I weighed so much, then the next day I was 3-4 pounds lighter and hitting my goal.
It’s confusing!
So here’s what you do.
On a day where you wake up and go to the bathroom (in both ways) before you eat or drink anything – go weigh yourself. That’s roughly your true weight. It’s not the best measure because if you don’t eat enough vegetables you might have some backed-up “waste” inside you…but it’s the closest you’re gonna get.
Then each time you do the same thing…weigh yourself again.
This is the ONLY way to truly weigh yourself accurately. If you don’t usually go #2 in the morning, try eating a bunch of vegetables before you go to bed with a lot of fiber in them. That way you have a better chance of going when you wake up.
Ok so that’s the first thing you have to know.
The second thing is that if you’re following my advice and strength training while you’re dieting – you’re probably not going to lose weight as fast as you’d like.
Why?
Because you’re building muscle, which ADDS weight, at the same time you’re losing weight!
So if you lose 10 pounds of fat but put on 5 pounds of muscle, you’re only going to lose 5 pounds – but you’re going to look A LOT better than if you just lose 10 pounds of fat but didn’t put on any muscle.
So my point is – don’t worry about your weight!
Instead, take some pictures of yourself. If you start seeing a change, well, that’s a good thing. I also advise taking measurements. Taking a measurement of your stomach is a great place because you’re not going to add all that much muscle in that area (not as much as something like your chest at least) – so it’s easier to see the decrease in fat.
I also would suggest going out and grabbing a pair of fat calipers. They’re pretty cheap and probably the most accurate measure of body fat out there.
I suggest these Accu-Measure Body Fat Calipers – it’s what I use. They’re cheap and work pretty good, it just takes a little time to get used to (not too much though).
With these calipers you might want to get a trusted friend to do the measurements for you. After all if you’re trying to get a measurement on your back, you’re going to have to be a human-gumby and have eyes on the back of your head!
So here are a few take home points from today’s lesson:
- If you’re going to weigh yourself, make sure you do it consistently. This means doing it in the morning after you’ve gone #1 and #2.
- It’s more important to worry about how you LOOK as compared to how many pounds you lost. If you’re strength training while losing weight, factor in that you might be adding a little muscle so in the beginning especially your weight loss gains might be a little slower (this is more important for guys than girls).
- The best way to measure your progress is through pictures, measuring yourself with a measuring tape, and getting body fat calipers.
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- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
- Darlene Siddons: great post and great 10 ways to attack those last few pounds….loosing weight is about attitude and feelings, when they are aligned right it is really easy…i use Vision Map Videos to keep my goal of correct body weight in a positive realm… darlene http://visionmapvideo.blogspot .com/
- Megan: great story, and so true! And i laughed a few times during this. keep up the good work!
- What Happens When You Stop Being “Healthy”: important if you’re doing workouts that are very intense and demanding on your body, such as High Intensity Interval Training or things like Tabata
- Weight Loss Excercise: You can also check out his post on weight loss goals here – http://hasslefreefatloss.com/b log/weight-loss-goals-getting- crazy/
- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
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