We always say, if you don’t track it, you won’t make it!
In the game of losing inches and body-fat, you need to know if what you are doing is getting you the results you want. And you won’t know that if you only weigh yourself each week.
Why? Because muscle weighs more than body-fat and when most people start a new exercise program, they lose fat and gain some lean muscle to help look more toned and firm.
Just see this image…
Fat not only takes up more space on your body, making you look larger, it also weigh’s less than muscle.
So if you gain one pound of lean muscle tissue (which is a given when starting one of our training programs) and you lose one pound of body-fat, you will shrink in size (drop a dress size for an example), but you very well may stay the same weight.
That’s not to say you won’t lose weight (you probably will over 1-2 weeks), but you can’t only rely on weight alone to determine your results. That’s why we track your body-fat percentage to see how much fat you’ve lost and how much muscle you’ve gained.
Advanced tracking measures use a body impedance scanner or an MRI, but for at home, a simple clothing measure tape wrapped around your limbs and torso will do just fine to see how many inches you’ve lost each week.
How To Take Your Girth Measurements
Get your simple measure tape from the sewing section of your local grocery store and wrap it around the below areas of your body. Start at the top of your body and measure your way down.
Shoulders: wrap the tape around shoulders, back and chest with the inches on the outside. How many inches did you get?
Chest: wrap the tape around your chest, back and under your arms. Measure across the nipple line.
Right arm: wrap around the middle of your flexed arm.
2″ above navel: wrap around your waist just above the navel.
Navel: wrap around your waist over your navel.
2″ below navel: wrap around your waist just below your navel.
Hips (widest point): wrap around the widest point of your hips.
Right thigh: measure 10″ up from your knee and measure around this thigh.
Left thigh: do the same as your right thigh.
Make sure you track your girth measurements at least once per fortnight.
