Why even bother assessing your fat loss progress…?

Because you can’t feel fat loss, it’s not a sensation meaning, the only way to tell whether it’s happening or not is if you’re tracking different markers of it.

Also, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had clients say ‘I feel like I’m not making progress’ and then I lay out the numbers that we’ve been tracking as well as assess their photos and they’re like, ‘Oh, shit I guess I am moving in the right direction.’

On the other hand if you’re not tracking this stuff in one way or another, it’s really easy to get discouraged because if you’re going by ‘feel’ with something that can’t be felt…you’re in trouble.

All of the methods I’m about to lay out for you are so you can track your actual progress, but they’re also there as reminders of how far you’ve come.

The Scale 

The most important tool for assessing fat loss or weight loss is without a doubt the scale because in this case the numbers don’t lie. If your weight is trending down week after week, you’re without a doubt heading in the right direction. On the other hand if your weight is staying stable or trending up, fat loss is not happening.

The first question that pops up here is, ‘Well what if I’m lifting weights, am I building muscle and losing fat at the same time?’

Honestly, I wouldn’t even take this into account because fat loss is a MUCH faster process than muscle gain. The most common pitfall I see here is that folks think that they’re gaining the same amount of muscle as they are fat that they’re simultaneously losing, and this is just highly unlikely.

I do have a few examples of clients that have successfully achieved body recomposition, meaning they lost fat and gained muscle at the same time, however their weight didn’t stay the same, it still dropped.

Also these individuals are typically quite lean to begin with and this is key because the more weight you have to lose, the less likely a body recomposition scenario is going to happen.

Now, you can go about using the scale to assess progress in a few different ways…

One would be weighing yourself every day and the other would be weekly weigh-ins. In both scenarios it’s really important that you weigh yourself under the same conditions each and every time so for example, don’t weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after you hit the bathroom one day and then at night after a big dinner on another day.

We want to make the conditions as similar as possible, so I’d recommend first thing in the morning after you hit the bathroom before you eat or drink anything.

In the case of weighing yourself every day, what you’re going to do is take all 7 weigh-ins for the week, total them up and divide by 7 and that’ll give you a daily average.

For example…

Day 1 – 159.5

Day 2 – 161

Day 3 – 160.4

Day 4 – 160

Day 5 – 160.2

Day 6 – 159.8

Day 7 – 160.6

Daily Average is 160.2

You then do that the following week and if your daily average is trending down you’re moving in the right direction, so if it was 160.2 last week and 158.5 this week, you’ve made progress.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that small daily fluctuations are totally normal, don’t sweat these one bit…you’re not going to weigh the exact same every single day and when you weigh yourself daily you learn this very quickly.

One more thing to note is that the bigger you are, the larger the daily fluctuations are going to be, so for example if you’re 120 lbs you might fluctuate by a pound or two daily…but if you’re 250 lbs you might fluctuate by 3-4 lbs per day easy.

In the case of weighing yourself once per week, you’ve got your digit and then you just compare it to next week’s number and again if you’re trending down, you’re on the right track!

Daily weigh-ins do have a slight advantage in the sense that they can help you identify some patterns so for example, maybe on Sunday and Monday your weight is typically at its highest and you seem to always be lightest on Fridays.

This is quite common because our habits and routines typically shift over the weekend, so Monday is often a heavier day and Friday is usually the lightest day scale weight wise because you’ve likely been locked into your routine since Monday. It doesn’t really matter which day you choose to weigh yourself weekly if you go with the one time per week approach, but just be sure that it’s the same day under the same conditions every time.

Pictures

Pics are another awesome way to assess your fat loss progress because like the scale, as long as you implement them under the same conditions they don’t lie. However, photos can be a little trickier if you’re assessing them yourself just because it can be hard to be fully objective when it comes to looking at your own body.

You also need to know what to look for because changes week to week typically aren’t huge in pics because fat loss happens incrementally. If you are going to use pictures, the same concept applies as far as taking them under the same conditions each week.

You’re not going to take pictures every day because that’s definitely going to be overkill but when you take them, I’d recommend doing them first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything wearing the exact same thing week to week.

I have my male clients wear boxers or swim trunks and I have my female clients wear bikinis, so go with the same outfit each week because different clothes fit differently, so eliminating that outside variable will make it easier for you to assess your progress.

Also, I’d recommend using the same location for your photos weekly, as well as the same lighting and picture angles just so you can make them as similar as possible.

Mirror

Assessing your progress using a mirror can work for some folks, but to be honest I don’t think it’s the best way to go because there is nothing to compare your current self to other than a memory of how you looked before. While you can always check yourself out and see how you’re looking, the mirror just isn’t a great real world assessment tool when it comes to fat loss.

Clothes

How your clothes are fitting is an awesome input as far as whether you’re making progress or not. For example, if your jeans are fitting looser around the waist, your waist is smaller, or if your punching new holes in your belts you’re definitely losing fat.

With clothes specifically the only real thing to keep in mind is whether you just washed and/or put your clothes in the dryer because then they typically fit a little tighter, but other than that your clothes are a great indicator as to which direction you’re trending in.

Even things like shoes, rings and watches can be an indicator of progress because we lose fat from absolutely everywhere…shoes, rings and watches can also be a good indicator of food intolerances and digestion, so for example if you eat some pizza or crush a bunch beers and you wake up the next day and you can’t get your wedding ring off or your watch is fitting differently, something didn’t agree with you on the digestion front because you’re inflamed and your body is holding water.

Now that’s just on a day to day level, but like I said if over time your watch, rings etc. are fitting looser, that’s likely an indicator or fat loss as well.

Measurements

These can be a great way to track progress generally as well as in specific areas. If you’re going to use measurements just be sure that you as always do them under the same conditions and do your best to make them as consistent as possible, meaning if you’re measuring your waist you don’t want to do it at your belly button one week and just below your rib cage another, pick a spot and track it consistently.

How your clothes fit are like a watered-down measurement, however actual measurements are more specific and you can write them down and watch which direction they’re trending in week to week too…so that’s an advantage specific measurements have going for them.

Body Fat Calipers

Some folks like to use body fat calipers, personally I don’t have any of my clients use calipers and never have because there’s just too much room for error in my opinion. But, if you’d really like to geek out with these feel free and as always use them under the same conditions weekly and like the measurements keep the variables as consistent as possible.

Machines & Fancy Tech

There are a bunch of different machines that measure fat loss out there like the bod pod, underwater weighing, dexa and bioelectrical Impedence, however I honestly wouldn’t recommend using any of these. Like the calipers there’s just too much room for error, not to mention most of them are expensive and you can track your progress more accurately and more conveniently from home for free. 

How Do I Assess and Track My Clients Progress?

I use a combination of pictures, weight and weekly questions.

We do pictures every week under the same conditions and I leave it up to my client as far as whether they want to weigh themselves weekly or daily…that’s their call, but we track weight as well.

The questions are where the specific individualized coaching really comes in because I like to know all sorts of things, such as…

-Where energy levels are

-Are they feeling hungry, fully satiated or something in between

-Digestion

-Libido

-Daily step counts

-Alcohol intake

-Food intake of course

-Meals out

-Medications

-Potential stressors

-Sleep

-Appearance of their skin

-Water intake

-Menstrual cycle for women

-We set weekly goals…

We delve pretty deep on all of the relevant factors of the fat loss process because all of this stuff plays a role when it comes to implementing and sustaining your progress over the long term.

You might not want to track all of this stuff, it just depends how detailed and specific you like to get. At the very least you need to track your weight because not tracking your scale weight would be like trying to save money but neglecting to track your income and spending…

It’s the most relevant and important marker, so I’d recommend using your scale weight as an absolute minimum tracking tool. Secondly I’d recommend photos for a few reasons…

One being they really let you know where you’re at and where you’re starting from.

Secondly, if you know what to look for and you’re good at assessing yourself objectively, you can track your progress really well with photos.

And third they’re super nice to have down the road to see how far you’ve come…pics are really powerful!

We are adaptation machines and our ‘new normal’ gets established very quickly, so looking back at pictures and seeing where you started vs. where you are now can put things into perspective for ya and potentially keep you on track long term.

Overall one really important thing to note around assessing your progress is that one week or two weeks is not a whole lot in the big scheme of things…when we make real lasting change it happens over the course of months.

Now don’t get me wrong, like I’ve mentioned if you’re not trending in the right direction you’re not making progress, however it’s not going to happen overnight either so consistency is really the key because we can follow any sort of short term bullshit cleanse, detox or fad diet for a few weeks…but if you’re after sustained legit lifestyle change, it’s going to take a little longer.

A helpful way to think about this that can put things into perspective is…how old are you?

Let’s say you’re 35 or 40…it’s taken you 35 or 40 years to get to this point, so it’s probably going to take more than 35 or 40 days to get to where you want to go ;)

I hope you found this article useful and if you think someone you know may benefit from it as well, feel free to share it around!