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As a Personal Trainer one of the first lessons I give all of my clients is to define the right measuring tools for success. I work to help them understand that we are not necessarily working to lose weight, we are working to burn fat. So it is more accurate to work to burn fat then to simply lose weight. Accordingly you will always want to measure your body composition, not your absolute weight.

Below are the 3 smartest methods most health professionals use to measure success:
Handheld Body Composition Machine (Body Fat) - this is considered the quick and dirty method of measuring . The advantage is that it is fast. The disadvantage is that it is not as accurate as other measures.
These measurement devices can be up to %7 off. As a result two things are very important to remember. First you should always use the same measuring instrument, and second you should always be more interested in the amount of body fat lost between two measuring dates, not the absolute numbers.
Remember the absolute reading you get from any measuring device will likely be slightly inaccurate, so focus on the difference between measuring dates.
Calipers - You will need a fitness professional to help you with this, but it is the most accurate measure of Body Composition available to the general public. It is also referred as skin fold measurement and is normally at least 97% accurate.




In this process your fitness professional will actually "pinch" your skin in several spots of your body with a set of calipers. They will then record the measurements and place them into formula that will then calculate your number. If you have a fitness professional do this, be sure they to remember to measure the same sites and use the same formula every time. There are several different formulas you could use, just have your fitness professional choose one and stick with it.
Pay Attention To Your Body - To me this is the most important and effective ways to measure your success. There are a few activities that will help you. The first is to take and record circumference measurements. This means that you actually take a tape measure and rap it around your neck, arm, chest, waist, hips, thighs and calves to measure their size. All you have to do is record those measurements over time and compare. Just make sure that you take your measurements from the exact same sites every time.
Pay Attention to how your clothes fit. Write down where you fasten your belt loop. Grab 1 pair of jeans, fasten them up and see how they feel in the waist, butt, hips and legs. Do the same thing with one of your shirts in the neck, arms and stomach.
Record how you feel. Do you feel strong? Do you feel week? Do you feel tired or energetic? All of these are signs of whether or not you are following the right program and eating enough, too much, or not eating the right stuff.
So for now never mind the scale. It is a poor indicator of how you are actually doing, for many reasons. Also make sure not measuring too often. No more than once a month especially in the beginning. A very good exercise program will make you feel stronger, give you more energy, have your waistline shrinking and your clothes fitting better!
Jason Chiero, CPT works for Lifestyle Family Fitness and is the Founder of Email Personal Training and The Training Genius. For Jason's free fitness training updates and newsletter visit:
http://thetraininggenius.com

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