Measuring Your Weight Loss Success

Using the scale is not the only way to measure your weight loss success. In fact, using the sale is not an ideal method of measuring your weight loss success at all. You can read up more on the scale and why it is not ideal to determine fat loss in the article Weight Scale Obsession, but for now let’s focus on how you can measure your weight loss success.

The tape measure

The tape measure is an ideal measuring tool for working out weight loss success. After all, it’s not the reading on the scale that concerns you as much as it may be fitting into your clothes or a more desirable dress size. If you’ve lost inches you can rest assured that your diet and exercise program is working and the only way to measure inches lost is to physically measure them with a tape measure.

The important thing to remember when using a tape measure is to measure on roughly the same spot every time. If someone else is measuring for you, try to let the same person measure you each time. That way you can get a more accurate reading.

Write down your readings in a little notebook so you can keep track of your goals on a weekly basis. Measure your whole body, including your waist, tummy, hips, left and right thighs, left and right calves, left and right arms as well as your chest and neck. It is important to measure both arms, and both legs because they will not be the same size and you will also notice, how throughout your diet and exercise plan, they will differ from one another.

A picture is worth more than 1000 words

Because you see yourself in the mirror day after day, you probably won’t notice when you’ve lost a lot of weight. In fact, oftentimes the only time you really see the weight loss, is when someone else points it out to you. It’s ironic how that works, but you must remember that changes in your physique take place slowly and over time you become used to them, while someone who has not seen in you in a while picks up the change much quicker.

Therefore, for this reason, it is a good option to take before pictures and then take after pictures no sooner than six weeks into your program. If you have been consistent on your diet and exercise plan, the weight loss will be easily visible in the pictures.

Keep taking pictures every six weeks, and you can physically watch (and document) the transformation taking place.

Losing a kilogram is a big deal. If you have lots to lose, one may not seem significant, but believe me, it is. When you lose it, you don’t remember what it was like having it. And because you may not necessarily physically see the one kilogram rid itself from your body, a great way to see it coming off is to compare it to something that you can see.

When you start your weight loss journey, have an empty bag handy. For every amount of weight you lose, whether it’s one kilogram or 200 grams, take sugar of the same weight and put it in the bag. Once that bag starts filling up and getting heavier, while you are getting lighter, you will physically feel, and see the weight coming off, which is a great way to motivate you into keeping up with your plan and not going back to square one.

Author: Dimi Ingle.
Copyright 2009: Remedium. This article may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Remedium.