Episode 022: How To Measure Progress & What’s Wrong with the Scale

Mar 7, 2015

What is one of the most common frustrations people experience when they’re trying to lose weight? Getting on the scale and feeling like your progress is not reflected in that number looking back at you. We place way too much emphasis on the number on the scale. In today’s episode we talk about how much daily weight fluctutation is normal, what contributes to it and some strategies for more effective ways to monitor your progress. I also share some of my most valuable non-scale victories.

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The Challenge: Letting the number on the scale influence your emotions. Feeling incredibly proud of your progress and SEEING change in your body but throwing it all away when the number on the scale isn’t what you think it should be.

The Solution: The scale should not be your primary indicator of progress. Your body weight can fluctuate as much as 5-7 lbs each day depending on:

  • Glycogen Storage
  • Bowel movements
  • Water retention
  • Hormonal fluctuations

Beyond that, the scale is not an accurate reflection of what type of weight you’re losing. We want to burn fat. We might gain muscle along the way. That is a GOOD thing. That will make our body look BETTER. So we need to find ways to monitor and measure our progress that indicate our TRUE progress – fat loss.

Practical Implementation:

  • Take pictures of yourself
  • Find a pair of tight pants or a fitted dress and put it on AT LEAST every other week. Every week is fine, too.
  • Take measurements of your waist, hips, bust & thighs at a minimum.
  • Assess your strength and endurance in a standardized way
    • Mile walk or run for time
    • Situps in a minute
    • Pushups in a minute
    • Max on core lifts like squat, bench press, shoulder press, deadlift
  • Celebrate non scale victories
    • Improvements in sleep
    • Stress management
    • Cravings and hunger
    • Energy levels
    • Mood
    • Stamina while playing with your kids
    • Sex drive
    • Flying on an airplane without a seat belt extender
    • Fitting into a smaller pair of pants
    • Improvements in your health

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