There are many ways of tracking our progress. It is beneficial to not rely solely on one method of tracking our progress as it can be multi-factorial and, despite what we may think, progress requires consistency, patience and effort… and at the heart of this, enjoying what we do.

Tracking your progress can be extremely motivating, but if some key considerations are not accounted for, it can also be the exact reason you can be left questioning if what you have been doing is even providing any progress!

Tracking our bodyweight

This is exactly as it says: the weight we are on the scale. This will not be a true representation of muscle mass gained, and day-to-day not an indicator of fat loss.

Tracking your weight as it appears on the scale is not required whatsoever. Or we can use the scales as a tool to weigh daily, once per month, or even every few months.

However, if you understand that the scales can be a tool and should not be used as a true reflection of progress on a day-to-day basis, an example of how the scale weight could be used to track progress if someone wants to reduce their bodyweight by a significant amount is as follows:

1. Record the weight as shown on the scale every day.
   Simply write this down and move on with your day. The number that day is based not only on your bodyweight but also reflective of bowel movements, food digestion, stress, inflammation the day after a heavy training session, fluids etc.
2. Take the average for that week.
3. Repeat this for 2-3 weeks and you will be able to see a trend when looking at the weekly averages.

I would also recommend to avoid weighing yourself only once per week. That day’s measurement is rarely reflective of your average, and our average is what we should have in our heads when weighing our body weight. And often, we can place too much emphasis on that once-a-week reading when really the weight it would have said on previous days could have been higher or lower. I would recommend either every day to take the average over the week, once every 4-6 weeks, or not at all.

I just want to reiterate the importance of not paying attention to the daily numbers on the scale. If you weigh 2 lbs heavier, for example, one day, unless you over-ate by 7000 calories on top of your normal caloric intake, you have not gained 2 lbs of body fat in 24 hours. Likewise, if you ‘lose’ 2 lbs on the scale compared to the previous day, this doesn’t mean you lost 2 lbs of body fat.

If your goal is to lose a significant amount of stored body fat, the goal should still be to lose body fat, not muscle mass. Resistance training and protein will help mitigate the loss of muscle and increase the ratio of body fat loss.

If the goal is to reduce body fat percentage but to a smaller amount, it is possibly more important to not rely on the day-to-day numbers on the scale. The scale can literally mask progress when relating to fat loss but over time it can be a marker. If you are resistance training, you may be experiencing losses in body fat and increases in muscle, and the scales may not reflect this.

There can be a big difference in body composition outcomes between performing solely lots of cardio and not fuelling your body sufficiently (sending the message to the body we don’t need to keep the muscle we have and so weight loss is reflected to a higher degree on the scales due to both body fat and muscle loss) and resistance training, daily step goal, prioritising protein (sending the message to the body that we need to keep or build muscle in order to keep up with the demands placed on the body, which means a greater proportion of body fat is lost and muscle mass maintained/gained). If you are using the scales to track your weight, don’t forget that the goal is fat loss, not necessarily just weight loss on the scale. We all want to keep as much of that muscle we have built! And not even change our training, and strive to maintain intensity!

In fact, the number on the scale may not change to any large degree if muscle mass is gained and body fat is reduced if you have a smaller body fat percentage to begin with, but the body recomposition will speak for itself.

It is also important to highlight the following in order to ensure what the scales tell us does not distract us from what is actually occurring and the progress being made:

• If you eat a meal that is particularly high in salt, such as a restaurant meal, your weight on the scales may increase anywhere from 1-5 lbs overnight. Acknowledge that this is completely normal, then ignore it and allow for a few days for a more indicative number on the scale.
• Our daily scale weight will often mask weight loss, and so this is why recording the number, putting it to the back of your mind and moving on with your day is paramount.
• Women, in particular, experience weight fluctuations relative to their cycle. This varies between women, but it also differs from month to month. You will likely be able to look back on previous scale readings and see a trend every 3-4 weeks where this occurs. Expect it to a degree and account for it in your interpretations.
• You may weigh more on the scales the day after an intense training session! This can be attributable to acute inflammation (a positive outcome that brings adaptations) or water retention.
• Even a glass of wine the night prior could cause slight dehydration, leading to an acute increase in body weight.
• If you have eaten late the night before, you might still be digesting your meal the next morning. The volume of our blood increases to help digestion, and this alone can show on the scales.
• Weigh your body weight at the same time each day as we can fluctuate greatly throughout the day!
• Muscle, when compared to the fat of the same weight, takes up ‘less space’ due to being denser. Two people can be the exact same weight, but one person might have 25% body fat whereas the other person could have 35% body fat, therefore, a difference in body composition.
• If you have a goal of a certain weight on the scales to reach, it may be more conducive to change this to a range as the increase in muscle mass, for example, may likely mean that the initial goal weight is no longer the endpoint as imagined.
• If you tend to change your dietary habits at the weekend, such as a glass of wine, a takeaway or eating out in restaurants, you should expect your scale weight to be higher for the next few days following; this will mostly be water weight. Try not to let this correlate with thinking that you have gained body fat; keep ticking those boxes and allowing the water weight to reduce over a few days.
• Look to your training for building muscle and not fat loss. Yes, resistance training requires energy but it is our nutrition and/or daily movement, such as steps, that really move the needle when fat loss is the goal; resistance training and protein help ensure more fat loss occurs and not just weight loss! Separating this in our minds is key to the outcome!
• You might, over time, realise that the weight as shown on the scale becomes less important as you begin to feel changes in how you feel, how you look and how you lift.

The scales ‘can’ be a tool but can be the reason why someone might think they are not making progress. But when you learn that the scale weight you are on that day is not reflecting your progress, rather it is the trend over time, it can be used alongside other markers to reaffirm you are progressing.

I rarely used the scales as a means to track progress with people who wanted to reduce their body fat. And on the rare occasion I did, first I intentionally asked them to weigh themselves for one day only then let me know what the scales told them; just one morning, then last thing that night before bed! This was to highlight that even though the scale may display an increase of 4 lbs in the evening compared to the morning, this is not 4 lbs of body fat gained as they confirmed they did not consume 14,000 kcal that day ON TOP of their normal food intake!

Approximately 3500 kcal = 1 lb of body fat.

Understanding this was imperative for them to not let the scale weight, as shown, distract them from doing what is planned or to even doubt themselves or the process!

Progress pictures

Similar to using measurements, a suggestion could be to take progress pictures once per month or every 6 weeks (or the same number of days after the first day of menstruation) due to many variables that can impact how your body looks each day.

Try to standardise the lighting (ideally natural light), same time of day, same posture, same clothes, same background and from multiple angles (ideally 3 angles: front, back and side).

Taking progress pictures daily or weekly is very unlikely to show any meaningful progress regarding composition.

How you feel in your clothes

Reiterating the point above when we discussed the scale weight, our body goes through fluctuations day to day. We may have more or less water retention, we may be experiencing inflammation in our leg after lunges or having enjoyed a meal out the night before. But generally speaking, if building muscle, you may notice changes in your body composition and how your clothes fit; a smaller waist circumference, more roundness to your shoulders reflected in tops you wear, jeans fitting tighter or looser in certain places.

Using a measuring tape

I would recommend measuring no more than once a month, ideally the time of day and the same date each month (or the same number of days after the first day of menstruation).

You could measure your waist, hips, chest and/or thigh circumference, for example. Ensure that when you do take measurements, it is the same point each time i.e. midway up the thigh, etc.

Progressive overload

There are many ways to progressively overload, not just the weight written on the dumbbell/barbell!

If we just kept increasing the weight, there are considerations such as general wear and tear on the joints and higher risk of injury. I am a big advocate of increasing the intensity and tension on the muscles though a variety of methods and techniques so that I can keep doing what I love for a very long time!

As you become more advanced with resistance training, or even running as another example, your rate of progress as in kg lifted or time running that 10km will slow down significantly and it is completely normal to not see progress week on week… in fact it can slow way down! This is completely normal every so often, and even more so on the lifts where we typically use lighter loads such as lateral raises!

And I think an area of confusion is often associating higher reps, lighter loads with fat loss. Once you learn to differentiate fat loss from building muscle, you don’t need to change your training whether you are aiming to lose body fat, increase body fat or maintain your body weight. Building muscle can be accomplished using different rep ranges (approximately 5-39 reps, so long as close to failure), but we should avoid thinking we need to ‘sweat’ or be out of breath to lose body fat; strive to maintain or build muscle whilst your caloric intake and/or daily movement such as steps being the greatest impact to overall energy balance.

We should always approach our training as ‘practice’. We are always trying to make the load feel heavier to apply more tension to the muscle; this is different to strength training, where the aim is to make the load feel as light as possible in order to move it from point A to point B.

Non-physical measures

We should always be self-regulating based on our own feedback such as energy levels, sleep, appetite, satiety, DOMs, libido, hydration, mood, and eagerness to exercise and move.

’Trust the process’ is a term that I believe is representative of what we should keep at the forefront!

Final words of wisdom

Building muscle is a slow process… particularly the longer you have been lifting. And in fact, it is almost negligible if I was to try to measure my muscle gain in a year, never mind a month. I actually will be gaining approximately 1 lb per year… if that!

No-one gets ‘jacked’ overnight. Far from it – it takes years to build muscle, with a large proportion of this being built in the first 1-3 years, and that is with all the important variables in line to support that growth. From there, it tends to slow way, way down so enjoy those newbie gains if relatively new!

This point perhaps reiterates why it is important to enjoy what your volume, split, cycles, etc.

We might see people such as in roles for moves gain X lbs of muscle mass in weeks but, realistically, when we consider natural bodybuilders as an example, it takes years.

Perhaps due to social media, the lines can become blurred between those who train naturally and those who use performance-enhancing supplements. There is actually a huge difference when comparing someone who could be considered genetically gifted to gaining muscle naturally and people who are also genetically gifted to gaining muscle naturally that also respond well to supplementation of performance enhancers. I look very different compared to another female who has been using performance enhancing supplementation. I would have significantly less muscle mass in comparison.

I think this is important to highlight as we should have realistic expectations in order to not be constantly striving for something that may not come to fruition or that may leave you feeling like you are doing something wrong.

But if you are relatively new to lifting, you can look forward to lots of newbie gains over the first 1- 2 years depending on consistency, intensity, recovery and protein intake etc! Or if you have been training over a longer period but not been consistent, training within a close proximity to failure or your nutrition has not been supporting your training, making changes can also lead to greater rates of growth. Even if someone who primarily focuses on strength training with reps between 1-5 begins incorporating higher reps this can also bring hypertrophic outcomes; so it’s not only ’newbies’ who can gain at a slightly faster rate.

Fat loss slows down also over time. If you experience an initial fat loss, it is important to understand this will slow down, and even appear to stall but allow for a number of weeks before making any changes.

Tracking our progress can look different for each of us. Understand the limitations, the fluctuations and the subjectiveness of some of these techniques and you will enjoy the journey much more!

However, having said all of the above, if we have a certain goal such as reducing body fat, gaining muscle or to reduce your waist circumference, it may be beneficial to place our attention on the actual process-orientated goals that will actually contribute to the outcome we want; examples include eating 30g of protein at each meal, prioritising those 8 hours of sleep, training a movement through its full range of movement and not rushing any rep. These are often those small behaviours we repeat daily that, even though appear small, actually compound to have a significant impact over time.

Putting our heads down, ticking those boxes and not allowing promises of instant gratification to steer us off course… but also lifting our heads to reflect on our progress, acknowledging how far we have come and being excited for what we have accomplished all contribute to building who we want to become!

You can use a combination of progress markers, but either way, just remember that progress will not be evident on a day-to-day basis, expect progress to not be linear and in fact there will be times when little progress measurably is evident… but sometimes it requires just keeping your head down, remaining focused and doing what you know you need to do.

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