MEASURING YOUR PROGRESS
Tracking your progress is crucial to you being successful in your health and fitness journey. This also means understanding what methods and metrics of measurement apply best to you and your goals.
Having these check points along the way will not only help you stay motivated by breaking your big audacious goals up into smaller, shorter term ones but it will also give you the ability to track what methods and techniques in the gym and kitchen work best for you.
The big thing is understanding which measures are relevant to you.
The first one people default to is weigh ins. If you have a substantial amount of weight to lose or gain then this is a nice and basic, but very relevant one. I recommend either a weekly weigh in or a daily weigh in with an overall weekly average.
Caliiper testing is great for anyone wanting to shed body fat as a primary goal or improve their overall body composition (ratio of muscle to fat). If you are to use this as a measure of progress, you'll need someone who is trained in taking calliper measures to assist you. It's important to try and use the same person to assist every time to provide the most consistent testing possible; therefore the most legitimate results.
Tape measurements are a nice simple one too. For most of my guys we'll take a waist, chest and shoulder measurement. For the most part, they want to see the inches come off their waist and get slapped on their chest! Another example would be females wanting to improve their waist to glue ratio.
You can't beat what the brutallly honest mirror is telling you. Take regular progress pictures that ideally are from the same place and position, the same time of day and wearing the same level of clothing. Getting a front on, side on and rear view picture will ensure you have all you need to thoroughly gauge your physical progress.
The last method is an underrated one. Try journalling/vlogging your progress; it's all well and good looking different but how do you feel? Looking better is pretty irrelevant if you feel naff. Evaluate each day. How was your workout? How has your stress been? What were you craving today? Including some simple 1-10 scores will be great to refer back to aswell. This method when done properly is very powerful and can give you far more than any calculation or pair of scales will.