Keeping Track of Progress

When you have a set goal in mind for the gym, keeping track of your progress throughout the time you're working towards this goal is important. If you don't keep track of your progress, how will you know what works, and what doesn't? How will you know how close you are to reaching that milestone?

It's all well and good keeping track of things like your bodyweight, but did you know it's possible you might be keeping track of the wrong set of numbers for what your goal is?

Below, I'll be breaking down the different things you can keep track of when working towards a goal.

Body Weight

The most common thing people seek to measure when committing to exercise is their body weight, to help them keep track of weight loss. While keeping track of your body weight does give you a simple number to work towards, it may not always be the best way to really keep track of your progress. For example, when you first begin participating in exercise, while you will start to lose body fat immediately, you will also start to gain muscle. This means that if you are only using your body weight as a measurement, you may not see any difference to that number in those first few crucial weeks, or you may even see the number go up. This can lead to people losing motivation entirely, which is why, while bodyweight is a good measurement, it shouldn't be your only starting measurement.

(Source: https://www.livescience.com/39097-bmi-not-accurate-health-measure.html )

Body Mass Index

For similar reasons to body weight, the body mass index is not always an effective form of measurement. While it can be useful in diagnosing untrained individuals, what the body mass index says doesn't always indicate a person's true state of health. For example, individuals who have a large % of muscle mass may appear to be overweight on the BMI scale for their height, despite them being at a high level of physical fitness. This is why, when you are using BMI as a measurement, it is best to use some other units of measurement too.

(Source: above)

Body Fat %

If you're intending to lose bodyweight, then what you are really intending to lose is body fat. Body fat percentage is determined irrespective of height and weight, so while it isn't a measurement of overall fitness, it can give you a better idea of how far away from what should be peak fitness for your body composition.

(Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/ideal-body-fat-percentage )

Chest, Waist, Hip Measurements

If you are wanting to focus on weight loss specifically for fitting into an item of clothing for example, you are better off using your chest, waist, and hip measurements for keeping track of your goal than simply looking at a number on the scale. By keeping track of these measurements, you can accurately see how far away from fitting into that dress or old suit, which can help motivate you more the closer you get, without it appearing to negatively reflect progress (ie. appearing to gain weight when you're gaining muscle like with body weight measurement)

(Source: https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-take-your-body-measurements-1231126 )

Benchmark/Fitness Test

If you set yourself a goal to improve your general fitness, then setting a weight loss goal is not the way to work towards that. Why would you use a shoe to measure how long your leg is? See how little that makes sense?

If you're intending to improve your general fitness, then what you need to set is a benchmark goal, or participate in some fitness tests. If you are looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness, this can be done by seeing how far you can run in a set amount of time, or seeing how long it takes you to complete an exercise circuit. If you're looking to improve your endurance, then you can use the same methods above (running/a circuit) and seeing how long you can keep these up until you become exhausted. If you're looking to improve your strength, then a 1 rep maximum test (performing a weighted exercise and incrementally increasing the weight until you can only perform one rep with good technique) is the best way for you to keep track of your progress.

(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/fitness/art-20046433 )

Now that you understand the differences between these different ways of measuring your fitness, you can set your mind on a better way of keeping track of your goal.