Chapter 4 – Monitoring changes in your body fat on a weekly basis
Invest in a body fat caliper and keep track of changes in your body fat percentage on a weekly basis.
Body fat percentage measurements alongside overall weight readings are the only way to chart changes in your fat weight component from one week to the next so as to work out how much fat you have lost, or gained as the case may be.
Scale weight readings taken in isolation are no good and should be disregarded. You can lose 10lbs in a week on an extreme diet, but if the majority of this loss is healthy lean weight, then this should be viewed as unhealthy and counterproductive weight loss for the reasons given in the opening chapters. Such a marked loss of lean weight would also result in your body fat percentage actually rising relative to your overall weight.
Even if you’re faithfully following the very best health and fitness advice, without the constant feedback that composition testing provides, you have no way of knowing if all your activity is moving you closer to your target. You may be accomplishing the consistent and gradual weight losses prescribed, but if a large component of that loss is muscle, then you’re headed in the wrong direction and you need to make changes to your program. If, on the other hand, you’re losing fat and maintaining lean weight, then your program is working and you should continue doing what you’re doing.
