Understanding why you must track your weight loss so important and true. The multinational company, Hewlett Packard, has a motto – “You can’t improve what you don’t measure and generally, whatever you measure… improves.” This saying is very true and can be applied to your weight loss goal. You absolutely must track and measure your weight loss progress. What gets measured gets managed.
Let’s talk about the 4 things that you have to keep track of. They are:
- Caloric intake
- Your diet
- The training program
- Your weight
That’s all you need to track, and it may seem simple, but it does require effort. The most important metric to keep track of is your calorie consumption. You must be at a caloric deficit of about 500 to 600 calories a day.
As you lose weight, your calorie requirements will change too. So, you’ll need to check how many calories you should be consuming every time you see your weight drop.
The second point to take note of is your diet. While you don’t need to obsess over calories, you should have a rough estimate of just how much calories you’re consuming.
Knowing your calories will help you decide on what foods you should eat and what to avoid. You should start a food journal to keep track of every single thing you eat and also monitor how much water you’re drinking.
With a food journal, you’ll be able to see what foods you’re eating and where you should clean up your diet or make changes. You’ll notice that some foods improve your mood and make you feel better while other foods make you feel sluggish.
Monitor the foods closely, and by watching what you eat, you’ll be able to lose weight more effectively. There will be a lower chance of accidentally eating more calories than you intended.
The third point to be aware of is your training program. Depending on your weight, you may either be able to do high-intensity training, or you may need to engage in easier forms of training until you can lose enough weight to handle the tougher training.
It doesn’t matter where you start as long as you keep challenging yourself and improving on your personal bests. This is why you need to track your training. When you keep improving on your personal bests, your strength and stamina will improve. You can read how to Improve Your Stamina with Running here. Your metabolic rate will go up and you’ll burn more fat.
Last but not least, you should weigh yourself on a scale once a week. Besides that, you should use a tape measure to measure your chest, waist and hips once every 3 weeks. Taking photos of your body once a month will be very useful too.
These 3 methods will give you a full picture of just how well you’re progressing. Don’t despair if, on some weeks, you don’t see any weight loss. Your body could be in a plateau state as it adapts. Once it recovers, it will get back to shedding more fat.
If your weight goes up, check your record and see if you’ve been slipping up with your diet. If you’re not, you may have gained muscle. Give yourself another week or two to see if the weight keeps coming off.
By monitoring and tracking your progress, you’ll be able to make course corrections along the way and fix what’s not working. If it’s steady progress, pat yourself on the back and keep going. What matters is that you track your journey every step of the way. So why you understanding why you must track your weight loss is so important. The little steps you take will go a long way.
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This website is written by a regular human. I am not a Health Professional. Please get professional medical advice for your specific health needs.