How to Track Weight Loss Progress

I have always been data-driven.

I like to have a record of all kinds of things— from my exercise logs to my nutrition, to whenever I’m pursuing a project; I like to have data in hand to look back upon and see where I made mistakes;

So I can learn from things I could have done better.

And follow a more optimal path to reach my goals.

Without data in hand, you don’t have a guiding North star that shows you the direction you should be moving in.

What gets measured gets managed.

When it comes to measuring weight loss progress, for most people, the data point of focus is their scale weight or body weight.

Problems arise when people get obsessed with or emotionally invested in their weighing scale number.

Your scale weight is just a data point.

It helps you determine whether you’re moving in the right direction; if there needs to be any change in your approach.

By itself it doesn’t mean anything.

Many people also track their body weight sporadically. Some would step on the weighing scale on a random day, see the number, and react with either happiness or devastation (depending on what they expected to see vs what they saw).

This is pointless.

If you’re going to track your body weight, you have to ensure that most variables around the measurement process are kept same every time.

You cannot track your body weight one day in the morning, the next day in the evening. Some days after going to the washroom, other days after drinking a tall glass of water— that won’t work.

Here is the right way to take your body weight reading.

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, right after your bathroom routine. And do this wearing minimal clothing.

Use the same scale every single time, because different scales can have slightly varying calibration errors. But if you use the same scale, the relative error becomes effectively 0.

Don’t eat or drink anything before weighing yourself.

Don’t weigh yourself multiple times during the day.

Later in the day your body weight would increase because you’ll have more food and water in your system. This does not give you a clear idea of reality.

Taking your body weight reading is not for your psychological satisfaction.

It is to determine if you’re making progress and to help you correct course if necessary.

Once you have collected the data point, that task is done. Now all you can do is spot trends over a long period of time.

A single data point means nothing on its own.

Your body weight can change on a day-to-day basis depending on if you had more food the previous night, if you had a heavy meal, if you ate more salty foods, if you’re in a certain phase of your menstrual cycle. There are too many variables at play.

What matters is the general trend in your body weight over weeks and months.

Once you measure your body weight, note it down in a notepad or in a spreadsheet.

After you have done this for the next 7 days, calculate the weekly average. Do this every week for the duration of your entire program and spot changes in the weekly average body weight.

Depending on where you are in terms of your body fat levels, the optimal rate of weight loss from week to week would vary.

If you’re someone who has a lot of body weight to lose, you can aim to lose around 1.2-1.5% of your current body weight every week.

In most cases, you’d aim to lose around 1% of your current body weight.

eg., If you’re currently 70 kgs, and have around 10 kgs to lose. You can safely aim to drop on average 0.7 kgs every week.

Track the change in weekly averages. Is it close to your target rate of loss?

If it is, then you are making good progress.

If it is much higher than that, you should increase your food intake to lose weight at a more reasonable pace.

Losing weight is a marathon, not a race.

If you speed up the process, you won’t sustain it long-term. You may even plateau after a while and have a hard time going past that.

If the weight loss is too slow, you need to increase your activity levels first. You may also have to decrease your food intake. Both of these together will bring you up to an optimal rate of weight loss.

You should track your body measurements.

Measurements have to be taken weekly, not daily.

The more a variable tends to fluctuate, the better it is to have multiple data points so you can average out the values. That is the case for your body weight.

But for body measurements, weekly readings are perfect. Body measurements don’t tend to fluctuate much.

Many times you may not see a change in scale weight, but you will see a change in your body measurements.

That is still good progress.

Take body measurements in centimetres, not inches.

Centimetres let you record even minor changes in measurements. This will keep you motivated. Whereas changes in inches can take 2-3 weeks to show up sometimes.

Here are the body parts you need to measure:

1. Chest: Relaxed. Across the bust line if you’re a woman. Or across the nipples if you’re a man.

2. Upper arm: Flexed. At widest point.

3. Waist: Neutral (don’t suck in your tummy or expand it). At narrowest point right above belly button.

4. Hips: Circumference at widest point of glutes.

5. Thighs: At widest point of thigh right under glutes.

Some people like to measure both sides for each of the limbs and then take the average. That’s unnecessary.

If you always measure on the same side for arms and legs, you’ll be able to keep track of progress just as well.

All of this may seem like a lot of work.

However if you’re trying to bring about a tangible change to how your body looks and feels, you need to have this data in place.

If your goals are aesthetic, this data is even more crucial.

Without a fair idea of where you need to add more muscle in your body, you’d be training blind.

Think of it this way.

During science class in school, when you went to the chemistry lab to perform experiments, you would not rely on guesswork to know if you’re performing them correctly.

You would not be solely reliant on your memory to keep track of the readings.

You’d note everything down. You’d use precise instruments to keep track of data so you can be sure of what you’re doing.

You didn’t randomly mix chemicals and hope that something desirable materialised.

Your body is a biological machine which works under similar scientific principles.

In order to bring about any tangible change, you have to follow the scientific method.

This means tracking data and altering the right variables to achieve the outcome you desire.

You can send a rocket to the moon through trial and error as well, but it would take you billions of years to get there, if at all.

Similarly you can also achieve your weight loss goals through guesswork.

But if you have data, it will speed up the process.

Whenever you track data, it should be with purpose.

Say, after a day-long fast wherein you deprived yourself of food and water, you stepped on the weighing scale. Seeing a smaller body weight number might make you happy.

The above exercise however served no purpose.

If you spend an hour in the sauna sweating; that will dehydrate you and cause a loss of water weight. Weighing yourself right after that will show a weight reduction on the scale.

But that isn’t the kind of weight loss you are looking to achieve.

You want to lose fat. And that doesn’t happen overnight.

So don’t use these tools for psychological relief. Use them as part of the overall weight loss process in a systematic manner.

When I first start working with my weight loss clients, many of them have no idea what they’re doing wrong.

But once they have enough data in hand— they have been tracking their measurements, body weight, food intake, daily activity levels— they are able to pinpoint their own shortcomings.

Once data is in hand, you can devise a strategy to reach your goals.

Otherwise you’d be reliant on short-term tactics like crash diets, meal plans and diet charts— which will get you quick results, but you would not know why you got those results.

And once the program is over, you’ll go back to your old ways and regain the lost weight back.

Avoid this.

Data makes you self-aware. And awareness is the first step to bring about change.

So track the data; don’t avoid it. And don’t get emotionally invested in it.

Use it the way it’s meant to be. As a tool.