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Are you measuring fat loss progress correctly?

Posted on Jan 05 in Featureby Michael StewartPrintText Resizer Text Resizer

The scale can be a useful tool in our constant struggle with losing and keeping the weight off, however all too often I see people checking their weight obsessively.  When they see a pound of weight gained, they freak out and might even stop doing many of the things that they are doing right (weight training).  Just because a pound of weight is gained on the scale, does not mean you are failing in your weight loss goals.  As a matter of fact, most people are judging their progress in their fitness routine entirely wrong.  It should not be our goal to “lose weight” but it should be our goal to “lose fat”.

This does not necessarily correspond with a drop in weight on the scale.  For years most of us were taught to watch these scale carefully and it is a hard habit to get out of.  Our bodies can fluctuate several pounds a day based on what time of day it is and our daily hydration and salt intake.  None of this means you have burned or gained fat.

The big problem with the scale as your judge of progress becomes clear when you start to add lean muscle to your body.  Muscle weighs more than fat, and your body weight may actually increase slightly as you become healthier and drop fat.

Let’s say you have been following a resistance training routine for several months, you’ve gotten stronger and added muscle to your frame.  You might just see an increase of body weight on the scale.  Assuming this weight gain is bad is not the correct thing to do.  It is actually a good thing and we are interested in FAT loss, not weight loss correct?

The more muscle your body has, the more energy and calories it burns while at rest.  It also means your metabolism will increase and you will become more efficient at burning fat.  The measure of success we should be paying attention to is body fat percentage.

Most men are happy  with their bodies when they achieve a body fat percentage of 12-15% and most women are satisfied in the 16-20% range.  An inexpensive skin caliper may be a wise investment to aid you in tracking your body fat percentage.  If it is going down as you measure as the weeks pass, this is a sure sign of success!  Another easy method, what do you look like in the mirror?  Take a picture once a week and compare it to view your progress.

Some of us lose fat and gain muscle easily, some of us don’t.  We are all a product of our genes and have inherited our physical characteristics.  This may take more work for you than for others, you just have to keep on trying.  You can only compare yourself to you, everyone is different.  Are you trying your best?  You have the power to reshape and transform what you were given.  With the combination of the right knowledge and developing new habits, you can burn fat fast and make astounding improvements in your body. The fitness industry often uses the genetically superior to advertise their products and programs and easily deceive you into thinking all you have to do is follow their advice to look like a cover boy or girl.  This is simply just not the case and one of the mis-truths exposed by the Fat Burning Furnace Program.  We highly recommend Fat Burning Furnace here at FitBodyZone, learn more about this amazing program by clicking here.

Entry Details: This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 4:08 am, by Michael Stewart, and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print This!

12 Comments

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    March 27, 2010 at 10:56 am

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