By Chris Cano
Forget the scale! It is a liar!
When it comes to tracking your results, you should absolutely forget the scale. Why? Simply because of body composition. Most people have a lean mass deficit, by eating well, you will lose fat, but gain some lean mass at the same time. So for example, if you lose 4kg of fat and gain 2kg of lean mass, you will only have lost 2kg (-4kg+2kg) according to you scale while in reality you will have burnt 4kg of fat. Moreover, if you eat bad, you will maybe lose 4kg on the scale but actually having lost 3kg of lean mass and 1kg of fat.
So what is the solution? Forget thinking in terms of scale but track your results in term of body fat percentage. There are multiple ways to track the body composition. Some are not accurate for example, impedance scale unless they are very expensive, some are really accurate but are too expensive like Hydrostatic weighing. If you have the opportunity to use this and can afford it, do it otherwise you have other cheaper solutions.
The importance of taking photos
While you may think that it is hard to see results on photos, I can assure you that if you lose only 2-3kg of pure fat, it will show on photographs. It is essential to track your results with photos.
Using Fat Calipers
The best and cheapest alternative is using calipers to track your body fat percentage. You can make someone take your measurements (some gyms offer this service but be careful to always have the same person taking results as they can vary), or take these measurements yourself. You will then know your body fat percentage. When the measurements are taken correctly, calipers have an accuracy of around 1% which is very good.
Using measurement tape
Calipers are great but if you really have a lot of fat to lose you will have to begin with tape measurement. Even if you don't have so much to lose it is great to track results. Everybody loves knowing that they lost a few cm/inches.
What about calorie counting?
Counting calories is hard...
NO IT'S NOT!
Counting calories is not that difficult, you just need to count them in round numbers and everything becomes simple. Count them by 50, 100 or 200. Plan your meals that way and after a few times only you will KNOW without having to check how many calories are in your food.
What do I mean?
Because an example is worth a hundred words, let me give you an example with a meal. Let's say you are on a 2100 kcal diet. You could eat 400 kcal for breakfast, 200kcal for a snack, 700 kcal for lunch, 100kcal for another snack and 700 kcal for dinner.
Let's plan a simple, typical lunch for working people: a sandwich.
- 140gr of Baguette is worth 400 kcal
- 100gr of chicken or non-fat ham is worth 100 kcal
- Very light mayonnaise or low fat cottage cheese is 100kcal
- One boiled egg in slices is less than 100kcal
- Lettuce and spices are so low in calories they don't have to be counted
Here we are, 700 kcal meal. Was it difficult? No and once you have done it once or twice it becomes natural and you don't even have to think anymore.
What is important to notice here is that you will need to buy an accurate scale to weigh your food. It is essential, simple and effective. You can already find some good ones at around 20 €.
What is there to remember?
In a nutshell, count calories, it's easy and try to monitor your results with fat calipers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Cano
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