How To Measure Weight Loss / Gain Without Weighing Yourself
Now if that’s not a sexy title, nothing ever will be.
This is actually something I’ve encountered a lot while doing nutrition coaching. Not just the idea of “not weighing myself,” but the overall de-stressing of the process.
We have enough in our lives to create stress and guilt around - food shouldn’t be one of the things adding to that.
So as a part of what I do, we remove anything that can cause undue mental stress to make sure we’re able to stick to what we need to get done. Remember, consistency trumps perfection.
And if weighing yourself causes this kind of worry, cool, remove it! Here are a few ways to track that progress without the scale:
Take a picture of yourself and save it somewhere secret. I had a client one time that was very upfront that using the scale would create some huge anxiety for him. He’d dreaded it every time in the past and even seeing small changes would pull him completely off track. Awesome - having that kind of self awareness is a blessing and helps me push you in the right direction. I had him take a picture, hide it somewhere (no need to stare at it all the time) and then compare it every 3 weeks. Why 3 weeks? That’s how long it takes to truly see if anything is working (or needs to be adjusted). Then in 6 to 9 weeks we see major change and feel better overall.
Find a shirt or a pair of pants that you love but they’re just a bit too snug or uncomfortable (we want this goal to be attainable and we also want to set short, realistic goals - not size XXL to a S in 6 weeks…). Use this item of clothing as your measuring stick. If you try it on in 3 or 4 weeks and it fits better (even if it’s not perfect) then we’re making progress! A former client was stoked when he could get back into his favorite shirt his partner had bought him. Needless to say, this progress tool made more than one person happy in this instance!
Track gym performance and recovery. Even if your overall goal is weight related, if you’re kicking ass in the gym, chances are you’re gaining muscle and / or losing the fat that was potentially holding you back. This is probably one of the best ways to not only track your progress but to distract you from the “mundanity” of a nutrition phase. I used this years back when on a particularly hard cut. Instead of stressing through the day to day “checking off” of the nutrition numbers, I let that be homework in the background to help me get in tighter shape for some calisthenics goals. I dropped the weight I was hoping for and was able to use that to get my first muscle up.
