Tracking Progress

from www.builtlean.com

I get a lot of questions on how to accurate track body fat percentage. While there are many ways to do so, most will variability. Let’s go over a few:

• Calipers- body fat calipers are great but it’s only as good as the person utilizing it. It also can be pretty invasive for the client, since the personal trainer or performance coach is literally tugging on your fat…And for personal trainers it doesn’t take a bit of time.
• Biological Impedance Analysis (BIA) basically sends an electrical signal (no pain) through your body and will give you a reading. While this is one of the simplest and least invasive, it’s also not the most accurate. With that said it will still give you a baseline to work off of.
• Bod Pod: the bod pod is one of the most accurate ways of measuring your body fat percentage. After a few height/weight measurements, you’ll sit in a pod in tights and something similar to a swimmers cap. The downfall with this is that you’ll need to goto a speciality area, most gyms do not have this, and cost will be dependent on the area.

Easier Solution…

PICTURES!

Pictures are a simple and effective resource to help track your body fat progress. It’s non-invasive and the only variability in this is the time of day and location.

Simple Rules:

• Take picture at the same time/day. Best to take in the morning after you’ve done your bathroom duties…and before you eat. Who wants to take a bloated pic as their before? *watch the video below
• Replicate the exact pic, this means to mark the same spot and time of day. If you take a pic during a bright day and at a different angle the pic will look different. So when you save your pic make sure to note time and location.

Here’s what a blaot can do to you: