They simply carry on with their program each week without taking any concrete measurements in the hopes that they’re on the right track.

If it’s serious results that you’re after, this is an obvious and costly error.

After all, if you don’t have an objective way to measure your overall changes in body composition and appearance, how will you know for sure if your program is even working?

Accurately tracking your progress will allow you to see if your program is being carried out as efficiently as it could be, and will help you to identify areas of your fat burning approach that could possibly be improved.

Here is a very basic overview of 5 progress tracking methods that every serious fat loss trainee should be integrating into their program…

1) Changes In Bodyweight

This is the most common method of fat loss progress tracking that is used, and while it should definitely be included in your box of tools, relying on it as the sole means of analyzing your results is an obvious mistake.

The reason is simple: tracking your overall body weight does not take into account your body composition.

When it all comes down to it, changing your body composition is the ultimate goal of any effective fat loss program. Your goal is not merely to lose body weight, but rather to lose body fat while maintaining muscle.

For this reason, overall bodyweight is better used as a variable to accurately determine the following two changes…

2) Changes In Body Fat Percentage
3) Changes In Lean Body Mass

Since your ultimate goal is to lose body fat while maintaining muscle, measuring your body fat percentage and lean body mass is easily the most tell-tale sign as to whether or not your program is taking you in the right direction.

There are a ton of different methods that can be used to measure body fat, but for the majority of individuals, skin-fold measurements are going to be the most practical and accurate procedure.

Most of the body fat that you’re concerned with losing is located directly underneath your skin. By pinching and measuring the thickness on different sites of your body with a caliper, you can get a pretty reliable reading as to your overall body fat levels.

Once you have determined your body fat percentage, you can then combine it with your overall bodyweight to determine your body’s overall fat mass and lean body mass.

The formula to calculate this is simple…

1) Multiply your bodyweight by your body fat percentage. (This will give you your fat mass in pounds)

2) Subtract your fat mass from your bodyweight. (This will give you your lean body mass in pounds)

Here’s an example…

We’ll use an individual who weighs 200 pounds at 16% body fat.

200 X 0.16 = 32
200 – 32 = 168

This individual has 32 pounds of fat mass and 168 pounds of lean body mass.

This is definitely the most important method of progress tracking as it will show you exactly how much body fat you are losing and how this is affecting your lean body mass from week to week.

4) Bodypart Measurements.

If you’re trying to lose body fat, then most likely you’re aiming to decrease your overall body size as well. In order to determine if your body shape is actually changing, you can use a basic measuring tape once per week to check on all of your major body parts.

These are the bodyparts I would recommend measuring:

- Chest
- Waist
- Hips
- Upper arm
- Thigh

If you want to get really detailed you can also measure your forearm, calf and neck, but these bodyparts will most likely not show any significant change in measurement from week to week.

As an overall guideline I’d stick to the 5 body parts listed above.

5) Overall Appearance.

If you’re like most individuals, then your ultimate bottom line goal in losing body fat is to change the way you look. For this reason, you should certainly use your changes in appearance as a gauge for our progress.

There are 3 ways I would recommend using this tool…

a) Appearance in the mirror
b) Before/after pictures
c) Objective opinions from friends and family

I would recommend making use of the majority of these progress tracking methods on a once-per-week basis, first thing in the morning before any meals or workout sessions. It’s important that you keep the same conditions each time you measure, as your activity level and diet can affect the readings quite significantly.

If you haven’t been tracking your progress up to this point, I would strongly suggest getting started on it. If you don’t have an objective way to measure your results each week, you can never know for sure if your program is working as well as it could be.

I’ve made the whole process easier on you by providing an exclusive collection of printable booklets that you can use to track your progress with. These booklets are just one small component of my full-blown “Real Deal Body Transformation System”, which you can gain instant download access to by visiting here: The Real Deal Body Transformation System.

By Sean Nalewanyj
Fat Loss Expert & Best-Selling Fitness Author

About The Author
Once an awkward, out-of-shape “social outcast”, Sean Nalewanyj is now a renowned fat loss and muscle building expert, best-selling fitness author, and creator of the wildly popular online fat loss program: “The Real Deal Body Transformation System“. Learn how to burn fat and lose weight quickly, safely and permanently by visiting: HowToBurnFat.com

What is metabolism?

Although there are many scientific ways for me explain it, and I could make it seem really confusing like most of the so-called experts do, but I won’t. I’m going to give you my extremely simple and easy to understand definition… metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to sustain life

I should also note that your body, yes yours, burns calories 24 hours a day, everyday – regardless of whether or not you workout. Remember that your body needs energy all the time, even while you’re asleep and that is why skipping meals is the absolute worst thing you can do if your goal is to lose weight (body fat).

Before we go any further let’s talk about what affects metabolism…

What affects metabolism?

What do you think has the biggest impact on your metabolism? Activity levels? Your Thyroid? Age?

WRONG! WRONG! and WRONG! Activity levels, Thyroid function, and age do affect metabolism but not nearly as much as…

Any idea? It’s muscle tissue! The more muscle you have the more calories you burn regardless of how active you are, how old you are, etc. It’s live tissue and it’s there working for you and burning calories 24 hours a day – each and every day!

Here’s a list of some of the factors affecting metabolism in order of greatest impact to least:

• muscle tissue (you already know why this is on the top of the list)
• meal frequency (the longer you go between meals the more your metabolism slows down to conserve energy)
• activity level (important but doesn’t make any difference if you don’t match your eating to your expenditure)
• food choices (ex. low-fat diets tend to result in poor hormone production which leads to a slower metabolism)
• hydration (over 70% of bodily functions take place in water – not enough water causes all your systems to slow down and unnecessary stress)
• genetics (some people have higher metabolisms than others – you can’t change genetics but you can still win the battle!)
• hormone production and function (think you have a slow thyroid? it’s not likely – before you go blame it on the thyroid first stabilize your blood sugar and throw in some progressive exercise 2-3 times each week)
• stress (stress also can slow metabolism by placing extra stress and strain on numerous systems. plus, many people tend to overeat when “stressed out”)

Why does it slow down?

How many times have you heard someone say, “as soon as you hit 30 your metabolism slows down”? Maybe you’ve said it. I know I hear it all the time and I got tired of hearing it so I did a little research and found that the metabolism does NOT slow down significantly due to aging but DOES due to a lack of muscle. And, you don’t lose muscle quickly due to aging either but due to a decrease or lack of physical stress.

So, the major cause of a slowing metabolism is three fold…

1. you lose muscle due to the lack of physical stress
2. your body cannibalizes muscle when it needs energy but you won’t supply any because you are “dieting” and skipping meals
3. your activity levels tend to decrease as you get older

So now that we know the problem… what’s the solution? Address those 3 issues! I’ve found through years of experience helping hundreds of people, that increasing your metabolism and getting rid of that excess body fat can often times be quite easy! Yet you’ll hear of all these experts telling you how hard it is and why you need to buy their new diet program, supplement, or fitness contraption.

It’s not that hard, it doesn’t have to be confusing, and you don’t need any of that crap! All you need is an understanding of how your body works and the willingness to make some small changes.

Here’s my basic formula for jump starting your metabolism:

Step 1 – Stop the storage of new fat

It doesn’t make any sense to start an exercise program if you just end up adding new fat later that day. This is a problem that is very common among people who start an exercise in an attempt to lose weight.

See the problem is this…

We don’t get fat due to a lack of exercise – we get fat because we supply the body with more calories than it needs at a given time. So the solution has nothing to do with exercise – it’s all about your eating! And I’m not saying you have to eat low-fat, super clean and healthy diet consisting of salad and tofu only. You can still eat the foods you like IF you can give the body just the amount it needs.

The key is to give the body the energy it needs, but just that amount and not a bunch extra because extra is extra is extra, it doesn’t matter what it’s from. Salad can be stored as fat, celery can be stored as fat – if it results in extra it can be stored as fat. I should also note that not all extra energy is stored in the fat cells and I will touch on that later.

So forget about trying to burn off any fat unless you can first stop storing new fat! Again, you do that by matching your eating to your activity level. This means small, balanced meals or snacks every 2-3 hours and the amount of calories in each feeding should depend on how active you are at that time of day.

Step 2 – Attack the existing fat

This requires a combination approach consisting of stable blood sugar/energy levels, and progressive cardiovascular/aerobic exercise and strength training.

We already talked about how important stable blood sugar and energy levels are and how to match your eating to your activity level so now I’d like to cover the exercise part of the equation.

In order for the exercise to even be worth your time you must be sure it’s progressive. Just because you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week, that doesn’t mean your body has to burn off that unwanted body fat! You have to force the body to make changes and improvements and the ONLY way to do that is to consistently provide a stimulus or stress that is greater than what the body is used to.

Here are some general guidelines on how you can make your exercise progressive and productive:

Strength training

• Change exercises frequently (every 2-4 weeks)
• Increase resistance
• Perform more reps
• Slower reps
• Advanced techniques

Cardiovascular training

• Increase speed/resistance
• Perform intervals
• Increase distance traveled
• Cross train by performing numerous activities

I should also say that it is extremely important that you have a well thought out and detailed plan to follow. You can’t just say “ok, now I know what to do” and then try a little of this here and little of that there. You need a roadmap. If you are serious about achieving your weight loss and fitness goals I highly recommend you get the help of a professional. Whether that means one on one, personal fitness training or just a do-it-yourself fitness plan – your chances of success are much greater.

In closing, please remember, it doesn’t have to be confusing. Hopefully this information has shown you how easy it can be if you know what you are doing.

Jesse Cannone, from the Healthy Back Institute is a certified personal fitness trainer, post-rehab specialist, nutritionist, and a national fitness presenter.