How and where to take body measurements

Hello everyone!

We are all familiar with keeping track of progress utilizing a scale. Scale weight is only one of many tools to help us determine progress though. Another objective tool to keep track of progress is to utilize a measuring tape to record our body measurements.

Scale weight does not give us any insight into our fat mass vs lean body mass. It is literally just an indicator of how much gravitational pull you have towards Earth. The most accurate way to figure out your fat vs lean mass would be to go get tested, such as a DEXA scan. However, we aren't all ready to spend almost $100 to get tested.

A much cheaper alternative is to take your body measurements at home and keep track of them over time.

As you make progress in your fitness journey (by sticking to a fitness program and hitting your protein requirements) you will develop muscle mass which takes up less room than fat mass. Therefore, your body measurements will decrease (or increase if you are in a calorie surplus) over time.

This is what you want if your goal is fat loss or to become smaller.

You want your body measurements to shrink. However, many get fixated on the number on the scale and that it is not going down quickly enough so obviously their diet and/or fitness plan must not be working, they throw in the towel, and repeat the cycle with another diet and/or exercise program.

Instead of looking at just the number on the scale, take a look at your body measurements and compare them every 2-4 weeks. You may have only gone down 1-2 pounds but you might have also lost a full inch from your waist and another inch from your hips - this is huge!

Don't get hung up on the common belief that muscle weighs more than fat. This is not true. One pound of fat weighs the same exact amount as one pound of muscle. However, one pound of fat takes up more room (higher volume) than one pound of muscle (lower volume) because it is less dense (density = mass/volume).

So when you check your weight, also check your measurements and compare to what they were 2-4 weeks ago. Have your measurements gone down but your scale weight not so much? This means that you are losing fat! I bet that your clothes fit differently and you see the differences in the mirror despite not too of a shift in your scale weight.

So how and where do you take body measurements? Check out the video below to learn exactly how to! Below the video I have included a printable for you to use and track your progress.

Body Measurement Template.

Download • 117KB

You can save this PDF to your computer or phone and edit it on adobe PDF reader to add dates and measurements.

If you don't have a measurement tape, here are the ones I use:

If you have any questions regarding body measurements, don't hesitate to comment below or email me at contact@fitnessxd.com.

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