You don’t wanna be that guy, and drive a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. This is why you need to track your body composition. Starting yesterday. Tracking your body composition allows you to evaluate the results of your efforts. The faster you get this feedback, the better off you [...]
You don’t wanna be that guy, and drive a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. This is why you need to track your body composition. Starting yesterday.
Tracking your body composition allows you to evaluate the results of your efforts. The faster you get this feedback, the better off you are.
Example: You’re doing Super Mass Gainer Program X 1200 V4 in order to build muscle. Two months into the program, you’ve gained ten pounds; 0% of which are muscle mass, 100% of which are body fat.
But you don’t know you’ve been getting these sub-par results, because you haven't been tracking your body composition. And, because you don’t know you’ve been getting sub-par results, you trek on for an additional six months.
No bueno.
Tracking isn’t sexy.
It’s (often) boring.
But it’s important.
So it's happening.
How to track body composition
For all intents and purposes, “tracking changes in body composition” is synonymous with measuring the amount of muscle mass and body fat you have on a regular basis. You probably already do this, informally, without thinking. You look in the mirror from time to time; you notice if your belts or your clothes fit differently.
But you need to standardize the process, which is tricky. Because, as I mentioned here, the most valid and reliable ways to measure your fatness and your muscularity aren't convenient.
Instead of using the most reliable methods, you have to track a variety of things that have some (not all) of their tentacles tied to muscle and/or fat. Then you have to piece together a picture of what’s going on under your skin as best you can, given the data in front of you.
It’s like trying to measure the temperature of a city without a thermometer. You have no way of obtaining a super precise measurement, but you can (a) observe what kind of attire people are wearing, (b) observe the wildlife, (c) hate me for using silly analogies, (d) hate me for not knowing when to end silly analogies, (e) etc…
Expectations are everything
It seems only natural, at this point, to uncover the “variety of things that have some (not all) of their tentacles tied to muscle and/or fat.”
But, first, I have to talk expectations.
You're tracking body composition to gather feedback on your efforts; you're seeing if your efforts are yielding the expected (desired) results. If your expectations are sour, then everything will be sour.
Example?
You do Super Mass Gainer Program X 1200 V5 because you want to build muscle (and V4 sucked, remember?). Two months into the program, you get a DEXA scan. You've gained three pounds of muscle, and you've lost three pounds of fat. This is tremendous progress.
But, after you get the DEXA results, you quit. You were expecting to gain 2400 pounds of muscle and lose 232566756 pounds of fat in the two month time frame. “Dammit,” you think to yourself, “this isn’t working. I have to call the audible, per Anthony Mychal’s suggestion. I don’t wanna drive a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction.”
Three notes on expectations
Given the impact of expectations, I'm gonna hit you with proper expectations within each metric you're tracking. But there are three things worth noting about “proper” expectations, each of which tie into the following idea:
Whether you realize it or not, when you're trying to lose fat (or build muscle) and reach the solid base, you're conducting a science experiment. You're asserting that XYZ behaviors will lead to PQR outcome(s).
- XYZ = strength/resistance training, eating the right number of calories, using a bodybuilding-ish macronutrient split, etc…
- PQR = fat loss and/or muscle growth
Tracking your body composition is all about keeping an eye on PQR in order to see whether XYZ is doing the job its supposed to be doing.
Expectations about PQR hinge on XYZ, so you can't have “proper” expectations without qualifying XYZ.
First, comprehensive behavior change.
The expectations I'm giving you assume a total lifestyle makeover, which means two things:
First, you need to be on a solid nutrition plan that has you eating the right amount of calories, hitting your macros, and nourishing yourself — see this. Second, you need to be doing some kind of progressive resistance training program, like this one.
This contrasts a more conservative approach. For instance, say you're trying to lose fat, so you stop drinking carbonated sodas. That’s your sole strategy. You’re not worried about strength training, or eating more vegetables. The only thing on your mind is carbonated sodas.
There’s NOTHING wrong with this approach. Focused, small behavior changes is a VERY GOOD strategy. BUT. BUT. You shouldn’t expect to lose fat on par with someone that's undergoing a total lifestyle makeover.
Second, accurate behavior change.
How closely are you tracking your food intake? Are you making sure you’re eating the right amount of proteins, carbs, and fats? You should be tracking your efforts just as closely as you're tracking your results.
I coach Steve Kamb, owner of NerdFitness.
Just a few months ago, he wanted to shed some pounds. I gave him calories and macros to work with, but they weren't working.
Or so we thought.
Kamb dug a little deeper, and he started to weigh his food. He thought 1/2 cup of oats was 40g, but when he weighed it out, it was actually 50g.
He was using Chipotle's website as a reference. He started bringing his bowls home and weighing them. The bowls in real life were always bigger than what the website said they'd be.
You don't HAVE to weigh your food. In the example above, Kamb could have just been like, “I'm not losing fat. Guess I'm eating too much. I'll eat less oats on a daily basis.” But this ideology undermines the psychological battles inherent within this game. Because it's more like, “I'm not losing fat yet I APPEAR TO BE DOING ALL THE THINGS RIGHT AHHH WHAt'S WrrionnggzgGGG AM I broken234?”
Suffice to say, keeping a food journal and a training journal is never a bad idea. The more you know about XYZ, the better.
Third, strict adherence.
This should go without saying, but I’m saying: you have to be consistent with your efforts (XYZ). Too often, people email me saying, “I’m doing XYZ, but I haven’t lost any fat. Oh, yeah, uhhh, I also cut loose on the weekends, and I miss one or two training sessions per week.”
It might be useful to get a monthly wall calendar. When you do exactly what you’re supposed to do for the day, from a nutrition standpoint, cross an X over the day in red ink. For training, use blue ink.
Any time you flub something, don’t cross an X over the day.
If your calendar is filled with consistent X’s, then you can use the expectations below as an anchor. But if your calendar is inconsistent, then you should worry, instead, about how to create consistent habits and behaviors.
Don’t do this
One last note before diving into what (and how) to track: the metrics compound. Using any of these metrics solo (not Han) is no bueno. Don’t be no bueno. Nobody likes no bueno. Not even Han.
FIRST
TRACK SCALE WEIGHT
Scale weight is a popular metric to track. The problem with scale weight: everything inside of you is weight. Your bone is weight. Your liver is weight. Your muscle is weight. Your fat is weight.
As they say, the fastest way to lose weight is to chop off an arm.
Most people associate [weight loss = fat loss] and [weight gain = muscle gain]. But things aren't that clean. If you're trying to gain muscle, weight gained can be body fat. If you're trying to lose fat, weight lost can be muscle mass.
Beyond that, another problem with using weight: if you lose ten pounds of fat and gain ten pounds of muscle, your weight wouldn’t change, yet your body would be undergoing an incredible transformation.
How to track scale weight
Step on the scale every morning before you eat or drink anything. This is key. You want to standardize your measurements as much as possible.
Systems for scale weight
Record the number somewhere, alongside the date. Use a notes app on your phone, or use your phone to take a picture of the number. Perhaps go analog and keep a Moleskine tablet in the bathroom. Doesn’t matter. Do what’s most convenient.
Assembling the data
You track scale weight daily, but the focus is only the weekly average. Record your daily number with a hint of apathy, knowing the weekly average is more important.
Average weekly weight is preferred because your weight can fluctuate by pounds on a daily basis, and these fluctuations typically AREN'T a byproduct of muscle mass or body fat.
Maybe you’re used to evacuating your bowels every morning, after you weigh yourself. But, yesterday, you ate Mexican food and did your business at midnight. That’ll influence your morning weight.
Even if you pig out and eat everything in sight, the weight you gain overnight WILL NOT be body fat. It’ll be fluid, which you’ll be retaining more of (than normal) because of a higher salt intake. It’ll also be the extra food bulk swimming inside your intestines.
Weight: muscle expectations
The following muscle gain expectations assume you’re on a solid strength training program and not starving yourself — you have to be eating enough. The majority of “average” people should shoot to gain around one pound of muscle per month. But, hold on…
NOOB GAINS
Beginners can gain muscle quicker than the average above. Perhaps two or three pounds per month. This beginner muscular honeymoon phase is often referred to as the “noob gain” phase.
Also, despite typically needing a caloric surplus to build muscle, you tend to gain muscle even during a calorie deficit during a noob gain phase.
ADVANCED GAINS
Gaining one pound of muscle per month seems sloth, but think about this. If you were able to gain one pound of muscle per month, then, after ten years of training you’d have an extra 100+ pounds of muscle on your body.
That’s insane.
The more advanced you are, the more difficult it is to build muscle. At some point, you'll drop below the one pound per month average, across the year.
CLEAN GAINS
If you’re juggling fat loss and muscle gain simultaneously, you won't be optimized for muscle growth. Meaning, you have to accept the fact that you're probably gonna gain muscle at a slower rate.
If you’re going on an “all out” bulk, then the rates above are solid… but you should also expect to gain some body fat. Typically, 50:50 is a decent ratio for non-genetic freaks, from a muscle-to-fat gain ratio standpoint. For every pound of muscle you build, expect to build a pound of fat. Genetic freaks (and naturally lean dudes that never had much body fat) will have a more favorable bulking ratio. But 50:50 is standard for us mortals.
HELPFUL HINT
I stick to the one pound per month average to anchor my expectations, which makes it tough to use scale weight as the LONE metric for muscle growth. Given that your body can fluctuate by pounds daily, it's tough to decode whether or not you’ve gained one single pound of muscle mass over the span of a month.
Scale weight is more useful, however, to help you determine if you're going overboard (or underboard). If you’re two months into a bulk and you’re 15 pounds heavier than you used to be, then maybe you’re eating too much. Likewise, if you're ten pounds less, then maybe you're eating like a bird.
Weight: fat loss expectations
Fat loss is similar to muscle gain, in that different people can expect different rates of progress. The more fat you have, the easier it’ll be to lose (and the quicker you’ll probably lose it). The less fat you have, the harder it’ll be to lose (and the slower you’ll probably lose it).
The average fat loss rate (for a skinny-fat dude) is around 0.5 to 1 pound (around 0.5 kg) per week. Like I said, you might lose weight quicker at first. But, once you get down to 20% or 15% body fat, things will slow down. They’ll slow even more once you go below 15%.
BEGINNER’S LUCK
Everyone (not just skinny-fat dudes) will likely lose more weight during the first few weeks of a diet. This might be from fat loss, but it’s mostly from fluid loss. Don’t let this rapid initial weight loss anchor your expectations.
I lost five pounds the first week of my diet, which means I should expect to lose five pounds every week!
No.
BIGGEST LOSER
I’m specifying skinny-fat dudes because those that are obese (and super obese) will be able to lose weight much more rapidly at first, even after accounting for fluid loss. You might have seen those reality TV shows, where super obese people lose 100+ pounds in the first few months. Like I said, the more fat you have, the easier (and quicker) it’ll come off. But your progress will slow and slow and slow…
UNDERBOARD
Just like with muscle gain, you can use the extremes as a guide. If you’re under 20% body fat and you’re losing weight at a rapid pace after the first few weeks, you might want to make sure you aren’t eating too little (starving yourself).
Rapid weight loss seems fantastic, but it’s not desirable because it usually means you’re gonna be losing more muscle tissue alongside the fat. Combine this with the fact that you won’t be nourishing yourself, and you won’t be in a good place.
Weight: wiggly expectations
The physical world is wiggly. Clouds, mountains, trees, people, are all wiggly. And only when human beings get at working things, they build buildings in straight lines and try and make out that the world isn’t really wiggly. But here are we, sitting in this room all built on straight lines, but each one of us is as wiggly as all get-out.
~ Alan Watts
Let’s look at the way we all want it to go down. Anthony says I can lose one pound per week! That’s around 0.15 pounds per day! So I should expect the scale to do this:
Monday = 200 pounds
Tuesday = 199.85 pounds
Wednesday = 199.70 pounds
Thursday 199.55 pounds…
But that’s not what happens. The human body is wiggly. Some days you might GAIN a little weight. Other days you might lose some weight. It’ll be up and down. What you’re looking for is the TREND over time.
Beyond weight being wiggly in the short-term, it’s also wiggly in the long-term. Say you wanted to gain thirty pounds of muscle. You won’t be able to do that in one go (unless you’re a noob). You will spend time pushing the muscle gas pedal, and then you’ll spend some time pushing the fat loss pedal. You’ll gain, then you’ll lose. You’ll gain, then you’ll lose. Over time, you’ll end up where you want to be. But it won’t be a linear trek.
SECOND
TRACK CIRCUMFERENCE(S)
Tracking weight is a useful form of feedback, but it's limited. A great metric to use in combination with weight is waist (and/or hip) circumference.
How to track waist circumference
The most legit way to track your waist circumference is with a flexible measuring tape. Wrap that sucker around your belly button and make a perfect circle; make sure the tape is parallel to the floor. If the line is crooked, your measurement will be, too.
Pull the tape so that it fits to the skin, but doesn't squeeze it into your fat. And make sure you aren't flexing. Relax.
If you're eyes rolled into the back of your head upon me mentioning a flexible measuring tape, then use a belt. Yes. A belt. You have a belt. Everyone has a belt. I feel your excuses melting in my fingertips. You can't escape me.
Flip the belt inside out, and mark the backside with a permanent marker. Do this once per week and try to standardize the process. Get your measurement on the same time and date every week. And do your best to standardize the day prior. If you normally measure your waist circumference on Saturday mornings, and you went out Friday night, drank beer, and ate a bunch of bar food, you're probably going to be bloated comes Saturday's measurement.
How to track hip circumference
Most males tends to carry their fat around their abdomen, while most females tend to carry their fat around their hips and legs. If you carry the majority of your fat around your hips and legs, you should also track your hip circumference.
Measure the largest portion of your hips — usually right around the mid-butt. Make a perfect circle; make sure the tape is parallel to the floor; pull the tape so that it fits to the skin, but doesn't squeeze it into your fat; make sure you aren't flexing — relax.
Systems for circumference
Keep this circumference measurement alongside your weight measurement. Whatever system you're using to record your weight, use it to record your circumference.
Circumference: expectations
Tracking your waist circumference is a great because your waist isn't greatly influenced by muscle growth in the short-term. (You tend to need to do TONS of rotational work [throwing, javelin, shot-put, dancing] over years and years in order to grow your waist.)
In other words, if you're trying to build muscle and you're gaining weight and your waist is increasing, then you're probably gaining fat. Likewise, if you're trying to lose fat and you're losing weight and your waist is staying the same, then you're probably losing muscle. (Unless your carry most of your fat in your hips. In this case, the secondary hip circumference measurement will come in handy.)
Another helpful hint
You can get more circumference measurements. Chest, arms, legs. But, in my experience, it's easy to turn the act of tracking into a burden by trying to gather too many data points. I just stick with the waist (and, potentially, hip).
THIRD
TRACK STRUMF
Tracking weight and circumference is a bodacious (yes, I just used that word) combination. Throw in strength, and you're looking juicy sweet (I don't know what I'm doing anymore).
How to track strength
You should keep a training journal. It doesn't have to be Anne Frank's diary. At minimum, keep a log of the sets, reps, and weight you use on every exercise. You can also take it one step further and track your RPE.
RPE stands for rated perceived exertion, and it's just a shorthand way to note how difficult the training was. I could bombard you with scales out the wazoo, but that's unnecessary. If it's easy, give it a 1. If it's difficult, give it a 3. If you don't know whether it was easy or difficult, give it a 2.
Systems for strength
You can record your strength sessions in any convenient way, but, for my money, nothing beats a notebook. Yes. Analog. Don't worry about apps. With a notebook, one flip of the page can flood you with information like no app can.
Strength: expectations
The general consensus: strength declines when you're cutting; strength improves when you're bulking. But that's an overly generalized consensus. It's true… at the extremes. In other words, if you're starving yourself, yes, you'll probably be weak. In the other direction, if you're shoving food down your throat, it'll be easier to get stronger (especially compared to your starved self).
But the middle ground isn't as clean. Your results have a lot to do with the context of both your training program and your nutrition plan. For instance, if you're cutting, you might want to decrease the rate of progression. You can still improve, just not at the same rate you'd be able to as if you were bulking.
SENSITIVE LIFTS
Despite the middle ground being flooded with context, there are some lifts that are sensitive to your body weight. And I'm talking weight, not muscle or fat. Just plain old fecking weight.
The lifts most sensitive to your body weight: upper-body presses. The bench press (or any variant) and the overhead press (or any variant) will typically get weaker as you lose weight, even if the weight you're losing is fat.
Other lifts, the ones where you move a lot of your body weight during the lift, might improve as you lose fat. The chin-up, for instance, will be easier to do as you drop body fat. So will most calisthenics.
Tough to navigate
The topic of strength in relation to fat loss and muscle gain is tough to navigate without being behind the wheel. General advice goes a little something like this:
If you're trying to build muscle, you want to be making progress in the gym, in some fashion. Typically, adding weight, adding reps, or doing more work in less time.
If you're trying to lose fat, you want to maintain where you're at — at minimum.
This is shat advice though, because not all programs will have you making predictable progress on a regular basis. Some strength training programs use sub-maximal percentages for a while, and might not test your ability to add weight or reps.
Likewise, as mentioned, you can gain strength while you're losing fat if you adjust your progress increment to match your contextual adaptation potential. This is especially true if you're a noob.
Try not to live and die over small fluctuations. What matters most is relative strain. Just hit the gym religiously and give solid effort. If you're doing that, you're doing all that can be done.
FOURTH
TRACK VISUALS
Looking in the mirror! Vanity! You already do this every single day! Fantastic! How difficult can it be to do something you already do, daily! Not difficult at all, really! I am exclaim!
How to track visuals
Take pictures of yourself once per week, at minimum. Take pictures from the front, side, and back (preferably upper-body and lower-body if possible). I like using relaxed pictures better, but a set of both flexing and relaxing won't hurt. If you only wanna do one, keep it relaxed.
Systems for visuals
Try to standardize the pictures. Use the same camera. Same mirror. Same lighting. Wear the same clothes — less clothes equals more better. Just as with circumference, keep the day prior consistent as best you can. In other words, if you take pictures every Friday, try to keep every Thursday consistent.
With smartphones, this is easy. I used to take pictures of myself with a digital camera that was the size of a brick, that had a one megapixel resolution, that I had to steal from my parents in hopes of them not finding the memory card I had that held an archive of my damn near naked body.
Don’t forget to note the date of each picture. If you use your smartphone, this data will be stored automatically. So no worries there (for now). If you don't use a smartphone, take note elsewhere.
Also, it might be helpful to create a separate folder on your phone to house these pictures. You know that one time when you were showing grandma some pictures on your phone? You said, “Just swipe right, grandma.” Silently, you were hoping that swiping right didn't lead to that one picture of you snorting coke off of a Giraffe's scrotum. Or whatever.
Visuals: expectations
I'm asking you to take pictures weekly, but visual feedback takes longer than a week to manifest. Progress from week-to-week won't be HYYYOOUGGGGEE. But, monthly (perhaps biweekly) you'll see things — things that you wouldn't otherwise be aware of, because you're in your skin 24/7. Noticing subtle changes is difficult.
Pictures are most useful for gauging fat loss and muscle gain. It's easy to see your fat shrink. It's also easy to see bigger more shapely muscles. What's much tougher to gauge: muscle loss, specifically, whether or not you're losing muscle as you're losing fat.
A lot of people think they’re getting too scrawny (losing muscle) during their fat loss stints, but the truth is that they're just revealing the non-fat tissue underneath what’s already there. MOST PEOPLE OVERESTIMATE HOW MUCH MUSCLE THEY HAVE UNDERNEATH THEIR FAT.
Also, remember — don't rely solely on pictures. If you're losing weight and the pictures say you look similar in the belly area, your body might just be losing fat elsewhere (like your legs).
That was quite the journey. At this point, you might be thinking, “Okay. That was a lot. I don't really know where to get started, though.” The best way to start is with one single metric and a concrete system. I gave you some systems hints along the way.
Weigh yourself every morning, first thing. Log the number in a Moleskine notepad. Keep this notepad (and a pen) in the bathroom drawer. Write the date next to your recorded weight.
Every Thursday take pictures and circumference measurements, right after weighing myself. Record circumference within the weight notebook, and date. Every Saturday extract the photos from the phone (email to self) and archive them in a folder on the computer titled “My Transformation.”
Rename each photo:
WEIGHT_DATE_WAIST-CIRCUMFERENCE
230_12/4/2016_32
Seems like a lot, but it's important. As I said long ago, tracking isn't sexy. And if the prospect of tracking things and facilitating feedback sounds daunting, then pick and choose your battles. Maybe weighing yourself is easy for you, but measuring your circumference is NO WAY JOSÉ. That's fine. There are some things I can't bring myself to quantify.
However.
HOWEVER.
With this mindset, you have to eat reality. Accept that your results may not chug along as well as they could.