Are you getting frustrated with the progress of your fitness loss? Well, it’s time to ditch the weighing scale because that thing isn’t telling you the whole story. A lot of people tend to focus too much on losing weight when they should really start focusing on losing fat. If the goal is fitness and health, then you should aim for lowering your overall body fat percentage, and that’s something the weighing scale won’t help you with. Here are some better alternatives to that outdated device!
DEXA Scan
The most accurate way to check how much fat you’ve lost is by getting a Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA). It’s basically an x-ray that shows you how much of your body is fat, muscle, and bone. DEXA Scans can even narrow down which parts of your body has particularly higher fat percentage. You can then use this to adjust your workout regime!
The only problem with this is that it’s not readily available to you. You need to do some searching before you can find hospitals here with DEXA Scans. It’s definitely not going to be cheap either.
Skin Calipers
One of the most common ways people measure their weight loss is by using skin calipers (sometimes called fat calipers). It’s a simple device that measures your subcutaneous fat by sort of pinching them in various places. You’re supposed to pinch three to seven areas on your body, and they’re different for men and women.
You’ll probably like this one the most since it’s cheap and not that complicated. Though, it does take some getting used to. What I mean is being able to place it as well as read it right needs a few tries. There’s also the fact that getting your fat pinched is fairly uncomfortable, but they’re more accurate than most body fat scales.
Body Fat Monitor
A slightly more reliable scale that’s great for your weight loss is a Body Fat Monitor. It looks just like a normal bathroom scale, but this one uses bioelectrical impedance to estimate how much lean mass, water, and fat is in your body. They do this by sending little, hardly-noticeable electric currents throughout your body. You can actually buy one of these online for a relatively decent price (depending on how complex it is, of course) or if you go to a gym, chances are they already have one of these you can borrow.
The downside to a quick and easy machine like this is accuracy. Naturally, it won’t tell be as accurate as the scans. There are a ton of factors that can affect your readings, too, like your hydration and the time you use them. It’s best to avoid using them immediately after a workout or after meal times according to Health.
Progress Photos
If you think that keeping a fitness is pointless, well we’re about to tell you that new research shows that it can actually keep dieters motivated. The study had a group take weekly full body photos as they were trying to lose weight, and the results show that they had an increased success rate if they were able to see their images every week.
Looking thinner doesn’t necessarily mean becoming healthier. If your only concern is how you look and just looking slimmer, then this way might be great for you. However, it doesn’t really reflect how healthy you are because it’s possible that you’re just what they call ‘skinny fat’. For those who want to legitimately lose their fat percentage, it’s better if you use other measuring tools.
Check Your Clothes
Sometimes when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we see a distorted image of ourselves. If weekly progress photos are just making you more miserable, then let your clothes tell you your progress! Numbers and images may be distorted, but having old jeans suddenly fit you is pretty decisive. Trust that your clothes aren’t lying to you, and you are losing weight even if you can’t tell.
Losing weight doesn’t always mean you’re losing fat. Having your entire progress be dependent on the numbers is a terrible way of measuring your fat loss, and it’ll just leave you miserable. Don’t dismiss your diet and workout just yet because you may be more fit than the weighing scales lets on.