Now that you know what you need to do with your nutrition, we will want to track and measure our progress.
Tracking and measuring progress is so important, because just like anything in life, there is a point of diminishing returns.
There will be a point when a working nutrition plan will plateau, and we want to be on top of it when it does so we can make changes accordingly to keep your progress moving forward.
In this section, you will how to take body measurements and your weight.
Nutrition Program Menu
We’ll be tracking your progress in 3 different ways:
- Weight
- Measurements
- Pictures
Weight: is important because losing weight is obviously one of our main goals. However, losing fat and losing weight are completely different things. We actually want to gain LEAN muscle tissue, and lose fat. If you are exercising and strength training during this program, your weight loss may go slower at certain points because you are also gaining lean tissue.
That’s fine! As long as you are losing fat, we are headed in the right direction? But how do we know you are losing fat or gaining muscle. Taking Measurements will tell us this.
Remember, when weighing yourself, use the same scale consistently. Different scales will give different readings. I recommend weighing first thing in the morning after you go to the bathroom.
Please email me your weight (1) time per week each Monday. Make sure you send me your entire weight history since you’ve started this program so I can see the changes we are seeing.
Measurements: I consider this even more important than weight. Measurements tell us if we are actually becoming smaller, (or bigger), and will tell us if our weight changes are correlated with fat loss, muscle gain, or fat gain.
We will multiple measurements over our body. Here are the instructions on where to take measurements and how to do it.
Neck: Use a tape measure and record the inches around the mid-point of your neck.
Shoulders: Stand up straight and measure the circumference around both shoulders.
Chest: Wrap a tape measure around your chest in line with your nipples.
Upper Arm (Bicep): Find the mid point or peak of your flexed bicep and measure.
Waist: Wrap the tape around your waist in line with your belly button, ensuring that the tape measure is inline the whole way around.
Hips: Find your hip bones and then measure the widest spot of your hips.
Thighs: Take the measurement at the mid point between your knee and the top of your leg, stand up straight and try not to tense your muscles as you measure.
Calves: Measure at the mid point or peak of calf, which is usually the largest part.
I want you to know that in some places, (like shoulders and thighs) it can be very difficult to get the same measurements all the time. My BIGGEST priority is in your hips and waist, but the others are important as well.
We are going to take measurements every (2 weeks). Send them to my email, Hunter@HybridFitnessGym.com. Each week, please include all of your measurements previously from every 2 weeks. Its as easy as a copy and paste 🙂
Before and After Pictures:
Have someone take a picture of you in the same spot every time, or use a mirror. Examples of poses are below. If you don’t have someone to take pictures, use a mirror, and use the same one every time. Different mirrors look different, so it’s important we stay consistent.
Please send these to me once a month to my Hunter@Hybridfitnessgym.com!
Below you’ll see an excel sheet that will allow you to track all of your measurements for the upcoming weeks. If you don’t have microsoft excel, you can upload the excel sheet to google spreadsheets. All you need is a gmail account to do so, and if you don’t, they are free to make.
nutrition-program-weight-and-measurement-spreadsheet
In the next section, we will go over some more specific foods that you’ll want to focus your meals around.
Show me the Super Foods
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