Most Americans try to lose weight in the quickest way possible. Searching for the quick fix, they often track their results by the scale instead of their body fat percentage and lean bodyweight. What’s wrong with this scenario? Plenty! There are numerous factors that affect a person’s bodyweight every day. Those factors include: how much and what type of fluid and food was consumed prior to weighing; how much exercise was performed over the previous 24 hours; what type of exercise was performed (anaerobic or aerobic, plus the duration and intensity of the exercise which affects total calories used); what was the temperature and heat index during exercise; how much fluid was consumed during exercise to replenishes depleted fluid reserves (internal body water is used to cool the body core temperature down by sweating); how many calories were used during other daily activities; how much sodium was consumed over the previous 24 hours; how much urine and stool was excreted from the body. Also, certain types of medications will cause constipation while stimulants such as caffeine will cause more frequent urination. All of these factors affect your bodyweight each and every day. The average person’s bodyweight can fluctuate as much as 5 pounds per day. Athletes exercising in hot and humid conditions, and for long durations, can experience as much as an 8 to 10 pound weight loss if fluids aren’t continuously replenished.

Obviously with all these factors affecting bodyweight there has to be a better way to accurately chart your progress. To date, the best way to monitor body fat reduction is with a body fat composition and lean bodyweight test. There are a few different testing methods each with varying degrees for margins of error. The most common and what I believe is the most practical (for the average person) is the skin fold test using calipers. How well does this procedure work? The margin for error is estimated around 4% largely because this form of testing can not measure internal fat stores and different testers will render varying results. What makes this form of testing a favorite with many trainers? It can consistently measure the layer of body fat that exists between the muscle and skin throughout many areas of the body. The skin fold calibers are convenient but they are not as accurate as say the Bodpod machine which is mostly used by professional teams and trainers working with athletes when minimal margins of error are very critical. If you’re the type of person that requires extreme accuracy, then opted for the best form of testing. It is more expensive but worth it, especially if you’re a hard core fitness enthusiast.

Accurately and consistently monitoring your body fat percentage and lean bodyweight is the best way to insure your metabolic rate is not slowing down during a dieting phase. Regardless of what experts want to call it, any form of restrictive eating is a form of dieting. Dieting to reduce body fat is not detrimental to your long term health as long as you follow a balanced training and nutrition management program that maintains, and better yet, increases your lean bodyweight. How is this best accomplished? By following these proven guidelines: