Measuring Your Body Composition Changes: Beyond the Scale

In the pursuit of health and fitness, many of us are accustomed to stepping on the scale as a primary measure of progress. While the number on the scale can be a useful indicator, it doesn't provide a complete picture of your body's transformation. To gain a deeper understanding of your progress and overall health, it's essential to look beyond the scale and explore other methods of measuring your body composition. In this blog post, we'll delve into these alternative methods, discuss their significance in your fitness journey, and also explore the often-overlooked non-scale victories that are equally crucial indicators of your progress. 

Why Go Beyond the Scale?

1. Body Composition vs. Weight

The number on the scale reflects your total body weight, but it doesn't distinguish between muscle, fat, water, or bone density. Monitoring body composition allows you to track changes in the proportion of these components, offering more accurate insights into your fitness journey.

2. Health vs. Aesthetics 

Achieving a healthy body composition isn't just about aesthetics; it's about overall well-being. By focusing on body composition, you can ensure that your fitness efforts are promoting good health, including reducing the risk of chronic diseases associated with excess body fat. 

3. Precision in Progress

Measuring body composition provides a more precise way to track your progress. It helps you differentiate between muscle gain and fat loss, offering a more comprehensive view of the changes happening in your body.

Trending Methods for Measuring Body Composition

1. Body Fat Percentage

 Body fat percentage is the proportion of your body weight that is comprised of fat tissue. There are various methods to measure body fat percentage, including skinfold calipers, bioelectrical impedance scales, and DEXA scans. Each method has its accuracy level, with DEXA scans being one of the most precise.

2. Waist-to-Hip Ratio

The waist-to-hip ratio assesses the distribution of fat in your body. A high ratio (indicating more fat around the waist) is associated with a higher risk of certain health conditions. It's calculated by dividing your waist circumference by your hip circumference.

3. Circumference Measurements

Taking measurements of various body parts, such as the waist, hips, chest, arms, and thighs, can help you track changes in muscle and fat distribution. These measurements provide insights into areas where you may be gaining muscle or losing fat. 

4. Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)

DEXA scans are considered the gold standard for measuring body composition. They provide a detailed breakdown of fat, muscle, and bone density, offering comprehensive data on your body's composition.

Tracking Your Body Composition Changes

Now that you're aware of these methods, here's how you can effectively incorporate them into your fitness routine:

1. Regular Assessments

Perform body composition assessments regularly, but not too frequently. Monthly or quarterly measurements are often sufficient to track meaningful changes.

2. Record Your Data 

Keep a log of your body composition measurements to monitor changes over time. Tracking trends in your data is more informative than isolated measurements.

3. Celebrate Small Wins

Remember that small, consistent improvements in body composition can lead to significant overall progress. Celebrate your achievements along the way, even if the scale number doesn't change dramatically.

4. Adjust Your Approach

If your body composition measurements aren't aligning with your goals, consider adjusting your fitness and nutrition strategies. Consult with a fitness professional or nutritionist for guidance.

The Non-Scale Victories (NSVs)

Non-scale victories (NSVs) are the tangible and intangible improvements you experience on your fitness journey that go beyond mere weight or body fat numbers. These victories represent the holistic impact of your efforts on your overall well-being. Let's delve into some of these valuable NSVs:

1. Improved Sleep Quality

As you adopt a healthier lifestyle, you may find that your sleep quality significantly improves. You fall asleep faster, enjoy more restorative sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. This improved sleep is vital for muscle recovery, hormonal balance, and overall vitality.

2. Enhanced Patience

Patience is a virtue, and it's often cultivated through the discipline required in a fitness routine. You learn to persevere, set long-term goals, and work steadily towards them, which can positively impact other areas of your life.

3. Sharper Focus and Mental Clarity

Regular physical activity can sharpen your cognitive abilities. You may notice improved focus, mental clarity, and better decision-making in your daily life. These mental gains are priceless in today's fast-paced world 

4. Increased Alertness

Exercise stimulates blood flow to the brain, resulting in increased alertness and a heightened sense of awareness. You'll find yourself more present and engaged in various activities.

5. Boosted Energy Levels

While exercise can be physically demanding, it paradoxically leaves you with increased energy throughout the day. You'll have the vitality to tackle tasks with enthusiasm, making you more productive overall.

6. Revived Sex Drive

Regular exercise can lead to an improved sex drive. It boosts circulation, enhances mood, and increases self-confidence – all contributing to a more fulfilling intimate life. 

How to Acknowledge and Celebrate NSVs

Recognizing and celebrating non-scale victories is just as important as tracking your body composition changes. Here's how you can acknowledge and commemorate these achievements:

1. Keep a Journal

Maintain a journal where you can record your NSVs as they happen. Include details about how each victory makes you feel and the positive impact it has on your life.

2. Share Your Success

Share your NSVs with friends, family, or a supportive fitness community. Celebrating these victories with others can be motivating and reinforce your commitment to your fitness journey.

3. Reward Yourself

Consider rewarding yourself for achieving NSVs. Treat yourself to something special, whether it's a relaxing spa day, a new fitness gadget, or a day off to enjoy your favorite activities.

4. Stay Mindful 

Stay mindful of the non-scale victories as they occur. Sometimes, it's the little moments – like feeling more energetic during a family outing or noticing improved mental clarity during a meeting – that have the most significant impact.

Embracing a Holistic Approach

In conclusion, while tracking your body composition is essential, it's equally crucial to acknowledge and celebrate the non-scale victories along your fitness journey. Improvements in sleep, patience, focus, alertness, energy levels, and sex drive are not only indicators of a healthier body but also reflections of your dedication and commitment to self-improvement.

By embracing a holistic approach to health and fitness, you recognize that your well-being extends beyond the numbers on the scale. It encompasses the positive changes you experience in your day-to-day life, your relationships, and your overall sense of vitality. These non-scale victories remind you that your fitness journey is not just about transforming your body; it's about transforming your life.

Do the Work

If you don’t do the work, this isn’t going to work for you. 

Let me be clear: I don’t train idiots.

We all know the power behind eating healthy and working out consistently. We know the positive impact it has not just on our immediate future but also the longevity of our lives.

We know working out needs to be a priority, and yet it’s the first thing to fall down the list of our priorities.

We also know it’s the thing that no one else can do FOR you.

After over 10 years of training people from ALL different backgrounds and with all different goals, this is what I know for sure:

The people who SEE change are the ones who consistently put their health back on their priority list.

They’re the people who get creative with the type of workout they’re doing so they can continue to workout regularly.

They’re also the type of people who are flexible with their workouts. The time, the type, even the day because they know that working out needs to be a regular aspect of their routine.

Ultimately, they know if they don’t do the work, the work isn’t going to happen and then the work won’t work for them.

There are No Shortcuts

I’m not trying to sell you a shortcut. 

Shortcuts with a healthy lifestyle will NOT get you a healthy lifestyle. They’ll earn you a temporary fix that’ll soon disappear when the work is done.

This is why I’ve never been a proponent of “diets” or time limited programs. I get the incentive behind it. We all want results quickly, but do you want that fast result if it won’t last?

I ask my clients that all the time when they tell me they’re doing something wild.

Are you willing to do this for the rest of your life?

If not, you haven’t found a solution that works for you.

Don’t search for the shortcut, search for the SOLUTION.

I’m here to do the work with you.

I believe that every single person can create a healthy lifestyle.

A lifestyle that:

✔️ has you working out consistently 

✔️ has you eating well 

✔️ feels balanced

All without feeling like you’re sacrificing.

I believe it so fervently that I do the work right beside you, so we can hold each other up and encourage each other along the way.

The Power of Prehab

The more you do to recover, the more you do to prepare for your next workout.

Think of it like prehab.

Prepping your muscles for the next adventure you’re going to put them through. The better prepped they are, the harder you’re going to be able to work and see results.

I push the importance of recovery with my clients.

Realistically speaking, most of us don’t know what to do for recovery beyond just being lazy on our couch.

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Things like:

• Stretching

• Hydrating

• Low impact work

• Foam rolling

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All serve to get your muscles back to baseline.

There’s a dichotomy of thought around the idea of recovery:

You’re either:

✔️ fully embracing your recovery days, like a sloth, to the point where coming out of the recovery day SUCKS.

OR

✔️ you don’t see the point. At all.  

Hate to break it to you B U T…your recovery matters just as much as your workouts.

Your body is working hard for you. It needs that TLC to KEEP working hard for you.

Time to Level Up

I’m asking you to level up. 

I was asked on a podcast the other day how I know when to push my clients and when to back off.

Truth: some of it is a spidey sense from doing this for so long of knowing when clients are ready to be pushed.

Here’s the key: the push has to be successful or the person will feel small and not want to come back.

I am NOT out to make people feel small. I want people walking out of their workout feeling empowered and confidence and taking those feelings into the rest of their day.

But I’ve learned over the years that being ready to be pushed will only happen when you can check your ego at the door.

Pushing yourself isn’t always about taking the hardest option or working to the point of throwing up or injury.

Pushing yourself means expanding your horizons so you can prove to yourself that you are that badass.

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What does that mean in your workout?

• You have to be present. The expectation of what you should be able to do because you did it yesterday, can’t apply.

• Check that little negative voice that tells you “I can’t”. There’s nothing you can’t do, it’s all in your approach.

• Ditch the fear. Try the heavier weight, try to go faster. If it doesn’t work, you’re not failing, you’re just discovering new starting points.

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Snack Prep for Success

I forget to eat. It’s not that I don’t WANT to, I just get caught up in life.

I see this with clients all of the time. The majority of private clients I work with do not eat enough and it’s the combination of a couple things:

• Life is busy, we get caught up in all the tasks of the day and we either forget OR we don’t prep food to bring with us when we’re out.

• Society, the media, things of the past have drilled into our heads that to “be skinny”, we have to starve.

Both totally screw us over.

When you workout, your body needs fuel to support that process. Going into that much of a caloric deficit (for some women) can create a hormonal response that makes your body think it’s starving and then you end up gaining weight because your body is holding on to every little thing that comes its way.

Couple that with being starving and then once you can eat, you’re going to shove every single thing you find in your face because you’re just that hungry.

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All of a sudden, cheese sticks have become your dinner. Along with your kid’s leftover Mac n cheese. The gross one from the blue box.

Looks like prepping my snacks needs to start happening again. 

Just as you are intentional with your workouts, you need to be intentional with your food as well. If you’re leaving what you’re eating, even if it’s for a snack, to chance, you won’t win. Then all that hard work you’re putting in, all that time sacrifice you’re making to workout, will be for nothing.

Circle of Trust

Can we be in the circle of trust right now?

I’ve gotten to train a TON of people over the years. Really, I tried to count one time how many people I would see in a week and I astonished myself.

I’m not saying that for bragging rights, I’m saying it to make this point hit home even more.

I have NEVER heard SO MANY freaking people complain that they get to move. Dang. If y’all spent as much time on your workouts as you did WHINING that you get to workout…anyways, I digress.

This is something that all of my people have in common. You complain.

Let’s talk about why this hits home in a unique way for me: 

• You complain you don’t have time to workout and then you complain when you make the sacrifice in your day TO workout. It’s like there’s no winning. You’re stuck in the proverbial rock and hard place dilemma.

• Every time YOU complain, I think about all the times I would’ve given literally anything to be able to get out of bed, get rid of my injury and workout. I know that this doesn’t apply just to me. Every time you complain, there’s someone who would willingly take your place. While giving anything to do it.

Don’t complain that you get to workout . Be thankful that you get to workout.

Think of it like this: Your body is capable of amazing and wonderful things. Your workouts are an example of those capabilities. How freaking blessed are you that your body can do this for you today? That you can move today?

I used to end my classes with: You woke up today. It’s a good day to have a good day. Go out and make it great.

Because even when the workout sucks, in the bigger picture of life, you can move and that alone is an amazing thing.

Don’t get me wrong: complain all day when the workout gets hard. The workout SHOULD get hard, you should be challenged but dang how lucky you are that you get to do it.

Don’t complain that you get to show up for yourself in the first place. 

It’s an amazing thing that your body can do this for you today, that you can move, that you can show yourself your strength, AND that you can take the time out of your crazy day to do it.

Approach your workout from that place. Ya the work might be hard, but you can do it and you’re stronger for it.

What's Holding You Back?

I know there’s a lot that holds people back from working out at home. Some of it is vibing off the energy of a class, having friends around you to workout with, or just being able to compartmentalize that this gym environment is where you sweat and get uncomfortable.

today’s workout

5 Rounds

5 side lying tricep push ups (each side)

10 froggie sit ups

15 bridge hip taps

Grab Your Dumbbells!

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I used to love working out at a gym. Not the classes mind you, but just the whole gym environment. I didn’t like the classes because I didn’t like the unsaid level of competition, but I liked that when I went to the gym, I could focus completely on my workout and nothing else because no distractions from my house existed in the gym.

Kinda like going to a library to study.

The other part is that we get stuck into a rut with those at home workouts. We get used to doing certain workouts, they become our go to workouts, and then we get bored because we’re doing the same thing over and over again. Even as instructors, we can get stuck in a routine of being repetitive with our exercises. It’s hard to know how to break out of those routines especially when you’re more limited on what you have available to you at home verses at a gym.

It becomes monotonous.

That monotony turns into excuses to not workout because we’re not excited about it, which turns into us regressing into bad habits of “taking a break” on our workouts, only to lose all the results we worked so hard to get.

You gotta keep your home workouts fresh. Switch up the intervals, the exercises, and even what weights you’re using.

As soon as you feel monotony creeping in, as soon as you feel like you’ve become repetitive with what you’re doing, it’s time to switch what you’re doing. Maybe you go from interval training to endurance training, work resistance, or focus on lifting more.

That way your brain stays excited about what you have for your workouts and you’re more likely to show up for it.

I Just Need to Sweat

There are some days where I just need to sweat. It doesn’t even matter if I’ve been on my feet all day working, and I’m totally exhausted, sometimes I just need to move. 

Maybe it was a tough day, maybe I just need to burn off some steam, or I need a place to put my stress. Regardless, it’s those days when I know without a shadow of a doubt, I’ll feel better when I’m done.

I know you have those days. When the workout is serving a bigger purpose than just moving your body.

To sweat and be able to leave my day in a puddle on my mat.

On days like those, I know I need workouts that are going to push me. I need the workout that has me focusing on nothing else except the work that I’m doing. 

That kind of challenge.

I need a workout that was hard enough to forget about all BS.

To give me space to breathe, to focus on something other than all the things I need to take care of or things that are pulling at my energy.

All the laundry, the dogs need to be walked, and dinner that needs to be prepped, I just needed a minute from it all. Sometimes I know that I need to walk away for a minute so I can actually get those things accomplished. 

Before, I used to neglect that need because I didn’t think I had enough time to get a good workout in if I only had 20 minutes. Shoot, being honest, more like 10 minutes. But then I found myself getting frustrated at everything. My fuse was super short and I had NO patience for anyone or anything.

Now I know I can get a quick little burn in if I’m smart about my time and how I’m utilizing it for my workouts.

HIIT workouts are my Go To workouts for those times. They’re designed to be short and if you push yourself hard enough (and pair it with some sold post workout nutrition), you can continue burning calories AFTER the workout is over. 

It’s a process called Excessive Post Oxygen Consumption or EPOC. When you go into a HIIT workout, your body goes into oxygen deficit. As a result, when the workout is over, your body works harder to restore that loss of oxygen, so you can return to your pre-exercise state. Your body does this process by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories. 

That process kicks in once the workout is over, which is why you can continue to burn calories POST workout. It’s an awesome thing our body can do and one of the reasons why people gravitate to the harder, more intense workouts. Because they know results will keep coming.

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Today’s Workout

Tabata

10 Rounds

Even number rounds: swings

Odd number rounds: push press

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Go To Dinner Recipes

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Do Me a Favor

Put your To Do List on hold.

I feel like the hardest part about working out at home is the sheer fact that you’re AT HOME. Everything that demands of your time while you’re at home is in front of your face while you’re trying to take time for yourself.

Easier said than done huh? That To Do List is important and I KNOW there are non-negotiable aspects of that To Do List. Things that have to get done today.

I know it’s a MILLION things you have to get done. After all, there’s a lot of people who depend on you to make their lives run seamlessly and smoothly.

Laundry that needs to be folded, puppies that need walking, and those lunches aren’t going to make themselves.

You look around your house and see all the things that need to happen, it gets super overwhelming, but because you’re a total boss, you get to work. It doesn’t matter if that means your workout gets totally neglected, because it’s not like your time was spent chilling on your couch.

I want you to look at all those things and make them wait. 

Make the conscientious decision to put yourself first. Don’t say “I’ll get to my workout when (fill in the blank) is handled”. Get to the workout first. Handle the workout before you go into handling all the other things that demand of your time, energy, and attention. 

All those things will be there when you’re done working out. But working out has to take the priority at least for a minute. Not just because you deserve to have that time to take care of your body and to move, but also because when those thoughts about what you need to get done post workout start creeping in, you get distracted. Distraction, the majority of the time leads to injury. 

There’s nothing worse than working your ass off just be sidelined by a preventable injury.

When you workout, you have to make sure your mind is in the game for that very reason alone. While I know that doesn’t sound exciting, when you can leave your worries and concerns at the door, you’ll feel better after the workout.

Here’s the 3 things I do to make sure my To Do List doesn’t distract me from my workout:

1. I schedule my workouts. Blocking the time out for my workout in my calendar gives me the assurance I need to know that I have the time built into my day to workout and I don’t have to worry about squeezing it in at some point.

2. I give myself 5 minutes to get my workout 🏋️‍♀️ area organized. Maybe it’s picking up clutter or Swiffering, but I know that if I see something that needs to be cleaned 🧽 during my workout, it’ll give me a great excuse to STOP 🛑 my workout. So I handle what I can before I start.

3. I set the kiddo up with snacks and her OWN distractions. Workouts are like being on the phone 📱 for a mama, at least in my house. She doesn’t need me until she sees I’m doing something FOR ME, so I make sure she’s engrossed in something before I start. Maybe it doesn’t last the whole workout, but I know it’ll last the majority of the workout.