Ask your personal trainer “How do you scale your fitness progress”? If you have been working out tirelessly to achieve that body of your dreams, then most likely you keep track of your progress and probably, you do this by simply standing on the scale. But don’t you know that this is the most ineffective way to track your fitness progress? The fact of the matter is that, scales only measure pounds and it has no ability to distinguish between muscle weight and body fat weight.

Scales generally weigh muscle, internal organs, bone, fat, water and lumps of the body. It does not necessarily mean that when you lose weight, you have lost body fat. Sometimes, after an aggressive workout, when you scale, it shows that you have lost two pounds or so, but once you are rehydrated, all the pounds are back. So, this literally means that the scale is not an accurate fitness indicator – the numbers can fluctuate by 3 to 5 pounds per day and this can be brought about by fluid gain or loss or the food you have consumed.

If you are personal training and doing intense strength work, like 2 to 3 times a week, it is most likely that you are building lean muscles and the scales may show you are gaining weight. The fact is; you are actually losing fat. With this being said, there is really no sense relying on scales to track your fitness progress.

The big question now is how can you measure your fitness progress? Well, there are basically two common methods that most fitness goers use – the body fat testing or body girth measurements. However, these two are also not 100% accurate. So how can you really know that you have lost or have gained weight? The answer actually is simple! Stand in front of the mirror and observe: Has your body changed? Are your clothes looser? How do you feel? Are your muscles firmer? Do you feel stronger? Is your blood pressure or blood sugar lower? If your answer to all these is yes, then congratulations as you are making fitness progress!

When tracking your fitness progress, your focus should be losing body fat weight and not scale weight. It is also essential that your fitness program should include strength training as this increases lean muscle tissue. Lean muscle tissues speed up your metabolism and this means that you can burn more calories. Muscle tissues are more compact than body fat thus, you can lose body fat without changing the numbers in the scale, but you can see a big difference in your pant size. So, how much do you care about your weight – ask your personal trainer!