Weightloss Support-Ladies, how do you measure progress?

HCalanAlfano

Hi there, I have been slowly losing weight since this past November, and have recently started to track my weight loss this spring. My weight loss has stopped after breaking through a plateau back in March. I’ve actually gained 3 lbs. since last week, however, my waist measurement has remained the same.
How do you reliably track weight loss in light of the fluctuations during the month that women see? Is the waist the best place to measure inches lost or should the hips or arms be measured for a more a accurate picture of progress?
Thanks for your input!

sardelsa

I weigh daily or almost everyday and use a weight trend app to sort through the fluctuations. In terms of measurements I usually take 3-4 different sites, you may be losing in other places besides the one so it can help. Every month or so I take chest, natural/smallest part of the waist, waist at the belly button, then hips/glutes. Sometimes I also do thighs and arms but I find those harder to be consistent. I also take progress photos, use the mirror, how my clothes fit as well as workout progress over time.

MaltedTea

I weigh daily. I measure chest, waist and hips on the 1st and 15th as well as track body fat percentage on those two days.

My body seems to stay "hourglass" no matter what which is fine with me so it's mostly body fat percentage loss I'm concerned about since I've seen that number change even though, at times, my weight didn't seem to vary much for weeks.

More data points potentially means more awareness but do what will consistently work for you!

Shortgirlrunning

I weigh daily. Measure (chest, waist, hips, arms & legs) weekly. And take progress pictures.

I use an app called Happy Scale to get a moving average of my weight.

rainbow198

When I was losing weight I measured my progress in several ways:

- I took my measurements once a month and wrote it down in my journal. I measured my neck, arms, bust, upper/mid/lower abs, hips, upper thighs and calves. I was focused more on losing body fat and inches so I found this very helpful.

- I noticed how my clothes were fitting me.

- NSV's were really helpful. The scale might not have been moving fast, but I knew progress was being made.

- I observed my body in the mirror and took personal pics. It was amazing and very motivating to see a fat roll I had for so long slowly disappear. I would not have probably been as aware had I not did this.

- Once a week I weighed myself on the same day, first thing in the morning.

dhiammarath

In the beginning, I had a lot to lose so it fell off quickly. I primarily used the scale with some measurements. I wish now I'd taken measurements, but since I can't go back in time, all I have are the few measurements I took. I did take waist, hips, bust measurements at the start. So there's that.

As the scale movement slowed, I started adding in other things: once a month I take a variety of measurements around my body. Neck, upper/lower arm, upper/lower thigh, calf, ankles, etc. In addition to the standards: waist (upper/lower), hip (upper/lower), bust, underbust, etc. Sometimes the scale wouldn't move, but I'd find I'd dropped an inch off my neck, for example.

I also get a Dexa scene once or twice a year, to see a long year-over-year change of body fat. But I get those at a discount through work, but that's been helpful to me.

I weigh every day (or close to it) to get a constant stream of data and use Happy Scale to normalize it. Data is king, for me, because it's that much more knowledge I have about my body.

I've lost 100lbs and have about 10-25 more to go. I don't know exactly how much, but I figure I'll know it when I get there.

Those are all the measurable things I keep track of, but there's more than just how big my arm is and how much has come off my calf (dear body, your can really work on calf and thigh shrinking...), but I can do so much more. I can hike and run and swim and play a lot longer. I am far more confident now than I was 100lbs ago, and I am slowly transforming into having the confidence to wear the things I enjoy wearing.

I have literally thousands of pictures of myself in different outfits over time -- because so much can change so slowly we'll never notice. And we look the same, but we aren't the same, yet we feel the same. So I create comparisons overtime to help jar my mind into seeing what I know is true: that change is happening.

NSVs (as mentioned above) are a great tool for motivation, because how your clothes fit or how you move through the world often tells a story that even pictures can't fully realize.

In the end, you have to trust the process (or I did, anyway) and know that when it feels like change isn't happening... well eventually it will.

AwesomeSquirrel

I weigh weekly and take measurements (neck, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, upper arm) every 6 weeks or so.

Every now and again (probably monthly) I’ll get an urge to work myself through my wardrobe and try on items to see if I’m getting closer.

Lately I’ve also started taking photos specifically of clothing items I want to fit into so I can see the gap get smaller over time.