A few of you may have been told of SMART goal setting.
For anyone who haven’t, SMART is an acronym specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. The notion, in a nutshell, is that all desired goals need to be SMART if they’re going to be of any use at all. There is simply no point establishing a goal that lacks even one of the five pieces. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about how to determine body fat and how this pertains to the “measurable” element.
First, let me point out a few things about the “specific” aspect.
A fitness goal must be specific in order for it to be measurable. If your main goal is to “lose weight”, that’s practically impossible to measure. My main health and fitness objective for 2010 was to lower my body fat percentage lower than 8% within 6 months and keep it there through out the entire year. Notice that I utilized body fat percentage, not body weight, as my chosen unit of measurement. I believe that body fat percentage is a superior indicator of overall human body composition to weight. Someone can be quite muscular and at a really low body fat percentage and nevertheless be regarded as “overweight” purely on body mass index, though they appear amazing. In contrast, an individual may be “skinny fat” with a acceptable body weight, but very high body fat percentage that shows after they take their shirt off.
I strongly suggest utilizing body fat percentage for your measure of body composition.
If your body fat percentage is on point, the body weight will take care of itself. The problem with using body fat percentage is that it isn’t the most simple thing to assess. To get a actually accurate measurement of body fat percentage, you need sophisticated methods such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) which are expensive. I measure my body fat percentage every week and I don’t know what you think, but I’m not willing to shell out $50 – $100 per week to determine my body fat percentage.
Exactly what do I use?
I prefer an electronic body composition scale which measures body fat percentage via bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). BIA transmits a tiny electric current through your body to measure overall body water that it utilizes to approximate body fat percentage. Don’t worry, it’s completely harmless. The downside: it’s not very precise. BIA scales tend to understate body fat percentage. Nevertheless, I’m alright with this because I’m more interested in the pattern as time passes than the specific figure.
The key would be to keep as many factors constant as you can.
I try to weigh myself on the same day each week. This doesn’t always happen, but I do usually weigh myself at around the same time of day (at night) after working out, showering, and urinating but before eating or drinking anything. When you are tracking measurements with time, it is vital to manage these variables when working with a BIA scale because it utilizes total body water to gauge body fat percentage. If I were to chug a few glasses of water then weigh myself again, my body fat reading my jump by 1% or so.
Once again, I’m alright with this since I’m not a professional athlete or bodybuilder who has to know a precise figure. I really want to just be certain I’m in the right ballpark (definitely within the single digits, around 8% +/- 1-2%). The good thing about utilizing a BIA scale is the fact that it’s highly affordable. This was a one-time expense of about $60. I bought mine several years ago and technology has improved since that time, thus today you can probably get yourself a less expensive, more accurate one.
Now let’s talk about the enjoyment part: monitoring how well you’re progressing.
As I mentioned, I generally weigh myself every week… actually, let’s say once every 5-9 days. If my control variables aren’t right for a weigh in (for example, if I forget to weigh myself in advance of eating dinner), then I’ll wait until the day after. I’ve been repeating this for more than a year now and tracking my figures in an Excel graph. I can’t stress how crucial it is to have some kind of visual reinforcement of your progress. For me personally, an Excel chart is the easiest way to do this. As I said, my focus is on body fat percentage. I don’t really care much about weight. It is just something interesting to track and see how it changes over time as my body fat percentage changes.
I began tracking my body fat percentage and weight in 2009 (the start of my “fitness journey”) and I don’t plan to stop… at any time.
The constant visual presentation just might be the best resource you can leverage. The reason behind this is that it raises consciousness and this is crucial to achieving your goal and then staying on track. There is an unconscious connection with monitoring your progress that offers you something concrete that’s always in the back of your mind. Trust me, it truly does work. Every time I calculate body fat percentage and check out my spreadsheet, I’m reminded never to let myself go because I don’t want my chart to get out of whack! So, I’m happy to say that I accomplished my body fat goal in The year 2010.