Tracking progress: the right indicators

The problem with the scale

Weight varies by one to two kilos, two to four pounds, from one day to the next for reasons that have nothing to do with fat: water, salt, glycogen, gut contents, menstrual cycle, inflammation after training, cortisol.

Someone who weighs themselves every day and judges each number will end up giving up. Someone who weighs themselves every day and judges the average has the best tracking tool there is.

The weigh-in protocol

1. Every morning, fasted, after going to the toilet, before drinking, naked or in underwear.
2. Write the number down, without judging it.
3. Work out the average of the last seven days.
4. Compare weekly averages with each other, never the raw numbers.

Example: week 1, an average of 78.4 kilos; week 2, 77.9. Real loss: 0.5 kilo. It does not matter that one morning you read 79.1.