5 Ways To Track Progress

When it comes to measuring progress, especially relating to body composition, many athletes place too much emphasis on the scale. There are many other important factors to consider when tracking progress. In this blog, we will explore the importance of tracking things other than the weight on the scale for athletes looking for weight loss.

#1 Sleep Hours and Quality

Getting enough high-quality sleep is crucial for weight loss and overall health. Research has shown that lack of sleep can disrupt hormones that control hunger, leading to overeating and weight gain. Additionally, poor sleep quality can lead to fatigue and decreased motivation to exercise, making weight loss more difficult.

By tracking your sleep hours and quality, you can identify any patterns or habits that may be negatively impacting your weight loss efforts. You can also make adjustments to your sleep routine to ensure you are getting enough restful sleep each night.

#2 Mood

Weight loss can be a challenging and emotional journey, and tracking mood can be a helpful tool for athletes to stay motivated and on track. By keeping a daily mood journal you can identify any patterns or triggers that may be impacting your mood.

For example, if an athlete notices that their mood is consistently low on days when they don't exercise, they may be motivated to incorporate more physical activity into their routine. Alternatively, if an athlete notices that their mood is consistently low on days when they don't get enough social interaction, they may be motivated to schedule more time with friends and family.

#3 Energy During the Day and During Training

Your energy levels at the gym can be a huge indicator or how well you are progressing.

Weight loss can often lead to feelings of fatigue and decreased energy levels. By tracking your energy levels throughout the day and during training sessions, you can identify any patterns or habits that may be negatively impacting your energy levels.

For example, if an athlete notices that their energy levels are consistently low in the afternoon, they may be motivated to incorporate a healthy snack or a quick nap into their routine. Similarly, if an athlete notices that their energy levels are consistently low during training sessions, they may be motivated to adjust their training program or look into applying some intra-training nutrition.

#4 How your clothes fit

While weight loss can certainly be measured by changes in body weight, oftentimes body composition changes happen long before the scales change, and this can be detected in how our clothes fit. By tracking how your clothes feel, you may be able to gauge progress towards your weight loss goals and celebrate non-scale victories, woohoo!

#5 Your habits

A while back I wrote a blog about the importance of tracking habits rather than outcome goals, you can read that here.

Tracking your habits can be more powerful than tracking any external metrics since it’s within your realm of control. You can minimise the overwhelm by having a simple checklist and filling it with the habits that are easy to do every day that doesn’t require a lot of effort.

Start with one simple habit per week so you aren’t trying to practice 6 new habits at a time. For example, if you want to start drinking more water, break that habit down into actionable steps like drinking “one more” glass of water and piggybacking that habit onto something else like after a lunch break. If you normally drink one glass, try adding one more.

Create a checklist to help you stay accountable.

Once you decide on what new habit to add, create a checklist and check those habits off until they begin to feel natural. Don’t add new habits until you are able to consistently apply this habit.

Takeaways

Having data to pull from every week gives you the power to make evidence-based decisions so that you can continue to gain momentum in your performance and/or body composition goals. If you get to the end of the week without having moved closer to your goals, having data means that you can go through your key performance indicators to see which ones were the most effective or which ones may need adjusting.

Athletes should track both external and internal metrics since both serve a purpose in getting them closer to their outcome goal.

What do you track? Comment below.