The old adage states that what gets measured gets improved. Here are my tips to ensure that you accurately measure and record your weight and body composition accurately to ensure that you improve it.
1. Weigh yourself on the same day each week
Regular weighing on the same day develops a habit that you get into. This ensures that consistency is achieved.
2. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning
When you get up go to the bathroom, urinate, defecate and weigh yourself prior to eating, drinking or showering. Urinating and defecating gets rid of any excess fluid and/or solids that need to be removed from the body, giving you a truer representation of your body weight. When you shower your skin absorbs water, which along with eating and drinking will make you heavier.
3. Ensure the scales are on a hard surface
Don’t set the scales on soft surfaces like carpet as they will read wrong. Make sure they are on a hard level floor. Wood, vinyl or concrete is best to ensure you get an accurate reading.
4. Ensure the scales are set up correctly
Especially when using body composition scales, make sure that all the details (age, gender, height, activity level etc…) is all loaded in correctly to ensure accurate results.
5. Weigh yourself naked
Do it in privacy and weigh yourself naked. That way your clothes aren’t adding any extra weight to your results.
Bonus Tip #1: Write your results down straight away
It’s easy to get side tracked (like jumping in the shower) thinking that you will remember your results. The number of times I’ve gone to record it later in the day and I’m thinking was I 87.3kg and 18.5% or was it 88.5kg and 17.3%. I get the numbers all mixed up, so make sure you write it down straight away.
Bonus Tip #2: If you live in the top half of the South Island contact AccuBody
AccuBody travel around the top half of the South Island (Canterbury & West Coast up typically but I’m sure they will travel further if you have a good group of people to work with) and use their high tech Body Composition analyser. This will provide you with more accurate and more reliable results than your bathroom scale version. Visit their Facebook page here.
https://www.facebook.com/AccuBodyNZ/
If you would like further advice feel free to contact Coach Ray.
Coach Ray is the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
Coach Ray specialises in assisting first timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. He can be contacted at www.qwik.kiwi, ray@qwikkiwi.com and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up to his monthly informative newsletter.
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