How to take body measurements for fitness?

Keeping track of your weight loss can be a tiresome task. Especially when the weighing scale does not give you the exact answer you keep looking for. The weight of the human body keeps fluctuating that’s why the weighing machines cannot give the exact idea of the weight loss.

In such cases, what else is the option that can help you track your weight loss or fitness? Let us tell you.

How To Track Your Fitness In A Weight Loss Journey?

Other than measuring your weight on the weekly basis, the best thing you can do is to measure your body, which gives you a concrete report on your fitness routine and its results. Taking body measurements might sound easy but it is quite tricky as well. Our body is complex, and the changes happening in our body day and night do affect our body measurements on the daily basis. That’s why you need to :

• Take your body measurements once a week only. Decide a day of the week you’ll take measurements and follow them thoroughly during your fitness routine.
• Also, decide a specific time of the day, probably in the morning when you get up, and take all measurements at a similar time.
• Make a table on a journal and note down all the measurements so it gets easy for you to see the difference later on.
• Do not get stressed over small changes in the body. As it keeps happening but what matters is the ultimate result.

How To Take Body Measurements For Fitness?

To track how much weight you’ve lost or how fit you’ve become, you need to take measurements of all the major body parts where fat gets deposited, and when you work out, these parts get slimmer efficiently. The body parts which need to be measured are:

• Neck
• Chest
• Waist
• Hips
• Thigh
• Calves
• Forearm
• Upper arm

Now, we will see how to measure each part of the body mentioned above.

1: Measuring The Neck

It is commonly believed that the neck is also the sensitive part of the body where the fat gets deposited in large amounts. That’s why, while tracking your weight loss journey, you should measure your neck on regular basis as well. Take a measuring tape and measure your neck right above your butterfly bone and note it down in your journal. The tape should not be squeezed on the skin while it should be touching the skin, slightly.

2: Measuring The Chest

Stand in a resting position and start wrapping the measuring tape around your chest. The tape should be at the level of the nipple line and it should not be swinging from your body, rather it should lie straight around the chest. Now take the measurements. If you think the tape was not in the perfect place, you can always try taking the measurement again.

3: Measuring The Waist

The anchor point in measuring the waist is your belly button. The measurement tape should be in line with your belly button while you wrap the tape around your waist. Do not hold your breath or your stomach will be sucked in;  just be casual and breathe normally. Take measurements in this position.

4: Measuring The Hips

Right below your pelvic bone, look for the widest part of your hips. This part will be used for the measurements. Take the tape and wrap it around this part of the hips and note down the measurements.

5: Measuring The Thigh

Some people make the mistake of measuring legs in general. But it’s necessary to measure thighs and calves separately to see the amount of weight loss. To measure your thighs, stand straight and wrap your tape right around the midpoint of the thigh. Where both ends of the tape overlap, take that measurement.

6: Measuring The Calves

Now, it’s time to measure your calves. Pick out the widest part of your calf and wrap the measuring tape around it to get the exact measurement. Taking a measurement of one leg shall be enough, you don’t need to measure both legs.

7: Measuring The Forearm

The forearm makes up the part of the arm that comes below the elbow to your wrist. Find out the largest part of your forearm and use the measuring tape to take its measurements.

8: Measuring The Upper Arm

The upper arm makes up your biceps and triceps. This part could have more build than the forearm. To measure the upper arm, keep your arm in a resting position and wrap the tape around the widest part of your bicep muscles.

Closing Thoughts

The body measurements can be taken by wrapping the measuring tape around the biggest area of the concerned body part. This gives you the perfect measurement of your body which act as a tracker of your fitness routine and weight loss journey. However, don’t forget that number of factors play role in shaping your body, so do keep a check on your diet as well.