A body weight graph isn’t just for general data tracking in a person’s weight loss journey. Instead, it’s a cornerstone for helping personal training clients achieve their ideal body weight. The simple behavior of keeping a weight chart, helps clients make better choices related to weight management. In fact, if you’re a personal trainer or gym owner and you aren’t keeping a body weight graph for clients, you’re doing them a disservice. Here, we’ll explain why visually tracking weight loss is so important. Then, we’ll provide tips for weighing in and other factors that impact a client’s weight. But first, a little background on fitness assessments in general.
Conducting assessments and tracking client data is one of the key components of a fitness trainer’s work. Measurements capture baseline metrics for a client (i.e., their starting point), provide direction for goal setting, and are an important factor in tracking progress throughout the program.
The vast majority of personal training clients seek help to alter their body composition (i.e., lose body fat, increase muscle mass, or reach a healthy weight). To capture and track those body composition changes, you’ll likely use one or more the of the following assessments:
- Body mass index or BMI (calculation of height and weight compared to standard norms)
- Body weight
- Circumference measurements
- Body fat percentage measurements
- Underwater weighing
- Air displacement plethysmography
As a fitness professional, it’s crucial to have tools that allow you to track this type of data and share it with clients. This helps to improve awareness of their body, easily view their progress, redefine their expectations, and boost their motivation.
Follow along as we discuss the importance of tracking a client’s body weight, key factors that you need to consider when tracking client weight, and how using a weight chart is a form of self-monitoring (i.e., a client’s ability to monitor their own behaviors and progress).
Self-Monitoring: Why Using A Body Weight Graph Works
According to the American Psychological Association, self-monitoring is defined as, “a method used in behavioral management in which individuals keep a record of their behavior (e.g., time spent, form and place of occurrence, feelings during a performance), especially in connection with efforts to change or control the self (1).”
Regarding fitness and behavior change, self-monitoring is an incredibly important skill for clients to learn. As a fitness professional, encouraging clients to take an active role in their progress is crucial to their long term success. Self-monitoring can help clients manage their expectations, increase the awareness of their behaviors, provide insight into how those behaviors can impact progress toward or away from their weight loss goal, and ultimately increase their motivation to continue. All of which can translate to better results (2)(3).
Further, we know that self-monitoring works, it is a form of behavior therapy. The simple act of keeping a record of something, usually a behavior, causes more behavior changes. This is, in part, due to cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a state of mental discomfort an individual feels when there is a difference between what we believe to be true and what actually is true. In the instance of weighing in and tracking weight, it works like this. If you’re trying to lose weight, and you see that the numbers on the scale are going up (not down), it makes you uncomfortable. To reduce this discomfort, you’ll either stop weighing yourself (not ideal) or you’ll start changing the behaviors you know are related to achieving an ideal body weight.
Fitness tools that encourage these types of behaviors from clients aren’t just critical for clients trying to reduce excess weight or reach an ideal body composition, they are also instrumental in helping clients reduce potential health risks (i.e., heart disease, certain cancers, obesity, etc.).
It’s one of the many reasons, Naamly’s personal training app includes a weight graph as part of its variety of features.
Tracking Weight
Of all the different body composition measurements, weight is the easiest to measure and track for both the fitness professional and the client. And although changes in weight aren’t the only factor that one should pay attention to, weight is a key indicator of progress over time.
Keep in mind, the words “over time” are the most critical part of the last sentence. There are many factors that can influence an individual’s weight on a day-to-day basis. But, tracking weight loss progress over a period of time can help the client and fitness professional identify issues, determine where potential changes need to be made, and ultimately view overall progress.
Getting caught up in the day-to-day weight fluctuations can be detrimental to the client. But, having an image of the overall progress is helpful. This is the case even with some of the hills and valleys as the body adjusts to the changes. One of the best ways to provide a visual representation is to track weight loss consistently via a weight graph or weight chart.
Tips For Weight Measurement Success
When you or your client are measuring a client’s weight, here are a few tips you will want to implement to ensure consistent data:
- Use the same scale every time
With any type of measurement, it’s important to use the same equipment consistently so you can get repeatable data. Different equipment, people measuring, and techniques can all impact the data.
There is likely some margin of error with all scales as they each have potentially different calibrations. If you’re weighing a client on different scales, that margin of error can alter the measurement enough to impact results.
- Dress in the same attire
Another factor some clients don’t consider is their attire when weighing themselves. Shoes and clothes add a considerable amount of weight. So, if clients are hopping on the scale in different clothing each time they weigh themselves, they may be unintentionally altering their measurements.
Instead, clients should consider weighing themselves either completely undressed, in undergarments only, or in the exact same attire each time.
- Measure at the same time of day
Because an individual’s weight can fluctuate naturally throughout the day, it’s important for clients to weigh themselves at the same time of day. It’s often recommended for clients to weigh themselves first thing in the morning.
Again, in alignment with using the same scale, consistency and repeatability are important for accurate information.
- Consider other factors
A client’s weight isn’t the only data that is important to track. Body circumference or body fat measurements are crucial as well. In addition, how a client feels, sleep patterns, and food and water intake are also essential. In fact, they’re all markers for fitness goal tracking.
Key Factors That Can Affect An Individual’s Weight
Obsessing about the amount of weight loss on a day-to-day basis is neither healthy nor a true indicator of success because, as we’ve mentioned, weight can fluctuate from daily. In addition, sometimes the body takes time to adjust to new, healthier behaviors. As you start to establish a healthy cadence for your client’s weight loss measurements, here are a few things you will want to keep in mind.
Muscle Mass
Muscle is much more dense than fat and body fat takes up more space than muscle. This is one of the reasons it’s possible for clothes to fit better and clients to feel better, but the scale may not be dropping rapidly. It’s also the reason why a BMI value isn’t the best indicator of overall health or health risk. If gaining muscle is a part of the client’s goals, additional muscle mass could impact what they see on the scale.
Water Retention
When an individual’s body is holding onto water, the results on the scale can be impacted as well. Things like certain medications, salty foods, excess carbohydrates, menstrual cycle, and alcohol consumption can all make the body hold on to water. Even soreness from a hard workout can cause the body to hang onto water.
Time Of Day
As previously mentioned, an individual’s weight can fluctuate through the day. Typically, weight is the lightest first thing in the morning. The scale will typically go up for a window of time as an individual consumes food, encounters stress, performs physical activity, etc.
In addition to being the best personal training CRM, Naamly also tracks clients’ weight, macronutrient consumption, and other healthy behaviors.
Check out Naamly’s software FREE for 14 days today!
References
- Americal Psychological Association. APA Dictionary of Psychology, Self-monitoring. https://dictionary.apa.org/self-monitoring. Accessed March, 4 2022.
- Schlomann, A., von Storch, K., Rasche, P. et al. Means of Motivation or of Stress? The Use of Fitness Trackers for Self-Monitoring by Older Adults. HBScience 7, 111–116 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s16024-016-0275-6
Lora E. Burke, Jing Wang, Mary Ann Sevick. Self-Monitoring in Weight Loss: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 111:1, 92-102 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2010.10.008.