When it comes to losing weight and getting rid of harmful fat in your body, the first thing you think of is measuring how much fat your body lost, excess water, and how much muscle mass you gained. You can use some methods for this measurement to know what’s happening inside your body like the BMI. And if you want to focus on measuring your body's external size and how it changes, it will be much easier for you, and you'll be able to keep taking these measurements from time to time to encourage yourself to keep losing the extra weight. Below you'll learn how to take body measurements and track the size changes during your weight loss journey:
What are the conditions you need to follow when taking body measurements?
You should stick to some guidelines every time you measure your body weight, which are:
- Wear light clothes, or no clothes at all.
- Keep your body straight and relaxed so you can measure all body areas.
- Use a flexible measuring tape or one made of fabric so you can easily move it around different body parts.
- Measure every part of your body three times, then calculate the average for the most accurate measurement.
- Don't worry if your body measurements change but your weight stays the same. This is a good sign your body is losing fat and building muscle instead.
How do you measure your body?
To measure different body parts accurately, follow these steps:
- Use a tape measure and wrap it around the area you're measuring without squeezing the skin. The tape should just touch your skin.
- Write down your measurements in a special chart and repeat this every four weeks.
- It's best to take your measurements in the morning before eating or drinking anything, and keep this time consistent monthly.
Here's how to measure the most important areas of your body:
- Chest: Stand straight with a mostly relaxed but straight torso. Wrap the measuring tape around the widest part of your chest, which is the breast area. Raise your arm up, use the other arm to wrap the tape around your breasts in a circle. Make sure the tape lies flat on your skin and isn’t pulled too tight. Then lower your arm and take the measurement, writing it down.
- Arms: Relax your arm, keep it straight, and resist bending it. Wrap the measuring tape flat and snugly but not tight around the widest part of your arm at the bicep, exactly in the middle between your shoulder end and elbow. Then take the measurement and record it in your chart.
- Waist: Stand relaxed but straight without sucking your belly in. Wrap the tape around your waist, specifically at your navel. Then note down the result on your measurement chart.
- Hips: Wrap the tape measure around the widest part of your buttocks, then take the measurement and record it in your chart.
- Thighs: Wrap the measuring tape flat and snug around your skin at the midpoint between your hip and knee, then note the measurement and record it in the results table.
- Calves: Wrap the tape around the middle area between your knee and ankle. Make sure not to pull it tight on your skin and keep the tape level with the ground.
Can you control body measurements?
When losing extra weight, you might hope to get rid of fat in one specific body area but keep it in others. For example, wanting to lose thigh fat but not chest fat. But that doesn't really happen. You can't choose where to lose fat from your body. Areas with more fat usually lose it slower. Your genetics also play a role. To beat that, you need to change your eating and health habits and stick to regular exercise.
Are your measurements normal?
You might wonder every time you measure different body areas, are these measurements normal?!
And the answer is Yes, it’s normal for your weight, height, and body size, meaning it’s normal for you given your current weight, and these measurements show your body shape, which is known to have several body shape patterns, each pattern is responsible for storing fat in certain places but not others, and these patterns are:
- Apple shape: The owner of this body type has broader, wider shoulders than the hips
- Pear shape: This body type is known for having thighs wider than the chest area.
- Hourglass shape: This body has a chest area and hips that are similar in size, while the chest area is slimmer and narrower.
- Rectangle shape: This body type has a waist about 9 inches smaller than the hips and chest, so the body is somewhat straight without any curves.
Also, there is a body classification based on shape, and another classification based on type, which is:
- Ectomorph: It's a body type that's very skinny and finds it hard to gain extra weight because it burns calories fast.
- Mesomorph: This body tends to build muscle and lose bad and extra fat easily.
Why bother knowing your body type and shape?
The answer is simple. This info helps you understand how your body works and where it stores fat. That way you can target losing it, knowing it might take longer in some areas than others because that's just how your body type is.
