Logging, measuring and adjusting

Before we get started I should point out that I am not a doctor, certified nutritionalist, certified personal trainer or anyone who is qualified in a legal sense to provide instruction on what you should do to your body and I refer you to my disclaimer page for more detail on this. If you want to send me a message with your email there's a Contact page also.

Logging

The most crucial principle in my opinion is being meticulous about monitoring and logging the core factors that impact your body transformation progression, and the signals of your progress. The key data points that affect the transformation that should be logged are:

1. Calories

2. Protein

3. Cardio (and NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)

4. Weight training

The key data points that provides signal on your progress that I logged were:

1. Body weight

2. Body measurements

3. Progress photos

Calorie counting isn’t very revolutionary but it did work. I measured and logged everything I ate and drank at the time I had it. When I say I measured it I mean I weighed everything I ate (unless it was packaged as a specific quantity like a small yogurt). The digital food scale becomes your best friend (and maybe your worst enemy too). I took it with me to restaurants when I went out and when I traveled. For an effective body transformation I don’t think I could have done it by ‘guesstimating’.

Protein got measured as part of the food and drink logging mentioned above, using apps such as MyFitnessPal (which could be improved on for body transformations - I may work on this) by logging the food and drink in precise quantities (using your trusty digital food scale) you will also get data on your protein intake. 

For cardio and NEAT I had a daily target of 10k steps, this could be a mixture of running and walking - or it could all be walking (more on this in the cardio article to follow). I use a Garmin watch to count the steps but there are many devices which provide this functionality. I also targeted two ‘formal’ cardio sessions per week (4 per week for the final 4 weeks) for these I would just record that I had completed them - I didn’t worry about how fast I completed them (for cardio I either ran 5k or did a one hour martial arts class). 

For logging my weight training I also simply recorded the number of sessions per week that I completed (aiming for 4 sessions per week). I had a separate set of notes on my phone where I recorded what exercises/sets/reps/weight I was doing for each session but more on that in the weight training article.

Measuring progress and making adjustments

Measuring progress is crucial to ensuring that your program is having the desired effects. I had check-ins once a week where I would record the daily averages over the past seven days and record them in a notebook. Working out the daily average over the past week is important because your daily body weight will fluctuate and it is the trend over multiple days that you’re actually interested in. Similarly, if you go a bit over your daily calorie allowance one day, but under another the effects should average out - hence we use daily averages over the last 7 days for calories, daily steps, protein and body weight. 

The aim was to lose between 0.5% and 1% of my total body weight per week. If I went for two consecutive weeks and had failed to lose at least 0.5% of my bodyweight during the second week, then I would cut 10% of my daily calorie allowance. 

I believe that accurate logging and the weekly progress check-ins that it enabled are one of the most important reasons that I was successful in my body transformation. I’ve included an example GSheet here which you can use to base your own weekly progress log on.