Stay off the scale! 

​Ways to tell if you're losing weight

Scales don't always reflect if you're losing weight. The answers, instead, lie in what you're wearing or water retention. Hormones may even affect if we gain or lose a pound. If you're like me and can't stand scales, however, follow these tips to find out how you're losing weight. 

First, clothing is a big indicator. Sometimes I'll buy a size smaller in a shirt or pants to encourage my weight loss. Every few weeks I'll try them on. If you've gained a pound, they're not going to fit. If you've lost weight, however, they're going to fit just right. This should be a big ego-boost as you just went down a clothing size. This means that your healthy eating and exercise are working. Keep up the good work. You're well on your way to achieving your weight goals. 

Another way is to test your body fat. Many gyms or doctors do this for free. An average fat percentage should be 25-31% for women, while it might be 18-24% for men. Any fat percentage 32 or over is considered obese for women, while 25 percent and over is considered obese for men. On the contrary, women athletes should have a fat percentage of 14-20%, while men athletes should have a fat percentage of 6-13. 

You might also want to look at your face. Does it look thinner? You should see sharper cheek bones. This is a result of lost water retention and burned fat cells. A more sculpted facial structure should also be visible. There should also be less fat under the chin. Cutting sugar, fat and salt from your diet is a good way to increase visible weight loss. This is going to give you more energy and boost your exercise. 

On another note, take pictures. If you're tracking your diet journey, you should have before pictures from when you first started your diet. Compare the picture of your 'now' body to the picture at the beginning of your diet. Look to see the noticeable areas of where you have lost weight. Use these pictures as encouragement to keep moving forward to your ultimate weight goal. They should be motivation to steam roll you ahead as you continue eating healthy and exercising each day. 

Also, you should be tracking your food and exercise. Apps like MyFitnessPal are excellent for this. If you're using a Fitbit, your device syncs right to the application. This helps you track how many calories you have burned. It also helps you keep track of how much sugar and fat is within your diet. Add your friends through the application and you can have a cheering section rooting you on as you reach your fitness goals. It also has a feature where you can track your weight, using a line graph to determine if you went up or down over the weeks. 

Dieting and exercise is hard, but don't feel the need to step on the scale everyday. Rather, measure your success is other ways. You can still make your weight loss achievements and reach your goal weight as you encourage yourself to move forward. 

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