Stop Guessing: 5 Tools I Use to Track Fitness Progress

The scale is useful. It’s also capable of lying to your face. Here’s how I use bodyweight, the mirror, photos, measurements and body-fat calipers together.

So you’ve got a training program.

You’ve cleaned up your diet.

You figured out approximately how many calories you’re eating.

You’re getting your protein.

You’ve been doing everything consistently for a few weeks.

Now comes the obvious question:

Is this shit actually working?

This is where people make another mistake.

They pick one measurement and allow it to determine their entire emotional state.

Usually:

The bathroom scale.

Scale went down?

Best day ever.

Scale didn’t move?

Diet isn’t working.

Scale went up two pounds?

Clearly everything has failed, metabolism is destroyed, Mercury is in retrograde and it’s time to try carnivore.

Relax.

There are multiple ways to measure progress.

I use five.

The scale.

The mirror.

The camera.

The tailor’s tape.

And body-fat calipers.

None of them is perfect.

Together?

They tell a considerably better story.

Tool #1: The Scale

Let’s start with the obvious one.

I weigh myself.

Bodyweight is objective data and extremely useful.

But there’s a problem:

Bodyweight isn’t body fat.

Your total bodyweight includes muscle, fat, water, glycogen, bone, organs, food in your digestive system and everything else currently traveling around inside you.

That means bodyweight fluctuates.

You can eat more carbohydrates and hold additional glycogen and associated water.

You can eat a salty meal.

You can have more food sitting in your digestive tract.

Hydration changes.

And yes:

Whether or not you’ve taken a shit matters too.

Welcome to advanced sports science.

😂

So I don’t lose my mind over one weigh-in.

Standardize the Measurement

If you’re going to use the scale, try to make the conditions reasonably consistent.

For me, the easiest way is:

Morning.

After using the bathroom.

Before eating or drinking.

Same scale.

That removes some unnecessary variables.

It doesn’t make the number perfectly stable.

It makes the measurements more comparable.

Look at the Trend

This matters far more than whether Tuesday’s number annoyed you.

Imagine:

Monday — 212.4

Tuesday — 211.8

Wednesday — 213.1

Thursday — 211.5

Friday — 211.2

Saturday — 210.9

Sunday — 211.4

Wednesday isn’t a catastrophe.

It’s one data point.

What I’m interested in is what the trend is doing over several weeks.

One weigh-in tells me what I weighed at that moment.

Repeated measurements tell me whether something is changing.

Tool #2: The Mirror

This one doesn’t require batteries.

Look at yourself.

If one of your goals is aesthetic—and mine absolutely is—then what your physique actually looks like matters.

You can weigh exactly the same amount and look considerably different after changing your body composition.

More muscular.

Leaner.

Different proportions.

More shoulder width.

Smaller waist.

Better definition.

The problem is that the mirror is subjective.

And because you see yourself constantly, gradual changes can be difficult to notice.

That’s why I don’t stop there.

Tool #3: The Camera

The camera might be one of the best fitness-tracking tools you already own.

Progress photos let you compare yourself against something your memory can’t rewrite.

But there’s a catch.

Standardize the fucking pictures.

If your starting photo is:

Bad overhead bathroom lighting.

Relaxed.

Morning.

Ten feet from the camera.

And twelve weeks later you’re:

Pumped.

Flexing.

Tanned.

Standing under perfect directional lighting.

Camera three feet away.

That’s not exactly a scientific comparison.

You created a fitness advertisement.

Try to use roughly the same:

Lighting.

Distance.

Camera position.

Time of day.

Poses.

I like the basic:

Front.

Side.

Back.

You don’t need 37 bodybuilding poses.

You need something repeatable.

Your Camera Remembers What Your Brain Doesn’t

This is particularly useful because physical change happens slowly.

You see yourself every day.

Your brain adjusts.

Then one day you compare a picture from six months ago with today and think:

Holy shit.

That’s the value.

The mirror shows today.

The camera preserves yesterday.

Tool #4: The Tailor’s Tape

This is where things start getting really useful.

A cheap flexible measuring tape can tell you things the scale can’t.

Depending on my goals, I can track things like:

Waist.

Chest.

Shoulders.

Upper arms.

Thighs.

Hips.

Again, consistency matters.

Measure at the same anatomical location.

Measure under similar conditions.

Don’t pull the tape so tightly you’re cutting off circulation one week and leave four inches of slack the next.

We’re collecting data, not negotiating with it.

Measurements Become Especially Useful During Recomposition

Imagine this:

Your bodyweight barely changes for six weeks.

You conclude:

Nothing is happening.

But then you look at your measurements.

Your waist is smaller.

Your arms are roughly the same size.

Your chest is roughly the same.

Your progress pictures look leaner.

Your gym performance is improving.

Was nothing happening?

Clearly something was fucking happening.

The scale simply didn’t tell the whole story.

That’s why I don’t let one measurement control the entire evaluation.

Measurements Work During Growth Phases Too

Now flip it around.

You’re trying to gain muscle.

Bodyweight is slowly increasing.

Good.

Your arms are growing.

Chest is growing.

Thighs are growing.

Strength is going up.

Waist is relatively controlled.

Also good.

But suppose bodyweight is flying upward and almost all the tape-measure action is happening around your waist.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider how aggressive that calorie surplus is.

Again:

Data.

Not emotion.

Tool #5: Body-Fat Calipers

I like calipers because they’re inexpensive, portable and give me another measurement to follow.

But let’s establish something:

Your $20 skinfold calipers are not a fucking MRI machine.

😂

Skinfold measurements can be used with equations to estimate body composition.

But the result depends on:

Measurement technique.

Measurement sites.

The equation being used.

The person performing the measurements.

And normal measurement error.

So if my calipers tell me I’m exactly 12.37% body fat, I’m not tattooing that number on my forehead.

I care much more about consistency.

With Calipers, I Care About the Trend

Let’s say I repeatedly measure the same skinfold site using the same technique.

18 mm.

A few weeks later:

15 mm.

Later:

12 mm.

That’s useful information.

I don’t necessarily need to know whether an equation says I’m precisely 11.8%, 12.6% or 13.2% body fat.

The skinfold is getting smaller.

Combined with other measurements, that tells me something.

This is why I like calipers as one part of a larger system rather than treating them like divine revelation.

When All Five Tell the Same Story

This is where progress tracking becomes powerful.

Let’s say I’m dieting for eight weeks.

Scale: trending downward.

Waist: decreasing.

Skinfolds: decreasing.

Pictures: visibly leaner.

Mirror: increased definition.

Now I’ve got several different tools pointing toward the same conclusion.

The plan is probably working.

So why the fuck would I change everything?

Conversely, if nothing is changing across any of those measurements after enough time under reasonably consistent conditions, then I’ve got information telling me something may need adjustment.

Maybe calories.

Maybe activity.

Maybe adherence.

Maybe training.

Maybe expectations.

But now I’m making that decision using evidence instead of feelings.

No Single Tool Knows Everything

Think about it.

Your bathroom scale doesn’t know whether you’re happy with how you look.

Your mirror doesn’t know what you weigh.

Your tape measure doesn’t know how strong you’ve gotten.

Your camera doesn’t know your calorie intake.

Your calipers don’t know whether you’re recovering from training.

That’s why I don’t ask one tool to answer every question.

Track Gym Performance Too

Technically this makes six, but fuck it.

Your training log matters.

If you’re trying to build muscle and over time you’re performing more reps, using more weight, improving technique and accumulating productive training while your physique measurements are moving in the desired direction, that’s useful information.

Strength and muscle size aren’t identical.

But training performance gives you another piece of the puzzle.

We’re going to talk considerably more about that separately.

Because progressive overload deserves its own article.

Stop Changing the Plan Every Three Days

This might be the biggest benefit of tracking.

It gives you the confidence to leave shit alone when it’s working.

People sabotage themselves because they expect visible changes immediately.

Monday:

Starts diet.

Thursday:

“I’m not shredded.”

Friday:

Changes diet.

Following Tuesday:

Changes workout.

Next Friday:

Buys supplement.

Three weeks later:

“Nothing works for me.”

You never gave anything enough time to determine whether it worked.

Measure.

Track.

Wait.

Evaluate.

Then adjust.

Data Removes Some of the Emotion

Fitness can become emotional.

Especially when you’ve got a specific physique goal.

You can feel fat one day.

Small another.

Huge after a good workout.

Terrible after bad lighting in a dressing room.

None of those feelings is particularly useful for program design.

Data helps.

Not because the data is perfect.

Because it gives you something more reliable than:

“I feel like nothing is happening.”

The Evil Daddy Progress System

If I wanted a simple system for somebody starting today, I’d use:

Bodyweight: regularly under similar conditions.

Mirror: pay attention, but don’t obsess.

Progress photos: periodically, standardized.

Tape measurements: periodically at consistent anatomical landmarks.

Skinfolds: optional, but useful when performed consistently.

And I’d track training performance alongside all of it.

Then I’d look for trends.

Not perfection.

Not daily validation.

Trends.

Eventually, I want the Evil Daddy fitness tools to make some of this easier too.

TDEE.

Calories.

Protein.

Macros.

Body-fat estimates.

Measurements.

Progress tracking.

The goal isn’t to give you another number to obsess over.

The goal is to give you enough information to make better decisions.

Because once you know where you’re going, you need some way of knowing whether you’re actually getting there.

Stop guessing.

Measure it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Five stars require consistent lighting.

Raw sources:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28531419/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26764310/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30472111/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22089452/

For the nutrition framework behind those habits, read how I keep protein, carbs and fats simple.