The struggle is real.

You’re a few weeks into a diet, and then the scale starts giving you the old runaround. One day, you’re down a few pounds but the next morning it says you’ve gained it all back and then some.

You wonder what the hell’s going on.

Have you messed up and ruined all your hard work?

The answer is probably not.

This is all totally normal, and I’m going to show you how to track your weight in a way that clears all this up.

So you’ll get a much clearer idea of what’s really going on.

Let’s begin by discussing a few of the most common reasons for these fluctuations to occur.

The first is to do with your carbohydrate intake.

Any carbs that aren’t immediately used by the body for energy are stored away as Glycogen in the muscles and liver.

For every gram of Glycogen, you’ll also store 2 – 3 grams of water.

And when you’re on a diet, you’ll most likely be eating fewer carbs, so your body will hold onto less water.

This is why cutting carbs at the start of a diet can lead to some significant weight loss right out of the gate.

But, the unfortunate reality is that most of it is just water weight.

And the opposite also applies.

When you eat a meal that is higher in carbs, you’ll hold on to more water, and that’ll make the scale go up.

Another common reason for the scale to yo yo is salt.

When you eat a meal high in sodium, you’ll hold onto more water.

In the short term, exercise can influence things in both directions.

If you had a sweaty workout and haven’t replaced the fluids you lost, you’ll come in lighter on your weigh-in.

A hard lifting session, however, will tear your muscle fibers and cause some (good) inflammation, which creates some short term water retention and the scale goes up.

Of course, over time, strength training will help you add on some more muscle which will make what the scale says a little less relevant.

And of course, maybe you just haven’t been as strict with your diet as you think you have and now it’s starting to show.

You can get away with a cheat meal or two without much change on the scale.

But drag that shit out for a couple of weeks and you’ll start getting fluffier.

So how to track your weight?

The answer is to weigh in every single morning, making sure to always use the same scale.

Sans clothes, post poop, and pre-coffee or water.

Don’t get too concerned with what the scale says on any given day, just write it down, get dressed, have a coffee and get on with your day.

At the end of the week, you should have the results of seven weigh-ins. Add these numbers together and then divide it by seven.

This will give you an average daily weight, and this will be the number you will use going forward.

Next week do the same thing and see what the trend is. If the average is lower, odds are that you’re losing fat and should keep doing whatever you’re doing.

If, however, the number trends up for more than a week, you need to take a look at your diet and training and see what’s going on.

This gives a more accurate picture of what’s really going on compared to the traditional once a week weigh-in.

And the mere act of tracking can often lead to better food choices and greater adherence to your diet.

Research has shown that people who step on a scale everyday trend towards having a better body composition than those who don’t.

Above all, the most important thing is not get disheartened by whatever the scale says.

Weight loss is very rarely a linear process. It’s keeping a positive attitude regardless of the ups and downs that will make the journey a more pleasant, and ultimately more sustainable one.

And if you would like me to take out all the guesswork and make this a simple to follow process, you can learn more about coaching HERE

There will be challenges but if you stay the course, you’ll win through in the end.

Stay Hungry,

Adam

P.S. it would be remiss of me not to give a shout out to the The Muscle And Strength Pyramids book series which is where I first learned of this method for tracking body weight.

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