When you go on a program to lose weight, you need some way to track weight loss. But if you are like many people, you will make two mistakes before even getting to that point. The first mistake is that many people go on a diet. The second is they try to determine the success or failure of their efforts by their bathroom scale.

Although you will initially lose weight on just about any diet plan, most people simply cannot sustain their efforts, and eventually fall off the wagon. They then gain back not only what they lost, but an additional amount. Successful weight loss will only come about with a change in lifestyle. This means that a whole new mindset has to be adopted.

To attempt to use a bathroom scale in order to gauge how you are doing in your weight loss efforts is meaningless. A scale gives you your body weight. This weight is a combination of skeletal, muscle, and fat. If you are lifting weights, it is possible to lose fat and gain an equal amount of muscle. So according to the scale you haven't lost anything. But in reality you have.

There are several ways to determine your bodyfat levels. A highly accurate method is hydrostatic weighing. This involves immersion in water. Another method uses skin calipers. Still another way is to use an electronic bodyfat handheld device, or a bathroom scale which measures bodyfat in addition to total weight.

Underwater weighing (hydrostatic) is very expensive and highly inaccessible to the general public. Skinfold calipers requires a person who is knowledgeable. Bodyfat scales and handheld devices are common and commercially available.

there is another way. And you don't have to invest a lot of money in it--neither do you need another person to help you. A simple tape measure can tell you if you are shedding bodyfat.

One of the best places on the body to track weight loss (fat) is the waist for men and waist, hips and upper arm (tricep) for women. When you first start your lifestyle change in order to lose fat and to get healthy and fit, measure your waist, hips, and upper arm. Also weigh yourself. Write these fugures down in a journal. This is your starting point.

The best time of day to weigh yourself and to take your measurements is upon rising in the morning. Do this before eating and before showering. You can do this on a weekly basis. More often than that is too frequent. Just remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't expect to see a big change in a week.

To accurately track weight loss, make sure that your tape measure is cloth. When measuring a body part, make sure that the tape is snug so that there is no slack. But also be certain that it is not so tight as to pinch the skin.

Measure the smallest part of the waist and hips. For upper arms, and perhaps chest, measure the largest part.

Using a tape measure to track weight loss is simple and easy. There is a lesser chance of error than using skinfold calipers. And it is fairly accurate.

The tale of the tape is simple. Track weight loss by using this simple and inexpensive method. When your waist, hips, and arms get smaller, you are losing fat. Don't worry if your scale says that you weigh the same as when you started. It just means that you have gained muscle.