The Best Metrics To Track Progress
Is what you’re measuring painting a clear picture of the progress you want to make?
With so many companies out there telling you what to do, ads for programs pitching the “best” methods, and the gurus with the magic formula, we appreciate how easy it can be to get lost in the weeds when trying to achieve health and fitness results.
At builtxyou, we know there are no must use methods. Instead, we consider the goal, preferences, experiences, and skills of the guy in front of us to build a plan that gets them the results they want. To get this right, a big part of this equation is measuring the correct things.
We believe that having a blend of objective and subjective performance indicators paints the clearest picture of progress and helps us guide and tweak the plan accordingly.
For example, Tom wanted to lose 10-12 lbs of body fat while maintaining his performance so that he could cycle quicker in his upcoming cycling season.
Together, we honed in on 4 key performance indicators (KPIs) that painted the clearest picture of progress for him. This meant leaving some other measurements on the cutting room floor.
The 4 KPIs built into Tom's 12 week program were
Daily weighing
Though scale weight can’t tell us exact fat loss, if Tom follows his meal plan and training program as designed, we can be more sure that any tissue loss shown by the scale is fat loss.
Food journalling
Tracking everything eaten including nibbles, licks, crumbs, and snacks shines a light on areas for improvement while ensuring total caloric constraints are adhered to.
Performance
Performance is measured by improvements in and/or maintenance in training numbers as shown in his program.
Weekly review and daily self assessment
Subjective review of effort, coherence of the plan, and adherence of behaviors daily and weekly allow for a zoomed out view of the day and week as a whole, drawing attention to strengths and opportunities for improvement and support.
Amongst other things, we chose not to track …
Before and after pictures
Though they add context to the fat loss progress, the primary goal was performance, and so between the scale (going down) and performance in training going up or staying the same, we omitted this.
Meal timing
Meal timing plays an important role in satiety when on a hypocaloric diet. Yet Tom has a varied work and travel schedule that makes consistent meal timing unrealistic. We decided that it was more important to focus on the nutrient quantity over the nutrient timing for this reason.
Exact macronutrient splits
Though a more precise macronutrient calculation may be more beneficial, it becomes a net negative when time is tight and the ability to measure food is limited. Instead, we focused on a simple meal structure that relied on whole food consumption and general hand portions to help Tom fuel his training and lose body fat.
We hope you can see from this example that more isn’t necessarily better. It is more important to have the most effective measurements for your needs, preferences, and goals than to try and arbitrarily hit a target that doesn’t apply to you.
This is a mistake we see many guys make as they tend to align their behaviors with the wrong outcomes for their desired goals.
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At builtXyou, we design each guy a customized system for their specific goals so that they can be sure that they’ll get the results they want from the work they put in.
If you’re ready to go all in and transform your health, fitness, and physique, click below to apply for coaching now.
