Here’s how to take your body circumference measurements.
A couple of things to remember:
You don't need to take your measurements any more frequently than every two weeks. Any less than that and you're not really going to see much change in your body circumference measurements.
Take these measurements first thing in the morning before you eat and after you go to the bathroom so you're not getting the effect of bloat or again, the effect of food in your gut, and that's gonna mess with the numbers for sure.
I like to use a flexible body tape. This one's MyoTape, but you can find any other brand on Amazon or any other site. The good thing about these is that you can measure yourself, you don't have to rely on anyone else to hold the tape for you. You go around the area that you want to measure, and you just press a button and it'll tighten up and you don't have to worry about how tight you're holding the tape or anything. So it applies enough tension for you which makes it, again, accurate.
You want to be repeating the same sort of measurement every single time.
Which also reminds me. Make sure you're using the same landmarks every time. So we'll go over the landmarks that we're gonna use for the five measurement sites.
Me sure that you're very accurate and you're on point with these landmarks because even a centimeter up or down from the landmark that you used the previous time can, again, give you inaccurate readings and it's not really gonna help you down the road.
Chest: For guys, this is gonna be right at the nipple line.
For women, you're gonna go at the widest point.
Make sure, if you can, to look in a mirror so that you can see if the tape is going around you perfectly horizontal and it's not like dipping down. Again, that's gonna cause an inaccurate reading.
Upper arm: For this one, you're gonna get your arm at your side. Find the widest point. Again, kind of helps to look in the mirror so you can see that but I think that's where mine is.
Waist: For the waist measurement the landmark we're gonna use is the belly button. Take a relaxed breath in and out, stand normally. You don't have to suck it in, don't suck your belly in, or don't flex your abs or anything, just stand relaxed.
Hips: Find the widest point of the glutes. So, again, look in the mirror if you need to. Stand with your feet together.
Thigh: I want to have an accurate reading and an accurate landmark for each point. So I like to measure a specific distance from the kneecap and always get the measurement there. So what I like to do is put my foot up on a chair or a stool where I get a 90-degree angle and then measure 20 centimeters from the kneecap. Measure it and mark it. Then when you bring your leg down to measure, again, not flexing your legs or anything, standing relaxed. Get the measurement.
For the arm and the thigh, you don't have to do both sides. I like to always just do the right side and as long as I'm doing the right side, I'm gonna get accurate readings. So if you're gonna just do one side, pick a side, left or right, and just do that one side. If you want to do both sides, that's fine as well. Doing one side is perfectly fine.
Again, every two weeks, not any more frequent than that. Get a body tape measure if possible, that would be a more accurate way of measuring. Get them first thing in the morning before you eat and after you use the washroom. That's how you get the most accurate reading.
Getting measurements regularly is so important and so many people just rely on the scale itself but the scale weight can only be used accurately and can only be put into context when considering other factors like how your measurements are going, how your clothes are fitting, how you feel like you look in your clothes, compliments from other people, progress pictures, etc.
So things like that that the scale won't be able to tell or won't do justice, won't be factored. So it's really important that you do your measurements regularly so that you can put it all into context together with all the other factors that you're using to make objective decisions based on where to go and objective measures of your progress.
