Weight Gain Progress Tracking
By ALGetsBig
Tracking your progress is an essential part of your weight gain plan. You need to know if what you did in the past worked or if what you have been doing is working like you want it to.
Gaining mass is a long and sometimes bumpy ride. You inevitably will reach plateaus where your weight will stop increasing as fast or where your body parts will shows signs of growth stoppage. A good tracking program will let you know exactly what you've been doing and allow you to make adjustments relatively easily. Most people do not take the time to track their bodybuilding progress, and, as a result, most people don't see significant gains on a bodybuilding program.
How To Track Your Bodybuilding/Weight Gain Progress
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Use a workout log manual. Several of the muscle building programs reviewed on this site offer excellent workout tracking software with purchase of the product. They will record workouts, diets, body-fat percentages and body measurements. You can also purchase the workout manual that I use from Bodybuilding.com here. |
Use FitDay.com to track everything from food intake to body measurements. FitDay is truly incredible. I use it everyday to input the foods that I have eaten. It tells me the amount of calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, vitamins A – E, sodium, potassium, iron – ALL MAJOR NUTRIENTS! It is very easy to use and with a few minutes per day, you can completely understand exactly what you are putting into your body. FitDay will tell you the ratios of protein, carbs, & fat in your diet. Check out Al's FitDay Diet to see one of my logged eating days using FitDay.
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Weigh Yourself At least Once A Week. I recommend using a digital scale as it will give you an easy & accurate reading in small increments that you don't have to struggle to read as with non-digital scales. Weighing yourself is the main way to track your program to see what adjustments may need to be made. Aim for 1-2 pound gains each week. Anything less than that means that you need to increase your calorie intake. Anything more than that can be a sign that you are gaining too much fat. I weigh myself every few days. I do it first thing in the morning after a bowel movement and before I eat anything. This way the weights are consistent and unaffected by the contents of my stomach and intestines. I enter my weight easily into the FitDay profile so that there is a permanent record of it. I can track my weight over time with FitDay. See my FitDay weight gain progress tracking here. |
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My FitDay Weight Gain Progress Profile |
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You will have some fat gain during a mass gain plan- it is inevitable – but you want it to be minimal. The exception is if you are extremely thin, for example, 5'7" 115 pounds. In that case, you may see gains of 5 pounds in some weeks which is completely fine. Keep your protein at 30%, carbs at 35% and fat at 35% or as close to those ratios as possible. I'd say 45% fat is the maximum fat percentage for hardgainers; any more than that and you will likely gain more fat than you want to. Don't worry at all – we will burn the fat off at a very high rate when we switch to the cutting phase. Read about the bulking and cutting phases in this article.
FitDay will keep track of your weight & bodyfat percentage over time. Get FitDay.
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Body Fat Percentage – Be sure to track your bodyfat when gaining mass! I recommend that you measure & record your body fat percentage at least once every 2 weeks. Bodyfat tracking is extremely important. You want to ensure that you are gaining primarily muscle instead of mostly body fat. Monitor your bodyfat percentage regularly and make adjustments in your fat calorie ratio if necessary. You can track your percentage of fat calories very easily using FitDay. See Al's FitDay Diet to see how my FitDay profile looks. |
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Body fat percentage can be estimated many ways including taking skinfold measurements with body fat calipers and then doing some calculations. To learn how to take skinfold masurements, go to the Skinfold Measurements Page. |
Lean Body Mass – Figure your lean body mass after you calculate body fat percentage. This is just a simple calculation based on your weight and body fat percentage. Simply multiply your bodyfat percentage by your weight to determine the actual amount of bodyfat that you have.
Lean Body Mass (LBM) = Bodyfat (%) X Weight
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Body Tape Measurements - Take your body tape measurements about every two weeks. These are the measurements that will let you know just how big your body parts (neck, biceps, calves, etc) are getting as a result of your bodybuilding program. To take body measurements you will need a body measuring tape which is just a flexible tape that can wrap around your body parts. MyoTape is the best measuring tape on the market. You should definitely get MyoTape because it is the easiest to use body measuring tape on the market – period. You can take most measurements by yourself because of the MyoTape's unique design. Don't fool around with crappy measuring tapes as they will probably discourage you from taking your measurements on a regular basis. Check out the Body Tape Measurements page to learn how to take body measurements. |
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Log your body measurements with FitDay. On the left is an image of my FitDay profile showing my body measurements. Click on the image for a full-size view. FitDay will keep track of your measurements and will also show you graphs displaying the change in your body measurements over time. What a useful tool FitDay is! Get FitDay today! |
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Photos. Be sure to take photos at least once a month. This is very important because as you make progress in your weight gain program, you will want to have evidence of how you used to look. It will be too late to get "before" photos once you've added a lot of muscle mass! Also, photos can provide great motivation and encouragement to keep up with your diet & weight training. Photos will also show you areas of your body that you need to work on. Videos. They say a photo is worth a 1000 words; in that case, a video may be worth 10,000 words! Throughout your mass gain program, take videos as often as you wish. Maybe you'd like to shoot a video with every 5-pound gain. Even if you don't use all the footage, you'll have it incase you want it! video yourself flexing and showing all of your muscle. Be enthusiastic in all your videos – act as if you are a young Arnold Schwarzenneger when you are flexing, muscular as can be - that way you can compare these videos to the "new you" months from now! |
Filed under Weight Gain Progress by alboa45
