The Importance of Tracking
Maxwell B., Livea Lifestyle Consultant
The journey to lose weight and the desire to keep it off can be very challenging. With hard work and determination, and your commitment to your Livea program, you can achieve your goal weight and celebrate the accomplishment! Then comes the next phase of your weight-loss journey – maintaining the effort in the Lifestyle phase. This will be the time to honor the effort you’ve made to reach your goal and keep the weight off for good! Studies have shown that a majority of people who lose weight can regain some, if not all, of the weight they lose. However, the good news is this doesn’t have to be the case for Livea clients because we provide the tools needed to make sure you can maintain your weight for the rest of your life with healthy habits you’ll learn throughout your journey, such as tracking both food and body composition.
Tracking as a Weight Loss / Maintenance Tool
As a Livea client, you’ve probably heard the term “tracking” quite a bit as it relates to weight loss. Phrases like, “track your meals,” “track your water,” or “track your protein” will sound quite familiar. During your weight loss journey, things can seem overwhelming at times and tracking may be one of those things. It might feel easier to just mentally keep track and hope for the best. You may even be getting results this way. However, for long-term success in the weight loss and lifestyle phases of your journey, tracking is essential, whether it be in a paper journal or on a digital app. Research shows that individuals who track are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off. The good news is, Livea makes tracking easy! With the help of the Livea App, InBody technology, and the at home Livea SMART Scale, you will be achieving and/or maintaining your goals in no time!
Why Tracking Your Body Composition is Important
Throughout your weight loss journey you will definitely encounter challenges. Losing weight, after all, is not a linear path. Your progress may slow down or even feel as though it is plateauing at some points along the way. But, while your weight might be the same or even up on a normal scale, an InBody scan can show that your body composition is changing. It may be that you are holding onto water but down in actual body fat. This is because there is a difference between weight loss and fat loss. Let’s break down these differences.
- Weight loss refers to the number you see on a traditional scale. This number includes your entire body composition – body fat, muscle mass, body water, and dry-lean mass (bones, cartilage, plasma, etc.). When weight is lost, it could be coming from any of these places; however, the primary loss we want to see is in body fat. For example, if you lose 15 pounds on the scale, 10 of that being muscle mass and the other 5 from body water, we wouldn’t necessarily be any healthier than when we started. With the help of InBody technology and by following your Livea plan, we can make sure that the vast majority of weight you lose will come from body fat.
- Body fat loss refers to pounds of fat loss. Healthy weight loss would be defined by decreasing Percentage of Body Fat (PBF) while maintaining muscle mass. By following your customized Livea plan and working with your Livea Lifestyle Consultants, you can achieve healthy and steady weight loss – the majority of that being body fat, thus decreasing your PBF. Livea will monitor your progress with InBody technology, a service that comes with your customized Livea Plan! This will ensure that you maintain your muscle mass and lose the majority of weight from body fat.
Tracking Body Composition At Home
During a weight loss journey, it’s interesting and encouraging to see your InBody results gradually improve each month. In fact, many clients cannot wait to see those results, so they choose to measure their progress from home as well. The good news is Livea has a great at-home version of the InBody scale, the SMART scale. It is available for purchase so you can monitor your body composition from the comfort of your home. This scale has sensors, much like the InBody, that will send signals through your muscles, fat, and body water to analyze your overall body composition. The results can then be viewed in your Livea App! Ask your Livea Lifestyle Consultant about the SMART scale during your next visit.
The Importance of Tracking Your Food
Tracking your body weight and composition is essential for both short-term and long-term success throughout your weight loss journey. But the benefits of tracking don’t stop there!
According to a study from Cornell University, the average American underestimates their daily caloric intake by 20-40%. ₁ This might not seem like much, but the results of these miscalculations can be the difference between losing one pound per week and gaining one pound per week! Everyone underestimates caloric intake to some extent. For example, seemingly little things like the olive oil you use to cook your protein in, or the condiment you dip that protein in, are often not taken into consideration when we think about what we eat throughout the day. In addition, small bites can sneak in while we’re preparing meals. These little things add up! Several studies have been done regarding tracking food. One recent study showed that people who tracked their food intake at least 6 days per week lost TWICE AS MUCH WEIGHT as those who only tracked their intake 1 day (or less) per week. ₂
While this habit may seem intimidating or repetitive, it is easy and convenient with the Livea App With the Livea App, you can scan barcodes, search for grocery store foods, create recipes and enter them with a click, and even save favorites. All these features will save you time, and the more you use the app, the more convenient it becomes! As you use the app more frequently, it will even start to remember common entries, which will make tracking that much easier! In addition to the obvious benefits of accountability in tracking, logging food will also help your Livea consultants better support you, hold you accountable, or make suggestions when you run into a hiccup or hit a plateau!
Conclusion
Tracking your body composition and food intake can be made easy with the right tools – and Livea provides those tools to help make it easy. If you are having trouble implementing tracking into your routine, speak with your Livea Lifestyle Consultant at your next visit. They will have great tips and tricks to make it more sustainable. Making these small changes to your daily routine can make a world of difference on the journey to reaching and maintaining your health and wellness goals!
Bibliography
Source 1: “Why We Underestimate What We Eat” by Kristen A. Carter M.S.
Source 2: “Can a Food Diary Help You Lose Weight?” by Elaine Magee, MPH, RD