You’re working hard to change your diet and get more exercise – so why aren’t your weight loss results showing up on the scale? Are you doing something wrong? Probably not.

The truth is that if you’re losing body fat but building lean muscle mass, you may not see weight loss on the scale right away. That’s because muscle is more dense than fat, meaning that a small volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat. However, that doesn’t mean that your hard work isn’t producing results. To help keep yourself motivated, try using something besides the bathroom scale to measure your progress.

3 Ways to Measure Success Without the Scale

• How do your clothes fit? Try on a pair of pants that were a little snug before you started dieting and exercising. Do you notice that they go on a little easier now?
• Look at your other numbers. In addition to weighing yourself at the beginning of your program, you should take measurements of your waist, hips, arms, and neck. After a while, you may find that you’re losing inches from your body even before you lose pounds. In addition to taking your body measurements, you can also monitor your blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, or body fat percentage for improvements.
• Pay attention to your energy levels. As you continue to work out, you may notice that your daily tasks become easier to do. Do you find that it’s easier to walk up and down a flight of stairs? Do you get less winded when you play with your kids? Increased stamina and energy are the results of your hard work!