Measure your Progress

#1

I wish I had made more effort to record the changes when I started my big weight loss effort. It is such a useful record to have when you run into problems or you need to remind yourself just how far you have come. If I could go back to day 1, I would do the following monthly…

Take photos - front, back and side body shots plus face. Try and stand in the same way and wear reasonably tight clothes so you can really appreciate the changes.

Measurements - waist and hips at least but everywhere else is useful too, especially if there are areas that particularly bug you!

Weight - well most people do this. If you obsess about weight too easily then ditch the scales and get weighed elsewhere (same scales, same time of day, similar clothes). I like recording every day but I don’t freak out if it goes up and down - that’s normal.

Blood tests - improvements to your health are the best reason for doing keto so it is great to be able to see those health markers improve. It really depends what your issues are but I would go for a minimum of HDL/LDL/Trigs and HbA1c. Check out the Tests section under the Health category for more info.

Journal - make a note of how you are feeling in a journal. This could be in a notebook, on your phone or an online journal. Take some time each week to assess how things are going. What changes are you noticing? If anything is amiss note down what was happening that week - maybe you were getting less sleep, were stressed out about something or have struggled with food for some reason. It is so useful to be able to look back and see what was going on if, for example, you are experiencing a stall. There could be an obvious reason that you could address and solve the problem. I used to get bad migraines so kept a note of when I got them and what I had been eating /doing that day.

Don't rely on one metric, AKA the "buy a tape measure and take selfies" thread
Cico
(Vesa McD) #2

Great advice!

It took me years to learn that food allergies (namely high fodmap foods and grains) caused me years of migraines. It was difficult to spot because all foods have those, and the problems would present themselves on a delay of up to 3 days later from something I ate (that I shouldn’t have). Once I learned what worked and didn’t cause migraines, I was able to add foods back to see triggers. The journal would have been extremely valuable had I understood that we as humans are not designed to be broken by default. We would not have evolved to what we are as a species if we would have actually had all these health problems as a default. Thanks for addressing this.

#3

I am planning on doing an exclusion diet to figure out how I react to different foods. I have a few suspects but it is impossible to tell properly unless you exclude then add back.

(Howie Levy) #4

I purchased a USB cable to sync my Ketone Monitor to my PC
You can present your Glucose and Ketone readings to your Dr.

http://abbottstore.com/diabetes-management/precision-brand-precision-data-cable-1pk-7084502

I keep my weight in Google Fit (Android) and in a simple Google Sheet document along with measurements.

http://abbottstore.com/diabetes-management/precision-brand-precision-data-cable-1pk-7084502

Top tip! Abbott will send you a Precision Xtra Blood Glucose & Ketone Monitoring System if you ask nicely.

#5

In my experience at least, the more true data you can present your physician the better relationship you’ll have.

Mine is a nerd (good way) and loves it!

(Terri) #6

I asked nicely whether they can help me obtain the meter and their response was a 20% off code.:frowning: Please tell me how you asked.

#7

In the UK you get a discount if you are a diabetic

(Howie Levy) #8

I paid full price on Amazon, then I went to the Abbott Store to purchase extra accessories whrn I discovered this link https://www.choosefreestyle.com

My meter was not perscribed by a Dr.

#9

Temporarily unavailable :pensive:

#10

@Rookie
They were unavailable for me too. I shot them an email, included my address and shamelessly asked for one.

Response below (minus my details of course)

Dear (Me removed),

Thank you for your interest in the NovaMax Plus meter. At your request, we are sending you a No Promo meter NMP meter Kit to the address you provided in your email.
(Address removed)
If you have any questions regarding the NovaMax Plus meter, please give us a call at our toll free number
1800 681 7390. We are open Monday to Saturday from 9AM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time.

Regards,

Assia B
Customer Care Representative
Nova Diabetes Care
39 Manning Rd
Billerica, MA 01821

#11

I’ll have to try that. Thanks :grin:

(Jamie Hayes) #12

If you just want to measure one thing, I think it would be your waist.

My second thing would be muscular strength. Sarcopenia is a horribly unrecognised problem. Many seemingly normal-weight people are skinny-fat, with undiagnosed insulin resistance and unhealthy loss of lean tissue.

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #13

Waist is good. How to measure it though is not quite as straightforward as one might think, at least that’s what I found (male with a horribly >40 inch waistline last time I measured…I don’t like to say how much greater than 40 …:frowning: ).

There is conflicting advice on the web/Youtube.

Biggest problem is keeping the tape properly horizontal, I find.

If one is going down the blood measurement route, then fasting insulin would be good. (Probably not cheap).

If one gets fasting glucose done at the same time, then in theory one can work out insulin resistance using the “HOMA score” (or “HOMA equation”):

http://www.thebloodcode.com/homa-ir-calculator/

One place (this is in the UK) that I was looking at offers fasting insulin, but also offers insulin resistance. I’m not sure if they do it by the HOMA score method or something else. Not had it done yet, but considering it.

(Todd Allen) #14

Skinny-fat is what I was. 173 lbs, 5’10" was not a terrible BMI but I came to realize with my loss of muscle I was quite obese. Since then I’ve lost 35 lbs and gained quite a bit of muscle and I still have plenty more fat to lose. I’ve come to realize my muscle wasting disease is highly coupled to insulin resistance, both aggravating insulin resistance and accelerating with increasing insulin resistance.

#15

I think there are two ways.
First is to pinpoint belly button and use that as your mark and measure from there.
Second is to measure around the narrowest part.

As long as you always use the same, it doesn’t really matter.

I have seen a measuring tape that is quite nifty. I’ll see if I can find it…

https://www.amazon.com/AccuFitness-MT05-MyoTape-Body-Measure/dp/B000G7YW7Y

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #16

Thanks Donna. I’ll try that.

That tape measure looks quite nifty.

Since re-starting LCHF (and then graduating specifically to LCHF/Keto), I’ve bought a tape measure with the Idass brand which is fairly good (certainly better than my wife’s dressmaking tape measure which I no longer have to keep borrowing… :slight_smile: ).

BTW, when you wrote “belly button” I couldn’t help smiling as it reminded me of the old music hall song (well I am “of a certain age”) “I can’t do my bally bottom button up”. Although “it’s bally”, I’m sure people were meant to understand “belly” and “belly button” which would have been considered “a bit rude” when the song was written. It can be found on Youtube, but I won’t attempt (may not be allowed) to post a link. (People can live without it… :slight_smile: ).

#17

I just always remember one or other gyn I went to or weight loss something or other telling me to put my finger on my belly button to get the waist measurement.

I use a dressmaker’s tape!

(Tom) #18

I use one of these and it’s very helpful for keeping measurements consistently placed.

(THERESA PITTS) #19

Has anyone used the LikeAGlove product to take your consistently take your measurements? It is really designed to take your measurements and match you to a jean size for different brands, but it will track your measurements over time.

If so, does it work well?

Here is a link to the product (admins, please remove link if not allowed)