How to take body measurements

When attempting to change your body shape in any way its important to track your progress so you can see results as they happen, this will give your motivation a huge boost and will also show that your efforts are not being wasted.

To get a true gauge of progress you should take measurements from 4 areas of the body, these are your chest, arms, thighs and waist. You will need to get a friend or partner to help you with the measurements, as some will be very tricky to do on your own, it will also make them more accurate.

Measuring your Chest

  1. Raise your arms to the side so they are parallel with the floor and breathe normally
  2. Now take the tape around the chest and measure at nipple height

Measuring your Arms

  1. With your arms straight, raise them to the side so they are parallel to the floor
  2. Bend the elbows to 90 degrees
  3. Turn your palms inwards so they are facing your head
  4. Clench your fists and tense the biceps (keep them tense)
  5. Now take the measurement from the fattest part of the arm, this is usually the middle of the biceps.

Measuring your Thighs

  1. Stand with both feet together
  2. Take a normal step forward with one leg
  3. Bend the knee of your back leg and keep the front leg straight
  4. Measure the thigh of the front leg halfway between the hip and the knee

Measuring your Waist

  1. With your arms straight, raise them to the side so they are parallel to the floor and breathe normally
  2. Measure the waist at your belly button

The best time to take your body measurements

Ideally measurements will be taken now, so you have a clear starting point, then you should take the measurements on a regular basis, I would recommend doing them on a fortnightly or monthly basis, some of you will be tempted to do them weekly or even daily, I would advise against this as you won’t see changes on a daily or even weekly basis and this will only upset you.

If you do measure on a monthly basis, do them on the same day and time each month, e.g. 3rd of the month at 10:00am.