How To Take Progress Pics And Why They Matter
You have to evaluate what’s going on if you want what’s going on to go where you want to go. That’s not only a fitness thing it’s a life thing.
But on the fitness front, it’s how you determine if the method to your madness is valid or if it’s to be vacated.
So how do you track fitness success, or lack thereof with accuracy? How can you truly know you’re gathering the right information? Useful information?
The scale has pros and cons. Body fat percentage has pros and cons. Don’t get me started on body mass index (BMI). And the mirror plays the kind of tricks my toddler would enjoy.
Not that other methods are to be ignored, it’s that they need a captain. A guide, a North Star. They can’t do it alone.
Insert: progress pictures.
Pictures tend to fix inaccuracy issues. It’s easier and more objective to critique a side by side.
And just about all of us have cameras on the back of our phones. So let’s put them to use.
This article is all about why other forms of monitoring progress fall short, the reasons you need progress pictures, how to capture them appropriately, and much more.
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How To Take Progress Pics And Why They Matter
What’s A Progress Picture
A progress picture is a snapshot of your current aesthetics. Literally. A snapshot, a photograph. A motionless image of you posing for the camera.
The idea is to start the fitness journey at point A with a “before” pic.
After the initial capture, every x days you’ll snap a new picture; the “afters”. Same poses, same or similar setting each round.
With these you can compare how well or not so well your strategy is panning out.
Are my lats growing?
Am I getting more defined?
Do my biceps need further development?
Are my love handles withering away?
Does it look like my abs are coming in?
What body part is being left behind?
Do I look proportional?
Is my arm fat looking less prominent?
Etcetera.
You’ll do this continuously throughout the journey.
Nothing tells a story quite like progress pictures.
It’s even motivation to clean that dirty spot of the house, if you want these still shots to one day go public.
But you do have the option to keep your progress pictures to yourself of course.. unlike the progress reports we had to take home and get a parent signature on back in early school days.
Note: keep in mind that fat accumulation and elimination isn’t a spot method. You can’t “only” lose or gain fat in one specific area. Yet based on genetics you’ll lose or gain fat at a faster rate on certain parts of your body as opposed to others [2]. In a way it’s a last in first out order. Although you lose overall fat, some areas will be noticeable earlier than others. The reverse is also true.
The Problems With Other Forms Of Progress Tracking
The world and technology has provided us with many “monitor your fitness journey” methods, and they all have their share of merits. Also have their share of red flags, preventing them from handling the information gathering handiwork alone. They aren’t to be trusted as solo artists, they need group mates.
Cons Of Tracking Your Weight
Weighing in is a necessity for knowing if you’re generally going in the right direction, but on its own it can be quite misleading.
Why? It’s possible and likely, for example, if you’re on a weight loss/muscle retention and building journey.. you’ll lose body fat in times where the scale doesn’t budge.
That can be a stress source, you may believe no progress is being made. False belief leads to panic. Panic leads to poor decisions that may ruin progress that you didn’t know you were making.
But to get the most out of using a scale..
It’s best to consider weight results over time rather than day-to-day. I like using a weekly weight average.
Daily consideration can be stressful if you’re not mentally up for it.
On Monday you could weigh in at 223, then Tuesday the scale says 225.6 and you have a meltdown when it’s simply water fluctuation.
Water weight has a tendency to fluctuate like a teenager’s mood if your sodium, potassium, water, and fiber intake isn’t consistent.
Cons of Tracking Body fat percentage
Body fat percentage tracking is almost two thumbs up.. almost.
Yes, even measuring body fat has limits. For one, it’d be hard to gauge how your adipose tissue distribution as opposed to adipose tissue totality changes over time with only a number.
You need to see it.
Then when your body fat percentage is ultimately pretty low and you’ve been lifting for a while.. with a good amount of muscle tissue.. intramuscular fat can become an issue.
Harder to gauge if your number is truly an accurate depiction of body fat you don’t want, versus body fat that assists with training.
Intramuscular fat (IMF) is largely a byproduct of training. It’s fat inside of the muscle.
An untrained individual with a poor diet will also have intramuscular fat to a lesser degree simply because it needs to be stored somewhere, yet for the highly trained gym rat (usually over 2-3 serious years) it’s to aid performance.
Intramuscular fat is fat stored in lipid droplets within skeletal muscle, as an extra energy source during short burst movements like resistance training [3].
This is important to know in that if you were going on a cut for example, and you’ve been at 8% body fat in the past, now you’re at 10%? But look much leaner with fuller muscles??
You could have more intramuscular fat stored this time around. IMF is crammed inside the muscle making it look even larger, that would explain this instance.
On a cut your body fat should generally drop, however rely on progress pictures more than body fat percentage alone. Especially when you start hitting lower body fat numbers.
At competition time (if you compete) you may come in with a better body despite the machine says otherwise.
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Cons Of Tape measurements
Tape measuring is another decent, yet flawed tracking mechanism. This is where you wrap your waist or another area you’re interested in losing inches at with measuring tape. You’ll repeat this over time to monitor size changes.
You can also do this and see how your muscles grow throughout the months and years.
Good, but flawed.
One tape measuring flaw is if you have a bloated moment, panic just may ensue. But stay calm. Similar to the scale, consider results over time.
In addition, a point comes where inches may no longer depress significantly on a weight loss journey. However, the appearance of body fat may still continue to dip.
Tape measurements are mostly gold for moderate to extreme weight loss participants and muscle addition.. timely calf measurements for example.
cons Of Relying On The mirror
First and foremost, eyes lie in real time. Real bad.
I can attest it seems outsiders notice your results before you. And in the spirit of fairness, it’s logical. It’s hard to observe day-to-day, incremental changes without a montage and if we take a step toward psychology.. on a small or large scale, body dysmorphia is always at play.
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is when someone sees themself as other than how they truly appear. Could be imagining a defect that doesn’t exist, or isn’t present to the magnitude the eyes may suggest [4].
Maybe it’s a person believing they’re larger, smaller, perhaps even less attractive than they are to the public at large.
Many fitness enthusiasts and non-fitness enthusiasts tussle with BDD. It’s an equal opportunist.
BDD is not always, but often a cynical depiction of yourself. Sometimes it’s an aloofness.
I know I’m always surprised at how muscular I look in a video despite walking by a mirror 67 times a day. It’s not that I call myself bird chest or anything, I just have an inside view.
A picture clears some of that up with an outer body perspective.
Cons Of The Body Mass Index (BMI)
Beware of BMI.
Body mass index (BMI) is your:
(weight in pounds x 703) / (height in inches x height in inches). [1]
It’s your size. Accounting for every part of your being.
A normal BMI is considered 18.5-25, overweight 25-30, and over 30 is labeled obese.
In the other direction, below 18.5 is underweight according to the body mass index.
It’s used medically to determine where a patient stands without delving into more complex methods. All they have to do is look at a chart.
Easier way to statistically generalize a population too. But one thing it doesn’t do is tell the whole story.
We’ll take the example back to me.
I was in the Army once upon a time and we’d do our physical fitness tests, part of the process was a body composition check.
BMI.
Once I started successfully gaining muscle? I had to be pulled to the side and taped for every test. Because my BMI had, and has me pegged as overweight. It completely ignores my below average body fat percentage.
BMI considers everything.
Muscle, water, bones, body fat, your unmoved bowels, an oversized cranium, and the story goes on.
My 180 pounds won’t always look the same as another person’s of the same height. Yet we’ll have the same BMI.
This is why I suggest you pay BMI little to no mind. It adds no value to your fitness journey, unless you have to snuggle yourself into a certain category for a paycheck.
Then it has literal value 😆.
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Why Do You Need Progress Pics
The long and short of why you need progress pictures is that they tell a story. This sort of visual unaltered representation won’t cheat you.
Your mind can’t trick a still shot, it’s right there.
Progress pictures are:
Less emotionally charged
A way to evaluate specifics side by side
A source of personal motivation
A source of motivation for others
A way to maintain focus and clarity on your journey by comparing you to you
A comparatively clearer representation of long-term change
A tool for monitoring shifts in muscle definition
A source of tangible reinforcement
Although progress pictures are firmly suggested, it’s okay to track the aesthetics and the numbers.
But keep in mind, “I want to lose 20 pounds” is possibly your initial mission statement. Progress pictures may show you the look you had in mind after 20 pounds occurred after losing 10.
Or the look you had in mind after dropping 20 will actually end up being 25. Tracking methods are better as a team.
Note: One thing to keep an eye on with progress photos is bloating. If you have a bout with the bloat, it’ll throw off the picture for that week. Another reason to consider results over a period of time.
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How To Pose For Progress Pics
With each progress picture iteration you should be as close to the same condition as possible. And you need your environment to be just about the same.
The only change you want to consider is your body adaptations throughout the weeks.
I recommend first thing in the morning while in a fasted state, before you even start your day with water. Yet after that morning tinkle. This crisp untouched condition is as close to equal as you’ll get week to week. Again, fluctuations occur. This limits fluctuation impact.
Progress picture taking checklist
Shirtless or form-fitting clothes, maybe even the same exact clothes
Non-distracting background
Decent and consistent lighting
Full body or at least knees up in one of the captures
Try setting your picture taking device up with a timer, having someone capture the shot, or recording yourself doing each pose and screenshotting the poses
Keep the same angle and distance from the camera each time
Include a front, side, and back view
Do each pose relaxed
And as a bonus, do each pose flexed
Front Relaxed Vs. Flexed
Back & Side Relaxed
How Often To Take Progress Pictures
I advocate for bi-weekly progress photos. Every other Sunday or Monday morning, snap away.
Not that you’ll observe overt changes every 14 days, it’s that you’ll start a storyline and there’ll be enough time for noticeable, yet gradual improvement.
Nice to have the option to mold your journey into a gradual conversion collage too.
If biweekly is too much for your psyche to handle, go monthly. Not as good, but serviceable.
I like biweekly since it removes the suspense that remains when you allow bigger gaps between photos. And going a month may add more time to your journey if you realize you’re going in the wrong direction and need to readjust strategies.
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What To Look For When Evaluating Progress Pictures
No matter the person. Whether your turf is North America or North Asia.. if you’re on the “monitor aesthetics” side of fitness you’ll have one of three missions.
Lose, maintain, or gain. Here’s what you’ll look for accordingly.
How To Gauge Fat Loss With Pictures
Be on the lookout for a slimming of appearance, increased muscle separation, quality muscle distribution, and overall improved definition (many call this toning).
Lower body far behind your upper body? Do something about it.
If a muscle is left behind you give it extra attention. You can really see “flaws” when the body fat drops.
Oh and if you do your progress pictures in the same outfit each time? The fit of your clothes tell an additional story.
How To Gauge Physique Maintenance With Pictures
A maintenance goal is pretty simple to monitor.
In short, all you ask is “am I holding on to my desired look?”.. If yes, keep things as is. If no, adjust accordingly.
How To Gauge Weight gain With Pictures
Checking your weight gain progress is a bit more nuanced and case by case.
Although I do have a standard for lean bulking efficiency. When to bulk or when it’s time to cut is more about the individual.
But weight gain questions go something like:
Do I seem to be growing proportionally?
Is my definition fading too quickly? Should I slow the bulk down?
Am I still comfortable with my appearance considering the added weight?
Are muscles that were lagging behind starting to catch up?
If you’re veering into “no longer comfortable” territory, consider starting a cut or making diet adjustments to slow the rate of weight gain.
If things aren’t moving quickly enough for your liking consider adjustments to speed the process, but remember that faster isn’t necessarily better on a bulk.
Usually just means extra body fat.
Note: you can also look out for posture improvements, if how you carry yourself needs work.
Every question you ask and answer is to inform your strategy. Whatever needs extra work, give extra work. Whatever is working, keep as is.
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My Thoughts
The premise of this article supports the “fail to plan and you plan to fail” motif. Using tracking methods that give you accurate information is planning to succeed.
Consistent water and overall electrolyte intake is a key. Even more so with creatine, pre-workout, a high protein diet, and/or other sources of caffeine intake. It’s all known to influence water retention.
It’s possible you get nervous at the thought of a photograph. Especially one in such a vulnerable state. But this is for you, you can keep it private. These photos are yours, or for you and your trainer more than any other purpose. If you do share, trust me the support will triumph over any negativity a keyboard warrior could possibly bring. Just type an essay in the caption about overcoming your fear if you’re really concerned, that always works 💪🏾😆. Don’t let what you think someone else may think deter you from greatness.
So, Progress Pictures, It’s About That Time
Documentation is what it comes down to. What you can’t see is imagination. Give yourself something tangible with progress pictures. I appreciate you making it from the top to the bottom of this journal entry. Means a lot, hopefully the information supports your Muscle and Mentality aims.
Set a goal, capture your current condition, and see how you progress along the way.
Use the scale, body fat percentage if possible, and progress pictures. Covering all avenues will give you a clear view and help with the “should I change my strategy or keep going?” question.
Very important question at all times. Put in the work, adjust as needed, and you’ll Be Great.
Sources:
[1] health.harvard.edu/blog/how-useful-is-the-body-mass-index-bmi-201603302500
[2] pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8228180/
[3] pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10988481/
[4] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555901
[5] Webmd.Com/Mental-health/Mental-health-body-dysmorphic-disorder