If you’re trying to live a healthier lifestyle, then it’s important to know exactly what that means for you. A lot of people get into the habit of tracking calories and nothing but calories, but that only tells you a small part of the whole picture. If you’re aiming for specific fitness or diet goals, or you simply want to be more nuanced in your approach to health, it’s important to learn the other metrics that you can track, as well.
*This is a collaborative post.
*This is a collaborative post.Know Your Food’s Nutritional Content
Even when it comes to pure dietary needs, calories aren’t the whole picture. You have your macronutrients, like protein, carbs, and fats, that effectively determine your body’s fuel, which is important for muscle building and recovery.
Micronutrients like iron, magnesium, and vitamin D are vital for a whole host of bodily functions, as well. Nutrition-tracking apps can help you look much more closely at nutrients alone, letting you see what your diet might be missing and what you might be getting too much of, even if you’re well within your acceptable calorie levels.
Body Fat Matters As Much As Weight
If you’re looking to manage your weight, then the numbers on the scale aren’t the only ones to go by. For one, it doesn’t help you figure out whether you’re losing fat or muscle, or gaining, as the case may be. Tracking body fat percentage can be a much more meaningful measure of your progress. There are tools that can help you learn how to calculate body fat percentage, such as calipers and body composition scales. This can help you balance your training and nutrition much more effectively.
Exercise Performance Matters, Too
Sometimes, the results of your training are going to show in the training itself. If you’re looking to build strength or even your cardiovascular health, then you should keep track of the metrics that make up your workout, as well. For weight training, you can progress by increasing your weight, increasing your reps, or being able to hold certain poses with weight for longer. For cardio workouts, such as running, cycling, or swimming, setting new times or new distances, or going for longer can help you see your progress, too.
Your Resting Heart Rate
How your body functions while resting can be just as important as how it does during an exercise. Your resting heart rate can tell a big part of the story, as a lower RH typically means that you are improving your cardiovascular health. On the other hand, sudden increases can also be an indicator that you’re overtraining, which can be a signal that you need to spend a little more time resting and recovering rather than exercising all of the time. Wearable fitness trackers make it a lot easier to incorporate data like your RHR into your everyday health efforts.
Calories are an important part of your efforts to both build muscle and lose weight, so you don’t need to stop paying attention to them entirely. However, the metrics above should be a big part of the picture, as well.
*Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post. This post has been pre-written.
