How to Measure a Toned Body

Are you getting a toned body?
When most people are asked what their physical goals are, they generally respond by saying, ‘I want to lose weight and tone up’. The weight loss side of this goal is easy to measure and assess results; it is objective. However, the ‘toning’ side of the goal tends to be subjective, which means it is based on opinion.

Nevertheless, it is possible to make ‘toning’ more objective once you understand what ‘toning’ actually is. ‘Toning’, from a body composition-changing perspective involves losing body fat and maintain or even slightly increasing muscle mass to achieve a ‘harder-looking’ body. Armed with a definition it is now easy to objectively measure changes over time.

Losing body fat is different to losing weight simply because weight loss on the scales doesn’t discriminate between losses of fat, muscle, water or stored carbohydrate. Through skinfold or bioimpedence assessment, a more accurate measurement may be taken to ensure the losses on the scales are favourable losses of body fat rather than losses of muscle, water or carbohydrate.

Furthermore, girth measurements around limbs, particularly arms, thighs and calves can indicate maintenance or minor gains in muscle mass. Therefore, if someone is reducing their skinfolds whilst simultaneously maintaining or only slightly decreasing their limb girth measurements then it is fair to say they are increasing their ‘tone’.

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