every metric, over time.
Body readings and goals as a time series, so progress is a line you can read, not a single number.
one reading is a mood, not a measurement.
A body fluctuates a kilo or two from one morning to the next on water and gut contents alone, so a single weigh-in can move the wrong way on a week that went right. Trainbase plots every reading on one continuous scale and lays the goal across it, so a client reads the slope instead of the spike. The target has a history too: each goal is kept, never overwritten, so the line shows where the body is going and the markers show where it has been asked to.
read the line, not the number.
Ten weekly readings of one client. Week to week the scale jumps both ways, but across the quarter it falls steadily toward the live goal. The two faded markers are retired goals, kept on the chart because a goal is versioned: you can see the target being lowered as the body earned it.
the scale is noisy by design.
A daily weigh-in is mostly water. A salty dinner, a glass of wine, a missed bathroom trip, the carbohydrate a hard session pulls back into the muscle: any of these moves the scale a kilo overnight, and none of it is fat. The seven daily readings below swing across more than a kilo, yet the average barely twitches. The average is the signal; each morning is the noise.
| day | morning reading | 7-day average | vs average |
|---|---|---|---|
| mon | 86.9 kg | 86.5 kg | +0.4 |
| tue | 86.2 kg | 86.5 kg | -0.3 |
| wed | 87.1 kg | 86.5 kg | +0.6 |
| thu | 85.7 kg | 86.4 kg | -0.7 |
| fri | 86.0 kg | 86.4 kg | -0.4 |
| sat | 87.0 kg | 86.5 kg | +0.5 |
| sun | 86.4 kg | 86.5 kg | -0.1 |
Readings taken first thing, after the bathroom, before food or drink. Range across the week: 1.4 kg. Range of the average: 0.1 kg.
what to measure, and how often.
Not every metric earns a daily reading, and most are misread when taken too often. Each one has a cadence at which its signal clears its noise. Weigh daily and read the weekly average; measure girths and body fat monthly, when a real change has had time to show; let strength report itself every session.
| metric | sensible cadence | reliability | what it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| bodyweight | daily, read weekly avg | high as a trend, low per reading | total mass moving, direction over weeks |
| girths (waist, hips, arm) | every 2 - 4 weeks | high with same site and tension | where size is changing when weight stalls |
| body-fat estimate | monthly | low absolute, fair as a trend | rough composition direction, never an exact number |
| strength (logged sets) | every session | high, it is the work itself | the training is progressing, lean is being defended |
Cadences reflect common coaching practice. Bodyweight is the one metric worth a daily reading, and only because the daily noise is averaged away. Everything else is measured when a real change has had time to appear.
what makes a reading trustworthy.
A measurement is only as good as the conditions it was taken under. The same scale, the same time of day, the same point in the routine: hold those steady and the reading reports the body. Change them and it reports the morning. Ranked by how much each one earns or costs you in reliability.
The last bar is deliberately short: a lone reading carries almost no reliability on its own. It earns meaning only as one point in a line.
the honest answers.
Why did the scale go up when my week was good?
Almost always water, not fat. A salty meal, a hard session pulling carbohydrate back into the muscle, or a missed bathroom trip moves the morning reading a kilo overnight. Read the weekly average instead. Over seven days that noise cancels and the real direction shows.
How often should a client weigh in?
Daily, first thing, after the bathroom and before food or drink, then read the seven-day average rather than any single morning. Daily readings make the average reliable; the average is what you act on.
How accurate is the body-fat estimate?
Treat it as an estimate, not a measurement. Field methods carry several points of error and a single number can be off in either direction. Trainbase reads body fat as a trend over months, so the direction is trustworthy even when any one figure is not.
What happens to an old goal when we set a new one?
It is kept, not deleted. Goals are versioned: the retired target stays on the chart as a faded marker, so a client can see the bar being raised as they earned it. The history of the goal is part of the story, not something to overwrite.