Results Tracker:
How to go from guessing to assessing -- and from amateur to pro.
Introducing the Results Tracker, the web-based results management system used by the Precision Nutrition team to pinpoint body transformation changes down to the most minute detail.
Click to sign up for your Results Tracker account
What separates the pros from the amateurs?
If there is one difference between professionals and amateurs, in almost every walk of life, it’s that the pros pay close attention to the details.
What’s the old carpenter’s saying? “Measure twice, cut once.” Stopping to ensure you make the precise cut, every single time, is the difference between the master craftsman and the weekend handyman.
And the great tailors, the ones who make the $5000 suits, what do they do? They bring you in on at least three separate occasions to be fitted perfectly. If you have ever wondered where the extra $4500 goes, go watch one of these tailors work sometime – the detail that goes into their work is absolutely astonishing.
Investment bankers have huge amounts of data available to them when they make their investment decisions.
Professional musicians record themselves so they can hear the minute differences from one performance to the next.
Athletes in every sport have access to a mind-boggling array of statistics, from times to averages, and every percentage imaginable in between.
Name the profession. Name the job. In every single case, you will find that the part-timers tend to “eyeball it” -- but the professionals know for sure. As a colleague of mine likes to say:
“If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing.”
So the question then is: which are you doing? Are you guessing? Wishing? Hoping? Do you settle for the ballpark figures, the “good enough”?
Or are you assessing? Do you pay attention to the details? Do you – like the pros – want to know for sure?
In the world of human performance and nutrition, the experts are separated from the also-rans by their ability to know precisely how the body responds to specific training and nutritional interventions (that is, to specific programs, diets, supplements and the like).
At Precision Nutrition, we have a battery of assessments, questionnaires and tests that our clients undergo regularly. We’ve come up with a mix of subjective/qualitative assessments and objective/quantitative assessments that cover every facet of human performance.
Coupled with the Precision Nutrition system, these assessments allow us to get rapid results with clients. In fact, I’ve done informal testing that indicates that regular assessments like these can speed up progress by 50-75% -- even using the same exercise and nutrition program. Used properly, they keep clients motivated and focused on the things that work, without wasting time on the counter-productive stuff.
And the upshot of all this is that I’m now making these assessments available to you.
It’s a brand new web-based service called the Results Tracker.
Introducing the Results Tracker: Online body composition recording, tracking and graphing, built into your Precision Nutrition account.
The Results Tracker is a web-based program that allows you to record, track and graph your results – all built right in to your precisionnutrition.com account.
We’ll be rolling the program out in phases. Tthe first phase, Advanced Body Composition Measurement, was released in beta in late 2006 and after months of testing and user feedback from the 2000 beta testers, it's now open to the public.
You’ll be able to record your body composition online using the same methods we outlined in our Guide to Body Composition Measurement. You'll literally use the same tools the pros use to ensure they're getting the absolute best results they possibly can.
Features and Benefits
A short list of features and benefits released in Phase 1 of the online Results Tracker:
- Online tracking of body weight, lean body mass, fat mass, body fat percentage, 7 skinfold sites and 8 girth measurement sites. No fooling around with calculations, formulas, spreadsheets, etc. -- everything is done for you.
- Advanced body composition formulas, measurement to measurement comparisons and more calculated behind the scenes. Get the same data the professionals use without any of the hassle.
- Built into your precisionnutrition.com account. No new username/password required.
- Guided measurement form complete with instructions on how to take each measurement correctly, male or female, with advanced error correcting features and 3 measurement skinfold averaging. Reduce measurement error and learn to take consistent, precise measurements like the pros.
- Photos of each measurement technique showing exactly how to perform the measurement, how to locate the specific skinfold and girth sites, and how to do it precisely every time.
- View, add, edit and delete unlimited measurements at will. Manage your results expertly, reliably, quickly and on your own schedule, both now and in the future.
- Results Overview page shows you recent trends body weight, lean body mass, fat mass and body fat percentage, both as a visual graph and as a data table. Also shows you recent and all-time changes in every variable measured. In mere seconds, get a detailed picture of how and where your physique is changing.
- View all measurements at a glance. See all measurements taken and compare, or drill down to see more detail, edit, delete and more.
- View history of each variable tracked. Every variable has it's own history page, complete with graph of recent trends and both measurement-to-measurement and all-time changes, expressed as both absolute numbers (say pounds, millimeters or inches) and as a percentage increase/decrease (e.g., up 21% all-time, down 10 percent since last measurement, etc.).
- Graphing of every variable, from lean body mass to abdominal skinfold. Visualize the subtle changes in your body, down to the most minute detail, in bright colorful graphs that you can download and save, or just leave online for viewing any time you log in.
- Thoroughly cross-referenced and linked. Jump from the Results Overview page to any of the tracked variables, to any specific measurement, and page again. Drill down to the details instantly.
- Complete help forum. Discuss any questions about the program with the PN team, and give feedback to shape the development in the future and make the program better for all members.
Here's a screenshot of the main page (click for a larger view):
Video Demonstration of the Results Tracker
The easiest way to show you exactly what the Results Tracker is, what it does and how it works is to walk you right through it. So we've put together this video demonstration to show you around.
Just press play!
[INSERT FLASH VIDEO]
Click to sign up for your Results Tracker account
"Is it like the other body fat calculators on the web?"
No. The other "body fat calculators" on the web merely estimate your body fat for you. The Results Tracker does that too, of course. But body fat estimates alone are not very useful when it comes to determining what exactly is happening in your body, and most importantly, what to do about it.
For that, you need to record not only your estimated body fat percentage, but also the raw measurements that went into that estimate (i.e., body weight and the various skinfold thicknesses used in the calculation). Those data, along with girth measurements (for example, the circumference of your waist, upper arm, etc.) and calculated values such as Lean Body Mass and Fat Mass, start to paint a much more detailed picture. The Results Tracker records all those things.
But the real benefit comes from recording all those values over time and comparing the differences.
The Results Tracker automates the recording of both the raw measurement data and the calculated estimates like body fat percentage. Every time you take a measurement, all the data will be stored in your account, and you can access it easily at any time.
The real benefit becomes obvious once you record a second measurement in the Results Tracker. You'll instantly see exactly how your body has changed from the last measurement. You'll know for example that your abdominal skinfold thickness decreased by 10%, or that the circumference of your upper thigh decreased by half an inch. You'll know that you lost 6 lbs of fat and gained 2 lbs of muscle, and you'll know where on your body that muscle was gained and where the fat was lost.
The Results Tracker then generates graphs to show you the trends for each piece of data recorded. You'll see the ups and downs for everything, from simple body weight to lean body mass and body fat percentage, right down to triceps skinfold thickness and everything in between. You'll see every change (expressed as both a percent change and an absolutel change) both from measurement to measurement and all-time from the very first measurement you took until the present day. You'll see it all in clear detail.
When you track the data to that degree of detail, you see trends that you would otherwise overlook.
One example of the difference the Results Tracker makes: when people start eating and training better, they often see no difference in scale weight. That is, they weigh the same as they weighed before they started eating and training better. But by recording more detailed data and comparing it over time in the Results Tracker, they'll often see that something else is really going on: they're actually building muscle and losing fat. Think about it: if you build 5 pounds of muscle and lose 5 pounds of fact, for example, you'll see no difference when you step on the bathroom scale. But those 5 extra pounds of muscle and those 5 fewer pounds of fat represent significant progress. Those are results you need to see, both to stay motivated and to know that your current plan is really working. And that's exactly what the Results Tracker does.
But the Results Tracker does much more than even that. With it, you can easily see regional trends, right down to the specific area. For example, when you're trying to lose fat, you want to preserve as much muscle as possible, both for aesthetic reasons and to ensure that your metabolism stays high. With the Results Tracker, you'll know whether you're losing muscle AND where exactly you're losing it (legs? arms?) so that you can adjust your training and nutrition program accordingly. That's a level of detail you can't get anywhere else.
"Why would I want to measure all this data?"
A) See above. But also . . .
B) Because until you can quantify something -- until you can measure it precisely -- you don't really know it, and you can't reliably change it. The more you measure, the more you track over time, the better you'll know your body, and the better you'll be able to change it. And if you're serious at all about doing so, you better be measuring everything you can.
This really has nothing to do with the Results Tracker. If you tracked all this data with a pen, a pencil and a calculator, it would be far better than doing nothing. If you did it with a spreadsheet and some custom-made graphs, great. Heck, if you did it with a sundial, an abacus and some twigs to draw in the sand, I'd still give it the thumbs up.
Measuring your progress is absolutely necessary to find out whether what you're doing is working and to what degree. Without that knowledge, everything you do is a shot in the dark.
The Results Tracker gives you data previously available only to the pros. It makes recording, managing and graphing your progress dead simple to do, and if you want that kind of knowledge (and I strongly recommend it), then this is the easiest way to get it.
"Is the Results Tracker it for me?"t may not be for you.
Everyone will benefit from tracking their progress, that much is well-known. That said, the Results Tracker is not for everyone.If you're clinically obese or significantly overweight, the level of detail offered by the Results Tracker is not necessary and you might not yet be lean enough to do the skinfold measurements. We'll be coming out with a basic version of the Results Tracker in the next phase that will be perfect for you. In the meantime, I strongly recommend recording your scale weight on a standard bathroom scale and your waist girth using a standard measuring tape, and following Precision Nutrition.
Realistically the Results Tracker is best for intermediate to advanced exercisers. It will appeal most strongly to the detail-oriented and those who like to eke out every last bit of performance out of things. You will have the same data that the very best coaches and consultants have, and I daresay you'll have it in the easiest to use and most informative format available anywhere. While everyone can benefit from having this data, if you're the type who likes to go the extra mile, then the Results Tracker is definitely for you.
"Can I use the Results Tracker with my clients?"
Not yet, but we're working on it. We're working on adding some client management features for trainers and coaches, so that you can easily manage the results of all your clients, print and email reports, notify clients of an upcoming assessment, highlight areas of concern, and much more -- all within your Results Tracker account, without your clients having to do anything. But obviously that will take time. In the meantime, if you'd really like your clients to have this kind of data, I suggest you send them here and have them create their own account. You can help them with the measurements and and even enter their measurements for them, and they'll have access to all the data and reports.
"How much does it cost?"
$9.00 a month, or $59.00 a year. Those figures are US dollars.
"How do I pay?"
Via PayPal. You click the link at the top or bottom of this page (or here, if you don't feel like scrolling) and order the Results Tracker subscription. That will direct you to our PayPal page, where you can pay either with your PayPal account if you have one, or with a credit card if you don't.
"Do I need to have a PayPal account?"
No. PayPal is just the payment processor. You can pay with your PayPal account if you have one, but if you don't, it's no problem. On the PayPal page, just click "Use your credit card or bank account (where available)." You can then pay with your credit card just like you would on any e-commerce site.
It will create a PayPal account automatically for you, which you can use to manage your subscription to the Results Tracker and cancel payment if necessary.
"Is PayPal safe?"
Probably the safest there is online. They do more transactions per day than virtually anyone else on the web. We do the vast majority of our business online, and our reputation lives and dies on our ability to make our customers happy. I trust them with that reputation, and quite frankly with the money generated by the Results Tracker. Plus, we back every sale with a money back guarantee, whether its our fault or not. So you can buy with confidence.
"What if I stop using it? Can I cancel my subscription?"
Yes, you can cancel at any time by going into your PayPal account and stopping the monthly payments. Just go to www.paypal.com, login and cancel your subscription to "Results Tracker."
And if you don't have a PayPal account, you will after you've signed up for the Results Tracker -- one is created for you automatically upon checkout.
"Can I try the Results Tracker for free?"
Unfortunately, not right now. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do it, because we stand behind everything we do. I'm confident that by giving you a free trial, you'd love it and be even more likely to sign up. Unfortunately the software we use doesn't allow it right now, so I have no feasible way of automating the process. Manually adding and subtracting hundreds of accounts a week is just not an option for us as a company. So right now, I can't, but I'll keep trying to find a way.
In the meantime, however, I suggest this: if you're on the fence, just sign up and try it out for a month. It will cost you 9 bucks. If in that month you don't like the Results Tracker or don't think you'll use it, just cancel your membership and contact us at info@precisionnutrition.com, and we'll refund the 9 bucks no questions asked.
That way you can try it and see if it works for you, and you can be completely confident that it's been money well spent.
"How do I get started?"
Easy. Just click this link:
Click to register for a Results Tracker account.
Best,
John M. Berardi, PhD, CSCS
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