Measuring Progress
The Goal
Clearly, progress toward any one goal is first and foremost determined by the goal itself. If your goal is fewer pounds and nothing but, progress would of course be very easy to determine: pounds lost equals forward progress, pounds gained equals not.
But often as not, the goal is not only weight lost, but improved appearance as well, usually in the guise of inches lost — and here it becomes a question of which goal is most important to you, fewer pounds or inches.
It may be sixty/forty proposition, or some other ratio, which you and you alone, can determine.
The Most Important Goal
When it comes to long-term weight loss over the course of fifty or more pounds, the most important goal may not be pounds lost, nor inches. It may well be quality of life regained, or it may be health restored. Again, it really is up to the dieter himself or herself to determine what goal is the most important, or — if there are several — how they rank.
Appearance
Did you know that there are cultures where a three-hundred-pound body is not only desirable, but envied and venerated?
In the white Moor Arab culture of Mauritania, for example, female obesity has traditionally been valued…
