A coaching client sent me this, and it set me off. 😂

Please cancel the appointment. Once your habits are locked in—training, diet, food environment, schedule—the mental game becomes the most important part of physique change.

People get bored, second-guess themselves, and do something stupid.

The single most destructive thing you can do at this point is to measure your body-fat percentage. It can mess you up more than anything else, planting a seed of doubt that will erode your confidence—either now or in the future.

I understand the temptation—you want to know how much muscle vs. fat we have gained in the last six months of bulking and if we lose any muscle as we lean out.

But they aren’t accurate. They aren’t consistent. And they’re consistently off by 3–5% in either direction.

​

What does this mean?

Let's say we could wave a magic wand, give you an autopsy, weigh all your fat, and put you back together again. The result is that you are 20% body fat.

Your BodPod scan (or BIA, DXA, etc.) might say you’re anywhere from 15% to 25%!

What is it? You don't know.

You go for another test in 4 months once we have finished cutting.

We know with near certainty that if you train hard and hit your nutrition targets, you'll lose 0.5% of your body weight per week—putting you close to 12% body fat.

But your re-test will tell you you're anywhere from 7% to 17%.

Let's say your pre-cut measurement is 19%, and your post-cut measurement is 16%. You'll be convinced that you have lost muscle. I will then remind you about the inaccuracies of these measurements (as I told you about in the opening guidance I gave you).

But the problem is that numbers on physically printed paper from a machine tend to be believed unquestioningly, especially when we have paid a lot of money for them.

You will ask your bf% "technician" about the accuracy of these things, and they will either lie or conveniently be unaware of the devastating truth (their livelihood depends on their ignorance).

You’ll believe them, get discouraged by a disappointing result, second-guess everything, and likely quit. You'll then program-hop, putting you back to square one. You'll now be back on the path of "feelings over data," the opposite of the Ripped Body Method we have been following — evidence-based, data-driven physique change. But it has to be reliable data!

Now, of course, this could go the opposite way. You'll praise me as a genius, tell your friends, and I may temporarily get more business from it.

But I want none of that. This will only set you up for disappointment down the road.

So, seriously—cancel the appointment. Let’s keep doing this the right way.

I've written on this here, here, and even invited James Krieger on my podcast to talk about the subject here. Eric Trexler has covered it on Stronger by Science here. And here's Krieger's full breakdown if you'd like to spend a fun hour reading through his 5-part series on it.

Don’t get me wrong—I’d love it if there were a reliable way to measure body fat percentage. I’d use it with all my clients. But there isn’t, which is why we stick to the scale, tape, and a bit of uncommon common sense.

👉 How To Track Body Measurements and Weight for Physique Progress​

Thank you for reading. 🙏