How Do You Measure Up? Scales and Tracking Weight Loss Progress

You want to lose weight, so weighing yourself on a scale is the best way to measure your progress, right?

Not necessarily–placing too much emphasis on your scale weight, particularly if measured too often, can be deceiving and often counter-productive.

Not the Whole Story
I do not like to weight myself too often on the scale. I prefer to measure my progress by how I feel, strength gains, and how my clothes fit. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the sweats I’d been wearing to the gym were becoming baggy. It finally got to the point that I had to buy new ones. At the time, I really only had about 5 pounds I wanted to lose. I decided it was time to check the scale & see if I’d accomplished my goal. I still weighed the same, though friends were remarking that I had obviously lost weight. The truth was that my body composition was very clearly changing– yet the number on the scale had not changed a bit. It wasn’t until several weeks later that my progess also registered on the scale (and I did lose the desired 5 lbs–Yahoo!)

It is important to remember that what you want to lose is FAT, not pounds. Our weight on the scale is a reflection of all the components in our body–water, muscle, organ tissue, bone, and fat. The scale does not breakdown the composition of these elements for us, i.e. tell us how much of that weight is actually FAT. As organ tissue and bone weights are basically static in the typical adult, the variables are water, muscle and fat. Fluctuations on the scale are measuring the combination of these elements. Thus the scale does not tell the whole story, nor does it measure all your progress.

Tricky Numbers
When starting a new weight loss routine, particularly one that includes strength training, the scale can mislead for a number of reasons:

1. Because muscle weighs more than fat. You could be making excellent progress toward your goals–loosing fat and gaining muscle, changing your body composition, while not registering a loss in poundage on the scales.
2. Water is a major variable. You’re body can retain or loose several pounds in water much more quickly that it can gain or lose fat or muscle. But, these changes won’t necessarily make you slimmer. Therefore, fluctuations in your body’s water makeup can mislead you into thinking that you are dropping or gaining fat when you are not necessarily.

If you rely too heavily on what the scale says, you may get discouraged and fall off a program that is actually working perfectly.

Just One Tool
Of course, a scale is a useful tool to assist you in measuring progress during your weight loss journey, but it is not wise to use it as your only tool, or to fixate on it excessively.

Weigh properly. Weigh yourself no more than every two weeks, preferably once a month, on the same day of the week to avoid stressing out over “ups and downs” caused by water fluctuation. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything, so that you don’t end up just weighing your last meal (which will eventually be eliminated through digestion.) Oh, and get yourself a good scale.

Use other measures. A tape measure is another tool to measure your progress. Measurements taken monthly will help you see if you’re loosing inches and actually getting slimmer. Measure your bust, chest, waist, hips, thights, upper arm (add forearm & calves, if you care to.) Tracking your body fat percentage monthly is also useful, but a little more difficult to perform. If you have a gym membership, they will do this for you free at your local gym. If not, you can use these resources to learn how to measure body fat: watch the instructional video on how to use body fat calipers, or use the body fat index calculator to do a less accurate measure without calipers.

Trust Yourself
Don’t forget to rely on how you feel and how your clothes fit as a measurement tool. As my story above indicates, this captures changes that the scale might not, and is usually the more accurate, more fulfilling evidence of your progress.

Weigh In
Do you have thoughts or questions on this post? Please weigh in with your comments. (pun intended!)