Does the scale matter?

I've been hearing lately from a lot of different sources, that people should just throw out the scales - scales are evil, they lie, they are the enemy, etc. I'm going to have to be a dissenting opinion here...Does the scale matter?

Yes, the scale does matter! To a certain extent. (Before you tar and feather me...hear me out!)

Should the scale be our only tool of measurement? No way. Can it help measure our progress? Absolutely. The scale does only tell a portion of the story, however. When you combine it with body fat testing by a fitness professional, how your clothes fit, and circumference measurements with a tape measure, you begin to see the whole story...

Say after two weeks the number on the scale stays the same, but your body fat goes down and your clothes are looser. You can pretty much assume you gained a little muscle and lost some fat. Great job. But say after a few more weeks the scale is still the same (and assuming your clothes still fit relatively the same,) I'm sorry but something is not right. Especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. It's wishful thinking to say, "Oh - I must have gained 12 lbs of muscle and 12 lbs of fat." (A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same (a pound - surprise) but muscle is more dense than fat and thus takes up less space. So if this were the case your clothes would still be fitting looser.) The scale does need to be moving!! (and the inches need to be going down, the body fat needs to be going down...etc.

From the Hussman fitness website: "Think of it this way. A woman doing relatively well on her fitness program might be losing over 1 pound of fat a week, while gaining a fraction of a pound of muscle. So while she might be on track to lose 12-15 pounds of fat and gain a few pounds of lean muscle over 12 weeks, by the 5th week she might be looking at a scale change of less than 4 pounds. And since that's about the weight of a meal and a couple of glasses of water, she may not even see the scale move at all. This is especially true at high bodyfat levels, where shifts in water retention over a monthly cycle can be quite large. But gradually, the changes are happening anyway, as long as she doesn't give up. For women at high bodyfat levels, progress may not show for weeks at a time. The reason is that your readings will zig-zag within their downward path. If you measure from a peak in weight to a recent trough, you'll be elated at the "jump" in your progress. But other times you'll get a trough-to-peak reading and be totally frustrated. Don't extrapolate either of these impressions. Chart your numbers and measure progress from peak-to-peak or trough-to-trough." (hussmanfitness.org)

But it still needs to be gradually going down!

If it isn't, at this point (and probably a lot sooner,) a reality check is in order. How are your portions sizes? Are you measuring everything out honestly? Are you writing down all your food in your meal log? Are you eating every three hours? Are you getting enough water? Taking your supplements? Are you choosing those lean proteins and low-glycemic carbs? How intense are your workouts? Are you going to muscle failure or just going through the motions?

Really analyze your nutrition and the intensity of your workouts and you just might find that scale moving after all!