It's inches, not pounds, that count

Toss your scale. Grab that tape measure!

That's the word from fitness instructors and personal trainers across the Twin Cities who have had it with weight training rituals that more closely resemble an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Because muscle weighs more than fat, consider this: It's not the pounds that matter -- it's the inches.

"I have a client whose weight stayed exactly the same, but she lost 2 inches off her waist after a month of just working out and getting busy," said YMCA instructor Nickie Carrigan. The client never had been really active, so getting moving created results, just not the kind measured in pounds.

I know the magnetic pull of the scale. I am a fitness instructor now, but as a teenager I obsessively climbed aboard the scale three times a day and then brooded, dehydrated and starved myself if I didn't hit some nutty number. I gave up that bad habit at age 20. Sadly, years later, I hear about similar rituals from clients.

People, free yourselves! Scales can't tell the difference between a well-hydrated, toned body and one laden with excess fat. So, what to do?

"The first thing I tell [clients] is throw that scale out the window until we get real controls. [Work out and] their weight will go up at first. You will go down in body fat and you will go up in muscle mass," said Hillary Sanwick, who holds two Miss Wisconsin Body Builder titles and directs the personal training for Highland Fitness Centers in Eau Claire, Wis.

"We've taken off at least 12 inches around her whole body frame. It was a great thing for her because that [information] just took her to the next level," Sanwick said, noting that the client later lost pounds. "The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. That is the message I try to get through."

Getting through the noise in our thin-obsessed culture demands different tools. Luckily, we have lots of them: calipers that measure body fat, heart rate monitors that guide aerobic workouts and fancy high-tech tools for the pros. Try these ideas:

Go low-tech. Grab a friend, a tape measure and a notebook to chart your activity and progress. Have the friend measure the circumference of your waist, hips, thighs and the largest part of your arm. And return the favor. Then get to work.

As you bump up your walk, bike ride or step classes to three to five times a week and mix in Pilates or weights, (30 reps, please) you will start to see results.

Want proof? Chart the number of steps or miles walked each day and the number of reps you can do. Notice that Week Three is a lot easier than Week One. That's progress! Not as easily winded? Can walk a little farther? What?!! The tape measures a little thinner? Great! Keep it up. Measure again in four weeks.

Check out trainers' tech. Sanwick's gym might have the mother of all fitness-assessment tools. The computerized Polar Body-Age System makes this trainer drip with envy. The costly, all-in-one tracking station has calipers, heart-rate monitors, blood pressure cuff, bicep strength test, oxygen volume tests, weight and height scales, a stationary bike endurance machine, and other tools trainers use to take starting measurements and track progress.

Want more? Get this. Each client's data is instantly downloaded into the Polar computer. A portable Polar wrist monitor can plug in, grab the data and give clients instant feedback while working out. It beeps if their heart rate's too high or low and notes how many more calories or minutes they have to burn.

Most of her clients have the monitors, Sanwick said. "They can say, 'I am doing my cardio and I am not losing weight.' But I can take that watch and can put it back on our [Polar] computer and see exactly what they have done. So don't give me any B.S., 'cause I can see exactly what you are doing."

Now go ahead. Toss that scale.