Throw away your scale!!!!

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  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Okay people. Let me explain.
    I'm not saying to go eat cake, watch tv all day and let yourself go.
    What I'm saying is that meny people weigh themselves and the number determines what kind of day they are going to have.
    If you are working out and eating clean, you shouldn't be gaining fat.
    My point is that meny people have a obsession with what the scale says and they weigh themselves throughout the day and they freak out that they went up .7 pounds.
    Don't worry people, You don't have to take my advice. :)

    Wouldn't those same people freak out that they gained half an inch when they measure themselves every day? This doesn't explain why measuring is any better.

    Why can't you gain fat when you're eating clean if you're eating too much? Not everyone even eats clean to begin with. Most people don't, so you can't say that as the default assumption.

    You should have just said, don't freak out if you fluctuate throughout the day instead of giving blanket advice to everyone about throwing out the scale, especially since your advice was based on some 13 year old who did this. I'd like to think that most people have more common sense than that.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Driagnor wrote: »
    I personally like to weigh myself every morning, and then enter it into a spreadsheet. I don't pay attention to day-to-day fluctuations, but rather look at the overall trend.

    I find that it helps to keep me accountable, and if it does go up, I examine yesterday's behaviour to see if there was anything I could have done differently

    I think the idea of spreadsheet to see trends is a good one, but your second paragraph seems contrary to the first. If it is an overall trend that is important, why examine things on a day to day basis?
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Please explain

    Well first my question is what do you call clean eating? Be careful how you answer this on MFP. You make it seem like if you workout and do whatever this clean eating is that you won't gain fat. So you will always be under maintenance with those two concepts right?
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    I tried that all last summer. I bicycled every day. I lost inches around my middle. I thought I was doing good. But when I stepped on the scale, I discovered that I hadn't lost anything. For me, the scale keeps me honest.

    If you lost inches around your middle, how can you say you lost nothing? Did you gain those inches somewhere else?

    Personally, I'd rather lose inches and weight. Both would better, but if I had to choose, inches would win all day long.
  • oncem0re
    oncem0re Posts: 213 Member
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    I agree with others, you need the scale. For us, you see what you want to see in the mirror - you don't feel the 5-10lbs gain you been gaining all your life because it was not a problem at the time, but then one day you wake up and your jeans aren't fitting and wonder why but again, you just move on and get you a larger size 'till it's never ending buying bigger clothes. I do think you need it to remind you where you at and where you want to be. My 2 cents!
  • ravlomama123
    ravlomama123 Posts: 49 Member
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    Okay okay people, I heard this advice from a certified nutritionist. I've read the comments and I see your guys point. This advice wouldn't work for everyone.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Okay okay people, I heard this advice from a certified nutritionist. I've read the comments and I see your guys point. This advice wouldn't work for everyone.

    I honestly don't understand why you got so many negative responses. Relying on measurement instead of the scale is a pretty common piece of advice on this site.
  • ravlomama123
    ravlomama123 Posts: 49 Member
    edited January 2015
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    I honestly don't understand why you got so many negative responses. Relying on measurement instead of the scale is a pretty common piece of advice on this site.[/quote]

    I have no clue. Seriously! But whatever. Everyone has their own opinion.
  • Phoenix_Down
    Phoenix_Down Posts: 530 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Okay people. Let me explain.
    I'm not saying to go eat cake, watch tv all day and let yourself go.
    What I'm saying is that meny people weigh themselves and the number determines what kind of day they are going to have.
    If you are working out and eating clean, you shouldn't be gaining fat.
    My point is that meny people have a obsession with what the scale says and they weigh themselves throughout the day and they freak out that they went up .7 pounds.
    Don't worry people, You don't have to take my advice. :)

    So, if I eat over maintenance eating whatever food you think is "clean" I won't gain fat? What happens then?

    I get the not having the scale dictate your mood or dishearten you but your misinformation is bubbling to the surface
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Aviva92 wrote: »
    CA_Underdog wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Zedeff wrote: »
    Uh... muscle and water have volume too. Losing an inch doesn't exclude muscle or water losses.

    yep and you can also easily gain an inch due to water and then freak out. measurements fluctuate just as much as the scale does.

    Yes! My biceps can gain an inch if I do a workout after a one month break. Alas, that's due to swelling, and not a massive gain in muscle fibers. If you want to know what a scale loss represents, try a scale that measures body fat. zid4c9u4gku4.png
    In the above chart from one point in my journey, body fat trends are far more illuminating than total body weight in seeing that I'm doing something correctly. You don't need a very accurate scale to do something like this, merely a consistent one.

    I totally agree about weighing at the same time each day, especially when you wake-up, and tape measures are a great alternative to weigh-ins if you're obsessive about scales.

    I don't think the body fat percentages on those scales are accurate, even for trends from what I've heard. I wouldn't trust it.

    Most research I've seen supports BIA from a consistency perspective. For example, "In general, bioelectrical impedance technology may be acceptable for determining body composition of groups and for monitoring changes in body composition within individuals over time." (Buchholz AC, Bartok C, Schoeller DA.. Oct 2004). Better scales have only +/- 1% variation, used properly. And in my real world case, as usual, the graph of body fat (lbs) was more useful than total weight (lbs), especially knowing I had been eating at a deficit and exercising.

    [Single-user accuracy is another ballgame. BIA (+/- 5.1% accuracy) and Skinfold Calipers (+/- 4.3% accuracy) both score fairly poorly. Go DEXA if you need more accuracy!]
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Here is my suggestion. Stop weighing yourself! Seriously. When you look at the scale, you don't know if you lost fat, water or muscle.
    Use a tape measure instead. If you loose a inch, you know you lost fat.
    If you can't live without a scale, weigh your self a few minutes after you wake up. It's the most accurate.
    Your weight naturally goes up and down though out the day.
    There is no point to weigh your self every hour.
    Once every morning is all you need.
    Eat clean, sweat but don't skip the cake every now and then! ;)

    I'm still waiting for you to see how this contradicts the title of your thread.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I would have quit long ago without the scale. Despite working out I've lost ZERO inches - not even the smallest bit. On the scale I've lost 48 lbs. I've upped my workout to 6 days a week to hopefully change that - but if I was only going by the tape measure oh mercy I'd be miserable!!

    What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone.
  • jc501
    jc501 Posts: 129 Member
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    I totally agree. I took the batteries out of my scale this morning.
  • SteveMFP123
    SteveMFP123 Posts: 298 Member
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    I weigh myself once a week, I think that's fine. Losing weight is a great motivator to continue. I do measurements once a month.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Okay okay people, I heard this advice from a certified nutritionist. I've read the comments and I see your guys point. This advice wouldn't work for everyone.

    I honestly don't understand why you got so many negative responses. Relying on measurement instead of the scale is a pretty common piece of advice on this site.

    I think it's just people's experiences. Apparently, this hasn't worked for quite a few of us. That doesn't mean it won't work for anyone (I personally know several people this has worked quite well for). However, when people give input, they're generally going to be giving their own experiences.

    The title of the thread is pretty emphatic and is a directive. It's not "This is what worked for me. You might want to try it." That may also account for some of the vehemence in a few responses. We're being told this IS the thing to do, period. It's not. No one method is appropriate for every single person. (For the record, though, I AM glad the OP has experienced success. :) )

    Someone mentioned that weighing can be disheartening if you haven't lost. However, I've had exactly the opposite experience. I am currently down 22 lbs. My pants fit exactly the same. I mean exactly. Zero difference there. If I hadn't been weighing and hadn't seen the scale going down, that would have made me quite frustrated indeed and may have made me thought, "This just isn't working."

    My shirts are larger on me, but they are "stretchy" shirts and I'm pretty sure I would have just assumed I had simply stretched them all out to hell and back by now (which I have).

    Everyone's experience is different. But I really can't change what I'm experiencing in order to not seem like I'm giving a "negative" experience. And I can't change the past, when I stopped weighing at various times and did, in fact, gain.

    Now, as for measuring...being bloated, or not, can affect that, of course. So can exactly where you measure, a few millimeters up or down from when you previously measured. And tape measures can stretch out over time. I measured for a while and I had notes: "Waist is the lowest indent before swelling directly below, approximately X inches from the bottom of my bra..." I would still measure quite differently than I was expecting. If I had tatoos or a mole or something as guideposts it would have been fine. :lol:

    But perhaps not everyone is all thumbs like me.

  • irejb
    irejb Posts: 64 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Personally, I don't own a scale and just go by the way my clothes fit. I find how I fit in my clothes a good indicator of weight gain.

    However, I think a scale is beneficial for some people, especially those who are extremely overweight. There is no right or wrong approach to seeing if you gain/lost weight.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    At first I thought this meant your FOOD scale. Never.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
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    ravlomama123 wrote: »
    Okay okay people, I heard this advice from a certified nutritionist. I've read the comments and I see your guys point. This advice wouldn't work for everyone.

    Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. A registered dietician is the only person I'd take nutrition advice from.

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