(Rant) Coworker thinks scales are evil
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MoiAussi93 wrote: »
LOL! Most people don't track their mileage from the time they filled their tank that closely. You would have to write down or remember EXACTLY what the mileage was when you filled it and be constantly doing the math in your head. Not to mention getting different gas mileage in traffic vs wide open highway driving and under various other terrains and conditions.MoiAussi93 wrote: »jessiefrancine wrote: »Yeah, I totally hate anything that gives me data points on which to base my future actions. Besides scales, I also hate my car's fuel gauge, my 401k quarterly statements, and the indicator that tells me which floor my elevator is on.
These examples are not really relevant. You can't see how much fuel is in your car without a fuel gauge. You can easily see if you need to lose weight just by looking in a mirror. I don't base my future actions on the number on the scale. I am satisfied or dissatisfied based on what I see in the mirror.
I do weigh, but it was more just to measure progress because I am a numbers geek and like data. It is also used by me as a first line of defense in case weight is creeping up so that I don't undo any of the good I have done. But it is not NECESSARY. A fuel gauge is.
Actually it is relevant.... I know that if I filled my 12 gallon tank yesterday, and that I get roughly 20 miles per gallon that I will need gas by the time I have driven about 240 miles - whether I look at the gas gauge or not. Same for 401k - I dont need to know the exact balance to know about how much i have contributed and that what I invested it in gets roughly a few percent a year - I can guess pretty close based on my knowledge of what I put into it. Same for the elevator - I can listen to the dings as it moves between floors, or timing (5 seconds=1 floor) or the sound as you pass the bulkheads.
All of those are similar to eyeballing your body in the mirror, they may give you a rough idea if you are up or down, but they are very imprecise. That is where gauges and scales and statements etc come into play. You know if your clothes are tighter so you probably gained weight, but there is a huge difference between gaining 5 pounds and 20, and the "tightness" of your clothes is not going to give you much clue how close you are to either. Especially if you wear yoga pants. Those things never feel tight , whether i gain 5 or 30+ pounds, darn things still "fit" just fine.
Besides, you don't need to know exactly what you weigh if you are happy with your weight. If you aren't, lose more. If you think you're too thin, gain some. The number is really irrelevant and it is really ridiculous to arbitrarily pick a number and say you want to be exactly that. Especially since the number can look very different if you gain or lose muscle.
Eyeballing works perfectly for that. Again, nothing wrong with weighing. I do it every week. But it is no where near as vital as a gas gauge. Please be serious.
I was serious. I drove a car forever with a broken gas gauge, so its just habit for me now. I dont write anything down and I always have a decent idea where I stand without looking at the gauge.
And I love numbers and guages. I weigh daily. I dont understand the argument against using a scale. Was just making a point that her example actually was relevant. And eyeballing "weight" in mirror is not accurate at all. "gain some" should mean absolutely nothing to someone without a scale. "Gain some" what? Pounds... pounds are only relevant to a scale. "Fill out more by eating more" or something would be more appropriate. And again, someone can stay the exact same weight and recomp muscle to fat or vice versa and look totally different, so "gain some" or "lose some" is not an appropriate way to state that if you are not talking about pounds on a scale. "Change my body shape by exercise" - I dont know. I just know saying the word "gain" or "lose" when talking about pounds means a scale is useful to measure that. Inches means a tape measure if useful to measure that.
Not everyone is the same kind of weird
LOL. I'm your kind of weird. I know exactly how many miles I get on each tank of fuel in my car! I actually track it on a spreadsheet and have for years. I track all of our vehicles the same way. My fuel gauge is really irrelevant because I know how many miles I will get on the tank based on whether I am driving around town, on the highway - or even a combination of the two.
However, I also weigh daily. I like numbers and the numbers on the scale fuel my need for data just as much as the number of miles on a tank of fuel.
I understand that for *some* people, the scale can contribute to obsessive behavior and be detrimental to their mental health. For others, it's just information. People are just different that way. What isn't fair is the OP's co-worker suggesting that since *she* can't use a weight scale, the OP shouldn't either.0 -
My clothes taskj to me too. But they are easy to ignore. The scale slaps me in the face. So I need to weight periodically. When I am trying to shape up, I let my clothes speak to me and I will listen to them. Weird!0
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She wants to lose inches, not pounds.OneHundredToLose wrote: »Did she actually say she wants to lose "a few pounds?" Because if she doesn't believe in scales that's an odd thing to say.I am a little curious about why she would state she wants to lose a few "pounds". Pounds are a measurement, that a scale is used to measure. WIthout a scale, "pounds" are irrelvant.
Yep, her exact words were: "I want to lose a few pounds too," followed by her telling me how bad scales are. When I asked her how she expected to know if she'd successfully lost the few pounds, she said: "I have a mirror."
What. the. *kitten*.
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MoiAussi93 wrote: »
LOL! Most people don't track their mileage from the time they filled their tank that closely. You would have to write down or remember EXACTLY what the mileage was when you filled it and be constantly doing the math in your head. Not to mention getting different gas mileage in traffic vs wide open highway driving and under various other terrains and conditions.MoiAussi93 wrote: »jessiefrancine wrote: »Yeah, I totally hate anything that gives me data points on which to base my future actions. Besides scales, I also hate my car's fuel gauge, my 401k quarterly statements, and the indicator that tells me which floor my elevator is on.
These examples are not really relevant. You can't see how much fuel is in your car without a fuel gauge. You can easily see if you need to lose weight just by looking in a mirror. I don't base my future actions on the number on the scale. I am satisfied or dissatisfied based on what I see in the mirror.
I do weigh, but it was more just to measure progress because I am a numbers geek and like data. It is also used by me as a first line of defense in case weight is creeping up so that I don't undo any of the good I have done. But it is not NECESSARY. A fuel gauge is.
Actually it is relevant.... I know that if I filled my 12 gallon tank yesterday, and that I get roughly 20 miles per gallon that I will need gas by the time I have driven about 240 miles - whether I look at the gas gauge or not. Same for 401k - I dont need to know the exact balance to know about how much i have contributed and that what I invested it in gets roughly a few percent a year - I can guess pretty close based on my knowledge of what I put into it. Same for the elevator - I can listen to the dings as it moves between floors, or timing (5 seconds=1 floor) or the sound as you pass the bulkheads.
All of those are similar to eyeballing your body in the mirror, they may give you a rough idea if you are up or down, but they are very imprecise. That is where gauges and scales and statements etc come into play. You know if your clothes are tighter so you probably gained weight, but there is a huge difference between gaining 5 pounds and 20, and the "tightness" of your clothes is not going to give you much clue how close you are to either. Especially if you wear yoga pants. Those things never feel tight , whether i gain 5 or 30+ pounds, darn things still "fit" just fine.
Besides, you don't need to know exactly what you weigh if you are happy with your weight. If you aren't, lose more. If you think you're too thin, gain some. The number is really irrelevant and it is really ridiculous to arbitrarily pick a number and say you want to be exactly that. Especially since the number can look very different if you gain or lose muscle.
Eyeballing works perfectly for that. Again, nothing wrong with weighing. I do it every week. But it is no where near as vital as a gas gauge. Please be serious.
I was serious. I drove a car forever with a broken gas gauge, so its just habit for me now. I dont write anything down and I always have a decent idea where I stand without looking at the gauge.
And I love numbers and guages. I weigh daily. I dont understand the argument against using a scale. Was just making a point that her example actually was relevant. And eyeballing "weight" in mirror is not accurate at all. "gain some" should mean absolutely nothing to someone without a scale. "Gain some" what? Pounds... pounds are only relevant to a scale. "Fill out more by eating more" or something would be more appropriate. And again, someone can stay the exact same weight and recomp muscle to fat or vice versa and look totally different, so "gain some" or "lose some" is not an appropriate way to state that if you are not talking about pounds on a scale. "Change my body shape by exercise" - I dont know. I just know saying the word "gain" or "lose" when talking about pounds means a scale is useful to measure that. Inches means a tape measure if useful to measure that.
Not everyone is the same kind of weird
I agree with you. The problem with using the mirror is that it can take months and months for your brain to actually recognize changes in your body. People experience that all the time - I see it on MFP often. "How long does it take for my brain to catch up with my body?" "The scale loss was big, but I still feel the like I look the same!" "I can't tell that I've lost weight" "When will other people notice I've lost weight, I've already lost 20lbs".
A better solution to the mirror would be to take photographs at exactly the same distance, angle and lighting.
Another point is that you can look thinner or bigger in a mirror simply based on your posture, clothing choice, etc. Which of course, would also be issues in those photographs you took. It's not sufficient for small weight changes. If you're going for a 30 - 40 lb loss, well sure you'll see a big difference! 5 lbs though? If you're lucky you might *think* you look less bloated.
Perhaps a measuring tape? That's pretty easy to mess up between measurements too. And what if you're not losing from the places your measuring? Maybe it's all coming off your ankles and calves but you only measured bust, waist, and thigh. Hey maybe the way clothes fit? Well.. I don't know about you, but my clothes stretch as I wear them through the day, and the become a little different every time I wash them. It's the nature of clothes. They break down and move. They sit differently on you each time.
A scale is the best tool for losing pounds (specifically) as she stated. It has to be consistently the same scale and located in the same spot. At that point, you can say that only the difference in the number matters.
They should make scales with setting to save users and only show weight change based on the last check in. That would probably be a pretty good way of looking at it if the actual number bugs a person.0 -
I agree with you. The problem with using the mirror is that it can take months and months for your brain to actually recognize changes in your body. People experience that all the time.
This is something I experienced first hand completely by accident in high school. I was always fat throughout middle school and high school. Senior year I dropped a ton of weight but it wasn't intentional. I had no idea I had even lost weight. It was strange. When I looked in the mirror I looked exactly the same in my mind. It wasn't until several people had mentioned my weight loss that I even started to realize what was happening.
To this day if I drop 20-30lbs I still look pretty much the same in my own mind...unless I take pictures.0 -
abetterluke wrote: »I agree with you. The problem with using the mirror is that it can take months and months for your brain to actually recognize changes in your body. People experience that all the time.
This is something I experienced first hand completely by accident in high school. I was always fat throughout middle school and high school. Senior year I dropped a ton of weight but it wasn't intentional. I had no idea I had even lost weight. It was strange. When I looked in the mirror I looked exactly the same in my mind. It wasn't until several people had mentioned my weight loss that I even started to realize what was happening.
To this day if I drop 20-30lbs I still look pretty much the same in my own mind...unless I take pictures.
I have the same problem with the mirror. I have to look at pictures. My mind translates the image in the mirror to what I've always seen. It's not until I look at contrasting pictures that I see a difference. I am also always so surprised when I buy new clothes and can fit into a smaller size. I just don't see it when I look in the mirror.0 -
NikiChicken wrote: »abetterluke wrote: »I agree with you. The problem with using the mirror is that it can take months and months for your brain to actually recognize changes in your body. People experience that all the time.
This is something I experienced first hand completely by accident in high school. I was always fat throughout middle school and high school. Senior year I dropped a ton of weight but it wasn't intentional. I had no idea I had even lost weight. It was strange. When I looked in the mirror I looked exactly the same in my mind. It wasn't until several people had mentioned my weight loss that I even started to realize what was happening.
To this day if I drop 20-30lbs I still look pretty much the same in my own mind...unless I take pictures.
I have the same problem with the mirror. I have to look at pictures. My mind translates the image in the mirror to what I've always seen. It's not until I look at contrasting pictures that I see a difference. I am also always so surprised when I buy new clothes and can fit into a smaller size. I just don't see it when I look in the mirror.
Same. The weird thing was when I lost all that weight in high school (I believe it was somewhere around 40-50 lbs I never even noticed my clothes fitting different. I dropped several pants sizes and honestly had no clue.0
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