Can anyone argue why this isn't a good idea?
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beth0277
Posts: 217 Member
Asking for someone to argue on MFP is kind of an oxymoron but here goes-
I've tried to lose weight so many times. I'm an emotional eater and I'm working on that and being more mindful of how I feel when I eat and that sort of thing. I have never had a scale obsession. When I'm trying to lose weight, I typically weigh myself every few days or maybe once a week. It never fails that one of the following two things happens: Either I have a good loss and I think "Hey, this is great, I should take today off since I'm doing so good - it won't hurt" or I don't lose (or lose less than I would like) and think "What's the point, I'm going to just eat bad today". So either way I end up binging and it takes a week or so to get back on track.
So right now I'm really focused on being healthier, not being a specific weight. If we look at the numbers, I need to lose 50-ish pounds. My plan is to eat what makes me feel good, most of the time, and stay under 1500 calories a day (My TDEE around 2000), work out a few times a week (I have a chest HRM and typically burn around 600 calories/workout). And forget about the rest. I plan to not weigh myself until I have 365 days logged in MFP. I am at 20 days right now. I just think this helps me focus on feeling better and taking care of myself rather than what the scale says or how fast it is moving.
So does anyone have an argument as to why this is a bad idea?
I've tried to lose weight so many times. I'm an emotional eater and I'm working on that and being more mindful of how I feel when I eat and that sort of thing. I have never had a scale obsession. When I'm trying to lose weight, I typically weigh myself every few days or maybe once a week. It never fails that one of the following two things happens: Either I have a good loss and I think "Hey, this is great, I should take today off since I'm doing so good - it won't hurt" or I don't lose (or lose less than I would like) and think "What's the point, I'm going to just eat bad today". So either way I end up binging and it takes a week or so to get back on track.
So right now I'm really focused on being healthier, not being a specific weight. If we look at the numbers, I need to lose 50-ish pounds. My plan is to eat what makes me feel good, most of the time, and stay under 1500 calories a day (My TDEE around 2000), work out a few times a week (I have a chest HRM and typically burn around 600 calories/workout). And forget about the rest. I plan to not weigh myself until I have 365 days logged in MFP. I am at 20 days right now. I just think this helps me focus on feeling better and taking care of myself rather than what the scale says or how fast it is moving.
So does anyone have an argument as to why this is a bad idea?
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Replies
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A year without weighing is a long time. But, there are other ways to tell you're progressing without weighing yourself. How you feel, how your clothes fit, how you look, etc... If you think it will help, then go for it. However, you may want to weigh 4X a year or something like that? The way I see it backfiring is that at day 100 or 200 you might feel like you are okay to know your weight. Of course, you can always change your plan then.0
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It's a fine idea
Your other option could be logging into a trend app like libra or happy scale or a site like trendweight.com ...holding firm for a couple of months and getting to learn the natural fluctuations of water weight which is what you've been overreacting to in the last
Weight goes up and down by about 5lbs due to water weight and weight loss is simply not linear...but over time it trends downwards if you stick at it0 -
How are you burning 600 calories? Doing what for how long?0
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A year without weighing is a long time. But, there are other ways to tell you're progressing without weighing yourself. How you feel, how your clothes fit, how you look, etc... If you think it will help, then go for it. However, you may want to weigh 4X a year or something like that? The way I see it backfiring is that at day 100 or 200 you might feel like you are okay to know your weight. Of course, you can always change your plan then.
I plan to pay attention to how my clothes are fitting and how I feel. If I go 6 months and I'm not seeing progress, then I will reevaluate things, but I'm not really planning to do anything that *shouldn't* work. If I follow my plan and I'm not losing weight, then something else is probably to blame and seeing the number on the scale won't change that.0 -
TDEE is 2000 including the 600 exercise calories? That seems low if you have 50 to lose.
You may need to tweak the calorie input if you're really burning that much in exercise so you don't burn out, but I don't disagree with the concept. Too many people use the scale as the ONLY metric, when in reality, it's but one of many metrics you can use.0 -
How are you burning 600 calories? Doing what for how long?
Right now I do about 55 minutes of cardio, with a mix of HIIT. Typically arc trainer and elliptical. I have a polar watch so I'm confident in the calorie burned reading. I know it will go down as I lose weight or get more in shape, but it's where I am today.0 -
I think it's always a good idea to shake up behavior patterns, particularly if they're detrimental to your goals. So stay away from the scale for a while.
But a year is a long time. You may want to reassess after a quarter.
I'm also not sure I'd keep the same calorie limit for a year.
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Whatever works for you.
You have to trust the math though... if you know you're logging accurately, and that you're consistently under, you'll know that any weight gained is water weight. And you'll know that there's no such thing as 'taking a day off' when it comes to weight loss, because your metabolism doesn't take days off, and you'll realize that you can wipe off a few days of deficit by 'taking a day off'. But there's nothing wrong with eating a bit more once in a while either.
So basically - as long as you're logging everything as accurately as possible, weighing yourself or not is not such a huge deal, IMO... your diary will be enough.
The bottom line is that you have to be accurate. If you're not, and don't weigh yourself, you won't have any data to assess if what you're doing is working (other than clothes fitting, but clothes get loose over time too).0 -
It's a fine idea
Your other option could be logging into a trend app like libra or happy scale or a site like trendweight.com ...holding firm for a couple of months and getting to learn the natural fluctuations of water weight which is what you've been overreacting to in the last
Weight goes up and down by about 5lbs due to water weight and weight loss is simply not linear...but over time it trends downwards if you stick at it
Excellent reminder! Thank you.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »TDEE is 2000 including the 600 exercise calories? That seems low if you have 50 to lose.
You may need to tweak the calorie input if you're really burning that much in exercise so you don't burn out, but I don't disagree with the concept. Too many people use the scale as the ONLY metric, when in reality, it's but one of many metrics you can use.
No, TDEE is around 2000 on a no-workout day. I don't typically eat any exercise calories back.0 -
vivmom2014 wrote: »I think it's always a good idea to shake up behavior patterns, particularly if they're detrimental to your goals. So stay away from the scale for a while.
But a year is a long time. You may want to reassess after a quarter.
I'm also not sure I'd keep the same calorie limit for a year.
Do you mean you would eat less as you lose? I don't want to eat less than 1500. I've tried that in the past, based on MFP's recommendation of 1200/day, and I crash and burn. I don't EVER want to eat less than 1500, preferably a little more when I'm maintaining so if that means it takes me longer to lose, I'm okay with that.0 -
vivmom2014 wrote: »I think it's always a good idea to shake up behavior patterns, particularly if they're detrimental to your goals. So stay away from the scale for a while.
But a year is a long time. You may want to reassess after a quarter.
I'm also not sure I'd keep the same calorie limit for a year.
Do you mean you would eat less as you lose? I don't want to eat less than 1500. I've tried that in the past, based on MFP's recommendation of 1200/day, and I crash and burn. I don't EVER want to eat less than 1500, preferably a little more when I'm maintaining so if that means it takes me longer to lose, I'm okay with that.
No, I would eat more. I added more calories gradually until I reached goal.
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Whatever works for you.
You have to trust the math though... if you know you're logging accurately, and that you're consistently under, you'll know that any weight gained is water weight. And you'll know that there's no such thing as 'taking a day off' when it comes to weight loss, because your metabolism doesn't take days off, and you'll realize that you can wipe off a few days of deficit by 'taking a day off'. But there's nothing wrong with eating a bit more once in a while either.
So basically - as long as you're logging everything as accurately as possible, weighing yourself or not is not such a huge deal, IMO... your diary will be enough.
The bottom line is that you have to be accurate. If you're not, and don't weigh yourself, you won't have any data to assess if what you're doing is working (other than clothes fitting, but clothes get loose over time too).
I'm pretty thorough with my tracking. I have a digital scale and use it for just about every thing I eat. I don't eat anything that I don't track.
I understand that I will lose (or not) the same amount whether I weigh or not, but it seems to always cause me to "fall off the wagon".
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Your TDEE will go down as you lose a decent amount of weight and your weight loss will stall. This is called a plateau. Over the course of a year, to break through the plateau, you'll need to drop your intake or workout more. I wouldn't be surprised if you'll need to drop your calories to ~1200 when you're trying to lose those last 10 lbs or so. How will you know to adjust your intake or workout routine without weighing yourself? I lost ~50 lbs in 6 months and what would happen is I'd lose ~2lbs/week at a certain intake and then it would start to stall for a few weeks in a row. That's when I knew it was time to drop calories or work out more. I started my journey eating ~2,000 calories a day and by the time I reached my goal, I was eating ~1,500 calories a day.0
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Sounds like an awesome plan. I lost my first 30lbs without getting on a scale. I didn't even know my starting weight was ( I just picked something that I assumed I weighed). I just knew that I was losing clothes sizes...0
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juggernaut1974 wrote: »TDEE is 2000 including the 600 exercise calories? That seems low if you have 50 to lose.
You may need to tweak the calorie input if you're really burning that much in exercise so you don't burn out, but I don't disagree with the concept. Too many people use the scale as the ONLY metric, when in reality, it's but one of many metrics you can use.
No, TDEE is around 2000 on a no-workout day. I don't typically eat any exercise calories back.
OK - just be careful of terminology then...TDEE ("Total" daily energy expenditure) generally includes exercise caloires. NEAT would be the correct term for non-workout average daily calorie burn.
Anyway, I think (again, assuming 600 is accurate, which I find somewhat suspect) you'll probably find you'll need a bit more than 1500 calories per day. But that's neither here nor there... you can tweak that as you go. I don't have a problem with the "stay off the scale" concept.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »juggernaut1974 wrote: »TDEE is 2000 including the 600 exercise calories? That seems low if you have 50 to lose.
You may need to tweak the calorie input if you're really burning that much in exercise so you don't burn out, but I don't disagree with the concept. Too many people use the scale as the ONLY metric, when in reality, it's but one of many metrics you can use.
No, TDEE is around 2000 on a no-workout day. I don't typically eat any exercise calories back.
OK - just be careful of terminology then...TDEE ("Total" daily energy expenditure) generally includes exercise caloires. NEAT would be the correct term for non-workout average daily calorie burn.
Anyway, I think (again, assuming 600 is accurate, which I find somewhat suspect) you'll probably find you'll need a bit more than 1500 calories per day. But that's neither here nor there... you can tweak that as you go. I don't have a problem with the "stay off the scale" concept.
Thanks for the help with terms. I'm not master by any stretch of the imagination.
Just curious, why do you find 600 calories burned suspect? I have a polar watch with a chest strap - aren't they pretty accurate? If I phone it in for my 55 minute workout, I burn around 530-550, if I push hard or do intervals, I easily get to 600.0 -
I probably step on a doctors scale 3-5 times a year. Maybe use those weigh ins to track that you're making progress.0
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cthakkar1985 wrote: »Your TDEE will go down as you lose a decent amount of weight and your weight loss will stall. This is called a plateau. Over the course of a year, to break through the plateau, you'll need to drop your intake or workout more. I wouldn't be surprised if you'll need to drop your calories to ~1200 when you're trying to lose those last 10 lbs or so. How will you know to adjust your intake or workout routine without weighing yourself? I lost ~50 lbs in 6 months and what would happen is I'd lose ~2lbs/week at a certain intake and then it would start to stall for a few weeks in a row. That's when I knew it was time to drop calories or work out more. I started my journey eating ~2,000 calories a day and by the time I reached my goal, I was eating ~1,500 calories a day.
I feel like I know my body pretty well considering that I have lost weight before. I think if I'm not happy with my appearance or the changes my body is making, I would consider dropping to maybe 1400 calories or adding a workout. But I want that to be based on how I feel and not because the scale says I should be 10 pounds less, you know? I just want to take pressure off of a number. Which I understand maybe it shouldn't be there, but it is for me.0 -
I would go nuts without the feedback, but it really isn't a bad idea to work on changing your mindset0
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