Obsessed with weighing myself

Pinkpanther_15

I know it's not good to weigh myself everyday. Even with knowing that I still do. I will weigh myself 10 times a day. Every time I'm near my scale I will weigh. I get discouraged when it goes up, knowing it's going to at 8pm. I just don't know how to stop. I don't want to be obsessed with the number on the scale. Any tips? Anyone else do this?

ent3rsandman

I think everyone does it in the beginning, even if they know that their daily activities (eating, drinking, not using the restroom in the last few hours) influence the number greatly. The important part is that you are aware of the existence of these factors and don't allow the result to screw with your progress, even if it causes a little anxiety.

That being said, if you really want to fix it, place yourself in situations where you don't have access to the scale. Get out of the house more, put the scale in a timed safe/leave it with a friend that you see weekly, or just throw it out entirely and resort to measuring your body fat percentage once a month. You could also just not weigh yourself. It's a habit you can break just like any other.

dovnkels

I had to have my husband hide every scale in my house 2 weeks ago because I was just like you. The first week I panicked every day like an addict. I didn't know how to think of myself if I didn't have that piece of information. Scary. Break the addiction. Get rid of your scale and find a doctor's office, gym or trusted friend to weigh you on occasion. Good luck!!

qweck3

The scale to an extent is a bad way to judge weight loss but we have all fallen into that trap of looking at the number constantly when we shouldn't especially in the beginning. I get insane 10 pound swings throughout the day but the real number generally shows itself off the bed each morning. I've found the better way is to have a piece of clothing that started rib cracking tight and try it on each week. It is now super loose and keeps me motivated.

medic2038

Understand that the scale is actually a pretty awful tool for gauging progress. Most people it takes weeks and months to see progress.
It takes a little bit to "unplug" yourself from the scale. So many people go crazy over it, and really for no good reason!

You're going to fluctuate hour to hour and even day to day. Generally I pick the same time and weigh then (like a Monday morning or something).

Get your diet right, and the scale will eventually follow.

malibu927

Have someone hide it and designate a specific day/time to weigh.

Weighing once a day is fine; anything more than that is useless, as your weight fluctuates now that you have food/liquid in your system. The key is to watch the overall trend (4-6 weeks) rather than between two consecutive points.

Enjcg5

It's tough because not using the scale was what got me to the point of despair. Then I had to ponder for a month to get back on it and decide it was time to change. Now I weigh in on Saturday morning on 2 different scales. An old fashioned one and a digital one. You have to fall into a routine that makes sense to you!

brdnw

When i was losing weight i weighed myself many times a day. It helped me understand how my weight fluctuated throughout the day. I still weigh myself a few times a day...i don't see the sense in saying "it's bad to do" if you're mentally weak i guess it is.

jdevergillo7

I used to do the same thing! A .2 gain would make me crazy for the day and cause me to not eat how I should (very low calories) and then a .2 loss I was the happiest girl in the world and would think so highly of myself. .2 Pounds controlled my mood. I had to have my roommates hide it about a year ago and now that I moved out I don't have one. A small gain or loss should not cause dysfunction in your life. If you are trying to lose weight stick with every two weeks and have someone hide it. Also make sure you weigh yourself at same time and with same amount of clothes or none lol. Message me if you need anything else

Pinkpanther_15

Thank you all for your words, and support. ❤️

Sloth2016

Pity the poor weight scale. Forced to live on the floor and be stepped on by people...

And it's no wonder, because all the weight scale can tell you is - wait for it - your relationship with earth's gravity at that moment in time. Yes it's true. Move to the moon or Saturn and your numbers would be completely different. It cannot tell you whether you've been bad or good, naughty or nice. It cannot tell you your percentage body fat or other composition. It cannot tell you whether you are healthy or not. Republican or Democrat or Whig.

It's just a weight scale.

So, step on it if you want to. Daily if you'd like - it won't hurt you - but remember, where you are in life and how you are doing healthwise, require more subtle means to discern.

cerise_noir

I weigh daily, but I use a trending app called Happy Scale to log the weight to better understand how my weight fluctuates.

kksmom1789

cerise_noir wrote: »

I weigh daily, but I use a trending app called Happy Scale to log the weight to better understand how my weight fluctuates.

^^^this
Love happy scale weighing myself daily has definitely helped motivate me and keep me in check

spiffychick85

OP I weigh every time I pass my scale too lol....but I try to refocus when I see gains and use it as motivation to keep going. I try not to obsess but in some weird way it fascinates me to see the normal ebb and flow of the day

megomerrett

Use a measuring tape too and log your cm or inches.

liftorgohome

Put the scale in the garage or a hard to get to place and forget about it for a couple of weeks.

Seffell

Try to think it through. During the day food and liquid comes in and goes out of your body all the time. Your weight during the day is completely meaningless.

Weighting every morning, naked after toilet is not a bad thing. This weight​ is more relevent.
I do this in order to see my fluctuations (I use a weight trending app, Libra).

ejsilvi

Get off the scale! You will go nuts !

briohne128

I weigh my self every other morning roughly but I wouldn't class my self as obsessed..I don't panic if I see the number go up. I'm just interested in the fluctuations.

No offence, you sound like you are a bit obsessed with the scales! I would suggest looking in the mirror every so often for progress and only weighing yourself weekly (hide the scales in a cupboard you don't normally go in!)

Emily3907

I used to be obsessed with the scale. What helped me was finding other ways to track my progress, like measuring inches, finding a piece of clothing in my closet that was just a tad too tight and trying to fit in it, etc.

I still weigh myself, but only on the 1st of every month. FOR ME, It is much more exciting to get on the scale once a month and see a large change, rather than teeny tiny little changes on a daily basis.

trigden1991

Seek some professional help.

vivelajackie

There's nothing wrong with weighing daily... If you're not going to get hung up on the perfectly normal fluctuations any person goes through. Take my past week and a half. I was at 293. The next day it was up 2lbs. Stayed at 295 and even fluctuated to 297. This morning I stepped on the scale and was at 289. So, there was a downward trend after fluctuation.

Let's not even get into TOM water retention...

I sometimes weigh at the end of the day just because of morbid curiosity. I know I won't be down from what I weighed in the morning, but it's neat to see how food and water temporarily change the scale. If you're bordering on obsession though, the behavior needs to be reeled in to the best of your ability. What I would suggest is also taking measurements. There are times you will lose inches without the numbers on a silly scale moving. Just be accurate with logging and results will happen.

Duchy82

Weighing once a day is fine weighing more often than that won't tell you anything meaningful. If you can't help yourself either remove the batteries and put them in a different room that way you haven't got the easy access to the scale you have now. Or put the scales in a different room so you have to purposefully bring them out to weigh yourself. Or as others have suggested get someone like a partner or room mate to hide them and only bring them out a set day of the week.

Better to break the habit sooner rather than later.

thewindandthework

I'm a daily weigher--for me, it works well. It gives me daily data which helps me see how my weight responds to my diet and activity. I weigh every morning, after I use the restroom, before I eat or drink anything. This way I know that I'm getting a consistent reading with minimal variables.

It also keeps me from placing too much importance on the number on the scale. When I was weighing once a week, I found that I was getting really upset if the number wasn't what I wanted. Now I know there will be ups and downs, and any one weigh-in doesn't really mean much in the scheme of things.

However, I don't see any benefit in weighing more than once a day. After you start eating and drinking, wearing clothes, being active, there are any number of things that effect weight. These readings are meaningless.

Try to weigh exactly once per day under controlled circumstances. If you can't do it, or find you're still obsessing over it, it might be time to go to once per week.

jwcsanders

Pinkpanther_15 wrote: »

I know it's not good to weigh myself everyday. Even with knowing that I still do. I will weigh myself 10 times a day. Every time I'm near my scale I will weigh. I get discouraged when it goes up, knowing it's going to at 8pm. I just don't know how to stop. I don't want to be obsessed with the number on the scale. Any tips? Anyone else do this?

I put mine up for the whole month of May. Because I am the exact same way. I weighed myself on the 2nd and WILL NOT take it back out from its hiding place until June 1st.

L1zardQueen

Sloth2016 wrote: »

Pity the poor weight scale. Forced to live on the floor and be stepped on by people...

And it's no wonder, because all the weight scale can tell you is - wait for it - your relationship with earth's gravity at that moment in time. Yes it's true. Move to the moon or Saturn and your numbers would be completely different. It cannot tell you whether you've been bad or good, naughty or nice. It cannot tell you your percentage body fat or other composition. It cannot tell you whether you are healthy or not. Republican or Democrat or Whig.

It's just a weight scale.

So, step on it if you want to. Daily if you'd like - it won't hurt you - but remember, where you are in life and how you are doing healthwise, require more subtle means to discern.

Love

Glasscandle

Weighing once a day in the morning works for me (I like data). The mental leap is not getting freaked out about random increases but keep looking at the trend (the averaging apps help a lot). I have 7-10 days with no loss and maybe 1-2 lbs up and back to what it was before and then, not doing anything different, it drops to a new plateau. Watching this happen again and again makes you not so traumatized by the fluctuations. For me, it helps keeping big picture in mind and being persistent in CI<CO.

Susan2BHealthier

Shame gets real deep, real fast. Self-loathing and blaming yourself for your weight affects more than just your progress — it also erodes your feeling of self-worth and your dignity. Shame isn’t a motivator. If stepping onto the scale makes you have negative thoughts about yourself, it’s a sign you need to ditch it. The number on it doesn’t say anything about your worth or value — it’s just a number, literally.

MaddMaestro

I weight myself after I wake up and before I go to bed. Honestly, weighing yourself several times a day literally doesn't do anything.

TsamIam

An app that tracks the trend of your weight helps a lot. Someone mentioned one above, but TrendWeight is another site. I weigh once a day in the morning when I first wake up. I figure more than that I'm just going to end up weighing the difference in my clothes, water weight, or poop my body has made throughout the day haha.

Heather4448

I don't have a scale at home. I only weigh in when I go to the gym.
I hope you get a better outlook on the entire thing. Maybe you shouldn't weigh in at all, from the sound of it. Take measurements once or twice a month, instead.