Happy scale - red and green mind games

Faebert

Hi, anyone else find Happy Scale a little annoying for the way that it makes downward trends green and upward red even if they are counter to your goal?

Might not be explaining myself very well but my goal is to maintain under 122. In the last couple of months I have bounced around a fair amount. Dropped too low to 111 and on the Happy Scale chart that trend showed up green and the summary boxes showing the loss were all green - subliminally quite motivating even though my weight was under a healthy BMI. Have worked on increasing a little since then and am now up a bit although still marginally under a healthy BMI. But that upward process shows up red on the scale even though I’m still well under 122 (currently around 113-114)

In maintenance I have found myself still a bit happy when I see a drop on the scale - even though it might be taking me too low - and I wonder if the Happy Scale app is reinforcing this somehow? I like the daily tracking but I’m having to work really hard not to see the red, panic and start over- restricting!

Does anyone else have this? Is there a way to change the way the chart looks?! Or am I just a little bit weird and need to get a grip?

pkweier

I'm right with you on this one. I freaked out when I saw the red number even though I'm well below my goal weight. I have started to get better about it and see it as a tool to keep me in check.

nexangelus

You are well under 122, read back your post...you know the answer to your own question, you need to get a grip...unless you want to be underweight and unhealthy?! Also if you are at goal weight range, why on earth are you still restricting, maintenance is just that maintaining a range of weight eating at the calorie allowance that helps you to do so...

TavistockToad

I can see what you mean from the picture, but you are way overthinking.

If you find it so triggering, you may want to consider whether it's a healthy or useful tool for you to use.

Faebert

Yep I completely acknowledge that I need to work on my own mindset with the scale - like others who have spent many years overweight it is hard not to worry about regain. I guess my point is just that when you are trying to be calm and balanced about the scale and sensibly setting a goal range for maintenance, this can be counterintuitive.

If it is truly an app for maintenance as well as weight loss, I’m not sure it should green light every loss and red light every gain.

But I will keep it all in perspective and relax!

sardelsa

Maybe switch to another trend app if it bothers you? Not sure if it's compatible with your phone but I use Libra and I like it. I personally wouldn't let colours change my decision on my goal weight, but as someone who regularly runs gaining cycles that would annoy me a bit.. but it's a very common thing on many weight tracking and fitness apps.

ryenday

Actually I’m totally with your first post on this one. Maintenance is full of all sorts of ‘head games’ for me, far more than weight loss was. (Perhaps because I had dieted twice in my life before and knew those pitfalls but never actively tried to maintain.) Happpy Scale is NOT a happy tool for me.

I started exporting my weights into an excel file and doing some fancy formula work to get a weekly average and kinda trend and don’t use Happy Scale anymore for pretty much exactly those reasons. It IS all in my mind, and I know it, but easier to just avoid the ‘un’Happy Scale stimulus than try to retrain my reaction.

TavistockToad

sardelsa wrote: »

Maybe switch to another trend app if it bothers you? Not sure if it's compatible with your phone but I use Libra and I like it. I personally wouldn't let colours change my decision on my goal weight, but as someone who regularly runs gaining cycles that would annoy me a bit.. but it's a very common thing on many weight tracking and fitness apps.

@sardelsa do you find that Libra is a lot slower to trend down than up?

i am not sure what to set my trending days and smoothing days to, to stop it shooting up at the first fluctuation?

collectingblues

ryenday wrote: »

Actually I’m totally with your first post on this one. Maintenance is full of all sorts of ‘head games’ for me, far more than weight loss was. (Perhaps because I had dieted twice in my life before and knew those pitfalls but never actively tried to maintain.) Happpy Scale is NOT a happy tool for me.

I started exporting my weights into an excel file and doing some fancy formula work to get a weekly average and kinda trend and don’t use Happy Scale anymore for pretty much exactly those reasons. It IS all in my mind, and I know it, but easier to just avoid the ‘un’Happy Scale stimulus than try to retrain my reaction.

Echoing an agree. I'd feel the same way.

I use the tracker built into Apple Health. It doesn't give any pretty pictures, but it's pretty easy to see the trends, and there's no color judgment -- it's just the numbers and a basic graph.

MyEvolvingJourney

It's the same thing with myfitnesspal though. If you go over by just one calorie, the number is red.

ryenday

MyEvolvingJourney wrote: »

It's the same thing with myfitnesspal though. If you go over by just one calorie, the number is red.

Yes, I found that motivational during weight loss. But it is one of the reasons I stopped logging daily in maintenance. It played mind games with me, especially since I (loosely) count my weekly calories in maintenance, not daily.

ryenday

collectingblues wrote: »

ryenday wrote: »

Actually I’m totally with your first post on this one. Maintenance is full of all sorts of ‘head games’ for me, far more than weight loss was. (Perhaps because I had dieted twice in my life before and knew those pitfalls but never actively tried to maintain.) Happpy Scale is NOT a happy tool for me.

I started exporting my weights into an excel file and doing some fancy formula work to get a weekly average and kinda trend and don’t use Happy Scale anymore for pretty much exactly those reasons. It IS all in my mind, and I know it, but easier to just avoid the ‘un’Happy Scale stimulus than try to retrain my reaction.

Echoing an agree. I'd feel the same way.

I use the tracker built into Apple Health. It doesn't give any pretty pictures, but it's pretty easy to see the trends, and there's no color judgment -- it's just the numbers and a basic graph.

Wow, I never dug into Apple Health and the weight graph it provides - that is fantastic for me, thank you so much for mentioning it!!

sardelsa

TavistockToad wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

Maybe switch to another trend app if it bothers you? Not sure if it's compatible with your phone but I use Libra and I like it. I personally wouldn't let colours change my decision on my goal weight, but as someone who regularly runs gaining cycles that would annoy me a bit.. but it's a very common thing on many weight tracking and fitness apps.

@sardelsa do you find that Libra is a lot slower to trend down than up?

i am not sure what to set my trending days and smoothing days to, to stop it shooting up at the first fluctuation?

I think it depends how much data and what your settings are. Mine doesn't shoot up often even with high weigh ins .. I find it depends on what I enter so I always make sure to include most days especially after the weekend so it gets to know the trend.

knotmel

If you want to get rid of the highlights on the graph on Happy Scale, you can hit the settings gear on the top, right of the graph, and then change the “highlight progress over ...” setting to “—“ instead of 30 days.

Faebert

knotmel wrote: »

If you want to get rid of the highlights on the graph on Happy Scale, you can hit the settings gear on the top, right of the graph, and then change the “highlight progress over ...” setting to “—“ instead of 30 days.

Thank you that’s really helpful

bunnyluv19

I with u too,OP I really wish h.s. would update and give users an option for a maintenance range.

PAV8888

RED MEANS GO!

Now you know why I deliberately run in the red by setting MFP to lose when in maintenance... so that I am regularly in the red and forced to look at the actual numbers! :-)