Anyone else doing this by feel rather than weight?

Oliveciabatta

I dont own a set of scales I haven't done in years but I know I'm above my happy weight by my body shape and size and hope to be able to judge progress by feel and if things get looser on me. Ideally I'd like to go from my current UK 12-14 back to a UK 10, maybe 8-10 regardless of what that means in actual weight. Is that a reasonable goal and does anyone else track their success by their size?

AnnPT77

I can see deciding whether one is at goal or not by feel or clothes fit, but I'm not sure how one accomplishes 2 things I think are worthwhile in a calorie-counting context, unless using a bodyweight scale periodically:

1. Knowing one's current loss rate, in order to get insight into whether losing too fast (especially) or slow. From unpleasant personal experience, I know that lack of hunger and good energy level are not sure signs that one is eating enough (i.e., not losing too fast). I felt great until I hit a wall, felt weak and fatigued, then it took weeks to recover. There's some value IMO in knowing loss rate.

2. Assuming one is calorie counting, knowing weight loss rate at X calorie level also allows one to figure out one's TDEE (all day, all source calorie need) or NEAT (all day, all but exercise calorie need). Knowing that makes it super easy to manage weight long term. The number you get from a calculator is only an estimate. It's close for most people, a bit further off for a few (high or low), and quite far off for a rare few. I still calorie count in maintenance. I just spent a year losing 12-13 vanity pounds at an average of a pound a month, which was convenient and pretty much painless. If I didn't know my true calorie needs, I couldn't do that with any reliability. Other people here also use strategies like eating maintenance calories on weekends, deficit on weekdays, because they enjoy doing weight loss that way. To have options like that in your toolkit, figuring out your personalized calorie needs is IMO necessary.

Neither of those things are barriers to weight loss, though. But to me, they're nice advantages of tracking bodyweight. (I wasn't hugely invested, personally, in what final weight I reached - *that* I did by how I felt, fine-tuning as I got close.)

Best wishes!

dragon_girl26

Sure, that sounds like a reasonable goal to me. Could I do it that way? Nope..I'm too data driven for that. It would make me nuts flying by the seat of my pants and not having even a basic idea of how much I lost...lol. if that works for you, though, thats the only important thing here.

springlering62

My concern would be that a comfortable size in one brand might be too small in another.

Using the rationalization I’ve used in the past, I would (and have!!!!) convinced myself I hadn’t put on weight by buying the larger brand in the “same” size.

Walmart is particularly generous with sizes, as is Eddie Bauer and Chico’s. Guess what my closet was full of?

Then there’s vanity sizing. That’s a whole contentious animal I won’t get into here for fear of going down via flamethrowers.

kshama2001

xtineart wrote: »

I dont own a set of scales I haven't done in years but I know I'm above my happy weight by my body shape and size and hope to be able to judge progress by feel and if things get looser on me. Ideally I'd like to go from my current UK 12-14 back to a UK 10, maybe 8-10 regardless of what that means in actual weight. Is that a reasonable goal and does anyone else track their success by their size?

Do you already own clothes in UK 8 and 10 you can use as a gauge?

As said above, sizes can vary widely among brands (and even within brands >.< )

kshama2001

springlering62 wrote: »

My concern would be that a comfortable size in one brand might be too small in another.

Using the rationalization I’ve used in the past, I would (and have!!!!) convinced myself I hadn’t put on weight by buying the larger brand in the “same” size.

Walmart is particularly generous with sizes, as is Eddie Bauer and Chico’s. Guess what my closet was full of?

Then there’s vanity sizing. That’s a whole contentious animal I won’t get into here for fear of going down via flamethrowers.

Is vanity sizing really that contentious? I remember one thread where one person was misunderstanding the whole point of it, but may have missed other threads.

Oliveciabatta

Regarding vanity sizing yes I still own quite a lot of things that are too small for me right now and some things that aren't really vanity sized such as bra sizing. I definitely want to get a cup or two smaller, if only just for comfort while running 🏃‍♂️

AlexiaC47

A scale will keep you honest and is more accurate. You can tell yourself clothes "feel" ok, while you are inching up. A scale will also indicate if you start going the wrong way. Personally I wouldn't do it. Obviously if it works for you, than go for it.
why not a blended approach? buy a scale and use it once every 2 weeks or every month? then you can compare to the feel version

lgfrie

I'm a data nerd and a scale person, and the scale has always served me well. My wife is the exact opposite and has been dieting on and off for yeeeaaarrrss by gut feel, based on how her clothes fit. I can't even tell you how many times she's claimed she was losing mega huge amounts of weight based on a pair of jeans getting looser, only to finally get on the scale and find out she'd lost 1 or 2 pounds in 4 months or something.

Scale are honest.

girlwithcurls2

It worked for me for the first 22 pounds, simply because like you, I didn't own a scale. But as @AnnPT77 suggested, it's really easy to have it go too quickly. One part of doing the way you suggested that I liked was that I committed to the process and stuck to it. I weighed my foods, but didn't get emotions involved in every scale movement, up or down because there were none. I had previously become upset and discouraged at what were natural weight fluctuations up, and I would resign myself to being someone whose body "wants to be this size." When I took the process of weighing and measuring as a fun science project, the weight came off. I didn't weigh myself until 4 months later when I was able to take my biggest pair of jeans and shimmy out of them without unbuttoning them.

IronIsMyTherapy

Me, been a while since I weighed and really don't care what I weigh. I've never had someone say "wow, you look heavy!"

domeofstars

No, I'm really motivated by the scales. If you're happy about it and it works for you though, then go for it.