What concerns you more - the numbers on the scales, the imag

audjrey

What concerns you more - the numbers on the scale, the image in the mirror, or how your clothes fit?

Would love to hear not only your answer to the question but your reasons behind your answer. I think this will help so many of us feel better about our own journey and provide us something to which we can relate.

We're all here for the same reason but no two of us are the same. Let's keep this in mind and keep it clean when responding to others. Let's not attack others for their motives or reasons, lest we be attacked ourselves.

Michelle_J

for me the image in the mirror and way my clothes fit go hand in hand. =]

smashmay

definitely how my clothes fit. I have learned over the years that the number on the scale is just that-a number. I am 20 lbs more than I was 5 years ago but I am in the same size. I'm just interested in looking great and feeling great. The number makes no nevermind. You get older, you gain weight. It's life and I'm aware of that.

JeepBaja

The numbers on the scale fluctuate... can be frustrating if you do it daily so now I do it once a week. I am far more pleased because I don't feel like oh man I put on one pound today but by the end of the week I'm down four pounds...

For me, it's the clothes. My clothes are loose fitting. I am pulling out old XL shirts that were tight and now they are loose. I bought a pair of jeans in August that were the wrong size... wrong size big time! Now they almost fit. I can put them on but they are a little too tight. I think by May I won't have to worry about buying a pair of jeans... I already have one!

lawdhelpme2

It's the scale for me.

kdao

I have to admit, I am way to concerned with the numbers on the scale :grumble:

allysonvb

For me, it's more about the way my clothes fit- I don't believe in weighing myself compulsively- I feel that a better determinant of healthy is physical fitness, not necessarily weight. I know many thin people who are completely out of shape; and some slightly overweight people who are able to run marathons. I do believe in tone and I am losing weight, but I am also gaining cardiovasular and muscular strength. So- instead of the scale, I go with how my body looks... in clothes

carl1738

The image in the mirror. Numbers on a scale don't mean anything. Since I started weight training, my weight loss has slowed down, but my belly keeps getting smaller, while my arms, chest and shoulders have gotten noticeably bigger, and my legs are getting fairly well defined. If I was judging myself simply on weight loss, I would consider myself a failure. Instead, using a mirror, I can see my body transform as I gain muscle and definition while watching the fat disappear. A scale can't tell the difference between a pound of fat and a pound of muscle, but the mirror certainly can!

Nikstergirl

Although the scale is a great tool, I'm totally going by how I look and feel in my clothes!!! This week I had so many people that hadn't seen me recently come up and tell me how skinny I was looking... and that felt great! I still have a little ways to go (my ticker will be changing soon to reflect my overall goal weight) but looking this good is just affirmation of all my hard work!

tmaksparkie

For me it is the way I look and feel the mirror is my friend. I never go by the scale I also lift weights so muscle does weigh more then fat but takes up so much less space.

kao708

Right now, it's the number on the scale because I have so much to lose. I know it will take some time (and weight loss) before I really see a big difference in my clothes. It will take even longer before the reflection in the mirror really looks different to me. That's the hardest part, seeing the difference in myself. For now, I'm looking at the number on the scale! That will change once I get that number down a little. :bigsmile:

shayborder

How the clothes fit because I know the image in the mirror sometimes is hard to notice because you have nothing to compare to. But I have that one pair of jeans (everyone knows that one) that if I can fit into, then I won't care what the scale says that day

2042

colthes, scale is tricky sometimes. :frown:

secostley

1. Image in the mirror
2. How my clothes fit
3. Numbers on the scale

The most important number for me really is what my a1c glucose level is. It's not on the list, but would be first.

SabrinaJL

1. Image in the mirror
2. How my clothes fit
3. Numbers on the scale

The most important number for me really is what my a1c glucose level is. It's not on the list, but would be first.

Mine would be my blood pressure. I'm 33 and have high blood pressure already. How awful is that? After that it would be...

1. How my clothes fit
2. Image in the mirror
3. Numbers on the scale

missyjmet

mine is not on your list: how i perform in my races (i.e. triathlons)


and then how my clothes fit, got to be comfortable!

Black_Swan

Scale and clothes used to share the first place, but now that these two are actually quite fine (sure, could be better, but Im happy) - now its the
1.Mirror
2.Clothes
3.Scale

I even manage not to weight myself every day and tomorrow Im going shopping for some new clothes, yay!

TakeOne

Great questions!

To be honest I do consider all three and I have been working on maintenance for over 6 months now. The best measure for me is how my clothes fit, then the number on the scale. The image in the mirror can be misleading for me sometimes b/c I can really start picking away at myself. In general, the mirror "concerns" me the most. That said I go with the facts first; which is how my clothes actually fit me and the number on the scale (I only weigh myself once a week).

melaniecheeks

Clothes and how I look. That's a bit tricky at the minute - now I'm too small for my baggy tunic sweaters and leggings, I'm having to relearn what looks good on me! But that's all fun.

Scale-wise, I know my wish to be 10 stone or less is just that attractiveness of that round number. No-body else sees that number.

emilyrosedye

Great question. For me I'd say the mirror and my clothes. I'd like to be able to sit in my old jeans without it squeezing my tummy so tight!

leafsan

I'll be honest, I enjoy seeing the numbers on the scale go down, but a bigger impact on my mood and feeling towards my weight really comes from what I see in the mirror. If I weighed 192 for the rest of my life but I didn't LOOK fat with no clothes on, I wouldn't care in the slightest about the number the scale said.
Especially since when I talk to new friends about weight concerns they can never EVER believe me that I weigh what I do. I know with clothes on I look great, but I also know that when I don't have them on and look in the mirror I jiggle where I shouldn't and I think I look gross.
It's almost a never ending cycle for me. >.<

JAG1224

i have to admit the numbers on the scale get to me but overall i really just want to feel good and sexy in clothes again.

calliope_music

for me it's how my clothes fit and what i look like in the mirror!

perrytyra

RIght now, since I have about 40 or 50 pounds to lose, it is all three equally. I am sure once I start losing, it will be how I look in the mirror.

I hate saying I way about 190 pounds. I hate how I look in the mirror. And I hate the way my clothes fit. won't wear jeans that are too tight. I need to be comfortable. But when I wear jeans that fit, they eventually seem to stretch out and fall down. My husband says I need a belt. The belts that come with my jeans don't fit! They are always too small.

appleofmyeye

For me, it's about what I see in the mirror and how my clothes fit, because the number on the scale only says so much. I am about 5'1-2" tall with a tiny frame, and my adult weight has ranged from as low as ~105lbs to almost 135lbs. When I am at my fittest and healthiest, I wear a size 0-2, and even at my low weight, I have never looked skinny--I am barely an A-cup up top, but I have a curvy butt and thighs that keep me looking womanly. :happy:

My fitness, weight, and lifestyle story:

- 1995-1999: In high school, I probably worked out around 20-25 hours per week because I was involved in so many extracurricular activities--I marched with a trumpet in band, taught kids' karate classes, and trained constantly for karate belt tests and national martial arts competitions. I walked around at around 122lbs, most of which was muscle--I was a size 0-2, and when I'd tell people how much I weighed, they never believed I could be more than, as they said, "a hundred pounds soaking wet."

- 1999-2003: I was much less active in college, didn't drink as much alcohol as your average college kid, but did eat lots of ramen noodles and fast food. I still weighed about 120-125lbs, but couldn't fit into most of my high school clothes anymore--I was about a size 4-6, and I looked...well...squishy.

- 2003-2005: I began training for my black belt, which involved 10-15 hours of high-intensity workouts each week and a very strict diet (no booze, no high-fat foods, very little sugar, and lots of veggies and lean protein). I was back into my old clothes, but this time I weighed about 115lbs--almost 10lbs less than I had in high school. In the mirror, I mostly happy with my appearance, but I was afraid I looked almost too muscular for my frame.

- 2005-2007: The stresses of a bad break-up, grad school, and a full-time teaching job brought my weight up to 133lbs, and I was wearing a size 8. My waist-to-hip ratio was about 85% and my BMI teetered into the overweight range at about 25. I had a round belly, wider bottom, thicker arms, and a bit of a double chin. My boobs got bigger, but that was the only upside to the situation. I didn't like what I saw in the mirror at all, and I especially didn't like that of all my clothes, I only owned two pairs of size 6-8 pants that I could (just barely) squeeze into. My husband-to-be, whom I met during this time, thought I was beautiful no matter what....but I was still unhappy with how I looked and felt.

- 2007-2009: I began trying to lose weight, because I was not healthy or content with my size and shape. My goal was to fit into my old clothes again, but because I was not as muscular anymore, that goal landed me at a range of 105-110lbs. I felt healthy and happy, and in the mirror I looked mostly like I had at my black belt fittest--still lean and well-defined, but without that too-muscly look that I'd had before. When Micah and I got married in 2009, I felt beautiful!

- 2009-2010: After we got married, my husband and I started buying most of our food from a local farmer's market, and we shifted from mostly packaged, processed, or restaurant-prepared foods to cooking almost everything from scratch. Many of the things we cooked were not healthy at all! Micah became obsessed with delicacies like pork belly, hog jowl bacon, roasted bone marrow, liver mousse, etc. We cooked a lot of veggies, but used way too much lard and duck fat, and a love affair with a local dairy convinced me that it was a great idea to put their 40% milkfat heavy whipping cream in my coffee every day. We also drank lots of wine and ate lots of cheese. Oops. Needless to say, within a year of our marriage, my weight crept up about 10lbs, I started looking a tad squishy again, and some of my smaller clothes stopped fitting.

- 2010-present: Last year, my husband and I bought a house in a wonderful, walkable neighborhood, with lots of sidewalks, close proximity to our downtown area, and several stores and healthy restaurants in a 1.5-mile range. We have become much more active than we were before, which is great! We have spent the last month on MFP, mostly so that we are held more accountable for what--and how--we cook. Now that we're more aware of just how badly we were eating before, we still enjoy some of the sinful dishes that we discovered during our budding foodie phase, but our diet is much more balanced, with more whole grains, beans, fresh fruits, and veggies--and less fat and booze!

Now, when I look in the mirror, I am very happy with how I look--fit and lean, but still curvy in all the right places. Almost all of my favorite clothes fit again, and I know that when I reach my goal in a few weeks, all of them will. I will be happy to lose those last 3.2lbs on my ticker, but I am much less concerned with that than I am with being healthy, eating plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, living an active lifestyle, and, of course, fitting into my favorite jeans.

kelsully

I go frst by how my clothes ft, then the scale. I don't trust my perception of the image in the mirror. There have been times at 30 lbs heavier that I convinced mayself "I carry it well There have also been time at this weight that all I see are the imperfections and hate the image...but even when I think my belly is odd and I start wondering what I should do to "fix" it I am reminded that my little pants fit perfectly...so maybe my abs are ok.

Elzecat

I have that same pair of jeans sitting in the back of the closet (1 size too small). I bought them for $5 at a thrift shop as incentive to lose weight.

sawras

I would say both because the scale doesn't tell you how much fat or muscle you have, it's hard to tell if you have fat loss or muscle gain...fat weighs less than muscles! Clothes can shrink and stretch!