The numbers on the scale...

Shrelana

I've seen a lot of posts on here to not let the scale run your life and what not. To a point, this is great advice. If you are getting smaller and that's your goal, great! However, I wonder if there are more on here like me that have to get the number on the scale down for their health?

In my case, I broke my foot about 4 years ago. Since then, I've been struggling to get my weight down because I was informed at that time (I had been trying Insanity) that I could do NO high impact stuff until I got my weight down 30 to 40 pounds. I tried unsuccessfully until this year, and in the last 3 months have been doing mini celebrations every single time the scale goes down. This means I get closer every single day to being able to try to teach my body to jog. I get closer every day to being able to walk for longer without pain in my foot. I get closer every day to having the doctor tell me that surgery is NOT in my future for my foot.

So, I guess the reason behind my post is to share that there is another reason folks might try to get that number to go down. For me, in 20 pounds, I can try a C25K program, and I'm excited to try it and see if my foot will be able to handle it!

Archer512

I think your goals are wonderful, and you should be proud of yourself for going for it. I hope your recovery goes well and you are able to move like you want to in the future.

I am in a slightly different situation, but I am still looking for a certain number on my scale, too. I decided that to minimize the pain in my joints during running and participating in fun things like tough mudders, spartan races, rock climbing without injuring myself, I need to get lighter.

I think looking great is a good goal to have, but I think it's healthier for us to be lighter, too. Our bodies can adapt well to excess weight, but I do not believe that we were built to be heavier for long periods of time. I cannot imagine putting my body through anything strenuous at this weight without injuring myself eventually.

*** Now, I won't pretend that I didn't start this weight loss to look physically better as well (can't help it). But I know that using looks as motivation does not help me in the long run because I have a lot of days when I don't care how I look. There are far less days when I don't care about my physical well-being, so that is my stronger motivation.

AllTehBeers

I agree 100% that there are reasons to follow the number on the scale.

When I say that the number on the scale isn't everything, I usually am talking within a 5 pound increment. For fun last weekend I weighed myself in the morning then weighed myself throughout the day. My weight fluctuated for a whole 10 pounds, the next morning I was back to where I started.

There are so many factors that come into play when worrying about the 1/4 of a pound number. I track my weight to keep an eye when to recalculate my TDEE and to make sure the trend is going downwards.