Can you lose weight without weighing yourself?

You can lose weight without checking the scale often, just keep logging, see how clothes fit or you could even take a photograph each month to check progress visually

The simple answer is yes. The scale is intended to only be a tool to track progress. Coming from a girl with a history of eating disorders I can tell u the scale can be ur friend and enemy. My suggestion as to where u r now, yes stop weighing yourself so often. The mindset u r falling into is where ed's sneak in and tks over. I only weigh about once a week. Weighing before meals cheats our bodies. Weighing after going to the bathroom cheats our goals. This number isn't what matters. I know a girl who is a size six but weighs 185. I know another girl who is only 140 and wears a 10. Does that weight number mean much? No. Fitter people weigh more due to muscle mass. Think of it this way. Would u rather trash the scale (so to speak) and be fit or obsess over the scale, else muscle mass and be "skinny fat" as Pauline Nordin calls it. That number alone is no indication of your fitness level or your size. Take alone my size 6 friend would be considered obese. She spends 2 hrs a day at the gym. I don't think so. Just keep on track if u don't weigh as often and u will b fine.

I think I need to cut down on my scale usage. I noticed that I weigh myself before and after each meal now, as well as every time I finish using the bathroom

Do you guys think it's possible to lose weight without using a scale very often? I was thinking of only weighing myself every 1-2 weeks now.

Thanks in advance!
Lulu

yup!

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

The goal is to get away from the scale when you reach maintained. I have not used the scale all this year. It was hard for me to get away from it even when I was first in the maintenance phase of this journey. I have such freedom now letting go of the scale and simply going by how I look in the mirror and how my clothes fit. I know when I've been eating extra at social events and vacations and can see and feel it a little when I get back. It takes a long time to lose that little bit because once you get lean you can't eat at a deep deficit anymore, so I've learned that if I just ignore the scale I already know what to do, focus on exercise and calories and things fall into place.

I, also am recovered from an ED and I used to do the same thing. It's easy to fall back into those habits, unfortunately. I find that weighing myself once a day, in the morning, before I eat and after I pee works for me. That way I can monitor my weight without going nuts about it. I also record my weight once a week in a log book and also measure myself at least every few weeks. Other than that, I stay away from it. This is coming from someone who has 4 scales, scattered throughout the house, so it's an accomplishment for me to only weigh once a day!

I completely agree! My weight has been fluctuating since I have started weight training with heavier weights but the inches keep going down.

I think most people can notice weight loss without the use of scales but it is whatever you as an individual wants and feels is best for you and your body. I have always avoided the use of scales because often they don't tell me anything useful! Plus people may weigh a heavier amount due to muscle mass or simply because they are taller. If you want to use them, take the advice of others, perhaps only do it every month or something, when you feel you've achieved something. It sounds like you want to see your results and fast, but if you want to lose weight successfully you may have to be more patient. Good luck whatever you do.

So far so good. This time around I want to focus on the choices I make on a day-to-day basis, not on what the scales show. I was weighing about once every couple of weeks, now am trying for once per month. The scales used to completely throw me off course. If I had gained, I consoled myself with a favorite food (and way too much of it). If I had lost, I celebrated with a favorite food treat.

Now my focus is one meal at a time, one exercise session at a time. If I do well in those areas, I trust that weight loss will follow.

Personally, I had to cut down on how often I weigh drastically because I'm one of those people who will get discouraged if the numbers go up, even when I know it's water retention. I find that when I weigh all the time I feel discouraged from strength training and building lean muscle because sometimes that makes the scale go up.

Right now I am measuring my success in how well I stay within my calorie & nutrient goals, how much I stick to my workouts, how much more energetic I feel every day, and how much improvement I see in my strength & stamina. I intend to weigh once a month, or once every two weeks at the very most.

I have done this before and it worked out pretty well.

You cannot lose weight without weighing your food but you can lose weight without weighing yourself.

Your clothes and your friends (and even ex-friends) will tell you when you have lost weight.

One diet I was on years ago had an excellent strategy for weighing: Weigh yourself once a day (same time of day would be ideal) and then take your weekly average. The average shows a much smoother downward trend in weight than relying on either the daily weights or weekly weights:

<img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/8058380998_ed08a62411_z.jpg"&gt;

In case my spreadsheet image didn't insert correctly, you can find it at
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/8058380998_ed08a62411_z.jpg

I've been a yo-yo, so I'm working my way back down again. That brings me to another point: I am focusing on behavior that I can sustain, with respect to both what I eat and how I treat the scale. I weigh myself once a day and view the scale as a tool, nothing more. I also gauge my weight loss by how my clothes fit and how I look in the mirror.

Here's a great article showing the difference between focusing on weight and focusing on one's muscle mass:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

lol! I think a lot do

I thought it was stepping on the scale that caused the fat cells to shrink.

There was I time in my life where I was very depressed about my weight and my doctor said to not look at the scale but to look at the way my clothes fit. Which made sense I had weighed at that time 140 and I wore a size 6 and my height is 5'4" so to be that size at that weight was unusual but I felt great and I was happy. But then life happened and it all changed and here I am trying to get there again.

You could join the "Monday Weigh-in Group" - it is below the first line on "The Community" - even I manage that!

I shall be here a while (and have no risk of becoming seriously underweight!) so you can always send me a messge if you need encouragement. I am too old for you to want on your friends' list.

Best wishes - you won't need to rely on mere luck

given the amount of food I've eaten these past 3 days...i'm starting to feel like i should just give up on losing weight altogether

Truthfully, as close to your goal as you are, you should.

I'm not saying give up on achieving goals, but change your focus to fitness goals instead of scale goals. Losing two pounds isn't going to make a huge difference, and the changes you want to see might even occur while gaining instead of losing.

For instance, one of my goals was to deadlift my body weight. I achieved that on Friday. Long term, I want to bench press my body weight. I'm about 75% of the way there. I want to be able to run a sub 7 minute mile. My fastest so far is 7:16. Since I stopped caring about the scale and started focusing on fitness, I did gain a little weight... and look - AND FEEL - way better for it.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/799682-lifting-gaining-weight-losing-curves-getting-bulky

This question about is weight loss possible without weighing seems a bit like the one about trees falling - or men speaking - in the forest.