My new scale hates me...

More accurately, my old scale was lying to me, and my new scale refused to play along.

A couple weeks ago, I thought I'd hit a major milestone. According to my scale, I was down 55 pounds, which was the halfway point of my weight loss journey. I was maybe a week or two away from hitting the 200-pound mark for the first time in 15 years.

I decided to pick up some new clothes - I've gone from a 44 to a 38 waist, and have dropped one full shirt size since starting MFP. While at Target, I decided to pick up a new scale as well. The old one would sometimes display an error, and I'd have to step on it two or three times to get a reading. Replacing the batteries didn't seem to help it. I knew full well that the two scales would be calibrated differently, and that I might end up giving back a couple of pounds. But I'd been making really good progress, so I figure any variation would be a minor blip on the progress chart.

I got the new scale home, unpacked it and stepped on it.

Wait, that CAN'T be right.

I stepped off, and stepped back on. Same number. Stepped on the old scale for comparison. After a couple tries, it gave me a number that was nearly TWENTY POUNDS LESS than the new scale. I was NOT expecting this! Needless to say, that was a pretty crushing blow for me.

Logically, I knew that I hadn't suddenly gained 20 pounds overnight. But mentally, it was hard for me to get over the idea that I was back to the weight I THOUGHT I was at two months prior. It felt something like this: I'd been running a marathon, and when I got to the halfway point I found out that the finish line got moved back another ten miles.

I was thinking (hoping?) that maybe the NEW scale was defective, so I went to my gym for another opinion, and then to Bed Bath & Beyond, where they had several scales out as floor models. Sadly, they all pretty much confirmed that the new scale was accurate after all.

This had me feeling pretty discouraged for a few days. I had to keep telling myself that this wasn't a real setback, and the higher number on the scale in no way negated all the hard work I've done to get to where I am today. Eventually, I finally had to accept the new number as my current reality, and that I had 75 pounds to go instead of just 55.

The biggest problem I've had since then is not knowing whether the old scale was always off, or whether it had just recently gone bad. I thought I had been losing at a quicker rate over the past three months, but that rate seemed to be in line with my increased exercise and the fact I had gotten more diligent about my calorie goals. It was unsettling for me to not know where I stood with my progress.

I realize I could draw a line in the sand and reset my ticker, but part of what motivates me is seeing that number reminding me how far I've come. And while I could have just assumed that the scale was ALWAYS 20 pounds off and reset my STARTING weight to reflect that and keep the "55 pounds lost" message, that didn't feel honest to me. I decided to wait till my next doctor's appointment to figure out where I really stood.

That appointment was today. Since I didn't have a weigh-in at my doctor's office until a few weeks after I started MFP, I have to extrapolate a little bit. But my best guess is that I started about five pounds heavier than what my old scale said I did, and that the old scale got progressively worse over the following six months. So I'm adjusting my ticker based on that.

I have to admit - it's a bit of a bummer seeing that smaller number again on the ticker, and accepting the fact that I wasn't losing quite as fast as I thought I was. But I'm not going to let this break my resolve. I'm still in this for the long haul, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a $30 piece of glass and plastic derail me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take that lying old scale out back and go all "Office Space" on it.