Scale Addictions!!!

Well, this is it for me. I am absolutely fed up with the scale!! This morning I weighed in at 158 and now I am 161 by tonight and to see it go from a 5 to a 6 was extremely discouraging for me. It actually makes me want to just eat and eat and eat! Instead of weighing once/twice a day I must vow to weight once per week!
I believe that I am going to start weighing myself on Monday's.
However, this makes me extremely nervous since I believe I am a scale addict!!

Anyone else have an unhealthy scaler addiction?
Maybe weighing once a week will make me more motivated by not seeing my weight fluctuate overnight!
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Replies

  • kyrannosaurus
    kyrannosaurus Posts: 350 Member
    I am an absolute scale addict. I weigh myself in clothes, out of clothes, after drinking something and even after the shower to see how much of a difference wet hair makes.

    It's really bad. Just screws with my mind. So 6 days ago I threw the batteries out from my scales (I had two sets of scales!).

    A staff member at my gym is going to be weighing me in once a week. So far it has done me a world of good!
  • allotmentgardener
    allotmentgardener Posts: 248 Member
    Last time I tried to lose weight I was on the scales every morning and night! All it does is make you stessed and depressed and eventually I gave up as my life started to revolve around the display and what it showed! :(
    This time round I am only going to weigh myself once a week. This will be every friday morning. Bear in mind that weight will fluctuate, especially around 'that' time of the month. The better way to check weight loss for me is to compare weekly measurements of waist,hip,thigh etc.
    Please do not get hung up on what the scales say on a day to day basis. You are only supposed to lose a max of 2lb a week so weighing in daily isn't going to show a satisfying change.
  • trainerwannabe
    trainerwannabe Posts: 28 Member
    If you follow the plan...the weight will come off. You just cannot look at weight loss in the short term. It's crazy making!!

    Old adage - "You didn't put it all the weight on in a day and so..."

    Take a deep breath and focus on how your mind and body are feeling. And then maybe follow in kyrannosaurus's footsteps and throw out your batteries!!! :happy:
  • TeriaShae
    TeriaShae Posts: 144 Member
    Yes! I understand how you feel, definitely a scale addict. I have two different scales and I weigh constantly. Honestly it's sad to admit but I bet that I weigh about 10x per day. However, I have stayed faithful and not weighed in this morning!
  • ILxScalco
    ILxScalco Posts: 72 Member
    I am a scale addict also, but I weigh myself every three days. It works for me, I was alot worse, weighing myself 2-3x a day.
  • winley87
    winley87 Posts: 32
    Great idea and I hope you stick with it! I used to weigh in every day and it fueled some really unhealthy behaviors because I wanted to see it move every day. If it moved in the wrong direction or not at all, I was depressed all day. And the silly thing is, a lot of factors besides your body fat percentage play into your weight! Water consumption/retention is a big one for me, and of course muscle is more dense than fat so it can cause the scale to go up even though you may be leaner. I think once a week is a great goal!
  • vjohn04
    vjohn04 Posts: 2,276 Member
    Yes! I understand how you feel, definitely a scale addict. I have two different scales and I weigh constantly. Honestly it's sad to admit but I bet that I weigh about 10x per day. However, I have stayed faithful and not weighed in this morning!


    yeah. that's not healthy for the mind.

    Maybe give the scale to someone in your house and have them bring it out once per week for weigh-in?

    Or ditch the scale completely and go by measurements and how your clothes fit.

    Good luck... I know the whole scale thing can get neurotic if you don't keep it in check.
  • AimeeKessler
    AimeeKessler Posts: 19 Member
    Right there with you. I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I've been eating super-clean, going to CrossFit 3x week and working out at home 1-2 days a week. I know I'm fitter and stronger than I've ever been. But I went to a nutritionist and weighed in at 130 - 6 pounds MORE than I weighed a few months ago! Super-discouraging. I've been obsessing at the scale ever since.

    I keep telling myself "muscle weighs more than fat, muscle weighs more than fat," but the numbers still get me way down. I've been weighing myself 3 more times a week and I see the numbers moving between 129 and 131 (!) and it just kills me. I know how I feel and look is more valuable, but I can't shake the power of the stupid scale.
  • ShieldFirefly
    ShieldFirefly Posts: 14 Member
    I only weigh in the morning, since my weight goes up 1-2 pounds throughout the day, depending on what I eat. I also don't weigh the day after I cheat, or the day after I've consumed a lot of sodium. Just isn't worth the mental stress haha.
  • I am so addicted to the scale too.....I know that I shouldn't be etc etc.....I know all the reasons and yet I still do it every morning.....I tried to do the "once a week" thing.....couldn't stick to it.....it really plays with your mind.....and now that I am lifting the scale keeps creeping up and up and it's so depressing.....:(
  • SelkathNuggets
    SelkathNuggets Posts: 37 Member
    I'm turning into a scale addict myself. However, I NEVER weigh myself more than once per day, it's just meaningless. In order to get any meaningful trend out of it, the conditions have to be as close to exact as possible. For me, that's first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom and not eating or drinking ANYTHING. Doing it multiple times per day can't help you, there's no way to know how fast you're disposing of those calories you intake.

    The only time I could see it being interesting is doing a before/after for a long run or something. But that's just for fun, don't use that for progress.

    My goal is once per week, but sometimes I'm so dang curious that I can't help it.
  • Jade0529
    Jade0529 Posts: 213 Member
    Get a measuring tape used in sewing clothes (it's flexible) and take your measurements. See how your clothes fit and how you feel and and use those as guides. Weight, especially for women fluctuates all over the place depending on what you eat, how much water you are retaining etc etc

    I do go on my scale maybe once a month now but I don't trust the numbers. My measuring tape and clothes and how I feel are telling me I am getting healthier and dropping inches
  • diana5066
    diana5066 Posts: 12 Member
    I was addicted and it drove my crazy. Now only weigh once a week at the same time of day and it has worked wonders for my mental fitness. I put the scale out of site until it is weigh in day. Through out the day and week your weight will fluctuate and it will play games with your mind.
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
    I have been weighing daily also and its "interesting" to see the fluctuations. It seems like right before a sustained loss there is often a gain. Haven't been doing it long enough to know for sure though.

    I read something last week on the forum from someone who said they only log a weight after it has been the same for 3 days. I like that idea and have decided to implement it.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    I used to be. I used to weigh myself constantly. But I got to a point that I didn't care anymore @140 lbs, I just stopped and realized that I was freaking out over fluctuations that I couldn't control anyway and that even days that I did everything perfectly, it Still would fluctuate. So I just stopped, and now I might weigh myself every week or two and that's it. I just realized that the way I look is far more important then a number
  • MarKayDee
    MarKayDee Posts: 196
    I was, until I hit a stall, then I had my lady time, then I felt really bloated and before I knew it my "I don't want to be bummed out by the scale this week" turned into four weeks, and four pounds lost.
  • TeriaShae
    TeriaShae Posts: 144 Member
    Well, I haven't lost any weight for about 6 months. I've been at such a standstill plateu so weighing for me is extremely discouraging as well because if I go up a pound at night I think in my head "oh no, I haven't lost any weight in 6 months and now I'm gaining". Which obviously I know isn't true because I'm doing all of the right thing.
    When I lost my previous 74 pounds, I can't remember ever weighing but just when someone commented on my weight loss. Since I never wore jeans or tight clothes, I never really noticed!
  • jbugiel
    jbugiel Posts: 59 Member
    I've decided to the the "biggest loser" approach to the scale, cuz my scale addiction is horrible. My wife is like if you get on it twice a day, you'll hate it... which is true. Then I weigh in again, lol. So.... ONCE every Monday morning, I will be weighing in, and trust that I'm doing everything I can properly during the week with food and exercise. I'm also using body measurements: Neck, Chest, Waist, Bicep, Hips, right thigh and right calf. That way I can tell what inches I'm losing and not worried too much about just weight. I was told by a trainer, and this makes sense, if you stress over the scale, but are toning up muscle while you lose weight and eating correctly, you'll be replacing fat with muscle, and muscle weighs more per volume. So in effect, I'm getting heavier while getting smaller, unless I'm burning more fat than I convert/replace with muscle. So if I said all that right, I should see bigger changes in inches than I will in scale weight.
  • ALNoog
    ALNoog Posts: 413 Member
    I was a MAJOR addict... Id weigh myself anytime I went into the bathroom for anything (or the closet since ours is in the bathroom) so maybe 15-29 times a day very day.... I retain water like crazy so the scale fluctuates like crazy and I hated seeing it up even though I knew it was water fluctuation... So I weighed on March 1st and put it away until April 1st! Hoping to cure the addiction and then next month I will go aback to weighing ONLY once a week or maybe every other week.
  • marian4marian
    marian4marian Posts: 94 Member
    hi teria. i have a scale problem. i cannot keep one in the house. i am weighing in, once a month, at a clinic.
  • AHASRADA
    AHASRADA Posts: 88 Member
    I weighed in every AM for several months, but as I got closer to my goal and the weight loss slowed, I decided to try once or twice a week. For me, I found that more frustrating, because I knew mathematically how much the scale should have moved during the week, and was devastated when it didn't. I also wouldn't have any chance to see any type of encouraging number, even .2lbs., for another week. It placed too much pressure, importance and anticipation on that one day and one weigh in. Also, when I would have a high-calorie day, I knew I had several days to "make up for it" before my weigh in, so I started taking my calorie intake a bit less seriously.

    My solution has been to use the free app called "Happy Scale". You enter your daily weight, and it follows the trends of your entries and gives you a "predicted true weight". I can see how a little jump up or down on the scale doesn't really change my weight trend, and how many pounds I am losing on average every 30 and 90 days. I also see when those "tiny jumps up" start adding up and affect my trend, and nip it in the bud.

    Works for me :)
  • DucklingtoSwan
    DucklingtoSwan Posts: 169 Member
    I have been weighing daily also and its "interesting" to see the fluctuations. It seems like right before a sustained loss there is often a gain. Haven't been doing it long enough to know for sure though.

    I read something last week on the forum from someone who said they only log a weight after it has been the same for 3 days. I like that idea and have decided to implement it.

    I wholeheartedly agree! I adopted this method a long time ago... that way I can indulge my scale addiction (though I have cut back,) and I don't wig out so much about about temporary fluctuations any more. I only log a loss if it shows up a few days in a row, so I know it's real. (And even that can fluctuate, I may show a 1.5 pound loss one day but only a pound the next, so I average if from over a couple of days.) This method has done a lot for my sanity!
  • totem12
    totem12 Posts: 194 Member
    Honestly, I weigh myself twice a day and I like doing it that way. You can celebrate each little decrease, no matter how small, you learn to see the fluctuations as just that and not get disheartened. You learn what you eat and drink that makes your weight go up. I know if I have a takeaway pizza I'll be a few pounds up on the scale - but it's ok, because I know it's just water. If I have a few drinks I will be down - dehydration. I almost find it more disheartening to step on the scale after a week and not see a big change!
  • fayefayee5
    fayefayee5 Posts: 87 Member
    I probably stand on the scales about 6 times a day. I love seeing it go up and down depending on how much I just ate, after the shower, after a workout etc.
    My 'official' weigh in time is first ting in the morning, so even if i "gain" 3 lbs ina day, I know it will be gone the next morning
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
    If you have an unhealthy obsession with weighing yourself I would suggest taking photos and measurements and throwing away the scale.

    Or giving them to someone else so you have to ask them to weigh yourself is not a bad idea either.

    But no matter how often you weigh yourself you have to accept that your weight fluctuates.
  • trizzletrix
    trizzletrix Posts: 92 Member
    I weigh myself pretty much every day in the morning after I've peed and before breakfast (want to see the smallest possible number I can haha) and then I input whatever I weighed into an excel spreadsheet with a corresponding graph.

    I guess you could say I'm a little obsessed but I'd just argue that I have an analytical mind ;)
  • Susan2BHealthier
    Susan2BHealthier Posts: 130 Member
    Soooooo Addicted to the scale ! I moved it to 3 different locations this morning so I could get the lowest reading. It ruins my day if weight goes up...especially since I have been staying at, or below, my calorie goal, and exercising 6 days week for the past month. I was weighing every 3 days. Now going to weigh in just once a week Monday mornings ( that will keep me behaving over the weekend). Otherwise I get so angry at the scale I just want to give up.
  • Quit the addiction.
    Weigh yourself in the morning, after you pee, once a week. Same day, same time.

    It'll avoid the disappointment, and will give you a more accurate reading.
  • meltedsno
    meltedsno Posts: 208 Member
    wow...just posted under another topic dealing with the scale... I can't agree with you more about wanting to just eat eat eat when you think you did great and the scale says otherwise... that's why I don't weigh anymore... might do so on July 1... will be my first anniversary of my break up with the scale (except for a brief encounter at the end of November for a pre op checkup... was down 52lbs then!)...
  • MrsLannister
    MrsLannister Posts: 347 Member
    I weigh almost every day. It can be frustrating at times, but I also find it really valuable to see my weight fluctuations. I have a lot of issues with water retention, so seeing how it is going on a day-to-day basis keeps my frustration in check, I think. Otherwise, I would get annoyed when I weighed myself and I gained, even though I should have lost. Now I can see the pattern of water retention a lot more clearly. I really only show my weight loss about two days out of the month.