The Dreaded Scale

Options
TadaGanIarracht
TadaGanIarracht Posts: 2,615 Member
in Motivation and Support
If we are supposed to be adopting these healthier food habits for the rest of our lives, why are we so obsessed with that dang scale?

I'm going to try to avoid the scale. I know that I'm eating MUCH better than I was, and I know that it will take patience to see the results I want. Staring at that scale isn't going to make me change anything and weight, especially a woman's, fluctuates so much that a scale will go up and down a number of times a week.

Instead of beating myself up when that number doesn't go down as much as I would like, I'm going to just stick with the healthier lifestyle and enjoy all the NSVs. :)

Thoughts?

Replies

  • uconnwinsnc
    uconnwinsnc Posts: 1,054 Member
    Options
    We're taught that weight is the be-all and end-all of health.
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,068 Member
    Options
    its the closest you can get to short term satisfaction of weight loss. seeing that number get lower every week is like heroin
  • Calihapygrl
    Calihapygrl Posts: 2
    Options
    yea i hated the scale too!! but i had to retrain my thoughts to look at the scale as a tool and only a tool it doesn't define me or my worth. I can't let what the scale says determine my journey, attitude, mentation or self worth. Its just a tool. Some weeks I still struggle with stepping on the scale. But I tell myself, its just a tool. How do I feel? I am still going to logged on MFP and I am still going to make healthy choices.
    Good Luck hang in there....
  • Water_Gal
    Water_Gal Posts: 52 Member
    Options
    I think it is easy to be obsessed with the number on the scale but on the flip side, we can use that number to keep us on track.

    If you are starting at a healthy weight and only have a few lbs to lose it is probably OK to stay off the scale. If you are trying to lose, though, how will you know if your diet and exercise plan is working for you?

    I think it is a good idea to weigh in once a week, on the same day and time, to give you a bench mark for the week. I like Monday mornings before I have breakfast since it is always a bit lower after my weekend workouts and I don't generally splurge on Sundays.

    I like the scale to measure the success I am having losing the weight. I eat healthier, I move more and seeing that number go down is one of the rewards! I post it every week on MFP and that is one of the things keeping me motivated to go all the way.

    Good luck!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    Options
    I found it extremely liberating when I discovered that the scale was really not the be all and end all. It is but one singular monitoring tool...and one that only tells a fraction of the story. When people realize this and realize that there is far more to this than some number on the scale, they at that point generally find themselves to be truly on the path to health and wellness.
  • TadaGanIarracht
    TadaGanIarracht Posts: 2,615 Member
    Options
    Weight fluctuates a lot. It really is not the best way to measure success. I have to keep telling myself this. Lol.
  • hopper602
    hopper602 Posts: 204 Member
    Options
    F the scale. Use it once a week at most. True progress will show in measurements first and not the scale.
  • emily_whitworth
    emily_whitworth Posts: 3 Member
    Options
    I sometimes find myself becoming scale-obsessive, and then feeling really badly about myself if the scale gives me a couple more pounds than it did that day before. I avoided the scale daily during my initial weight loss, but did set up a time every one or two weeks to weigh myself. It's a paradox of the weight loss journey: number is down, you feel good; number is up, you feel bad. Know this: it's just a number, so don't let the scale own you.
  • cuinboston2014
    cuinboston2014 Posts: 848 Member
    Options
    I was able to restart weight lifting again after having to take two months off. At the time I had to take time off I had only been lifting seriously for maybe 3 months. I was losing weight every week until I started lifting again. Then I stopped and I got pissed off.

    Until I realized that I was losing inches which is far more important.

    I also realized I don't give a *kitten* what the scale says - actually if I could someone stay at my current weight and just be muscle, I'd be happy with that, Realistically I will need to lose about 10 lbs to be totally lean, but the satisfaction from seeing more msucles, running faster, feeling better, and seeing a shrinking belly is WAY more satisfying than seeing the scale go down.... and better than the annoying fluctuations. I do still weigh myself regularly to make sure I'm not gaining weight but health is not all contained in your weight
  • nancy10272004
    nancy10272004 Posts: 277 Member
    Options
    My doctor made me get rid of my scale. I see him once a month to check on my progress and that's the one time I'm allowed to get on one.

    I can tell I'm losing weight without one. My face is getting thinner and so is my belly. I have to buy smaller sizes of pants and bras and everything else.

    Giving up my scale was hard but my doctor was right to do it. I was getting all caught up in one number and not seeing the whole picture.
  • MBrothers22
    MBrothers22 Posts: 323 Member
    Options
    Some people don't get discouraged at fluctuations. And I don't say that as a negative towards people who do. I weigh every day. I like numbers and I can predict my trends at this point. It's actually pretty cool. For people who have a lot to lose like myself, it DOES measure success. If you're just 15 pounds overweight, obviously weighing yourself isn't going to help you that much unless you do it once a month or something like that.

    I do however take a measurement around my stomach every week and it is encouraging to see inches lost too.
    It's all about seeing success and keeping motivated.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    Options
    I get it, I mean I understand that a woman's weight fluctuates but once that is known don't worry about it. I was given an Aria Wi-Fi scale this year and it has been great. I weigh once a day in the morning and forget it. It is over time that I look at. One week, one month, three months. While it is fun to lose a pound, today vs yesterday is not going to be earth shattering news.
  • TadaGanIarracht
    TadaGanIarracht Posts: 2,615 Member
    Options
    If you think about it, one week won't be earth shattering either.

    I just seriously lack patience. I'm working on it though.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    Options
    Because I hit my revised self imposed goal of 50 lbs. this morning, I decided to look back since I joined in January. It showed my weight all over the place, up, down, vacation surges, beer weekends etc. Two things jumped out at me 1) The overall steady decline when taken as a whole. 2) The reduction in the amount of the upswings. I use to think that because I worked my *kitten* off during the week, both in exercise and calorie reduction, that I deserved to drink as much beer & eat high calorie food as I wanted. After all I know how to lose it. Now I just stay focused and know that an abundance of 1200 calorie meals will put me right back to where I came from. Officially in maintenance mode now.
  • Kchloee
    Kchloee Posts: 16 Member
    Options
    The scale helps me stay on track, I weight myself everyday. I know exactly which time I am the lightest, and what foods tend to help me hold on or lose weight.

    It's a tool that I absolutely need right now in my weight-loss journey.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Options
    I don't dread my scale, because I think of it as a tool that's helping me become healthier. I was fat (over 30% body fat) with many of the health consequences of being fat either present or staring me in the face. Daily weigh-ins, with some math to calculate an exponentially smoothed weighted average, have helped me gauge my progress.

    It's important not to confuse the metric with the phenomenon the metric is measuring. By itself, scale weight doesn't tell the whole story, but it is easier to measure than body fat or lean body mass. And of course it's related to height. Even BMI, which takes height into account, isn't meaningful by itself. Now that I've gone from the obese to the normal range, I'm less concerned with scale weight than I am with body fat and composition, and with my strength and endurance.

    But the scale was a useful tool for getting to where I am now. And as John Walker points out in the "Perfect Weight Forever" chapter of The Hacker's Diet (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/), the scale (with the average I mentioned above) can be a useful tool for detecting unwanted weight gain (or loss) before it becomes a serious problem.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Options
    For me not using the scale is the first step to denial.

Categories