To weigh or not to weigh?

Hi Yes, take a deep breath and do it. The only thing that really keeps me going is recording how much (if any) I have lost each week and you can't do that if you don't weigh. My hubby is the same, he needs to lose some too, more than me to be honest but he won't weigh either. I can tell that he's losing but it would be so much more a boost if we knew how much.

I'm a weigher. I weigh myself every morning. Here's my mentality...when I step on the scale the first time before I start a weight loss session (I'm not going to lie...I'm not always this healthy) It hurts. It really does. And I can understand your fear. But you need to use that as motivation. That way, when you weigh yourself again, you can be happy about your success! Every morning I get up and I know if I need to step it up or if I'm doing a good job. I know what I weighed the previous day, I know what I ate, I know how much I exercise, and getting on the scale tells me if I did enough. If the number goes down, I feel fantastic! I am proud of myself and it makes me work hard throughout the day so that I can feel the same the next day. If the number goes up, at first, yes, I'm upset, but I let that fuel my fire. I work even harder throughout the day because I want to see that number fall tomorrow morning. I know most people don't weigh themselves everyday, and do what works for you. But my mini successes every morning make this that much easier for me. I make charts. I check off numbers. I have rewards for different weights (as seen in my signature). So I say go out and get yourself a scale...don't look at it as a negative thing. Look at it as someone who's gonna motivate you every morning. Someone who will be honest with you even when others aren't. The scale will never lie. It will let you know exactly what you need to do every day, whether its "keep on keepin on", or "move your *kitten* you were lazy yesterday". Just remember: One bad day does not mean you should fall off the wagon, just as one bad meal doesn't mean the day is down the drain. I used to think like that when I was a lot heavier than I am now and it got me nowhere. One bad meal now means extra exercise later. One bad day means I wake up hungrier for weight loss! Use the scale to your advantage. It will hurt at first, but its fun to watch the numbers fall.

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

Hope this helps

the only way I can keep up my motivation is by seeing the numbers of the scales coming down, so I'd take the plunge and invest in some scales if I were you! But be warned....it does become addictive!!!

First off- administer some loving-kindness to yourself. I personally say the following meditation multiple times a day to do it: 1. May I be safe. 2. May I be healthy. 3. May I be happy. 4. May I live in ease.
It takes a daily practice of saying these- both out loud and in your mind, many times a day- car, work, bed, shower, dining table, etc before its integrated to your core, but it will happen. The fears you voice will become a distant memory.

Your sum of who you are is not measured with the scale. The scale is only a tool to help you become a healthier person.

Much kindness.

First off- administer some loving-kindness to yourself. I personally say the following meditation multiple times a day to do it: 1. May I be safe. 2. May I be healthy. 3. May I be happy. 4. May I live in ease.
It takes a daily practice of saying these- both out loud and in your mind, many times a day- car, work, bed, shower, dining table, etc before its integrated to your core, but it will happen. The fears you voice will become a distant memory.

Your sum of who you are is not measured with the scale. The scale is only a tool to help you become a healthier person.

Much kindness.

I love that sentence- I do weigh every day but that just really popped out at me because in reality that is what this is all about, I am going to write that down and look at it often. Thanks:)

You should see losses with a scale or a tape measure over time, but both have advantages and disadvantages. Some say that weighing yourself more than once a week is a bad idea, because a lot of things can affect what the scale says on a given day, and the real losses or gains one experiences aren't big enough from day to day to show up accurately with all that noise. Weighing yourself once every two weeks is probably enough, but it depends on the person.

But I get the sense that you're mostly concerned about what the scale says now, and that you don't want to be embarrassed by it. I think it's important to know that number. You say you've been maintaining your weight for a year, and you don't look any different now than you did a year ago. I think you may be surprised, unfortunately. When my brother and I started this journey almost a month ago, he was convinced that he was still hovering around 310... until he bought a better scale. He was actually at 345.

It hurts to see that number. You think about what you've done to yourself over the years, and you're ashamed about it. Those feelings are real, and they are aren't necessarily good. But facing reality is the first step toward change. Plus, if you make a change and then weigh yourself a week later, you won't be disappointed.

A tape measure is less embarrassing, since the numbers are not as emotionally loaded. In many ways it measures your fat loss better than a scale. But it's harder to measure yourself accurately (how much pulling should you do? Are you sucking it in? Should you? Did you weigh yourself at exactly that point on your belly?). The scale is idiot-proof: step on, see results.

And don't even get me started on calipers... those things give me a headache.

Anyway, I think I prefer knowing. I measure a lot, maybe too often. I see results and I'm encouraged. I see backsliding, and I'm chastised for slipping up.

Long story short, if you're really going to lose this weight, you should be ready to face facts. Your lifestyle has been unhealthy, and you need to change your habits. Hiding from what you were will make it difficult to become what you can be. Get that number, write it down, and use that number as a talisman to inspire you to change. "I will never weigh X pounds again!" "I could eat this cupcake, but that's what the X-pound me would have done. Do I want to be that me again?"

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't celebrate losing weight without weighing yourself once a day, once a week, or even once a month. I am living proof that you can. 80 lbs since Jan. 2010. I celebrate that every freaking day.

People are different. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone. If you have a history of being so discouraged by what you see on the scale that you give up on your weight-loss goals, that's a pretty good indicator that the scale method isn't working for you. That's exactly the reason I decided not to go OCD about weighing myself this time, and it's no coincidence that this is the first time in my life that I've been successful at sustained weight-loss.

Nobody here knows what's going to work for you. You can only use your own personal experience as a guide, and if your experience is telling you that the scale doesn't help, then forget about the scale. There are other ways to figure out if what you're doing is working or if you need to try something different.