Have You Skipped the Scale?

I had ankle surgery over the summer and had to wear a heavy boot. I did not weigh for 6 weeks, and I found that MFP really helped me stay on track. I was actually down a pound once the boot came off. If you have the determination, go for it!

I try to weigh myself everyday, log the number and just forget about it. What a person weighs on a given day is meaningless. It's progress over time that matters most.

Think about getting a scale that automatically uploads your weight to the cloud. I have a Fitbit Aria that I use. Sometimes I don't even see the number when I'm weighing myself in the morning.

The number on the scale is not the problem. It's the negative self talk a person engages in that is the problem. When you think negatively about the number, try writing down what you are thinking and then try re-framing the situation in a more realistic and positive way.

For example:

"Ugh! I've gained a pound! It's hopeless. No matter what I do I can't lose weight!"

more realistically:

"The scale says I'm a pound heavier today. That's a normal fluctuation in my weight. If I stick to the plan I will see that number go down over time."

I've been do this for over 20 years and I've seen the scale do crazy things. One day up 1 pound, the next day down 2 pounds. Or worse, seeing the scale stick at one weight for a whole week despite trying to lose weight. It's an unreliable metric.

I haven't weighed myself since the start of the year. I've been doing this a long time, I've lost weight before, and I know that if I maintain my calorie deficit with accurate tracking the weight will come off. Instead of setting goals and rewards around weight lost, I set them around my ability to stay within my calories and hit my exercise goals for the week.

scales are useful tools and should be treated as such. Just recognize what they are good at, and what they are not good at (good at telling you your current weight, not good at telling you if you lost fat, water, or muscle or any other information really).

If you just eat a certain calorie amount with no scale as a feedback then you do not know if you are accomplishing what you intended. You may have wanted to lose 1lb/week, but instead you are losing 0.75lb/week (or even 0lb/week if your logging is way off). With a scale, trend app (trendweight, libra, excel), and some time, you would know if you are meeting the goals that you set for yourself or not. If you are not, you now have the knowledge to adjust your plan or adjust your expectations.

You can do it without a scale, but I prefer to use all the tools available to me. I also know that when I stop weighing myself I stop caring about calories as well. And then eventually over time I will go from a healthy weight to overweight. I may stop logging my food if I'm at my goal weight, but this time I intend to keep weighing myself at least weekly instead of abandoning the scale because I don't want to see what it tells me.

I weigh myself daily just to be nosey but I really go by how my clothes fit. Thats my reassurance. Good luck

nordlead2005 wrote: »

scales are useful tools and should be treated as such. Just recognize what they are good at, and what they are not good at (good at telling you your current weight, not good at telling you if you lost fat, water, or muscle or any other information really).

If you just eat a certain calorie amount with no scale as a feedback then you do not know if you are accomplishing what you intended. You may have wanted to lose 1lb/week, but instead you are losing 0.75lb/week (or even 0lb/week if your logging is way off). With a scale, trend app (trendweight, libra, excel), and some time, you would know if you are meeting the goals that you set for yourself or not. If you are not, you now have the knowledge to adjust your plan or adjust your expectations.

You can do it without a scale, but I prefer to use all the tools available to me. I also know that when I stop weighing myself I stop caring about calories as well. And then eventually over time I will go from a healthy weight to overweight. I may stop logging my food if I'm at my goal weight, but this time I intend to keep weighing myself at least weekly instead of abandoning the scale because I don't want to see what it tells me.

Me too! I have gone back to weighing every day just to keep up my discipline. I really slack if I avoid the scale. OP, thanks for asking the question! I've been debating on it myself.

I weigh myself every day, for most of the reasons already stated. Though I think I need new scales soon or at least need to change the batteries. The registered an increase in 13lbs from Saturday to Sunday. I'm trying to bulk, but 13lbs in a night would be some going!

I used to weigh myself weekly, at the beginning. Then, the weight loss slowed down, and I went to monthly. Because I thought I would have big losses and feel encouraged... It ended up being very discouraging, for me, to feel like I was working very hard, then 30 days later see I was down .5 of a pound. Or worse, up. So, at Christmas this past year, I started weighing myself daily. I need the immediate feedback. And, I've lost 7 pounds since then.

The skip the scale thing is mostly for thin people who want to get ripped. They're the ones who will actually see their results in a reasonable period of time. For someone who's heavier like me it's useless. I'm 230 as of this morning and I look literally not different than I did at 240. My face is only slightly less chubby than it was at 250. Maybe it's in my measurements you say? Who cares. I'm wearing the same exact clothes. That's a whopping 20lbs with zero impact. The scale is all I have to prove my effort hasn't been completely worthless, though I'm stalled yet again at the same exact number in spite of doing every single thing right.

I use my scale 4-5 times a day, every day. It's a food scale, and I weigh just about everything I eat, but I'm fanatical about it. I will step on the people scale weekly, but otherwise I have found that for me a food scale has provided much better results than any people scale.

I weighed myself several times a day and found that my weight varies so much by the end of the day i could have lost or gained 3 to 5 lbs i would get upset and stop trying to lose weight because i felt all my effort was useless but then i had a brilliant idea , I stopped scaling and go by fit of clothes and overall only weigh every 2 weeks or so as long as i am trending in the right direction i don't care what the scale reads

I am a long term success for MFP (5 years and counting) and almost never step on the scale. I go by tape measure and by what I see in the mirror

Usually I step on the scale when motivation is taking a hit - I can FEEL in my body when I'm losing weight, I know it, and it's usually right on. The times where I dont' feel like I need the scale, I usually step on it and say "yep, that's about right, I feel like I've been losing that much weight"- but then things get lax, or I have a few events that add up, scale keeps me honest.

Whenever I start skipping the scale the pounds start creeping back. I can't skip it, I need the reality check at least once a week.