The dreaded scale..
courtmper
Posts: 14 Member
I am starting my journey and anticipating if I should purchase a scale to weigh myself or not. I don't want to become obsessed with the number that it is showing me. What should I do?
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Replies
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Only you can answer that. Do you have a reason to think that you will become obsessed with the scale?4
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I wish I didn't have one at home, but I also was crazy and spent way too much on my Aria fitbit scale. I thought seeing the data using trendweight would be helpful but I'm finding it anything but. this is only my experience though, I can't say what would be helpful for you.
I have been doing Okay, slightly above my goal but not over maintenance and I'm definitely discouraged by the fluctuations. I may be asking my husband to take the scale away and hide it.0 -
I never weighed myself till my trainer said I had to. I always went by how my clothes fit and if I felt healthy. Well, now I'm obsessed with the scale. I walk around and my pants are falling off, my new bras are too big, half my clothes are too big and it looks like I'm wearing sacks, and the scale says I Gained 4 Pounds. So you know what? Screw the Scale. I look at it and go, "Huh." Then I buy a pair of pants 2 sizes smaller and laugh about it.2
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A scale is helpful ... you can own one, if you go to a gym they will have one.
The best practice for using a scale is to weigh once a week on the same day at the same time (morning is best)
If you are successful in you losing weight the scale can be very motivational1 -
I couldn't do this without getting on the scale. I weigh every morning and I like taking note of daily fluctuations and figuring out what caused them, seeing the trend of numbers over time and of course seeing the over all loss of fat over the months!
But that's just me, everyone is different! There's no reason why you couldn't take pictures for comparison, judge by how your clothes fit or even take measurements with a tape measure if that's what will work for you.3 -
I am afraid that I will get so focused on the number that if it doesn't budge as quickly as I hope I will be really hard on myself and have temptation to give in but I also want to know when I am making progress.0
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What you measure gets results1
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I know how you must feel, when my scale is out in the bathroom all the time, I tend to want to weigh in whenever I see it and then I berate myself if it isn't as positive as I wanted. My husband helped me with a solution:
Figure out how you want to track your weight - daily? weekly? monthly? And then in between weigh-ins, have someone hide the scale, or put it somewhere inconvenient to get to, so that you can't be tempted to start obsessing in the in-between times. That way you can separate it from being the thing you are focused on, to just a tool that is helping you get to your goals - one you have to take out and use like any other tool.
Now, my husband pulls the scale out every Monday morning so I can weigh in (it helps minimize fluctuations to do it at the same time every time) and then hides it right after so I don't have to think about or see it for the rest of the week. It lets me use it to track my progress without constantly weighing in and obsessing.
Hope this helps - good luck!2 -
askmewhatstrue wrote: »I know how you must feel, when my scale is out in the bathroom all the time, I tend to want to weigh in whenever I see it and then I berate myself if it isn't as positive as I wanted. My husband helped me with a solution:
Figure out how you want to track your weight - daily? weekly? monthly? And then in between weigh-ins, have someone hide the scale, or put it somewhere inconvenient to get to, so that you can't be tempted to start obsessing in the in-between times. That way you can separate it from being the thing you are focused on, to just a tool that is helping you get to your goals - one you have to take out and use like any other tool.
Now, my husband pulls the scale out every Monday morning so I can weigh in (it helps minimize fluctuations to do it at the same time every time) and then hides it right after so I don't have to think about or see it for the rest of the week. It lets me use it to track my progress without constantly weighing in and obsessing.
Hope this helps - good luck!
I think that's a really good idea. I'm glad that it's working for you!1 -
It depends on you and your mentality. I personally weigh myself daily and track the trend. I also use a measuring tape weekly or bi-weekly to track my measurements. Once a month I look at the numbers and enjoy seeing the downward trend. If you think you will become obsessive over the scale, it's not a wise idea to own one.2
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I don't dread the scale at all. Mine is my friend. We visit daily, first thing in the morning before it has a chance to decide to f*** up my day. So far, the relationship has been great. No surprises other than an occasional whoosh now and then after it has been stuck for a few days. My scales ups & downs are way less dramatic than mine.2
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I don't dread the scale at all. Mine is my friend. We visit daily, first thing in the morning before it has a chance to decide to f*** up my day. So far, the relationship has been great. No surprises other than an occasional whoosh now and then after it has been stuck for a few days. My scales ups & downs are way less dramatic than mine.
This for me too. I weigh daily and I never stress about it. I have friends on here who every week are worrying about weigh in the next day. I like seeing the trends and I am getting pretty good at guessing it I will be up or down each day.3 -
Body Scale
I loved having my scale and weighed myself every morning during my loss. If you can handle seeing fluctuations, then you will be fine. Keep in mind...we are women with a lot going on so you cannot take the numbers too seriously at times.
Measurements
I made a big mistake of not measuring myself correctly so I didn't have a lot of "beginning" measurements. I did this once a month and loved seeing the inches drop off.
Food Scale
If you are buying a body scale then I suggest you buy a digital taring food scale, too. Pretty much everything has a serving size by the "gram". I'm a number's girl so I liked knowing what numbers I was consuming. The taring function was used A LOT;-) I've seen them as low as $13-20 on Amazon. Worth the money!
Exercise Tracker
Later into my journey and as a gift from my husband, I asked for a Heart Rate Band to monitor my exercise as well. It's funny, he bought me the food scale for Christmas eons ago and I never really used it for cooking until I joined MFP. lol
A little more than what you were asking but all of the above helped me and I wouldn't of been able to do without them.
Wishing you the best on your weight loss journey!!!0 -
I used to freak out over my fluctuations and now since using happyscale I have realized it doesnt matter bc I like what I am starting to see in the mirror. Granted, I have lost about 8.5 lbs since Jan (my goal is .5 lbs a week) I finally have overcame my unhealthy obsession with the # on the scale though, I'm more worried about how I look/feel then the #. So really its up to you, but logging my weight everyday helps me see the overall trend2
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I am starting my journey and anticipating if I should purchase a scale to weigh myself or not. I don't want to become obsessed with the number that it is showing me. What should I do?
I weigh every day. It keeps me accountable and I like to see what my body is doing from day to day.
I also have the happy scale app on my phone and love to look back and see my ups and downs.0 -
Take weekly progress pictures instead1
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Take weekly progress pictures instead0
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Take weekly progress pictures instead0
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I used to be like that too, terrified of getting on a scale and totally stressing out about it.
But after weighing every day and only once a day (in the morning) my anxiety is completely gone. It only measures something that is there anyway and it really makes weight loss a lot easier. You can't try to dial in the CICO equation without knowing what's going on with your weight. And a trend weighing app will make the data look a lot better too, so that should reduce stress as well.1 -
I weigh myself every morning and track my results almost every day. If I go up a lot from obvious salt intake I don't because I don't want to get the cheers the next day from a false loss. For me, it's nice to be able to watch the trend and see how different things I eat effect me from day to day.0
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justincooper405 wrote: »A scale is helpful ... you can own one, if you go to a gym they will have one.
The best practice for using a scale is to weigh once a week on the same day at the same time (morning is best)
If you are successful in you losing weight the scale can be very motivational
^^^ This0 -
I weigh myself every morning. We (the scale and I)
each other, regardless of the result. I don't get too high or too low, whatever it says.
Accountability is the bottom line for me. I don't hide anymore, especially from myself.1 -
I do get down if I weigh myself after a good weeks of working out and eating well and not losing, even though I do see a difference in pics and the fit of my clothes. I have found that the scales do get me down as well as some others here. I own one, but rarely weigh anymore. A number on a scale will not determine my self-worth
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