Worried About Getting on the Scale

emilieradke · August 2016

Long story short, in the past, I was prone to heavily restricting my calories, and while it resulted in fast weight loss, it was dangerous and not sustainable.

I took a break from weight loss to build mental strength and I'm doing better now, however, I still have about 10lbs to lose (I'm 5'3 and 142lbs). I'm going to lose weight the normal and healthy way now, but it's a little scary.

I'm testing calorie numbers to see which results in 1lb of weight loss and then I'm going to stick with it. This week I'm doing about 1700 and its been so comfortable. I finally don't feel like I'm starving myself and I love it! I just really hope it works. It's what MFP told me to eat to lose 1lb a week, but I did set my activity level to active. I usually workout 6 days a week. And other than workouts, I move around a lot in my daily life.

I've felt slight hunger on 1700 calories and while I took a break from weight loss, I only gained a few pounds, even though I had to have been eating at the very least 3000 calories (a day) for a month. If 1700 was my maintenance, I'm sure I would've gained much more weight.

Anyways, I just feel super nervous to get on the scale Monday after a week of 1700 because I don't want to have to lower this number and feel deprived again. Besides, my family and therapist probably won't let me, since they know about my past eating issues, and how being diagnosed with OCD makes me prone to going too far/obsessing.

Do you guys have any tips on how to ease nerves about weighing myself? Also, if I didn't lose any weight, would you recommend I get more active or eat less? My workouts are usually 30 minutes. Also, if I only see half a pound of weight loss, could the other half be water weight or because it's my TOM or something? Any weighing tips or finding a good weight loss cal number tips are greatly appreciated!

Thanks (:

capaul42 · August 2016

Typically it's recommended to set your goal to .5lb per week when you have so little to lose. But if you're comfortable at 1700...

That said, it's been a week. Weight loss isn't linear. You won't lose exactly 1lb every week. Some weeks you may lose more, some less, and sometimes you will gain. Also, there are so many variables that affect scale weight. Water weight from sodium levels, TOM, ovulation, exercise (new or higher intensity). Then there's the fact that the scale is also counting any food waste that hasn't been expelled yet.

No matter the number you get, don't worry and don't immediately start changing things to "fix" it. Just keep at your plan.

rankinsect · August 2016

Well, first off - you don't change your strategy because of one week where you don't see the progress you expect. Just normal day-to-day fluctuations in your weight can be as much as seven pounds.

At some point, the scale will go up. Maybe not this week, maybe not next, but it will happen. It happens to everyone. You need to be aware of this and accept it as something normal that just happens. It's not an indication of anything you did wrong, and there's no real way to avoid it.

You would only re-evaluate your calories if you had many weeks in a row without weight loss - at least three, although if you're only weighing weekly, you might need six to eight weeks for a clear trend to emerge. Stick to your 1700 calories for that long and then see if you need to make more changes.

Kellyfitness128 · August 2016

I understand where you're coming from... you feel good off of 1700 calories, if not slightly hungry, and so you don't want to lower your intake further. I've been there, but for me it was 2,000 calories. And for me, that resulted in very slow weight loss. But that was ok with me, because I want to feel good, not be hungry, eat a healthy amount for my body to keep my metabolism up, and get stronger at the same time. I actually decided to stop weighing myself for a little while which helped me focus on health/fitness, not the number on the scale.

How would you feel about not weighing yourself for a longer period of time? That's one way to ease the nerves... just don't weigh yourself

Especially coming from a background with weight/eating issues, this might be good for you. I know it's stressful and scary at first. But for me, it taught me that there's so much more to life than that number on the scale and you realize it doesn't really matter so much

Anyway, weighing yourself will happen at some point. One week might not be enough time for your body to do what it's going to do and balance itself out on 1700 calories. Or, the previous days foods before weigh-in day might have been a little extra salty and your weight might be up or you might not have pooped that morning or you might be a little dehydrated or overhydrated. All of these factors will influence your weight and if you're basing how a 1700 calorie diet is going to work for you on just this one week weigh in (it sounds like it's really going to either encourage or discourage you) it might have a negative effect on your mentality. Does this make sense? So, even if you do weigh yourself this week, I say don't let this discourage you from 1700 calories no matter what the number. If your weight is up a pound or two, there could be many different factors influencing that. I say stick with 1700 calories for at least 3 weeks and see what happens. Weight loss shouldn't be rushed anyway.

Hope this helped at least a little

emilieradke · August 2016

@capaul42 @rankinsect thank you both, that was really insightful and something I didn't know either; I think I'll test 1700 calories for longer and then reevaluate if there's no change after many weeks. Thanks again, I really needed to hear that! (:

Ninkyou · August 2016

rankinsect wrote: »

Well, first off - you don't change your strategy because of one week where you don't see the progress you expect. Just normal day-to-day fluctuations in your weight can be as much as seven pounds.

At some point, the scale will go up. Maybe not this week, maybe not next, but it will happen. It happens to everyone. You need to be aware of this and accept it as something normal that just happens. It's not an indication of anything you did wrong, and there's no real way to avoid it.

You would only re-evaluate your calories if you had many weeks in a row without weight loss - at least three, although if you're only weighing weekly, you might need six to eight weeks for a clear trend to emerge. Stick to your 1700 calories for that long and then see if you need to make more changes.

Absolutely this.

Don't change things up because of a single week. That's not nearly enough time. What if you happen to have a higher sodium day on Sunday? Or what if you're ovulating or ToM is upon you and you retain water? There's so many factors to skew the numbers that a single weigh in after a week is just not going to give you an accurate picture.

Just stick to you plan and keep going.

emilieradke · August 2016

@kellyb28 that really put things into perspective for me, so thank you! This helped a lot and I'm going to try and do things slow and steadily without fixating on numbers (:

kateowp · August 2016

I like the happy scale app. For me it took away the importance of a single weekly number (which I usually saw as pass/fail test) and emphasizes the journey. It also shows me the daily ups and downs as the red herrings they are- something I didn't truly understand with a weekly weigh in. With happy scale and daily weighing, a single weigh in no longer has the power to trigger my negative thinking.

*sorry if this sounds like an ad for happy scale. I'm sure there are plenty of similar apps out there and I know some people are even mathy enough to make their own spreadsheets to do the same thing.

Worried About Getting on the Scale

Replies

Categories