Ditch the scale
toolzz
Posts: 163 Member
Ditch the scale challenge
As a constant lurker on these forums I often find myself yelling at my computer screen, feeling so frustrated by the constant conversations begun about weight loss, lack of weight loss, water weight, 1200 cals….you get the idea.
Here is my proposal. Stop focusing on the peripherals. My challenge to all takers, especially those new to the challenge of weight loss, is this:
Weigh and measure yourself now – take pictures if you wish. NOW - file that info away.
Fill out your details on MFP and get your calorie goal. Learn how MFP works. Realise your goal has your deficit built in. Realise there are reasonable weekly weight loss goals and pick the right one. Read the links:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
Spend the next 6 weeks learning about your relationship with food. The bottom line is, once you lose the weight you must maintain it and if you don’t learn anything during the process of losing you may not have the tools to keep it off.
Do not eliminate any foods until you have done some research with yourself – it probably won’t be necessary once you learn to pay attention.
What food satiates? This is important so that you don’t feel hungry
How many calories are in your favourites and how can you accommodate them in your daily life? (a food scale is a tremendous help with this "portion" of the program
)This is important because food and eating are important to our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Weight loss is not meant to be a punishment, it’s a journey of self-improvement – which is a positive thing
Learn about your body and how it feels.
The reality is you need to learn how to eat for the rest of your life more than you need to weigh hourly, daily, weekly or take measurements or beat yourself up about perceived failures those actions seem to highlight.
TL/DR: focus on eating not body scales
As a constant lurker on these forums I often find myself yelling at my computer screen, feeling so frustrated by the constant conversations begun about weight loss, lack of weight loss, water weight, 1200 cals….you get the idea.
Here is my proposal. Stop focusing on the peripherals. My challenge to all takers, especially those new to the challenge of weight loss, is this:
Weigh and measure yourself now – take pictures if you wish. NOW - file that info away.
Fill out your details on MFP and get your calorie goal. Learn how MFP works. Realise your goal has your deficit built in. Realise there are reasonable weekly weight loss goals and pick the right one. Read the links:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
Spend the next 6 weeks learning about your relationship with food. The bottom line is, once you lose the weight you must maintain it and if you don’t learn anything during the process of losing you may not have the tools to keep it off.
Do not eliminate any foods until you have done some research with yourself – it probably won’t be necessary once you learn to pay attention.
What food satiates? This is important so that you don’t feel hungry
How many calories are in your favourites and how can you accommodate them in your daily life? (a food scale is a tremendous help with this "portion" of the program
)This is important because food and eating are important to our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.Weight loss is not meant to be a punishment, it’s a journey of self-improvement – which is a positive thing
Learn about your body and how it feels.
The reality is you need to learn how to eat for the rest of your life more than you need to weigh hourly, daily, weekly or take measurements or beat yourself up about perceived failures those actions seem to highlight.
TL/DR: focus on eating not body scales
9
Replies
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But if you are aiming to lose weight and don't weigh yourself for 6 weeks and it turns out you ate at maintenance then you have wasted 6 weeks.
I agree that scales and measurements should not dictate how you feel or control your thoughts but they are the best indicator, over a prolonged period, of measuring progress.12 -
scales are only tool to help get you to a goal....i weigh every day. it works for me4
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Great post, except I do think there's value in regular weigh -ins. I've been a daily weigher for years now, and the data has been an important tool for me and my goals 2
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I like this:
Spend the next 6 weeks learning about your relationship with food. The bottom line is, once you lose the weight you must maintain it and if you don’t learn anything during the process of losing you may not have the tools to keep it off.1 -
Most of your recommendations are solid, but ... blanket advice about the scale being an obsession for some people isn't part of it.
I personally avoided the scale for years as an act of denial. My daily weigh ins are a means of holding myself accountable to my goal of remaining on a healthy path and never again hiding from what I'm doing with my body. Weigh ins a are one of my healthy habits and part of me fixing my relationship with food.
Just wanted to offer a different perspective.
I agree that some people fixate on that number and don't always have a healthy relationship with the scale and that your message was for them.
This is why blanket statements don't always work, though.
People are different.10 -
I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.2
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I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.
But people who are obese focus on eating first and measuring failure later.0 -
trigden1991 wrote: »I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.
But people who are obese focus on eating first and measuring failure later.
I think I should stick to yelling at my computer - I'm not savvy enough in internet communications to speak to the masses....I didn't intend on making a blanket statement but I can certainly see how that might be the interpretation. oh well...it wasn't all that long ago that I didn't even know what a forum was!2 -
Doing just fine weighing myself daily, thank you very much.0
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trigden1991 wrote: »I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.
But people who are obese focus on eating first and measuring failure later.
I think I should stick to yelling at my computer - I'm not savvy enough in internet communications to speak to the masses....I didn't intend on making a blanket statement but I can certainly see how that might be the interpretation. oh well...it wasn't all that long ago that I didn't even know what a forum was!
I can see what you were trying to say however what you wrote didn't say that. Don't be disheartened though, the internet is a pedantic place 2 -
I have run the gambit on scales. Had success weighing myself 5 times a day, and had success by not weighing myself for years and relying on how my clothes fit, my fitness improved etc.
I would suggest though that everytime that I have slipped over my lifetime it was always a mystery as to how much I actually weighed. I should not have stopped weighing myself because that is when I realized the problem was worse than I told myself it was.
I like the scale now. The more info the better.0 -
I weigh myself daily. Means I don't have to weigh my food (which I would need to do multiple times per day... I'd rather weight myself once and be done for the day than have to weigh every little thing that I eat). So I'll keep my bathroom scale, you keep your kitchen scale
Now, yes, those who get too wrapped up in the number on the bathroom scale might want to look at NSVs, or use an app like trendweight to take the "sting" out of fluctuating numbers. But unless you are having severe sads over the number, well, it's simply a means of measuring and tracking progress. No need to ditch it entirely unless tracking it is causing you problems.0 -
weight yourself daily doesn't negate the need to weight food...your weight can vary during the day and isn't indicative caloric intake1
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@toolzz Love your tattoo! That said, your post is inspiring even though, I too, disagree with the scale part. After 11 months, I'm still working on the "relationship with food" part. It's hard to change 60+ years of habits and I couldn't do it without the daily reminder of the number that measures my success. That's my new habit, daily weigh ins. It works for me and has allowed me to see the reality of how my weight can fluctuate, a reality that so many can't grasp.2
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trigden1991 wrote: »trigden1991 wrote: »I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.
But people who are obese focus on eating first and measuring failure later.
I think I should stick to yelling at my computer - I'm not savvy enough in internet communications to speak to the masses....I didn't intend on making a blanket statement but I can certainly see how that might be the interpretation. oh well...it wasn't all that long ago that I didn't even know what a forum was!
I can see what you were trying to say however what you wrote didn't say that. Don't be disheartened though, the internet is a pedantic place
Pedantic indeed. Not disheartened at all....I believe in the heart of what I wrote and wish I could delete the reference to the scale as that isn't the point....live and learn 2 -
I guess it depends on the person and their issues. If you have major issues with food, emotional eating you might want to work that out before worrying about the scale.
Starting out with MFP I had very little confidence that logging and counting calories would work. I was not new to trying to lose weight you see and it couldn't be that easy. I stepped on the scale every week with my teeth gritted for quite awhile even though I started losing right away. Seeing that I was losing helped me trust calorie counting. If I hadn't weighed at some point I probably would have quit before 6 weeks were done. I do not have huge issues surrounding food.0 -
i get what you are saying - most people are overly focused on the number on the scale and not about other changes
as an example, when I began heavy triathlon training, I dropped from a size 10 to a size 6 in clothes, but I only "lost" about 2lbs0 -
trigden1991 wrote: »trigden1991 wrote: »I agree that the scale is a required tool in the process. I was hoping to stress the importance of focusing on the act of eating first and then measuring your success later....obviously there is no need to forgo weighing for any amount of time in order to be successful.
But people who are obese focus on eating first and measuring failure later.
I think I should stick to yelling at my computer - I'm not savvy enough in internet communications to speak to the masses....I didn't intend on making a blanket statement but I can certainly see how that might be the interpretation. oh well...it wasn't all that long ago that I didn't even know what a forum was!
I can see what you were trying to say however what you wrote didn't say that. Don't be disheartened though, the internet is a pedantic place
Pedantic indeed. Not disheartened at all....I believe in the heart of what I wrote and wish I could delete the reference to the scale as that isn't the point....live and learn
Your point as I read it is very valid. I would say eat like you usually eat for the first week while losing and see what you are doing that is not working. I remember being surprised at what I saw. I was also surprised how many times I picked up something to eat and decided that I did not want it enough to log it.
Definitely one must understand their relationship with food. This will come into play many times in the road to a healthy lifestyle. It is a good post!1 -
deannalfisher wrote: »weight yourself daily doesn't negate the need to weight food...your weight can vary during the day and isn't indicative caloric intake
Over time it is. Lost 50lbs, have kept it off for three years. Never weighed/measured my food, just myself. Obviously you have to look at the trend over time, not just any one measurement in isolation, but yes, the bathroom scale gives a pretty reliable indication of what your caloric intake is like. It's not for everyone - but just as some people obsess over body weight, I would obsess over food weight. Not a path I choose to go down, but there is certainly nothing wrong with weighing your food if you choose to! It's not necessary (neither is weighing yourself, for that matter), but some people find it a useful tool. Just not me.
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I agree to a point.
I don't get on the scale much but this summer I was told I was so skinny now and my reply was really I am about 10lbs heavier than I was last year...their reply..."you don't look it"...
weight lifting, running, logging...
that's what I do...the scale eh whatever.
I do get on it about every 4-6 weeks.0
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