I'm thinking about ignoring scale. Thoughts?

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amandaiams
amandaiams Posts: 73 Member
in Getting Started
Long story short, I'm finally sick and tired of being sick and tired. My husband and I are planning a vacation about 2 years from now, and I want to go ahead and start focusing on transforming myself from a whale (teehee) to my pre-marriage weight and body. I'm also scared of becoming diabetic, so this is what motivates me. However, I haven't weighed myself in a month or so (last I stepped on the scale, I was around. If I am to guess, I'm prolly 225-230). Last time I lost weight I OBSESSED over the scale. This time around, I'm considering ignoring the scale completely and just going by how I feel and how my clothes feel.

Has anyone taken this approach? If so, did it help? hurt? I'm curious if I'm making the right decision in that department.

thanks in advance!
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Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    I haven't taken that route per se, but I have learned to disregard the scale somewhat. I learned how my body fluctuates with water weight (about 2 pounds up the day after spaghetti for dinner, every time!), adds about four pounds during PMS that come off after TOM, and will add a couple of pounds for a week or two after a new workout.

    You can totally take on this process without a scale. Just be honest about logging your food, and go with how your clothes fit, like you said.

    Good luck! You can do this!
  • amandaiams
    amandaiams Posts: 73 Member
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    thank you quicksylver296. I just don't want to fall into the trap obsessing over a number. I was honest with my food yesterday, and it was really bad!!!
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited December 2016
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    amandaiams wrote: »
    thank you quicksylver296. I just don't want to fall into the trap obsessing over a number. I was honest with my food yesterday, and it was really bad!!!

    That is a terrific first step! Knowing where you are currently is how you make small changes toward success. Keep logging everything, and make little tweaks along the way. Plan on taking it slow and steady. Don't set deadlines. Just make the best choices you can each day.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
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    I wouldn't ignore the scale entirely, maybe only monthly weigh ins (when TOM is not going on). If your weight isn't going down after a month it likely means an adjustment in the plan is needed.

    For me i weigh daily, log it in an app and monitor the trend. This has helped me not stress about to day to day fluctuations because my trendline tells me what is really happening. But some people find this two stressful.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
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    amandaiams wrote: »
    thank you quicksylver296. I just don't want to fall into the trap obsessing over a number. I was honest with my food yesterday, and it was really bad!!!

    And this is the most powerful thing you can do. Its tempting to want to close the app and just eat everything when you have those higher calorie days but logging everything and seeing the damage that can be done is very powerful IMO
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    I don't completely ignore my scale, but I don't put all of my stock in it either...it's just one of many tools in the tool box and frankly, it's not even the most useful one...yet that is the one that everyone seems to obsess about...don't really get that to be honest.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    Your goal is to hit a target weight. You cannot track what you don't measure, so you will have to weigh in otherwise you're ignoring the most meaningful feedback data.

    As many others have stated the scale only provide one metric - weight. Make a list of the measurements that matter to you - Body Measurements, Athletic Performance, etc. and don't rely on weight alone. While fat gain/loss is dependent upon CICO there are a host of factors contributing to weight. Water intake, salt intake, glycogen store/loss, and so on...

    Sounds like you have an unhealthy perception of failure. Every failure is an opportunity for growth and development.

    This time form your plan to hit your goal and set a day to weigh yourself (Monday morning), follow your routine for diet and exercise and if you hit your weekly goal - celebrate! If not, look closely at your log and find out what went wrong. Ask for advice on MFP from those who have been successful, but take ego out of the conversation.
  • amandaiams
    amandaiams Posts: 73 Member
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    Thanks everyone! All very sound advice. I guess I'm scared of looking at those numbers on the scale, but weighing is probably the easiest data to obtain without having the struggle with the tape measure and what not.
  • b3achy
    b3achy Posts: 2,004 Member
    edited December 2016
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    As others have said, the scale is just one measure to use. I have to agree with others that I'd not totally discount it, but use the numbers to your advantage and to generally track how you are doing. You need SOME measure to determine if you are on or off track.

    However, consider adding other measurements, even if you do weigh yourself or in lieu of weighing yourself (your choice) -
    1. Tape measure selected body parts (I do neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, biceps, thighs and calves - you can also do forearms and wrist). Often the tape measure is a much better measure of my progress than the scale because water retention and other monthly fluctuations cause the scale to be a bit flaky at times for me. Also, I started strength training, and would see inches lost when the scale wasn't budging.
    2. Have certain goal clothes you want to fit into. I initially had a pair of pants that were a size or two too small for me (I bought them on an optimistic day). My first clothing goal was to get into them. My next goal was to get into a small dress that I wore years ago and felt very sexy in. When I reached that goal, I knew I was pretty much where I wanted to be...and surprise, I'm actually weighing 7 pounds heavier than my original weight goal. Going to work on getting a couple of more pounds off, but I know I'm pretty much at my goal because I can get into that dress.
    3. Take pictures!! Yea, you hate to do it now, but you will be so grateful later when you can see in photos the changes your body went through as you lost the weight. Some people have even said they couldn't see the loss in the mirror, but when they went back and looked and compared before and after pictures they could finally see the changes. (Oh and double whammy, keep the outfit you take your before pictures in. When you lose weight, you'll want to take some final pictures wearing the same outfit and visually showing how small you are).

    As @CSARdiver said, there is no need to beat yourself over the numbers, even from a scale. It's just a start point to use for tracking and a way to gauge if you should keep doing what you are doing (because you are losing) or if you need to adjust something (because you aren't losing). The number on a scale doesn't define your value as a person, so it really shouldn't scare or upset you.

    But as @quiksylver296 said, you don't need to weigh yourself to lose, you just need to log your food accurately and establish the right deficit that you can maintain to lose.
  • Meghanebk
    Meghanebk Posts: 321 Member
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    You can't track what you don't measure. By all means, weigh once a month or so, that way you won't focus on the scale, but still have that objective measure of your progress. You could even use a scale at a gym or pharmacy, so you won't be tempted to jump on it all the time at home. But if you do that, also track other milestones - measure neck/waist/hips/clothing sizes, etc. Also track fitness milestones if you want to be in better shape, not just skinnier - how long/fast can you walk, number of pushups, weight lifted, whatever.

    It's really important to be accurate with your food logging. Make sure you use a food scale and pick accurate food entries from the database.
  • luckypony71
    luckypony71 Posts: 399 Member
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    I tried to ignore the scale, but I feel like it really keeps me honest. I realize that it fluctuates, but when I pay attention to it I can adjust my meal plans and workouts accordingly. When I ignored it, I gained 4 pounds in 12 weeks.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited December 2016
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    This is possible....but you preferably should know where you start at least (to get a rough estimate of what maintenance calories may be) and I think you need to make sure you have a significant deficit. I say this because if you don't weigh in at all then if a small deficit was actually no deficit you would have no way of knowing it isn't working until you gain weight or have no progress for a long time. For example..let's say you maintain at 2000calories per day according to a calculator and you try eating 1700 calories (a 300calorie deficit in theory). Some people have slower metabolisms than others and it is possible you maintain at 1700 calories so you would see little to no progress. A better approach would be if you maintain according to a calculator at 2000 then you subtract a minimum of 500 and eat 1500...this way if you maintain lower than what was estimated you will still lose, only at a slower pace. I hope that makes sense/helps some. Also, as you make progress, incorporating the scale once in a while, even if only once every month or two, can be important because your calories will need to get a little lower as your weight does, in order to keep losing weight until you meet your goal.
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
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    I've tried a lot of different things over the years when it comes to weighing myself and I've learned ultimately that the scale is my friend.

    No, it may not be an "accurate" number and it is just a number, but it's the easiest way I can discern if I've gained or lost weight.

    Clothing is good to go by, but a lot of my clothing was loose to begin with and losing inches takes time. I'm the type of person that likes to see the black and white numbers and know I am going in the right direction.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    I have extreme OCD tendencies. I started tracking my food intake when I was in third grade and used to be completely obsessed with the number on the scale. Now, I have transitioned to still tracking (although not as closely since I'm focusing on bulking at the moment) calories since it is just a habit, but I gauge my progress by photos and the way my clothes fit. I weigh in whenever I feel like it...usually once a month or every other month. Helps you to focus more on strength goals than just letting a number define you.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,624 Member
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    CSARdiver wrote: »
    Your goal is to hit a target weight. You cannot track what you don't measure, so you will have to weigh in otherwise you're ignoring the most meaningful feedback data.

    As many others have stated the scale only provide one metric - weight. Make a list of the measurements that matter to you - Body Measurements, Athletic Performance, etc. and don't rely on weight alone. While fat gain/loss is dependent upon CICO there are a host of factors contributing to weight. Water intake, salt intake, glycogen store/loss, and so on...

    Sounds like you have an unhealthy perception of failure. Every failure is an opportunity for growth and development.

    This time form your plan to hit your goal and set a day to weigh yourself (Monday morning), follow your routine for diet and exercise and if you hit your weekly goal - celebrate! If not, look closely at your log and find out what went wrong. Ask for advice on MFP from those who have been successful, but take ego out of the conversation.

    We were happily together till the bolded part :smiley:

    So not only do you advocate a once weekly weigh; but you advocate doing so on Monday mornings when many people eat out on Friday or Saturday and have extra water weight to show for it for a couple of days afterwards.

    Your most accurate weight in strategy involves daily measurements and a trending weight application to plot a line through the noise and show you your actual overall weight level change over time.

    Everything else runs the risk of catching you on an artificial low or artificial high and heightens the fear of the scale when a whole week or a whole month goes "down the drain" because of a single erroneous or a-typical measurement.

    In any case, once weekly measurements are probably best taken on a Thursday or Friday morning.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    You sound like you would benefit from having multiple goals and measurements, rather than only the scale. Measurements were mentioned. Logging is important. You also can have goals like trying new foods, new recipes. Add in some exercise, such as walking, step counting, a fitness class, etc. This way some areas are always going well when others might lag a bit. I do agree that you need to take steps not to obsess over the scale. You may find that weighing daily and logging in an app like Happy Scale will teach you to treat the scale as a data source and not a measure of self worth.
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
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    I more or less ignore the scale. I like having a starting point and I'll step on every few weeks maybe but I have lots of goals that are not based on an arbitrary number. As a perfect example- I gained back all the weight I lost a few years ago but I'm still way more fit than when I first started. I'm strong with great muscles.... just need to lose some fat. But when I started back in the day I was a chubby noodle. Same weight, but very different starting points.
  • amandaiams
    amandaiams Posts: 73 Member
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    Thank you, everyone! I guess I'm being pretty silly avoiding the scale. It is a tool, after all, and a guide. I appreciate everyone's insight!
  • greeneyedfurball
    greeneyedfurball Posts: 23 Member
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    I completely ignore the scale. In fact, I just recently went about a year between weighings. I gauged my progress solely by how my clothes felt and what I saw in the mirror. I was right on track with my predicted weight loss (about a pound a week). That said, I had a lot to lose so the weight came off pretty easily. Now that I'm getting closer to goal, I will likely need to weigh more frequently to make sure I'm on the right track.

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