How do you not get upset?

2

Replies

  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    Weight naturally fluctuates. Mine fluctuated all through my weight loss. Here's a 3-month trend where I was at or below my calorie goal every day:



    I measure my daily success by how well I stick to my plan rather than what the scale says. Concentrate on the process and let the results take care of themselves when they get around to it. It's your trend over time that matters.

    This is one of those things where each person is different. I really, really dislike seeing gains on paper so I stopped using the trending app and went with my spreadsheet. I respond better to seeing the losses only, even if some are spread far apart, and calculating totals and averages. No matter how much I tell myself fluctuations are normal, I just don't want a reminder of it. I weigh myself and if it is up from my last weigh-in, I step off the scale and forget it.

    I agree 100% with concentrating on the process and judging your success by how well you stick to your plan.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    perkymommy wrote: »
    I'm a daily weigh person too and I wish I didn't step on there because I know it's best to weigh once a week or even once a month. It's hard not to weigh! I suggest measuring your body and keeping track that way.
    There's no one best way.

    If it's stressful to you, I would suggest weighing less often. However, I don't stress over any particular weight on a particular day. I see each day as a data point and more data points allow for more accurate number-crunching.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    Weight naturally fluctuates. Mine fluctuated all through my weight loss. Here's a 3-month trend where I was at or below my calorie goal every day:



    I measure my daily success by how well I stick to my plan rather than what the scale says. Concentrate on the process and let the results take care of themselves when they get around to it. It's your trend over time that matters.

    This is one of those things where each person is different. I really, really dislike seeing gains on paper so I stopped using the trending app and went with my spreadsheet. I respond better to seeing the losses only, even if some are spread far apart, and calculating totals and averages. No matter how much I tell myself fluctuations are normal, I just don't want a reminder of it. I weigh myself and if it is up from my last weigh-in, I step off the scale and forget it.

    I agree 100% with concentrating on the process and judging your success by how well you stick to your plan.
    Been there, done that. When I started MFP, I recorded my weight once per week but only if it was down from the previous week. Right now, I'm enjoying the trending app. Who knows how I'll feel about recording things in the future. It's all good as long as it works for you.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    If I got upset every time the scale went up, I would have had a heart attack a long time ago.
  • BaddS4
    BaddS4 Posts: 302 Member
    Try not to focus so much on the scale. Your clothes always tell the best story... :)
  • Kullerva
    Kullerva Posts: 1,114 Member
    Something my doc told me once: "Being miserable burns no extra calories." Does it help to get upset? No. I'm heading into TOM and am up a bit as a result, but I know my logging is good and that the gain isn't fat. :)
  • Arkie_Ali
    Arkie_Ali Posts: 106 Member
    I use the trending apps for daily weigh-ins and I created my own excel spreadsheet with a trending graph for weekly weigh-ins and marking TOM trends/fluctuations...because I'm a nerd like that :smile: It's nice to see the bigger picture.
  • getfitpixi
    getfitpixi Posts: 34 Member
    I try to remember that it's my responsibility and I can change it.
    Only you can really impact the number on the scale.
    Remember that it's not out of your control.
    Take back power.
  • MommaGem2017
    MommaGem2017 Posts: 405 Member
    I also use the Happy Scale app, but I hear there is one called Libra as well. Seeing the overall trend is so much more encouraging and teaches me that the fluctuations are nothing to be scared of :)
  • ck2d
    ck2d Posts: 372 Member
    I always think "at least it's not X" and reframe it. Because one pound, no biggie.
    I also post in a weekly challenge. Then when I want to get down on myself I can see clearly over time there is no question I'm losing.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,905 Member
    I've only been doing this life style change for a little over a week and was so please and excited to go from 300.2 to 289.8 in 1 week. I was weighing myself daily and decided to start ever 2 days, which brings me to this morning :( when the aisle said 290.6. I really really wanted to see under 290 on my first week and did it by 0.2 lol o was over the moon but now I'm back to the 290's it just feels like a smack in the face. I know it's all in my head but that 1 pound feels like 10. I'm not giving up, no way, no how but I have to admit it took a lot to not stop for and grab a giant ice cream when I brought my son to see the ships. Lol I'm an emotional eater and knew if I stayed home I would start picking at stuff so we went for a walk. Try to change that emotional eating to emotional walking lol

    You've learned an important thing about yourself.

    Turning to food for emotional comfort is something you'll have to grapple with.

    If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution.
  • eyer0ll
    eyer0ll Posts: 313 Member
    I was much, much more emotionally tied to the scale when I weighed weekly, because if it went up I had no idea whether I'd gained fat or was just on the high side of a normal fluctuation.

    Since I've been weighing daily (and only ONCE daily for three months) I've found I'm not nearly as concerned about the number and I don't get upset if it goes up. I have learned so much about how my body loses weight that I don't care if the scale goes high if I've been sticking to my plan. I know the number will come down again, and I generally know how long that will take.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    There are a lot of things that are just as important or more important than a number on the scale...that number is only one measure and I don't let one measure define me or my success.
  • DamieBird
    DamieBird Posts: 651 Member
    edited August 2017
    I've only been doing this life style change for a little over a week and was so please and excited to go from 300.2 to 289.8 in 1 week. I was weighing myself daily and decided to start ever 2 days, which brings me to this morning :( when the aisle said 290.6. I really really wanted to see under 290 on my first week and did it by 0.2 lol o was over the moon but now I'm back to the 290's it just feels like a smack in the face. I know it's all in my head but that 1 pound feels like 10. I'm not giving up, no way, no how but I have to admit it took a lot to not stop for and grab a giant ice cream when I brought my son to see the ships. Lol I'm an emotional eater and knew if I stayed home I would start picking at stuff so we went for a walk. Try to change that emotional eating to emotional walking lol

    Give yourself some credit for making healthier choices! This is a long tem process, and once you change your mindset (easier said than done) to that, it will be so much easier.

    ETA: you lost 10 pounds in a week!! That's awesome! Some of that will be water weight, and that's probably what you're seeing on the scale - a small water weight rebound. It's nothing to be concerned with :). Your loss will probably not be as extreme week to week going forward, but every pound lost is a victory, so just keep reminding yourself of that when you have down moments and think you didn't lose enough.

    As far as the weighing thing - most of the time I weigh several times a day, lol. It's kind of like a game for me to see how my weight fluctuates along the day and it takes away all the anxiety or frustration at seeing a 'bad' number. I weigh first thing in the morning after using the toilet, again before my workout when I'm at the gym, again after dinner, and once again right before bed. The only one I 'count' is the one first thing in the morning, but just seeing how daily activities can effect my weight at any given moment is fascinating to me. I've even been known to weigh before and after peeing just to see how much difference a full bladder makes, lol. It's not something I obsess over, it's juts part of my routine that if I'm near a scale, I will probably jump on. Sometimes I'm fully clothed with shoes, sometimes I'm not. I like understanding how the variables show up on the scale. In the end, I have no emotional tie to whatever the number on the scale says. I have weeks where it hardly moves at all and I can get frustrated in that I'm eager to see my work show up, but I KNOW that it will eventually it just takes longer to do so sometimes.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited August 2017
    I've only been doing this life style change for a little over a week and was so please and excited to go from 300.2 to 289.8 in 1 week. I was weighing myself daily and decided to start ever 2 days, which brings me to this morning :( when the aisle said 290.6. I really really wanted to see under 290 on my first week and did it by 0.2 lol o was over the moon but now I'm back to the 290's it just feels like a smack in the face. I know it's all in my head but that 1 pound feels like 10. I'm not giving up, no way, no how but I have to admit it took a lot to not stop for and grab a giant ice cream when I brought my son to see the ships. Lol I'm an emotional eater and knew if I stayed home I would start picking at stuff so we went for a walk. Try to change that emotional eating to emotional walking lol

    There is a water weight cycle that many people go through when first starting out:

    1) You lose a lot, including water so the scale goes down by a lot
    2) Your body goes "Oopsie, I dropped too much water so I need to retain some to get back to a proper amount" so the scale stays the same or even goes up a little
    3) You are reasonably regulated so your losses will fall into a good pattern

    This cycle can take 3-4 weeks to get regulated and you ARE losing fat the entire time, assuming you are eating in a calorie deficit. Many find it better to stay off the scale for the first 4 weeks and then weigh yourself. The other thing is to weigh yourself weekly but wait for 4 week and take a weekly average. Chances are really good that you will be averaging close to your weekly target.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    What's helping me is doing the 10-day challenges and, at the end of the period, finding the middle between my high and low for the 10 days. I think of that as a close approximation of my "real weight." Last challenge, my day 10 was higher than my day 1 so I could have been discouraged that I wasn't losing. But half way in between the high and low for the period was two pounds down from the previous challenge so, to my mind, I lost 2 pounds in those ten days, which is right on track.

    Here's my figures for the last several weeks:
    Round 8/1: HW 274 LW 269.8 MidW = 271.9
    Round 9/2: HW 269.4 LW 266.8 MidW=268.1
    Round 10/3: HW 269 LW 266.4 MidW = 267.7
    Round 11/4: HW 267.4 LW 264.2 MidW = 265.8

    My daily weight bounces all over the place but this reminds me I am going down. I look at it daily to keep it in mind and remind myself I want to do another 10 days. I can do this 10 days at a time!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    edited August 2017
    I know what I ate, and I ate without being upset. I know what I exercised, and I exercised (or not) without being upset. A non-living, non-thinking machine producing meaningless data is not going to upset me.

    Besides, prior to getting out of bed each day, I tell myself that I gained weight, and in the time I get to the scale I spend my self-conversing time speculating about how much I've gained, and I always guess high. The scale, being mostly accurate most of the time, never fails to pleasantly surprise me.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,983 Member
    There are different schools of thought when it comes to how often to weigh yourself. Everyone figures out what works best for them, psychologically speaking.

    For me, weighing every day gives me better knowledge of normal fluctuations and what causes them. It helped me not to stress so much about a swing of a few pounds either direction.

    If you can take your emotion out of it, this might be a good experiment....for a week or so, weigh yourself SEVERAL times a day and record it. This can show you how much weight can fluctuate just over the course of a day. It might help you get over an obsession with small fluctuations.