Scale phobia

at_it_again_nette2018
at_it_again_nette2018 Posts: 7 Member
edited November 26 in Motivation and Support
My profile starting weight is fabricated. There I said it! Why do such a thing? Because I hate that small inanimate rectangle that has the ability to ruin my mood and derail good intentions. I can lose weight but it happens so slowly and stepping on the scale and seeing less than a pound or that aggravating 0 after working so hard is painful. Its not a damn plateau its a flat out fall on your face fail! How do I not let it control? What will get me to unpack that spawn of Satan box and stand on it again? Or do I need to?

Replies

  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    I also initially fabricated my starting weight since I didn’t have a scale at home but wanted to start tracking my calorie intake. I knew I was likely off by up to 10 lbs. After several weeks when my personal life was less chaotic I purchased a scale and faced it. I weighed about 10 lbs more than I had estimated. I adjusted my profile and moved on after crying a little to my sister. I am glad I bought the scale and started tracking my weight each week. It is encouraging to me to see the progress I have made.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,534 Member
    Agree, the scale is just a feedback machine. Folks will come on here and start suggesting other ways to measure your progress. A tape measure maybe. But there’s a way to stop dreading the scale- change your thinking.

    Embrace the process. Weight loss is a set of things to do. Plan a menu, keep a food diary, and do controlled weigh ins. Or plan, execute, evaluate, problem solve and adjust. The scale is just telling you if your program is working.

    But it’s telling you over the span of months, not every week. You’ll always know how your week went because your diary will tell you. A friend says- we always get the WI, we deserve, but not necessarily when we expect it.

    Where I used to live i could guarantee a lousy WI by eating in a particular restaurant the night before. Everything planed, counted, tracked, all within my numbers. I think they just loved salt in that kitchen.

    Spend some time thinking about how you will cope with the time it takes to lose weight. If you are losing, it’s working. Failure to recognize and credit our own success is a big problem here. I think our brains hate weight loss. “Too slow” is the brain’s fallback to keep the negativity flowing. Don’t let your brain wreck you.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    You need to de-couple your emotions from the number on the scale, otherwise you're in for a tough time - especially as you get nearer to a healthy weight and the losses slow to a crawl. Easier said than done, I know, but try to view them as useful little data points rather than a measure of success/failure all on their own. This is why I find weighing daily and using a weight trending app useful.
  • JBApplebee
    JBApplebee Posts: 481 Member
    The number on the scale isn't the holy grail to base your life on. Are you getting stronger or in better shape? Do you have a better workout than yesterday? Are you sore from yesterday's workout (maybe not the best), do you notice a change in how you look, feel or how your clothes fit? Those are more important than the scale
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,741 Member
    I agree with all the responses already given. Start taking your measurements instead but it's important to learn to detach your self-worth from the number on the scale.

    Do you have a pet? If so, put them on the scale. Then do it again and pretend the number increased. Do you love them less? Of course not. Same principle applies to you.
  • go52182
    go52182 Posts: 133 Member
    Stop weighing yourself, plain and simple. I too used to weigh myself EVERY DAY to see the progress I was making. Well I started getting bummed out because the scale was not moving at all. But I realized because I incorporated resistance training with free weights, I wasn't going to lose weight. I've noticed my body changing and THAT is what matters to me. It's still a nagging habit to want to hop on the scale but I've put it away so I won't be tempted. Please don't be like I used to be and obsess about it. Your weight truly has nothing to do with what is going on the inside and outside of your body. In a few months once you've slimmed some, yeah hop on to see what it says. But do not let it get you down. Put it away for now! I promise you, unchaining yourself from that scale and just focusing on being healthy and consistent will be so good for yourself. :)<3
  • summpear
    summpear Posts: 77 Member
    go52182 wrote: »
    Stop weighing yourself, plain and simple. I too used to weigh myself EVERY DAY to see the progress I was making. Well I started getting bummed out because the scale was not moving at all. But I realized because I incorporated resistance training with free weights, I wasn't going to lose weight. I've noticed my body changing and THAT is what matters to me. It's still a nagging habit to want to hop on the scale but I've put it away so I won't be tempted. Please don't be like I used to be and obsess about it. Your weight truly has nothing to do with what is going on the inside and outside of your body. In a few months once you've slimmed some, yeah hop on to see what it says. But do not let it get you down. Put it away for now! I promise you, unchaining yourself from that scale and just focusing on being healthy and consistent will be so good for yourself. :)<3

    So there is a lot of truth here, and this works great for some people. For me, it led to me gaining significantly without realizing. I've actually found a lot of freedom in weighing daily because it's helping me see trends and learn my own fluctuations. It makes it much less stressful to step on the scale and see an "off" number when i see that in context of the rest of my weights.

    I'm not perfect by any means. But I'm learning to not let a numeric gain translate into mental recrimination.

    Find what works for you. I've found acknowledging my weight makes it just a number.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
    Previously, I used to weigh in every day as well, and I got borderline obsessive about it. It got so bad that I realized I have to snap out of it, but then I stopped weighing in altogether and fell of the wagon in all aspects. Now I send my food logs and weigh-in results to my trainer once a week, and do not touch the scale on other days. Karma has been a b*tch every time I got curious and stepped on it mid-week, always a gain. For my actual weekly Sunday weigh-ins, I have been losing steadily for 7 weeks in a row now. I only make an exception if I’m out of town on Sunday morning. It seems like my fluctuations follow a weekly pattern as well, so I try to keep my curiosity controlled since every single non-Sunday weigh-in has just bit me in the *kitten*.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I was reading this yesterday. It's geared towards trainers, but has a lot of info you can use:
    http://sigmanutrition.com/scale-paradox/?__s=pgpjqw7df3sehsoqgf6s

    Personally, I found that daily weighing with the above points in mind and a trending app desensitized me to numbers.
  • swhiteism
    swhiteism Posts: 71 Member
    summpear wrote: »
    go52182 wrote: »
    Stop weighing yourself, plain and simple. I too used to weigh myself EVERY DAY to see the progress I was making. Well I started getting bummed out because the scale was not moving at all. But I realized because I incorporated resistance training with free weights, I wasn't going to lose weight. I've noticed my body changing and THAT is what matters to me. It's still a nagging habit to want to hop on the scale but I've put it away so I won't be tempted. Please don't be like I used to be and obsess about it. Your weight truly has nothing to do with what is going on the inside and outside of your body. In a few months once you've slimmed some, yeah hop on to see what it says. But do not let it get you down. Put it away for now! I promise you, unchaining yourself from that scale and just focusing on being healthy and consistent will be so good for yourself. :)<3

    So there is a lot of truth here, and this works great for some people. For me, it led to me gaining significantly without realizing. I've actually found a lot of freedom in weighing daily because it's helping me see trends and learn my own fluctuations. It makes it much less stressful to step on the scale and see an "off" number when i see that in context of the rest of my weights.

    I'm not perfect by any means. But I'm learning to not let a numeric gain translate into mental recrimination.

    Find what works for you. I've found acknowledging my weight makes it just a number.

    Agreed. I also weigh myself daily and I think I’m more sane this way. I went about 2 weeks of good eating and exercise without losing any weight and I think if I did the once a week weigh in thing, I’d have been way more bummed out expecting to see a loss and not getting one. Because I weigh myself daily, I was more prepared for it.

    I also think the scale is a great motivator. I’ve lost 23 pounds so far and I’m just now starting to think I look slimmer when I look in the mirror. I couldn’t see a difference at 10 pounds, 14 pounds, not even 18 pounds. If I didn’t weigh myself and was just going by how I looked and felt, I might’ve given up thinking it wasn’t working. Seeing that number constantly going down keeps me at it.

    Avoiding the scale may give some people peace of mind but for me, avoiding the scale is how I ended being 192 while telling myself I was probably around 160.
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