Fear of weighing yourself

Palpatches · April 2023

What are some of the things to say to yourself to overcome fear of being weighed? I can’t make make myself do it! Even if I stick to my plan, and I know I’ll be lighter, I do t like to weigh. I cannot make myself get on the scale if I’ve eaten badly- which is when I need to weigh myself the most! Does anyone else have these tortured thoughts?

csplatt · April 2023

you actually do not need to weigh yourself the day after eating badly because it’s an illusion of immediate fat gain when in reality it’s a lot of food in the digestive track + bloating. i try to wait until the week AFTER my menstrual cycle, in the morning with nothing on my stomach. weighing more than twice a month isn’t helpful to me

Creamtea42 · April 2023

I weigh daily & log it! If I know I have followed my plan and I have gained, I just chalk it down as water weight.
However, 😬, if I am falling off my plan, the gain gives me accountability - if that makes sense & can give me the kick to get get back on plan!
If weighing daily / weekly is not your thing, or triggering, I’d suggest weigh in less often.
Taking your measurements may be your thing, or assessing how your clothes are fitting?

The scales can be & are disconcerting with their fluctuations!

AnnPT77 · April 2023

Fat gain doesn't happen right after you eat a bunch of extra calories. You have to run a lot of mechanical & biochemical processes to break down the food, route the nutrient components around your body to where it'll be used, then store the extra calories as fat. Even the digestive transit can take more than 50+ hours, and bits of the process happen all along that tract. As someone above, the immediate weight gain is water retention and food residue that will become waste.

I like to weigh myself daily, put the scale reading into a weight trending app. I don't feel any kind of way about one day's number, it's just one data point. I care about the trend (gaining/maintaining/losing as averaged over a period of multiple weeks). I like that by doing that for literal years (even before I got serious about weight loss), I learned a lot about what makes my bodyweight fluctuate, and how long it takes for random fluctuations to disappear.

(I suppose that for me, just weighing daily, first thing in the morning after bathroom before eating/drinking, in the same state of (un)dress is what took any anxiety out of it. That, and a solid understanding that the number on the scale is not a gauge of my worth as a human being - and yes, I thought that even when I was obese.)

But that approach is not right for everyone, just because it's right for me. If it doesn't work for you, then use something else to gauge progress: Tape measure, monthly front/back/side photos in a bathing suit or snug activewear, fit of a particular piece of clothing, whatever.

MsCzar · April 2023

I had a big January-February re-gain. NO WAY was I stepping on a scale! My clothes told me I'd gained weight and I really didn't want to know how much. I got back on track in March and I can feel my body responding daily. Assuming the current trajectory, I will probably step on a scale some time in the next 3 weeks when I can zip up my smaller sized jeans. Til then, the scale can breed dust bunnies for all I care. 😄

herblovinmom · April 2023

I weigh almost daily, I see the scale as a tool. It can show me if I've eaten too much salt or inflammatory foods.. It allows me to see trends and make correlations based on my diet choices and my cycle and my stress levels. I'm not afraid of the number on the scale. It doesn't define my accomplishments.. That being said. If you have horrible anxiety and it causes you distress then skip the scale. Use other tools to measure your success. Tape measure. Pictures. Clothes fitting better. Or maybe your strength improves. Of you can walk farther. You get the idea. 👍

lynn_glenmont · April 2023

As others have said, you don't have to weigh yourself; you can use a tape measure, photos, or fit of clothing.

Another option is to have someone you trust (it doesn't have to be a friend, if that makesyou uncomfortable--it could be a neutral third party like someone who works at your gym; if you go to one) look at the number on the scale and record it without telling you. Maybe they could put it into a trending app for you and you could review the trend when you feel up to it.

As for things you could say to yourself to help you get on the scale, maybe "I weigh what I weigh whether I get on the scale or not" or "the number on the scale doesn't determine my worth as a human being"? I don't think berating or scolding yourself to get on the scale would be a good approach.

cmriverside · April 2023

Well I'm going to take a different path here...

When I first started losing weight I was obese. That's a hard word. 33 BMI. I was embarrassed, shocked, mad, frightened, overwhelmed, anxious. All kinds of negative emotion due to the situation I CAUSED. So, yeah, I didn't like the scale and it created all kinds of bad feelings.

I had a fortuitous thing happen early-on in my weight loss. I accidentally spilled a pitcher of water on my digital body weight scale and it was broken. Too bad so sad. (For it!)

I felt so much better! I already had other ways to check my progress. Clothing fit. Tape measure. A scale at the gym (which I tended to avoid, too.)

Guess what? I continued to log food and do some exercise and I lost the weight without even stepping on the scale. Knowing the exact number wasn't important at all until I started approaching a healthy weight BMI. Then I bought another scale. I was feeling pretty excited over having already lost 60 pounds, and I needed that macro data that only a scale could provide. I bought a digital food scale around the same time.

It's pretty easy to lose weight when there is a lot of weight to lose - by just logging food and taking a walk. The time when a scale is really important is when weight loss slows down and it gets harder to stick with a food goal.

You don't have to weigh yourself. :flowerforyou:

spiriteagle99 · April 2023

I understand not wanting to weigh yourself. Years ago, if I weighed myself and had lost weight, I would feel like I could celebrate by eating a treat. If I didn't lose weight, I would eat something to assuage my sadness. Lose lose. So I didn't weigh myself.

The problem with that was that I stopped having any idea what was happening with my weight. Vanity sizing meant I stayed a size 10 even with a 50 lb. weight gain. I also like loose comfortable clothes, which didn't help. I knew I had gained, but had no idea how bad it was. When I did, I was shocked and very upset.

I did manage to lose the 50+ lbs. but this time I decided I couldn't ignore the scale any more. I know what things cause sudden apparent gain, like restaurant meals or salty and bulky foods so I simply don't weigh myself on the day after one of those. I weigh about twice a week. If the weight on the scale isn't what I would expect, based on my logging, I'll try again the next day to see if it fits my expectations. If not, I'll adjust my eating to address it. I stopped thinking of my weight as something that needed punishment or celebration, so the scale no longer causes me to celebrate or over-restrict. It's just a way of paying attention instead of letting months or years go by without knowing what is actually happening. Result is I've stayed at a stable weight for the past 10 years.

LifeChangz · April 2023

along the lines of @cmriverside ~ i decided to break the emotional link from the scale - the scale does not define who we are good or bad - or whether we should have good or bad days - it just shows a snapshot of our weight when we step on it.

Instead, i decided to focus on stable eating. as I eat in stable ways, the scale follows. If I can't get my eating going well, no way to lose weight and keep it off, so I decided to focus on that, what I can do. I can focus on food choices, movement choices, and as I do that, then the scale shows the results over time - so, now I just weigh once a week same time. Other times, I put away the scale for months and focus on the actions I can actually do.

i don't think there is a right or wrong answer - the scale is a tool. food calculators are tools. use what helps you move forward into progress

tomcustombuilder · April 2023

Palpatches wrote: »

What are some of the things to say to yourself to overcome fear of being weighed? I can’t make make myself do it! Even if I stick to my plan, and I know I’ll be lighter, I do t like to weigh. I cannot make myself get on the scale if I’ve eaten badly- which is when I need to weigh myself the most! Does anyone else have these tortured thoughts?

If you over eat and also if it was a salty overeat don’t weigh for 3-4 days otherwise you’ll just get depressed and wanting to throw in the towel. It takes a few days for things to settle in.

Extra calories have to be pretty high for a few days to even make a difference on the scale. Even a few bad days can take a week to show up negatively on the scale and vice versa when you are extra low cal for a few days, your body just doesn’t process the changes that fast.

A consistent weekly deficit may take 4 weeks to even show on the scale. If you hate weighing then don’t and just go by the mirror and the way clothes fit.

Palpatches · April 2023

Thank you for all your advice! I definitely feel more relaxed about the issue!

Fear of weighing yourself

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