Confession of a Scale Addict - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

SmallSteps · 02-07-2012, 02:58 PM

I have a confession to make. I am a scale addict. I’m nowhere near as bad as I used to be (weighing several times a day), but the first thing I do when I walk in the door at work (I work in a medical clinic) is weigh myself.

Logically, I know it's not helpful but I do it anyway and am annoyed when I haven't lost weight! Difficult habit to break once you've started though, I'm so eager to see results I'll torture myself with scales!

Any one else addicted to the scale? How did you break your habit?

tlr · 02-07-2012, 03:30 PM

I am and I do not plan to stop.. I know there will be many days of zero weight loss.. Some I will gain... But for me weighing keeps me accountable. I have lost 100 pounds two times.. Gained it all back... Well last summer I lost maybe 40 ish.. I stopped eating on plan.. But Never really gained much back. I stepped on the scale everyday.. I would make choices really depending if I was up any or not.. I am back dieting again.. And for me its just works...

alitorry · 02-07-2012, 03:43 PM

I pretty much am also. I tell myself all the time that I'll do it only every few days. but, do it every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I hope I can hold off too

I'm going to try and resist, then the weight loss will more exciting.. let's try it!! haha.

SmallSteps · 02-07-2012, 03:47 PM

It is so hardddddddd alitorry!!! I don't know what I expect to happen in 24 hours. I keep telling myself I will only do it once a week but I can never follow through!!

linJber · 02-07-2012, 04:05 PM

I weigh just about every morning but can only imagine horrible frustration if I chose to weigh several times a day.

Maybe analyze what you expect to see and that might get to the reasons behind obsessive weighing. It certainly won't hurt you. It just seems like it would be frustrating.

Weighing every day (or weekly - whatever works for you) keeps us "honest," so to speak. I'm all for that. But I don't ever want to be frustrated so I never get on the scale mid day or at night. Though I did weigh myself once at the gym before and after a heavy duty cardio session just out of curiosity. The difference isn't as much as you might think, and it's all sweat, anyway! More frustration.

Just do what works for you. As long as it keeps you on plan.

Lon

SmallSteps · 02-07-2012, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linJber

Maybe analyze what you expect to see and that might get to the reasons behind obsessive weighing. It certainly won't hurt you. It just seems like it would be frustrating.

I am expecting to see that I dropped 70 pounds over night but that never seems to happen!!

Candeka · 02-07-2012, 04:32 PM

I weigh every morning and have a chart hanging next to my scale where I record my weight. The chart is for each month. I like to see what progress I am making and it helps me realize that even if I am up a pound, it is just a fluctuation and not me actually gaining weight.

Before I was not keeping a chart but was still weighing everyday. I would FREAK and become sad ALL DAY if I gained anything compared to the day before. But now since I can see the different increases/decreases, it does not bother me at all to be up .5 one day since I know that the next day I might be down .8 or something.

thistoo · 02-07-2012, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmallSteps

I am expecting to see that I dropped 70 pounds over night but that never seems to happen!!

At least you're honest!

I cured myself of my daily weighing habit once by putting the scale in the closet where it was a pain to schlep back out again (which wouldn't work for you, obviously.) But by not weighing regularly I managed to lie to myself all the way into a 68-pound regain, so now I'm back to daily weighing. Probably forever. I'll take the scale addiction over ever weighing this much again, even when I want to throw it into traffic.

SmallSteps · 02-07-2012, 05:03 PM

I have already thrown my home scale into traffic!! lol! Unfortunately my employer frowns on my distroying expensive electronic equipment!

Arctic Mama · 02-07-2012, 05:15 PM

I weigh every day and don't miss. It's not an issue unless the numbers bother you - keeping my weight tracked every single day has kept me from regaining significant weight the past three years and is incredibly helpful to my losing it, too.

A scale addiction that distracts or distresses you is a problem, but for many of us daily weighing is the solution to years of 'ignoring' our weight and letting the pounds creep on without notice, until one day we woke up 50 pounds overweight!

Underwater · 02-07-2012, 05:44 PM

I weigh every day. I used to weigh just once a week, but I found weighing throughout the week keeps me more accountable to myself. Occasionally I'll skip a day if I ate a lot of salt the day before and don't want to see the water weight gain.

I don't weigh at night. I have a couple of times in the past and it just makes me upset. Of course I should be seeing a gain- I put lots of food and water in my body all day- but for some reason I still feel sad.

Lyla · 02-07-2012, 05:45 PM

Hy, my name is Lyla and i'm a scale addict.
The thing is that i don't want nor trying to stop. I wish i could see a -1kg every day (if happend i will be very worried though hahaha), but for me is the way to stay accountable. I'm on a cyclical keto diet, and is important to me to watch any weight change or weight reaction to certain foods and carbs and calories in vs out.

I weight myself twice a day, morning and night before bed.

linJber · 02-07-2012, 08:13 PM

SmallSteps - you're killing me! I DEFINITELY would stay away from the scale at night if I wanted to see a loss. Every morning makes sense, though, naked.

I didn't keep a chart by the scale, but I did make a string of beads with 100 beads on it - 10 of one color, 10 of another color, etc., so it would be easy to see the 10 pound sections, and pinned it to the curtains right next to where the scale sits. Every Wednesday, I moved beads from right to left indicating a loss. There were 91 beads moved over between January 13th and October 1st. The last nine are on hold, but I can't seem to take the string down. It's a constant reminder of what I did and how I intend to remain. I don't want to ever move a bead back to the right.

Lin

HappyNurse2005 · 02-07-2012, 09:15 PM

I weigh every morning, and I keep the scale in the kitchen. Makes it an easy reminder. I keep track of it in a app on my iphone, and I do like seeing the daily change. AS a previous poster mentioned, it helps to see that gaining a little one day doesn't always mean i'm gaining, but may just be a day to day fluctuation. (not that i like seeing it go up when i do see it!).

Of course, I also tend to weigh throughout the day. I do not freak out if its high, I just get curious. When teh scale was put away, it was easier to not weigh and pretend everything was okay

konfyoozed · 02-07-2012, 09:27 PM

i started out weighing every day. and it was great at first. then eventually when the weight loss slowed down and i wasn't seeing regular drops of a few tenths of a pound, and the small gains more regularly i got so stressed, even though in the end i was still losing weight at a fairly decent rate, that i would often complain to my husband that i didn't see the point of this or that, since the weight wasn't GOING anywhere (it was, just not as quickly as i wanted it to)... eventually i stopped all together, and didn't want to know. i've settled on weighing once a week to see how that goes because my phobia of failing won't let me check every day anymore.