Scale obsession

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  • I started to get serious about weight loss in June of this year. I don't know why I weigh myself everyday but I do. And it's not just one time a day. It's multiple times per day.

    Sometimes I catch myself stepping on the scale before I have a BM and after to just to see how much I let out. Sorry if it's TMI. My friend on the other hand goes way beyond that. She has to look at how much came out before she flushes. This made me laugh because I almost did it but I stopped myself.

    My sister once asked me how much lighter will she be if a booger came out. LOL. Sorry if this is TMI. I just want to know that I'm not the weird one and that I am not the only one surrounded by people who do things just for the scale to fluctuate.

    Anyone else here obsessed with the scale and what have you done that was extreme or just weird?
  • I'm not obsessed but sometimes I'll hop on before and after taking a longgggg pee haha just for the heck of it :P

    Your interest with the scale sounds more like a fascination than an obsession....if you start wondering "how much lighter would i be if i barfed or chopped off my toes" then I would be concerned hehe.
  • I've had that problem on and off for years. The way to break it is to remind yourself that that number means absolutely nothing. How much your weight fluxuates during the day has NOTHING to do with fat loss. You're not trying to lose weight, you're trying to lose fat. Movement in the scale is just a side effect, and it's usually not even that well correlated with fat loss in the short run.

    Also, you're a very small woman, so the scale isn't going to move that much from week to week. 2 pounds a week or even 1 pound a week is an amazing weightloss for so light a featherweight. So the loss from day to day is going to be so small that it will just be frustrating. You just have to remember that losing 1lb in a week off your small body is much more dramatic looking than losing 3-5lbs off a body like mine.

    I've driven myself mad with the scale before, and the only way to regain your sanity is to step away from it. Try hiding it and setting a once-a-week weigh in, or if you can't do that, then just get rid of it. It's dangerous to spend so much time watching the scale because it could lead to quick frustration with your results and more likelihood of giving up, or worse, over obsession with weight loss and eating disorder tendencies. That's something we all have to be very careful to avoid, because it can do as much damage as obesity can.
  • haha! I started a thread a while back for those that are scale obsessed. I don't think a lot of people responded though, lol. I was getting way too chummy with my scal as well. For me, it was not a good thing, because I was letting the number effect my mood and motivation. So I moved the scale to an inconvenient place. I still weight a few times a week, but much better than a few times a day!
  • Quote: I'm not obsessed but sometimes I'll hop on before and after taking a longgggg pee haha just for the heck of it :P

    Your interest with the scale sounds more like a fascination than an obsession....if you start wondering "how much lighter would i be if i barfed or chopped off my toes" then I would be concerned hehe.
    LOL I don't think it will come to that. My sister maybe but as for me I highly doubt that it will.

    The scale doesn't frustrate me when the number fluctuates. I usually go by the weight after I wake up. I just need to break my habit of jumping on it every time I see it.
  • Quote: Also, you're a very small woman, so the scale isn't going to move that much from week to week. 2 pounds a week or even 1 pound a week is an amazing weightloss for so light a featherweight. So the loss from day to day is going to be so small that it will just be frustrating. You just have to remember that losing 1lb in a week off your small body is much more dramatic looking than losing 3-5lbs off a body like mine.
    You're right. The scale doesn't change much from day to day or from every time I step on the scale. My next goal should be to step AWAY from the scale. I may go insane if I have to hide it.
  • Quote:
    Your interest with the scale sounds more like a fascination than an obsession....if you start wondering "how much lighter would i be if i barfed or chopped off my toes" then I would be concerned hehe.
    OMG, this was awesome. Hilarious.

    To the OP: I agree with Celly that it sounds more like fascination...seeing what our bodies do...it's like a science experiment! But, if you start feeling bad when you step on the scale and don't like what you see and you do this multiple times a day, then that isn't necessarily a good thing.
  • Quote: You're right. The scale doesn't change much from day to day or from every time I step on the scale. My next goal should be to step AWAY from the scale. I may go insane if I have to hide it.

    honestly, I think forcing yourself NOT to weigh is giving the scale just as much power as weighing all the time. If you are curious, you weigh - and most importantly - you recognize that it's just a snapshot that happens to catch what your body and all it's contents weighs at a given moment. It doesn't reflect your "true weight" (whatever that is) and it most certainly doesn't reflect your worth as a person.

    For me, demystifying it and giving the scale less power has increased my comfort level with the natural fluctuations we all go through. I don't weigh every day or multiple times a day because I just don't want to - but if I have a week where I feel like it, then that's just fine too.
  • I am just as scale obsessed as you are! I actually ditched the scale for a while and just tried to focus on eating well and working out, but I ended up gaining weight. For me, the scale is a motivator and it keeps me accountable.
  • Quote: haha! I started a thread a while back for those that are scale obsessed. I don't think a lot of people responded though, lol. I was getting way too chummy with my scal as well. For me, it was not a good thing, because I was letting the number effect my mood and motivation. So I moved the scale to an inconvenient place. I still weight a few times a week, but much better than a few times a day!
    it affected mine as well!! so i hid it too! it makes me feel better when i don't have to angst over all the gains. one week i shot up 6 pounds and i couldn't figure out why, and i kept weighing myself every day and the numbers kept going up :/. then i stuffed the scale away and decided that when my body wants to groove, it'll groove.
  • Oh yeah, I am totally the same way. But I agree it is more a science experiment (at least for me). If I am weighing myself at all, I weigh all. the. time. But the times I have to worry is when I don't weigh myself. When I stop weighing is when I start gaining. So I say, as long as you don't put too much stock in the fluctuating numbers throughout the day - have at it.
  • I sometimes weigh myself multiple times a day. Sometimes I'll do it before I go workout to give me the motivation to change that number. It definitely keeps me accountable.

    Call it OCD...but I have to weigh myself 3 times in a row just incase .5 lbs changes...lol...oh well strange strange habits...
  • I've had times that I've been more obsessed than others. I do weigh daily and I've found that that's very essential for my weight loss. Sometimes I'll weigh after a workout or BM just to see. More curiosity than anything else. I also measure myself semi-often too.

    I think it's natural that you want to see progress for all the hardwork that you put into weight loss. Unfortunately, it doesn't always show up immediately so the constant checking doesn't change anything. However, I do think it helps a lot to undrestand your daily fluctuations so you know better when to freak out by a jump in a scale and when not to.
  • Quote: I've had times that I've been more obsessed than others. I do weigh daily and I've found that that's very essential for my weight loss. Sometimes I'll weigh after a workout or BM just to see. More curiosity than anything else. I also measure myself semi-often too.

    I think it's natural that you want to see progress for all the hardwork that you put into weight loss. Unfortunately, it doesn't always show up immediately so the constant checking doesn't change anything. However, I do think it helps a lot to undrestand your daily fluctuations so you know better when to freak out by a jump in a scale and when not to.
    This is exactly why I tend to weigh myself more than once a day. I sometimes think it's funny how much crap can weigh. I don't let the fluctuation of the scale frustrate me though. It serves more as a motivation for me. If I'm gaining I like to know what is causing it or what did I eat that particular day or the day before to cause the gain.
  • I do that, too. I only pay attention to the morning number, and I do weigh in the evenings so I can see how much it changes overnight. Sometimes it changes before I pee-- how does that work? Where does it go in the night?

    It's mostly out of curiosity, but sometimes I do hop on during the day just because it's there. I don't feel like it's causing any problems, and so far (unless it's a big gain or loss), the little fluctuations from day to day don't affect my mood or my eating/exercise habits.