To Keep Track, or Not to Keep Track...
 

Hi 3FC girlies! :) It's been too long!

I fell off the wagon a number of months ago. I couldn't say why. But, I'm ready to start again.

I have no idea how much I've gained back. I couldn't say if it was 5, 10, 15, or 20lbs. Heck, maybe even more. I'm so curious to know, but unfortunately, somehow, my scale has broken :dizzy:

At this point, I don't want to get another. As curious as I am, I just want to see new numbers right now. I don't want to see the old numbers all over again.

I could measure myself and then estimate my weight off of that. I've recorded a lot of information in different files, so I can compare my current measurements to my old measurements to figure out what my weight is. Do I really want to? I don't know. I'm a bit scared to find out, honestly.

I could rely just on the way my pants fit. Feedback will be much slower. But at least the scale won't be in charge of me.

And calories! Bothering to keep track of those or not is quite a choice in and of itself. I'm leaning towards not keeping track so much this time. I have a good idea now how calorie dense something is, and I can rationalize if that's probably "too much" or not. I think it'd be a nice relief from having charts and graphs and calculators just for calories.

What do you guys think I should do? Weigh in for the sake of accountability, or trust myself?

Has anyone here chosen not to weigh in and relied on the fit of pants to guide you? It's not something I've done before. I'm curious on how well it worked for you.

How about not counting calories?

I weigh myself daily but I don't track calories .... I have all the tools bit I just find that exhausting ....

Since it is working ok without tracking at the moment ... I'll go with that ... but if things don't go as expected I'll go back to tracking .... I do have a fair idea of calories ...

I personally need the weigh in for accountability. I don't want to be a slave to the scale. But I want to know with actual numbers what it is I've done to myself so that I can figure out how to fix it. But it's definitely a personal choice. If you feel that your pants can be a big enough judge for knowing what you need to tweak then I think that's fine. I have a friend recently who did just that. Realized she needed to get back on plan simply because her usual jeans started feeling tight. I don't think she looked at the scale. But I'm the type of person that doesn't think it's as bad as it is if I don't look at the numbers. I've gone round and round with pant sizes that I just don't trust them anymore for me. But that could definitely change if I'm able to lose the same kind of weight that you have. Good for you and Good Luck. :-)

I weigh daily, count calories (sortof) and also keep an eye on how my pants fit. I know lots of people prefer to use the measuring tape because if you're working out and such the scale can stay still whilst you're actually losing inches. I don't use the tape because on any given day depending on how tight or no-so-tight I pull the tape there can be an inch or two in the difference anyway. Pants aren't so open to manipulation!

Are there any things that worked in particular for you the first time round? Or more to the point, didn't work for you at all? Everyone has their own way of doing it and finding what's convenient and works for you is the key I guess.

It's definitely worth the effort to track my calories and do my weigh-ins. When I don't pay attention, my weight creeps up. Oh well, at least I know what works and am no longer hoping and wishing.

I do hope one day I'll find my ideal size that is relatively easy to maintain but I have an appetite that needs to be bossed around a bit. LOL! It's ok though, I can have my cake, I just have to count the calories too.

I track but don't necessarily think I'm a slave to the numbers. I weigh every morning just like I take a shower every morning. If I'm not going to be a slave to my shower then I refuse to be a slave to my scales! ;)

If I were in your situation I would need to measure so I would know where I started but that's me. I also weigh everyday because it's easier for me to manage and accept the ups and downs of weight loss that way. I know many people can't even consider weighing every day without driving themselves crazy over it.

So...that's a long winded way of saying that you need to do what will work for you. If you think that not measuring or tracking will allow you to be successful on your journey, then by all means, give it a shot. If it doesn't seem to be working you can always reassess later on.

you don't need to make a decision that's going to last on this one.

If you don't feel like measuring, then don't.

Possibly once you're in a routine and you know you're losing weight you'll feel like you want a measure of it, and then you can change your mind and start measuring.

The important thing is to get started with whatever changes work for you so that you're feeling good about yourself again soon

I started in June 2011 and never weighed myself at all until the week after Thanksgiving. (I do calorie count, btw. That's how I lost all my weight). That worked out well for me because I wanted to focus on behavior changes rather than the vicissitudes of the scale. I think that doing that contributed to making this the easiest weight loss I've ever experienced. There was no impatience or angst about minor differences in weight loss or gain that I would have had if I had weighed regularly.

Now that I'm trying to figure out my maintenance calories, though, I've been weighing in regularly, and to be honest, it sucks. Yes, it helps me to determine how many calories I can eat to maintain, but the pressure and angst is back, and I sure didn't miss that.

That's my experience FWIW.

I track daily, I weigh daily, (now that I'm in maintenance). I have kept off 190 pounds (for 2.5 years) by keeping track faithfully. I'd never have made it by eyeballing things and trying to "estimate".

I would like to add, when I was losing my weight, I only weighed once a week because daily fluctuations drove me insane. ;)

Hey there, I've recently decided to let go of my scale... at least for a less-than-once-per-week-weigh-in. I find that if I weigh myself every week, I get discouraged super easily and give up.
I do, however, count my calories. I'm trying to keep around 1200... some days I'm as low as 977, some days I'm as high as 1500-1600. One thing I know, is that I really do need to count my calories (and carbs) in order to stay on track... otherwise, I just let go.
I guess you'll just have to see what works for you... although, I'm still working on that, as well! I suppose I'll measure myself, too, I didn't think of that. Thanks! and Good luck!

I would never lose weight by eyeballing (and I can eyeball pretty accurately). I think you need some sort of plan. Not necessarily calorie counting but something.

You have to do what works for you. Did you weigh every day (or weekly) while you were losing? Did you stop weighing and then started to gain? Is that what got you where you are right now? I think you know the answers and have to do what will make it easier for you to get back on board. It's my experience that knowledge is power, so why not arm yourself with the power to knock the pounds back off?

Maybe try to remove the idea of weighing in from the process of losing weight, if that makes any sense. Your weight just a statistic of where you are today. My thin friends tend to weigh themselves often, every week at least, just as a checkpoint. My heavy friends never get on a scale. I fell into that category in the past. I don't feel I'm a slave to the scale. I just want to know where I stand on any given day.

When I was losing, I weighed every day but only counted my weight on Wednesday. For a couple months I joined one of the daily weigh in threads in this forum but it made me anxious to post my weight every day. I stopped posting but continued to weigh. Now that I'm maintaining, I weigh several times a week. Always on Wednesday, though, as it seems that habit won't go away.

As for counting calories - if you know how many calories you're eating without counting, go for it. Again - did you start to gain the weight back when you stopped counting? Your answers might be obvious. Sometimes we are just better at this when we're writing it down.

Good luck - you lost it once, you can lose it again.

Lin

I hate to say it, but your new plan would be a recipe for disaster for me. That is because I can never gauge my weight by how my clothes fit - if they get too tight, I just tell myself that they shrunk. Sometimes that is a lie to myself, sometimes it is true. For instance, I bought a pair of jeans which were loose to begin with. I have since lost about 7 lbs, but those same pair of jeans are tight because they shrunk. Other times, well, the clothes haven't shrunk - I just got bigger. Who is to tell? So, I HAVE to use the scale. Judging by how my clothes fit simply doesn't work and allows me to lie to myself.

Also, when I don't hold myself accountable, I inevitably gain weight, or, at least, don't lose weight. And, believe me, I have gone off the rails many, many times. I "cut back" and try to "eat less" and "exercise more" without a plan. Doesn't work for me to lose, although it has occasionally worked to not gain.

YMMV, but I have found that the old adage is true - fail to plan, plan to fail.

Well I weigh in pretty much every day, but it took me awhile to train myself to not go crazy about the results (and sometimes, I still do!) I only track calories every few days because I just don't have the patience. I eat mostly comparable meals/snacks for probably about 4-5 days at a time, so logging this way has been fine so far. I'm trying to stay low carb so I do also need to double check the carb end of it every few days too. I just loathe tracking and it makes me obsessive and that eventually makes me not want to do it at all.

Everyone has something that works best for them. If that's gauging how your clothes fit, great! You might want to consider measuring, also, but I can completely understand why you would want to deal with the scale as minimally as possible.

I use my pants and not the scale. The fluctuations drove me nuts. As far as pants shrinking or not shrinking, what are odds ALL my pants will shrink at the same time? If all my pants are tight, I am bigger. My real guide is a black pencil skirt, it's dry clean only and not "stretchy" or "shrinky" in any way. When it fits, all is well. When it doesn't fit, I work on losing weight until it zips beautifully.

But, when I want to lose weight or when I am seriously working on maintenance, I always count calories. It keeps portion creep under control.