I've been struggling with my weight for years and I finally accepted that the only solution is to keep track of my weight as regularly as possible. Every day after I wake up but before I shower I record my daily weight and enter it into a log. I found a great website for logging weight that keeps track of progress and even tells you how many calories per day you are burning off.
Even if you're not fully in control of your diet, it is a great help to have a clear picture of what's going on. Knowing that continuing at your current rate you will slowly be adding a pound or two every month is an awfully powerful motivator, especially when you consider that skipping out on some butter or switching to diet soda might make all the difference.
I know a lot of people who weigh everyday, but I am not one of them. While I don't discount the value of knowing what you weigh every morning, I know that for some of us, retaining water, eating a salty meal at night, etc etc can really affect the scale in the morning. For myself, those daily fluctuations in weight due to other things besides my actual eating plan can be very depressing. I am glad you have found a way that works for you. Isn't it wonderful that we all seem to find our own way on this journey??
That's the reason that just weighing yourself everyday and not examining the overall trend is a downfall. If you use www.everydaytrend.com, it figures out what the trend is over time, ignoring those daily fluctuations due to water retention and salty foods.
I don't see any reason to ignore reality, after all reality is what you look like when you go to the beach in the summer.
I agree that if I had weighed myself while the weight was creeping in (quit smoking, no diet, no exercise), I MIGHT have caught it (maybe not, my first goal was to quit smoking, weight be damned). However, now that I work out with weights, the scale is a terrible measure of my progess. The tape measure and body fat calipers is the only way for me. I also take my picture in a bathing suit every Monday. I download it to the computer and compare to the last week. This is definitely better than the scale.
Hi I was just browsing and read this...this is interesting, I am more like Elaine, If I weigh myself more than once or twice a week it has more of negative effect than postive, so I aim to weigh in just once or twice. I use fitday.com and dietwatch.com, they have useful tools.
Susan that is soo cool doing that with the pictures, that must be a great motivator.
You are so right! What a great motivator the pictures are. Most people really have no idea what they really look like. I know that when I took my first set of pix (in the beg of March), I wanted to scream and cry. Now I see progress every week or every other week and I'm satisfied.
I take my pix when no ones home, wearing a bathing suit and in the same spot each week. I download to the computer and delete off the camera in short order! However, in a few weeks I think I'll be ready to post them on a web page. Progress is happening! The pictures are definitely a motivation and a good measure of what is really going on. I was even able to tell one week that I was PMSing (my cycles are off so I never know). I looked at the pix and saw where I was bloated and thought "I bet it's just about that time..." and the next day it was true! It's the best measure I've found. Before I had the digital camera I did poloroids through a mirror. A little weird but still accurate.
I've been dieting now for about three months and I step on that scale every day and record it in my journal. It is my reminder first thing every morning that I need to watch what I am eating. I don't get too concerned with the 2 or 3 pound "gains" because I can attest them to what I ate the night before or what time of the month it is. As a matter of fact I know before I step on that scale that I am going to see a bigger number than I want to see. Then there are the mornings like today when I got on and it was less than I anticipated. I also measure myself once a month and really like seeing those numbers decline. I don't have a digital camera but I like the bathing suit picture idea. Those cameras are going to have to get a heck of lot cheaper before I can spring for one though. For now I am just really taking a good look at myself in the mirror once a week and things are looking better there too.
Poloroids (what I started with) are fairly cheap but the film can be expensive (though no processing fees) so it's good to limit the number of pictures. I don't know why the pictures seem to show a whole other story than any other measure. For me, it ws not a pretty one in the beginning (but now is starting to be!).
I have some before and after pics on my home page if you click on it. I weigh in every day too. I keep it on a spreadsheet. When I stop doing that I end up gaining. Or maybe when I know I am going to be gaining -- I stop looking at the scales.
