Something strange is happening ...
I weight myself on a weekly basis to keep track of my weight loss. But I also weight myself in between. Every other day, sometimes for days in a row. Just to see, what if something dramatically changed? (which it does not, obviously).
I never really saw this as a problem. Until now, or until Tuesday I should say.
On Tuesday morning I decide to step on the scale after waking up. Blank. I tried to reset it, but nothing; the battery is dead. Now this thing uses a lithium battery that I can get at a local pharmacy, it's not a problem, it just happens to slip my mind. The problem is, now that I don't have batteries in the darn scale, I cannot stop thinking about how much I must weight. I'm so scared I'm gaining weight and there's nothing I can do about it because I can't know if my weight is changing. This is nuts!! I never thought I was addicted to weighing myself before...!
Is this a common thing for people who are trying to lose weight or is this not healthy...? I'm thinking it is both, but really I feel so weird constantly finding myself speculating about my weight since Tuesday morning.
I record my weight morning and night. I also weigh myself at random times during the day. It's probably nurotic and overkill, but it keeps me sane and on track. I need do think about my weight all the time to keep my goal in mind. I figure if this is the way it is then so be it.
Go buy a battery and weigh yourself. You're not going to hurt anything!!
Maybe it's different for different people. The fact that you are cognizant of what may become problematic is good, I'd say. I was bulimic for so many years that I feel a scale is just a bad idea for me. I need to take everything in stride because I need to do everything I can to never purge again. I believe I could easily become obsessive about it and I'd rather focus on being a mentally well person.
I've just re-read that and I really hope you know I, in NO WAY think that you are mentally unwell. I was referring to myself and the bulimia. Wow. I am really a terrible writer.
At the beginning of my weight loss journey, I underestimated the draw of the scale.
I thought, I'll never be one of those chicks that HAS to weigh five times a day and become frustrated with what they see. As it is, I don't HAVE to weigh myself, but if I lay eyes on a scale I rub my chin and can't help but wonder, what will it say this time?
I usually weigh myself once a day+, but it's because I see the scale and have that little thought. If I was to put it up (at the moment it has no correct place, so it's right in front of the bathroom walkway like a calling card) I'm sure I'd weigh maybe two or three times a week, at most.
I have gone a week or so before, multiple times, without weighing though, so I know I'm not crazy about it. Out of sight, out of mind. At least for the scale and I.
I think that if I ever got to the point where my day was effected by the ups and downs that one gets daily on a scale, I would have to put it up. Fortunately, that hasn't happened for me, so I'd like to think I'm in the "balanced" range of how often I weigh in.
Last edited by birdtostone; 10-08-2010 at 12:01 AM.
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I've become pretty obsessive with the scale too. I take my weight three times a day sometimes more. I did not always do this, in the begining of my weight loss I would only weigh myself once a month but now that I am closer to my goal I just want to see the numbers go down. So I have been restraining myself to once a week.
Weighing myself just became a habit for me that I am now slowly deprogramming myself from doing as often.
-Do whatever you need to do to keep yourself on track as long as it does not affect your saftey and sanity.
Last edited by WinterJinx; 10-08-2010 at 12:36 AM.
I'm going to attempt to do this without ever weighing myself. I once read a scale is just a lie detector test anyway. If you are doing what you are supposed to eventually you will lose weight right? I've found in the past the scale would make me binge no matter what it was doing. Lose, go up, or stay the same. I'm really trying to focus on the process and trust that it will take me to the goal.
lol it's really hard to resist that scale though. Maybe I should move it out of the bathroom.
I'm going to attempt to do this without ever weighing myself. I once read a scale is just a lie detector test anyway. If you are doing what you are supposed to eventually you will lose weight right? I've found in the past the scale would make me binge no matter what it was doing. Lose, go up, or stay the same. I'm really trying to focus on the process and trust that it will take me to the goal.
kinda, but it can tell you the truth if you are doing the right thing. if you aren't losing within a few weeks you can reevaluate if you really are doing the right things or if you need to adjust somewhere. you don't want to be fooling yourself either.
I weigh every day, sometimes every other day or several times a day... just interesting to see how much I gain after breakfast and lunch, if I lose water weight after sweating, after drinking water, etc...
glad im not alone. im so addicted, that when my scale died, i started sneaking into my moms room in the middle of the night and weighing myself in the dark. i cant do that though cause she wakes up now.
dont want to get busted!
but maybe if she moves it into the gym room ill get back to my morning and night routine.
Now this thing uses a lithium battery that I can get at a local pharmacy, it's not a problem, it just happens to slip my mind.
I think this quote shows you're not overly obsessed. If you were, you would have gotten dressed at 5 am and driven to the pharmacy and banged on the doors screaming "OPEN UP AND GIVE ME MY SCALE BATTERY!!!"
I think it's normal to be curious. Plus, weighing yourself has become a habit, part of your routine. If you skipped some other part of your routine, you'd feel thrown off as well.
I was somewhat tempted to bring my scale on vacation this summer (beach house rental). Mostly because I knew I'd be indulging, so I thought it would keep me in line. Decided that was just too obsessive!
I weigh myself once a day in the morning and I also sometimes weigh myself at night even though I know I will be up from eating and drinking all day. I cant help myself... But it makes me feel like I am staying on track if I do check... I actually put a weight chart in front of my scale so I can write everything down, haha.
I find myself weighing myself anytime I walk by the scale. I know it's wrong but I like to see how much my weight fluctuates to see if i'm drinking enough water and sometimes I do drop a pound randomly during the day. XD
I find myself weighing myself anytime I walk by the scale. I know it's wrong
No it really isn't wrong, as long as you don't see any harm in it.
For decades, I believed all the common wisdom dieting dogma that argued that weighing more than once a month was "wrong," or was harmful in some way.
Turns out that's complete hooey. A recent study of 12 other studies found either no difference (one study) or that participants weighing daily or more often (one diet had participants weigh themselves 4 times a day) lost more weight and maintained longer than dieters who weighed themselves less often.
It's only "wrong" (and even then it's not wrong, just not right for you) if you find it harmful in some way.
I now weigh daily or even several times a day, and it's been AWESOME. None of the "bad things" that the common wisdom predicted have happened. It doesn't demotivate me (quite the opposite). It doesn't affect my self-worth or self-esteem (in fact it helped me truly learn that I am not a number - I learned to understand the fluctuations). It doesn't make me more anxious or obsessive (I think about my weight less than I did when I only weighed weekly). I spend a lot less time thinking about my weight now that I've given myself permission to use the scale whenever I want to.
The scale is a tool, and as long as it's doing it's job, and not doing harm, there's no "wrong way" to use it.
Add my voice to the chorus of "nothing wrong with weighing" - there is nothing wrong with weighing provided you don't over-interpret the results and let them get you down.
Which is to say, if you expect and understand the fluctuations you will inevitably see, and don't let them panic you or derail you from your long-term plans, it can be an interesting exercise to observe your body's patterns of weight retention and loss on a very granular time scale.
You can measure your weight several times a day as long as you bear in mind that the products of your weight loss efforts are not observable on that time scale - real loss only builds up enough to emerge from the fluctuations over a time scale of several weeks or months.
Addicited to the scale...??
