How do you stay off the scale? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

HadEnough · 03-31-2006, 09:05 PM

I can not stay off it. I am so obsessed with that # that I have to weigh every morning. God help me! I want to be able to only weigh once a week, but I can't. Any suggestions, short of throwing it out or having someone hide it. Hubby is also a daily weigher so hiding it really is not an option. Help me get strong!

LLV · 03-31-2006, 09:10 PM

Pick it up. Put it in a closet. Leave it there for 7 days.

I used to weigh myself every day too. But I became such a 'slave' to the scale that I got sick of it. So one day I picked it up and carried it to the closet and put it away and told myself no more until next week. And the 'weight' off my shoulders was wonderful.

And really, it's kinda pointless to weigh yourself every day because there will be so many fluctuations that they can become very discouraging.

Once a week. That's it. And now that I'm getting closer to goal and the weight loss is moving much slower, I only weigh myself once or twice a month.

veggielover · 03-31-2006, 09:13 PM

I DON'T EVER WEIGH MYSELF! thats why i haven't changed my ticker for a while... Don't let it "weigh" you down... its just a number and if you feel positive about yourself, thats progress already.

Glory87 · 03-31-2006, 09:27 PM

I used to weigh myself everyday, sometimes multiple times a day and my emotions were like a roller coaster. If my weight was down, I felt GREAT, if my weight went up, I felt like a failure and a loser. I felt like I was working so hard, I might as well give up.

This time, I told myself I could weigh myself once a week, on Sundays. Same time every week. Get up, pee, strip, weigh.

I was MUCH happier only weighing once a week! Weight just fluctuates too much.

Optical Goddess · 04-02-2006, 11:37 AM

I also weigh myself daily and I am not happy about it. If I have to kick the heck out of the scale for it to say what I want when I am looking at it from a funny angle..it's not happenin;.

What I wonder is if our weight fluctuates all the time, how does weighing once a week make a difference? Wouldn't the fluctuations be there on our weigh in day as well?

Misti in Seattle · 04-02-2006, 11:59 AM

I don't stay off of it! I tried forcing myself to weigh in just once a week but I want to know!!! So every morning at work I go into our weight room and weigh myself on the professional scale. I know a lot of people think this should not be done... OTOH I just read a thread somewhere and I think it was here at 3FC... that said daily weighers are overall more successful. It is an individual thing.... some people it helps; some it discourages. So personally I say if you want to weigh every morning, go for it; if it will get you down... especially if you see a pound or two gain which you WILL at times... hide the thing LOL

BeatlesFan · 04-02-2006, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Misti in Seattle

I don't stay off of it! I tried forcing myself to weigh in just once a week but I want to know!!! So every morning at work I go into our weight room and weigh myself on the professional scale. I know a lot of people think this should not be done... OTOH I just read a thread somewhere and I think it was here at 3FC... that said daily weighers are overall more successful. It is an individual thing.... some people it helps; some it discourages. So personally I say if you want to weigh every morning, go for it; if it will get you down... especially if you see a pound or two gain which you WILL at times... hide the thing LOL

I don't stay off the scale either Misti. I weigh myself every day. I remember reading the info about weighing in daily being beneficial. It's definitely beneficial to me. It helps me to stay focused, and it allows me to see how far I've come. I can see how it could possibly be discouraging to others though.

Misti in Seattle · 04-02-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeatlesFan

It helps me to stay focused, and it allows me to see how far I've come. I can see how it could possibly be discouraging to others though.

Exactly! So we need to figure out what works best for US and stick with it. However, I should have "caught" in my first post on this that the original question WAS from someone who is "going crazy" with it and feeling obsessed with the urge to weigh... and that of course Cheryl is very wise to try to find a solution to!!! We all have our struggles in the battle; they are just different ones for some of us than others.

Glory87 · 04-02-2006, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optical Goddess

I also weigh myself daily and I am not happy about it. If I have to kick the heck out of the scale for it to say what I want when I am looking at it from a funny angle..it's not happenin;.

What I wonder is if our weight fluctuates all the time, how does weighing once a week make a difference? Wouldn't the fluctuations be there on our weigh in day as well?

It wasn't just that I weighed once a week, it was that I weighed once a week in the exact same circumstances. Right after I got up, no clothes. Less chances for variables (like drinking a glass of water, eating a bunch of salty foods that day, etc). If I weigh myself several times during a day, the weight is probably going to be different every time I weigh, just depending on what I'm doing that day.

lumifan4ever · 04-02-2006, 12:45 PM

i tried weighing in just once a week too, but the thought was always there. i just want to know. so i weigh in every morning. and it if is up a pound from the day before, it doesn't really matter to me. i am rational enough to know it could be water weight or food still in my system if i had a big dinner the night before, or if i had a really hard cardio class the night before. and i hate weighing in at TOM but i do it anyways. one thing i always think about is this.....even on the days where i am retaining anywhere up to 4 pounds of water, it is still lower than my actual weight of the month before. i know I am losing about 4-5 pounds a month, and that keeps me going. i don't get upset if the number goes up because i know i did not eat a pound worth of calories and not burn off just as many the day before. i probably had more salt than the day before.

just don't let the numbers drag you down. take your average of the week. not the highest number of the week, because it will probably be wrong. you just have to really learn what your body is doing, and i learned it by weighing every day and writing it on my calendar every day. that's how i know i will also be down a pound by my weight in day on friday. it was taking me about 6-7 days to drop a pound. that's why i was surprized last week when i dropped 2 pounds within 3 days of each other. (a total of 2 pounds last week.)

ashliebelle · 04-02-2006, 12:51 PM

I'm a daily weigher too. I actually know that I'm in danger of falling off the wagon when I don't weigh myself for a few days straight, becuase it's usually to keep myself from seeing the pounds creep on after a few days of indulging. Like, if I don't see the numbers go up, then they're not really going up lol.

I agree that we're all different in how we weigh ourselves, and we need to find what's best for us and what keeps us most sane. Good luck to everyone!

dalai_lala · 04-02-2006, 02:22 PM

If you can manage to not work yourself up into a frenzy over every upward movement, weighing every day can work. But if your self esteem is very linked to that number for the day, then you are better off hiding it (at least from yourself... let hubby hide it where it's convenient for him).

I weigh every day, as soon as I get up (restroom, naked, etc) and that's it. I put it down on my spreadsheet, and it's just a number. The spreadsheet turns it into a little line graph for me, which is a big help, because over time I can see the "needle" move up and down day by day, but gradually down, down, down, over the course of the month. I also journal every bite that I eat, and I can often see a correlation between the two charts - it has taught me a lot about eating. For instance, I know that if I indulge in Chinese takeout on Friday night I am definitely going to see a 2 or 3 pound spike on either Saturday or Sunday morning. But that's okay, I know it's coming and I know why it happens. So, I stay on the elliptical a little longer and drink a couple extra glasses of water to counter the high sodium intake. By Monday I'm on my way back down again.

But that's me... you definitely have to do what works for YOU....

Good luck!
-Lala

jillybean720 · 04-02-2006, 02:43 PM

I weigh myself every day, too. I just don't let the normal daily fluctuations bother me. I know if I had more sodium the day before, the scale will probably be up a bit, but it's not actually FAT, just a number on the scale that tells me I'm retaining a little more water than usual.

One thing I used to do and got the idea to do from an article way back when was to write down your weight every day and then take an AVERAGE for the week (or month or however you want to do it). That way, even though you'll only seem to be bouncing around the same couple pounds for weeks at a time, you'll see that your averages are getting lower because you'll spend more days on the lower side of the range. I hope that makes sense

I still weigh every day, but I don't keep track of what it sayd other thanin my head. Since I joined TOPS, I just use my Thursday weigh-ins as my "official" weight for the week (since that's when my TOPS meetings are).

Oh, and to answer the question, "What I wonder is if our weight fluctuates all the time, how does weighing once a week make a difference? Wouldn't the fluctuations be there on our weigh in day as well?"
Yes, the fluctuations will still be there, but by waiting longer between weigh-ins, you allow time to see an actual drop in weight. If I weigh today at 200 pounds and tomorrow at 198, that is fluctuations--no, you can't lose 2 real pounds of fat in a day. But if you weigh in at 200 pounds today and 198 a week from now, then it's more likely to be true because you CAN lose 2 pounds in a week. And, as Misti mentioned, make sure you always weigh yourself under the same conditions--no good using different clothes, shoes, wet hair, or whatever as an excuse

Also, the longer you wait between weigh-ins, the better to see the progress because you won't just be seeing little .25-pound fluctuations every day--you'll see much more solid results. By weighing every day, you might see 200, 201.25, 200.5, 198.5, 199, 198.75, 198--for many, it's better to just see that 200 and then the next week 198 without all the roller coaster in between

MrsMoby · 04-02-2006, 03:43 PM

I also weigh in once a day and find it helps to let me know which foods (in the past day or two) have made me retain water (beef!) or if I haven't been drinking enough water or if it's TOM or whatever. I don't let the number determine my mindset for the day or anything (although I used to) but use it to stay on track daily. I'm losing steadily so I know that a pound here or there on the scale from one day to the next really doesn't mean that much. I do "officially' weigh in" every Friday though and use that for the week.

Optical Goddess · 04-02-2006, 04:02 PM

thank you so much for answering my question about weight fluctuations. It makes perfect sense to me now, and I thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.