I weigh myself within 15- 30 minutes of waking up, after going potty, buck naked, on the same tile of my bathroom floor, every single morning. I consider that my official & accurate reading of the day, because any other time (water weight!), any other tile on my floor (my floor is not level) and I will always weigh more, and that specific combination makes me feel better and gives me motivation to keep going. You're not "supposed to" weigh in every day, but I do.. I'm a bit OCD like that, and it helps me keep track of my TOM (by noticing daily water weight increases) since my cycle is not regular.
If I had the opportunity to go to meetings, I would either find a super early meeting so that my weights would nearly match, and then quit weighing myself at home... or go to the later meeting and take it's weight with a grain of salt because water weight adds and removes weight ALL DAY LONG. Personally, I'd be there for the live support, and the reading materials- that is what I'd be willing to pay price for. If your leader is making you share your weight, or talk about it against your wishes, then it sounds like you're in need of a new leader, IMO.
I vote "shopping" for a new leader! Are you a monthly pass member?
I don't know how it works on other payment plans, but I have the monthly pass. I am "allowed" to attend as many meetings a week as I want, but only WI once a week. If your plan is different, than consider privately speaking with the franchise owner or one of the receptionists about how the leader makes you feel uncomfortable at times and you'd like to see how the other leaders work their meetings. If that gets you no where, maybe consider emailing WW about it.
You must remember by the time you get to meeting , not only are you wearing more clothing but you have also eaten several meals. Even a glass of water can make a differance. Your loss is going to be the same. I, personally go by my WI in at home, naked and before eating. The WI at meetings is still valid. You are causing yourselg a lot of unneccessary frustration. Relax, you are still losing.
You're not getting a true reading at your meeting, but you're also not getting a true reading at home. So what? Do you give up because you don't know the exact truth?
Participating in a weight loss support group has been shown to yield better and more permanent results than going alone. Maybe you can do it alone. And if you want to, go ahead and try - but it won't be the accuracy of the scale that will make or break your weight loss.
Let's face it, most of us can do the simple math to compare one scale to another. If your WW weight is 5 lbs more than your nude morning weight, then you just have to subtract those 5 lbs in your head to compare the two weights (and also the weight of the food and water in your body that you've added since the morning weigh in).
You don't have to do any math at all in your head, if you only compare your home weigh-ins to other home weigh-ins and your meeting weigh-ins only to meeting weigh-ins).
My scale weighs me two pounds heavier than my TOPS meeting scale. By coincidence my clothing usually weighs 2 lbs. If a "true reading" mattered, I should be doing far better with weight loss now that I don't have to do that mental math any more. Nope, there's absolutely no difference, because I've always known how to "do the math in my head," and I suspect that you do too (which makes me think that this isn't the real reason you're looking to quit WW).
My leader goes thru everyone and talks about everyones loss/gain and when you havent done well its annoying.
I duno i may leave it for few weeks or stop for few weeks and see how i go i duno what to do.
Omigosh. I've gone to WW meetings off and on for over 20 years and have never ever had this happen. This can't possibly be in accordance with WW guidelines. You should not contact the main office of where you are located and talk to them. I would also change to a different meeting with a different leader. I would not put with that at all. But, please, please report this.
I did use to go to a meeting after work years ago and yes I weighed more when I weighed in than I do in the morning. In that situation I tried to eat similarly on weigh in day and wear similar weight clothes so felt the weigh change was accurate from week to week.
That said, now that I have the schedule to do it I go to a morning meeting and don't eat or drink before I arrive and like that more. If I had to occasionally go to a later meeting I frankly just would skip weigh in that week.
For me, the accountability of weighing in is very important and I get a lot from having that external deadline each week.
You're not getting a true reading at your meeting, but you're also not getting a true reading at home. So what? Do you give up because you don't know the exact truth?
Participating in a weight loss support group has been shown to yield better and more permanent results than going alone. Maybe you can do it alone. And if you want to, go ahead and try - but it won't be the accuracy of the scale that will make or break your weight loss.
Let's face it, most of us can do the simple math to compare one scale to another. If your WW weight is 5 lbs more than your nude morning weight, then you just have to subtract those 5 lbs in your head to compare the two weights (and also the weight of the food and water in your body that you've added since the morning weigh in).
You don't have to do any math at all in your head, if you only compare your home weigh-ins to other home weigh-ins and your meeting weigh-ins only to meeting weigh-ins).
My scale weighs me two pounds heavier than my TOPS meeting scale. By coincidence my clothing usually weighs 2 lbs. If a "true reading" mattered, I should be doing far better with weight loss now that I don't have to do that mental math any more. Nope, there's absolutely no difference, because I've always known how to "do the math in my head," and I suspect that you do too (which makes me think that this isn't the real reason you're looking to quit WW).
im not looking to quit at all just maybe do it online try a different approach. BUT i will not be quitting or coming off the plan at all
im not looking to quit at all just maybe do it online try a different approach. BUT i will not be quitting or coming off the plan at all
I only meant quit the meetings. I got that you intended to do the program on your own, sorry I wasn't more clear. I was just pointing out that many people need the weekly accountability (I discovered that I surely do).
I think a lot more people need that kind of accountability than get it (I think that's why the studies show that more people succeed when they participate in such a group).
As to the going around the room and discussing individual progress, I think that's awesome, and I wish more WW groups did that (but I didn't always think so).
When I first joined a TOPS group I was extremely upset that there was more accountability than in Weight Watchers. In my first TOPS groups, we all went around and said whether we gained, lost, or "turtled" (stayed the same). When anyone gained we said "Glad you came," and when we lost or turtled, everyone would applaud.
I hated that at first, because it put a person on the spot, if they had a gain (and I always gained around TOM). In Weight Watchers meetings I had never seen that happen (and at the time I thought it was a good thing. Now I don't). When I was in WW, your gains and even your losses were private unless you had an impressive loss. Only the top losers and milestone reachers were ever applauded.
When I first joined TOPS, I hated it. If I had had the money to rejoin WW, I would have (but TOPS was 1/10 the cost of Weight Watchers and I couldn't afford WW at the time).
My current TOPS groups goes a step further and we actually share how much weight we've gained or lost. If I had joined this kind of group on the heels of WW, I would have run for the hills - no way on earth was I telling strangers not only that I gained, but how much I gained. That was too humiliating.
But now, I really am sad for WW members, because most Weight Watchers members don't usually get this very special kind of support. It isn't about having to admit that you gained, it's about seeing that it is normal to have gains - and it's good to have everyone acknowledge this and support the person anyway. It is teaching us that having a gain isn't a tragedy or a humiliation, it's a perfectly normal part of the process. And people need to know that, because right now it's not nearly the common knowledge that it needs to be.
I thought I "knew it" until I joined my current TOPS group. While other TOPS groups all list net gains and losses (how many people gained, how many people lost, and how many people say the same), the knowledge didn't really sink in as to how many people gained or lost. If the group has a group gain of 10 lbs, for all I knew those 10 lbs could have been one or two people's gains.
I didn't know how rare a month without a gain was until I came to this group. We have a monthly contest in which the people who do not have a gain split $10. Out of 25 people usually the money is split by 2 or 3 people. That means that 90 of the group has at least 1/4 lb gain every month.
And it isn't that we have a lazy group. Our chapter has won state recognition for best losses in the state.
That's knowledge that is really important to have. Being able to discuss gains as well as losses, and seeing how normal both are in this journey is a remarkable gift I would never have experienced, if I had never been in a group that required such openness.
Now I believe that hiding and allowing the hiding of less than stellar progress is not helpful. I think it leaves many people thinking that they're doing poorly when they're actually doing quite well overall. I can't tell you how many times I quit Weight Watchers because I thought I was doing so poorly in comparison to everyone else - I had no idea that my experience was entirely typical. Because in WW groups I attended, we were never told about the gains, only the net loss. We never heard (unless someone spontaneously confessed) of any of the gains. I never realized it was so typical, that there were a lot of people exactly like me, because we never talked about that. We never talked about the people who gained as often as they lost during a month, but were still losing quite well because their losses were bigger than their gains. At best a leader would say "it's normal to gain occasionally," but we never talked about how often "occasionally" could be or how often was typical and normal.
I think it leaves a lot of very normal people feeling like freaks, and a lot of successful people feeling like failures.
Thanks for posting, Kaplods. It's good to see how from another perspective it's not a shaming mechanism, but a sharing mechanism. And I appreciate that.
It's also good to be reminded (at any time) that weight gains, and maintain weeks are not only incredibly normal, but they're to be expected along the journey... sometimes at regular intervals!
This is very off topic (so please forgive me), but it reminded me of this lady who went to meetings with my mother. Now, she was doing fantastically and speeding along well. She ended up losing just about 100 pounds to reach her goal... but there were two weeks where she left the meetings bawling her eyes out, because she'd gained .2. Point. Two. Her weight loss was not typical, of course, but she couldn't even handle that out of all her losses, she basically maintained for two weeks. I feel really bad for that type of mentality.
It certainly makes me happy to be a part of 3FC where we can vent the frustrations, but at the same time recognize that everything we go through is normal and is a step towards reaching our goals.
I can't imagine crying over gaining .2 for one week out of 52 weeks, and it's members of 3FC who keep my head where it needs to be!
If you can't handle the normal weight fluctuations through the day, don't weigh at home. Such goings on over something normal. You weigh the same time at the meeting every week so you'd loose the same as what you did at home. If you started at the same meeting, obviously you weighed more than you had that morning at home.
I only meant quit the meetings. I got that you intended to do the program on your own, sorry I wasn't more clear. I was just pointing out that many people need the weekly accountability (I discovered that I surely do).
I think a lot more people need that kind of accountability than get it (I think that's why the studies show that more people succeed when they participate in such a group).
As to the going around the room and discussing individual progress, I think that's awesome, and I wish more WW groups did that (but I didn't always think so).
When I first joined a TOPS group I was extremely upset that there was more accountability than in Weight Watchers. In my first TOPS groups, we all went around and said whether we gained, lost, or "turtled" (stayed the same). When anyone gained we said "Glad you came," and when we lost or turtled, everyone would applaud.
I hated that at first, because it put a person on the spot, if they had a gain (and I always gained around TOM). In Weight Watchers meetings I had never seen that happen (and at the time I thought it was a good thing. Now I don't). When I was in WW, your gains and even your losses were private unless you had an impressive loss. Only the top losers and milestone reachers were ever applauded.
When I first joined TOPS, I hated it. If I had had the money to rejoin WW, I would have (but TOPS was 1/10 the cost of Weight Watchers and I couldn't afford WW at the time).
My current TOPS groups goes a step further and we actually share how much weight we've gained or lost. If I had joined this kind of group on the heels of WW, I would have run for the hills - no way on earth was I telling strangers not only that I gained, but how much I gained. That was too humiliating.
But now, I really am sad for WW members, because most Weight Watchers members don't usually get this very special kind of support. It isn't about having to admit that you gained, it's about seeing that it is normal to have gains - and it's good to have everyone acknowledge this and support the person anyway. It is teaching us that having a gain isn't a tragedy or a humiliation, it's a perfectly normal part of the process. And people need to know that, because right now it's not nearly the common knowledge that it needs to be.
I thought I "knew it" until I joined this group. While other TOPS groups all list net gains and losses (how many people gained, how many people lost, and how many people say the same), the knowledge didn't really sink in as to how many people gained or lost. If the group has a group gain of 10 lbs, for all I knew those 10 lbs could have been one or two people's gains.
I didn't know how rare a month without a gain was until I came to this group. We have a monthly contest in which the people who do not have a gain split $10. Out of 25 people usually the money is split by 2 or 3 people. That means that 90 of the group has at least 1/4 lb gain every month.
And it isn't that we have a lazy group. Our chapter has won state recognition for best losses in the state.
That's knowledge that is really important to have. Being able to discuss gains as well as losses, and seeing how normal both are in this journey is a remarkable gift I would never have, if I had never been in a group that required such openness.
Now I believe that hiding and allowing the hiding of less than stellar progress is not helpful. I think it leaves many people thinking that they're doing poorly when they're actually doing quite well overall. I can't tell you how many times I quit Weight Watchers because I thought I was doing so poorly in comparison to everyone else - I had no idea that my experience was entirely typical. Because in WW groups I attended, we were never told about the gains, only the net loss. We never heard (unless someone spontaneously confessed) of any of the gains. I never realized it was so typical, that there were a lot of people exactly like me, because we never talked about that. We never talked about the people who gained as often as they lost during a month, but were still losing quite well because their losses were bigger than their gains. At best a leader would say "it's normal to gain occasionally," but we never talked about how often "occasionally" could be or how often was typical and normal.
I think it leaves a lot of very normal people feeling like freaks, and a lot of successful people feeling like failures.
Yeah i suppose you have a point when you look at things like that , when weight loss is slow and showing different at different times of day it becomes terribly frustrating.
I have decided i am going to continue with my meetings for the time being anyway , and see what happens may just be a blip , as now im on plan and have been going to the gym for 3 weeks now im hoping by few more weeks in to this my body may have balanced out and may see a more steady weightloss instead of being up and down so much.
oh and just in case ove caused confusion my normal meetings are at 10am but past few weeks ive had to weigh in the evening. So may have caused alot of my frustration, back to my mornings now tho x
TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly) is a not-for-profit weight loss organization. You can find local chapters in your area by checking the tops.org website.
The early history of TOPS and Weight Watchers are extremely similar (TOPS being founded in 1948 by homemaker, Esther Manz, and Weight Watchers founded in1963 by Jean Nidetch of Brooklyn).
The main difference initially was that TOPS stayed a non-profit organization, and Weight Watchers became a business, and that TOPS allows members to choose their food plan, though meeting programs stress healthy eating. Also, the programs are chosen and conducted by participants. In some chapters the leaders usually lead the program. In our group the leader asks for volunteers at the start of each month. So far (in about 8 months) I've done programs twice in my current group once on whole grains (I brought in little baggies of about a dozen different types of grains - quinoa, brown rice, black jasmine rice, millet, amaranth, wild rice, wheat berries, rye berries...), and once on how to grow your own salad sprouts.
TOPS National Headquarters are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and there are chapters spread mostly throughout the United Stated and Canada (but there are also groups scattered throughout other parts of the world too).
Anyone can form a new chapter as long as there are at least four members. Chapters have to follow National Guidelines, but are otherwise democratically self-governing.
Members can follow any food plan they wish to, and they can be members of other Weight loss programs including Weight Watchers (In the past you could join and participate in TOPS, but you couldn't compete in contests or get recognition in the newsletter or at TOPS rallies and recognition days if you were a member of another weight loss organization or if you had lost your weight with the assistance of medications, liquid diets or weight loss surgery. That's no longer true, and Weight Loss surgery patients compete in their own category).
To join, everyone must pay $26 (I believe that's still the weight) for national dues. It includes a mostly monthly magazine (10 issues a year, I believe) newsletter with inspiring stories, articles, recipes, and information about conferences, retreats, and other events.
Then each chapter (by a vote at least once per per year) sets their own rules and monthly dues (It's rare for the montly dues to exceed $5 per month. In my area the dues for the various chapters range from $2 to $5 a month and most of the clubs have ways to earn free monthly dues or other small amounts of cash with weight loss).
Goal weights are determined by members with their doctor, so before reaching KOPS status a person needs a note signed by their doctor stating their goal weight. When a person reaches goal and maintains (6 weeks, I think) he or she becomes a KOPS (keeping off pounds sensibly) and in most groups I've been in, KOPS receive free or discounted monthly dues as long as they weigh in once a month and stay within leeway (I forget the range, but it's within a couple pounds over and a few pounds under goal weight). So it's similar in some respects to WW lifetime membership, except they still have to pay national dues (many clubs will pay for KOPS members national dues also, from their treasuries).
There is a book of charms and pins available (dangling charms, square linking charms for charm bracelets or pins)... Some clubs use these pins and charms as weight loss and acheivement markers. For example, in the past I have been in groups in which the club used their treasury money to buy charms for members for every 10 lbs of weight loss. I've also been in clubs in which the charms were optional purchases for members ($3 - $5 each).
Most chapters run contests where members can win small amounts of money or prizes for weight loss, exercise acheivements, submitting food logs...
And many chapters charge fines for weight loss (in my group it's 10 cents per pound. I've been in groups that charged a quarter no matter how much you gained).
Most chapters give a weekly best loser prize. In may groups the biggest loser prize money is all or part of the fine money that week - but our group didn't want someone benefiting from the misfortune of other members so fine money goes into the treasury and everyone contributes to the "dime contest" by chipping in a dime and the best loser takes home all the dimes. You can opt out of the dime contest all together, but you can only win the prize if you've been contributing, so most people do play.
That about covers it (probably more than anyone wanted or needed to know).
That was always the hard part were the meeting times when I was a weight watcher I had to go to evening meetings as I worked during the day and didn't own a car so I was stuck with limited meeting locations. I would weight myself at home and I swore when I WI at the meeting it would only be .5 down. It was frustrating.
