Hi everyone! I'm new here, but have been thoroughly enjoying reading your collective wisdom and insights.

I have been actively/purposefully losing weight since June, and have no clue how much I've lost. (I have no plans to weigh myself unless I need to for medical reasons.) I know it's a significant amount, in the region of 100lbs, because of how different I look and how much smaller I am, but no concrete numbers.

I have come to realise that I'm kind of an aberration in this regard - everyone seems to focus on the numbers on the scales, and I wonder if anyone else manages to successfully lose and maintain weight loss without weighing themselves? Thanks!

Absolutely! Good for you!

I do weigh myself but only once a month. Eventually I'd like to get to a point where I am so focused on living my life rather than dealing with body issues that I only weigh myself at the doctors. In fact this is so difficult for me that I make my husband hide the scale and only give it to me once a month.

Weighing myself a lot makes me miserable. No matter what the number on the scale says it affects me in a negative way. If I don't see a loss I feel like a failure. If I see a loss it puts me into overdrive to lose more. If the number stays the same I feel stagnant. Either way I end up judging myself and I am so done with judging myself! As if I need to be held accountable to a little box on the floor! I'm not a child, I don't need a daily dose of punishment or conversely a dose of pride to do what I need to do which is live my life and keep on keeping on.

Raisin5Cookies, congratulations on doing such a good job of losing without weighing. That is amazing! But you can tell by your clothes and how you feel when you've lost.

I have a tendency to only weigh myself if I feel as if I've lost, then when I get it in my mind that I'd better get busy and get back to losing, I weigh myself to see how much damage I've done.

There are so many people who don't even own a scale and never think to weigh themselves. They only get weighed if they go to the doctor. Those people always amaze me. I have owned one scale or another from the time I was 18 years old. Trust, me, that's a long time ago!!! It was always important to me to know how much I weighed.

Palestrina - you are awesome for being self aware enough to know you don't need that punishment/pride cycle. It can be difficult to notice our own patterns, can't it!

Wannabe - it sounds like you have a good balance going (haha!).

I grew up watching my mother battle EDs of one sort or another, and resolved to not get caught up in that. As a result, I sort of ignored my own appearance and let my sugar binges take over. I think that if I'd been weighing myself periodically over the last 13 years of pregnancies & babies, I might not have gotten so heavy to begin with. But hey-ho, looking back is not going to help matters. The last time I was weighed was when I was 21 weeks pregnant and they calculated my BMI on that number! Mental! I completely ignored that number even though it was rather high...!!

I have four daughters and am determined to be an example of a woman without any food issues. We shall see.

I don't weigh myself either. At first, because I was afraid to look at the number after living in urgent mode for one particular year. I don't want to get on the scale and feel jubilant that that year didn't "count" if I lost. I don't want to feel dejected if I'm the same. And I don't want to be mad at myself if I'm, say, 220 instead of 190 (the last time I looked). I'm still a size 14, but would love to get down to my habitual size of old, a 12. In my hay day I was a 10. My shirts are now L instead of XL, so who knows??

weighed myself today after one month of not looking and it didnt budge... im about to quit..

Inkrid, it's tough to only go by sizing, because I firmly believe vanity sizing is a reality and sizes have changed substantially in only the past 10-15 years. I am about the same size as I was pre-children (I used to write down all my measurements in my pregnancy journal!) and my rings now fit again at last, but I am almost a size and a half lower than I was back then. That's ridiculous, imo.

Carbie, I'm sorry you are feeling disappointed. I can understand that - it's hard to not have evidence of your efforts. Have you noticed any NSVs? Health improvements? Mental blocks about food reduced/removed, etc?

I want to weigh myself like every day , but I know that's not a good idea ...so I try to keep it to only every Saturday ...however I would like to not do it for a month and see what happens ...if only I could hold out lol

Congrats on your loss Raisin !!

Carri

This is something I've tried and failed out. However, for me it has been a good thing. Thankfully, unlike many, daily weighing does not cause me any emotion issues. It's been really helpful to keep myself in check. I also measure about once a month. I will likely continue with the daily weighing for the rest of my life. It works for me now, while losing, and I've read it is a vital tool for maintainers.

However, it is EXCELLENT that you are able to lose weight without the scale! Bravo and well done on your amazing loss so far!

I've tried this for about 6 months after maintaining a few years, and I ended up gaining weight. A lot of weight. I'm so glad everyone's able to do what works for them!

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So I weigh almost daily. I too focus of other measurements as primary. Interestingly enough, when my pants start to get too tight, it's way too easy for me to go into denial, but there's no denying the #s day after day.

I understand my weight will go up and down, and it has no impact on me emotionally. I find it interesting and useful actually! I know if I eat out, it'll be up a couple days, or at certain points in my cycle etc. it's just useful info to get to know my body better and pretty interesting to see the downward trend, or allows me to correct things if there's an upward trend. I think the main reason is it's too easy for me to not think about my weight or what I'm eating. Weighing daily helps remind me. If I were to weigh myself once a month, sometimes I wouldn't see the fluctuations that happen, and might get frustrated, thinking that I stayed the same, when instead, it's just temporary water weight from ovulating of because of something I ate

I am expecting that my 16:8 intermittent fasting, coupled with no sugar and processed foods will keep me on track long term. I am open to changing things if necessary, though! Maybe I won't feel so trigger-y when I reach my nebulous goal.

Thanks for the congrats.

I used to weigh myself daily and it did work for me...until it didn't. As long as I was losing, seeing the numbers go down and down just motivated me--however as soon as I had a slip up or just natural fluctuations it just depressed me, led to emotional eating. I was focused too much on the number.

However, I still find it beneficial to weigh myself periodically just to make sure I'm on the right track. One of my mistakes in the past was not glancing at my weight now and then once I reached my goal weight. Often I would start sliding back to my old habits and back into my old clothes so I could somehow mentally fool myself that I wasn't gaining the weight back.

In any case, while cleaning my closet this weekend, I dropped a heavy box on my scale and cracked it clean in half. I think I will not replace it now. I can check my weight monthly at the gym and various dr. appts, etc. I have enough to lose that my weight goes down pretty quick at first.

When I'm really on the ball, I weigh every week. Otherwise I weigh every so often (maybe 6 weeks or so) and I always just maintain +/- 2lbs.

I find if I don't monitor my weight I tend to gain. The weight can really creep up on me and if I don't keep a check on it I tend to ignore it or deny the gain. So I weigh at least weekly or more. I never want to gain the weight back that I have lost so I feel more comfortable weighing in so I can monitor it.

Personally, I weigh in each morning. It's just how I keep my own accountability going. But I understand why for others weighing in less frequently or not at all might be better.