I've decided to stop counting pounds lost for a while, because it triggers all sorts of self-loathing. I lose fat slowly due to a thyroid condition, plus I tend to put on dense muscle easily so the scale can't always be trusted. Since 12/2015, I've definitively lost 34lb on the scale, and my waist is very visibly shrinking. However, when I went to weigh myself on the same crappy gym scale yesterday, it said I weigh 182!

Now, that seems waaay off to me. Around 10/2016 I started running in addition to hiking, and am now up to running 4-5 miles every other day and doing a 3-8 hour hike every Saturday. I realize you can put on muscle weight but this is ridiculous. How could I have been eating the same stuff but *gained* 4lb in 5 months? I *know* I've lost a lot of fat since then (you can see it!) but there's no way I could've gained *that* much muscle weight.

Sigh. You can see now how crazy this is making me.

Anyway, in the interests of not letting weird numbers on the scale make me crazy, I've decided to stop weighing myself for a while and pay attention to my non-scale victories.

Since 10/2016 I've:

- dropped a pants size
- dropped a ring size
- in shirt sizes, dropped from L to M

I am going to repeat these three things like a mantra every time I think about the last weigh-in and get down on myself.

Has anyone else had bad experiences with scales even while you appear to be dropping weight measurable in other ways?

What kind of plan are you doing?

Am counting calories. I have a food scale and know what quantities of what foods I'm eating because I cook about 90% of my food from scratch. Here's an average week for me:

Mon/Wed/Fri: 1300-1500cal eaten; 4 mile trail run each day
Tues/Thurs: 1300-1400cal eaten; light dumbbell workout
Sat: 2000-2500cal eaten; 3-8 hour hike
Sun: 1500-1800cal eaten; 5 mile run

I also strictly monitor intake of alcohol, and avoid desserts and carbs in general. I eat lots of protein and fiber. Fats are my Achilles' heel so I only eat high fat-content stuff on Saturdays (hike days).

I know I'm losing weight because of the drop in pants/ring size; it's just the scale doesn't seem to reflect that. I'm not concerned that I'm not losing fat; it's just the illogical part of my brain goes a bit crazy if the scale doesn't reflect what I'm seeing and makes me depressed, so I need to distance myself from being obsessed with numbers for a while.

I have this same kind of problem with being frustrated at the scale, but in a different way: I have discovered since starting working on weight loss that I retain a lot of water during my cycle. So, even though I'm doing everything I'm supposed to and I can see that my body is changing, the scale just stays the same for two weeks of the month. More often than not, it actually crawls up during that time. As far as I'm aware, that's totally normal and all part of the wonderful world of womanhood, but it's still frustrating.

So yes, I'm right there with you. And I would say that yeah, the scale TOTALLY lies. The problem with that scale is that it reads *everything* in your body, not just fat. It gets the bones, the organs, the water, the glycogen, eeeeverything. You do a lot of incredible exercise, and that's almost definitely going to give you a lot of muscle weight. I heard once that your eyes are the very best measuring tool you have, because you can look in the mirror and see the changes in your body. From what you said, you are definitely doing that. Those are some fantastic accomplishments you listed there! And really, those are the kinds of things you wanted when you started losing weight, right? The number on the scale is a method of measurement, not the goal itself. Nobody can see the number of how much you weigh; they just see your body.

I'm sure you already know all that, of course. But in case you needed a little extra "oomph" to convince that "illogical part of your brain" that yes, you are making progress no matter what the scale says, check out this picture!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y1u8_-i1gB...d+muscle+2.jpg

I'm there with you girls the scale makes me crazy because I don't process salt like I used to