Since the beginning of my weight loss attempt (June), I decided not to weigh myself because I had a tendency in the past to get too obsessed with the numbers, and ultimately, that ended up discouraging me. So, I guessed that my weight was about 180 based on the fact that I was wearing 14's and seemed to be the heaviest I had ever been. Fast forward to now, and I am satisfied with how I look (no, I don't have a kick-a** body, but I'm not willing to put in the time and energy it would take to get it). I've been on what I estimate to be "maintenance" calories for the weight that I thought would be good for me (145). However, for the past month or so, I've thought that I was about 160, maybe high 150's. I decided today that I need to take some of the guess work out of the process and go ahead and weigh myself. So, I weighed at the gym (after having coffee & of course with my clothes on but no shoes), and I am 141. Wow! I'm shocked. On the one hand, I'm pleased. On the other hand, I need to re-evaluate my maintenance calories.
Also, I plugged in the numbers, and based on what I'm guessing my weight was, I must have been losing at a rate of at least 1.5-2 lbs a week to have lost this much weight since June. I was eating 1400 calories for most of my weight loss (up until the last month), so that means that I was running a 750-calorie deficit at least. That's a lot more than I thought I could eat.
So, here's what I've learned about weighing myself (pros & cons):
Pros
1) I did what I needed to do at the time by not weighing myself, and that worked out for me mentally; I just kept focusing on behaviors & didn't give up
2) I focused on size rather than weight & it's a big thrill to go down a size.
Cons
1) In a way, I sort of wish I did have a starting number; that would give me a better idea of the calorie deficit I was at, which would help me determine my maintenance calories.
2) Now that I do know how much I weigh, I think I'll have to keep monitoring my weight. I'm hoping that a once-a-month weigh-in (at most) will suffice. Does anyone here do this?
Thanks for reading. I hope that my experience might help those of us who choose not to weigh.