I am driving myself crazy weighing all the time. Yesterday I was a pound down from last week. Today I am 3 pounds up Grrrrrr! I know I should not be doing that and I used to be really good at weighing only once a week. Every since they put the new scale in the back it is so easy to go back there and weigh in. I think when I get below 350 I will just start weighing in at my doctors office. That way I would only go once a week. Until then I need to stay away from the scale.

No the scale is at work back in the shiping area. I work second shift so I always weigh after I've ate. I think it will be ok if I switch to my doctors scales here in a few weeks.

I'm a bad weigher, I weigh every time that I go to the gym which ends up being at least 5 times a week. The weight fluctuations don't bother me so I don't think it is a problem. If the weight fluctuations bother you, just try to hold on and do it only once a week.

Look at it this way -- you KNOW the numbers are meaningless when you weigh every day. The body just fluctuates too much for those numbers to give you any useful data, even if you do weigh at the same time under the same conditions.

OK, so knowing that, why do you still get on the scale? Why would you do something despite the fact that your logical brain knows it's pointless at best and harmful (mentally/spiritually) at worst? Because it's a compulsion. People who are overweight -- especially those in our groups -- are prone to compulsive behaviors. In fact, most people who have any type of eating disorder, whether it is simply compulsive overeating, binging, bulimia, anorexia, etc., have some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorders or tendencies. If you (and I mean "all of us" not just you Howie) look at your life, you'll probably see other areas where you exhibit compulsive behavior. I play FreeCell over and over and over and over and .... Similarly, weighing yourself when you know the information isn't valid or helpful -- feeling an overwhelming desire to do it -- is a compulsion.

So, how do you control a compulsion? I'm not an expert ... but for me it's cold turkey. The way I control compulsive eating is to not take that first bite of a trigger food, to measure out how much of a food I'm going to eat and portioning it out ahead of time, etc. If I had a scale problem, I would stay off all scales period for ... a month? Six weeks? Give yourself specific rules about when and where you will weigh after that.

I wasn't compulsive about weighing daily or anything, but when I started my program I knew from previous experience that even a weekly weigh-in was a source for self-sabotage. I knew I needed to free myself from the idea that my success or failure was based on what the scale said. I did not want to face that first week of seeing the scale go up because it was my period, even though I would know the number wasn't "real." So, at my weekly weighin I got on backwards and did not see how much I weighed for SIX MONTHS. I did allow my counselor to give me an update every six weeks of how much I had lost up to that point. That was incredibly freeing.

If you do what you are supposed to do, the weight will come off. The scale is NOT your friend, it is a saboteur disguised as a friend. So, go cold turkey and forget it exists. Live your life, eat your food, do your exercise, and let the chips fall where they may. You'll be amazed at the difference it will make in how you approach your program.

Thanks so much funniegrrl. I know I need to do like you say and treat it like I do my eating habits. I don't think I can go a month at a time because I've tried it before and I screw up and say oh well this won't hurt me because I don't weigh for another 3 weeks. So I do need the weekly accountability. As for daily I need to and will put that to a stop.

This is a really interesting thread, and it's got me thinking. Thank you, Howie, for bringing up this topic; and thank you, funniegirl, for sharing your experience and perspective -- very interesting stuff, and you make some valid points.

This whole experience of losing weight is just so interesting to me, and I love the thinking which accompanies the process almost as much as I love the losing! Howie, I'm glad that you recognized that the compulsive weighing isn't productive for you, and have the self-awareness to realize also that you need the structure and responsibility of a weekly weigh-in.

this is an intersesting thread. i think you're exactly right about compulsions, funniegrrl. when i first started losing weight, i developed a number of what i have later identified (gotta love talk therapy) as replacement compulsions, and i think it's probably a similar thing for you, howie. it was simple: i stopped thinking about food all the time--well, let's say i stopped thinking about when i could next eat all the time--and so i needed other habits to replace it with.

at my best, i was checking 3fatchicks 300 times a day, and reading posts like it was goin' out of style. at my worst, i was imagining falling down my own basement stairs up to 50 times a day, unable to to stop the fantasy until it had ended with my inevitable crash at the foot of the steps.

for a person who had never experienced any symptoms of anxiety before, it was a pretty scary period in my life. but what i have realized is, the eating, although familiar, comfortable, and "normal" (in that everyone eats, although not everyone eats as much as i used to), was a manifestation of anxiety and compulsiveness too--i was just so used to it that i wasn't alarmed.

in the 4 months since i started losing, i've noticed that with time, my compulsions and obsessions have ceased. i forced myself to use the basement stairs three times a day, and am happy to report that i never think of them anymore. i can't even evoke those terribly vivid fantasies anymore if i try. in the meantime, i've cultivated a nice little compulsive need to keep a food diary, and am banking on the idea that in the end, my compulsions can start working for me, rather than against.

oh, and as for weighing--pick a scale and commit to it, howie, and make sure it's out of the way. i only weigh at my support group meetings, and at curves--but only at curves on weeks when i have to miss a meeting, and then only on the meeting day. scales fluctuate, bodies fluctuate, and we have lives to live. switch your compulsion to drinking water or some other healthy behavior, and train your mind to think all other scales are too unpredictable to touch.

Yes I think when this scale at work says I am under 350 the next week I will go to the doctors and weigh. At that point I will take what ever the doctors scale says and not check it against the one at work. That way I will be stuck with using the doctors scale and therefore only weigh once a week.

Howie sounds like you have a good plan. Maybe it was your salt intake for that day or not enough water, or the cloths you were wearing weight more. Don't let it get to you. Your doing great!!
MEZ

I weigh myself everyday, I have a problem. Every morning I weigh myself and sometimes throughout the day. I try not to weigh myself, but when I look at the scale it is like it is talking to me telling me to get on. I can't stop. I started my diet 7-11-04 weighing 187, I now weigh 175. I cannot stay off of the scale. I know how you all feel like the scale will magically say I lost 5 pounds overnight. LOL Hang in there on your diet!!!!

Hey Howie

Thanks for bringing this up - I have also got into a not very good habit of weighing every day.....as someone who had never owned a pair of scales until November last year, that is quite scary really.

So. I'lle do a deal with you. I will stop checking every day, if you will! I am going to try it for a week, starting today.....well, I'lle be honest, its easy today since I'm staying away in a hotel for work, and there's no scale here!!!! Freedom!

Happy scale-free week, Howie!

Your on. My official weigh in day is tomorrow though. After that though I will not step on until next Thursday. Thanks Claire.

My pleasure, Howie......hmmmm. I am going to find this tough....I think I had better hide that scale.....otherwise I am going to be tempted......hmmm...I will put it somewhere very high, since I'm only 5 foot 2 inches, and I would not wish to suffer the indignity of jumping to reach my own scale!

LOL on jumping. Mines not so easy it is only a short walk to the scale at work and the darn thing knows my name. howie... Howie... HOWIE come and weigh yourself.