I'd really like to learn about your weighing habits, in particular, how motivating or demotivating weighing yourself can be.
Before Christmas, I managed to successfully lose a fair bit of weight, and then I stopped paying attention to my diet completely, for about 3 months. I'd put on 8lbs, which wasn't at all bad considering I'd eaten all sorts of rubbish and not held back at all. A week ago, I decided to get back on track in an attempt to reach my goal, and I've lost 7lbs so far (clearly, given the extremely rapid loss here, the majority of this is going to be water weight!). I know now that my progress is going to be a fair bit slower and steadier, given that I am closer to a healthier weight now.
In the past, I've weighed myself daily, and I've found this has had advantages and disadvantages. Seeing a loss on the scale, particularly if it's happening every day or two, is hugely motivating. I feel fantastic, and it's almost addictive - I actually find it incredibly hard not to get on the scale each morning, expecting and hoping for a loss. But at the same time, when my weight hasn't moved for several days after being perfectly on plan, it's really demotivating. I know it's absurd to expect my body to react with a fat loss after a mere 72 hours of living healthily, but irrationally, I find it quite disheartening.
I'm not sure how frequently I should be weighing. When I'm on plan, I feel quite hooked with getting on the scales every day and facing up to my weight, whatever it is, and it can feel fantastic or rubbish, depending on what the numbers say. I know this is really silly, but I want to figure out something that might work for me for this last stretch of weight loss, and I don't want to find myself demotivated and discouraged.
I find other things quite motivating and indicative of weight loss, like how my clothes fit, or how my collarbones and jawline are more prominent. I wonder if anyone can think of any other things like this that I could use as a measure of success, instead of relying on a scale?
If any of you have any advice, or would like to share your experiences of when weighing yourself can be really motivating or demotivating, I'd love to hear about it.
Well, I weighed myself today, and the scale shows the exact same number as it did a week ago. That's just n o t okay. And my reaction to that is always so childish, like: "Oh well, I don't care! I wasn't even trying to lose weight anyway! Would someone who was trying to lose weight eat this much bread, or would they be able to have a lunch as big as the one I'm eating now? See? I am NOT trying to lose weight and I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU SAY, SCALE."
And now I've realised "Oh crap, I do want to lose weight... and I've already had 1000 calories today... off to the gym I go"
I'm ambivalent about daily weighing. Exactly like Ida, I get SO disheartened and childish if I don't see a good loss Every Day, which is clearly impossible. On the other hand, if I go a week at a time I have 2 outcomes:
either I'm really motivated all week - but then depressed and childish if the weigh-in's not good
or
I weigh on Sunday morning, binge on Sunday afternoon and spend the rest of the week recouping my calorie balance. or worse, being really sloppy until about Wednesday/Thursday then panic dieting til Sunday again.
This time I've finally opted for daily weighing and made my main mental aim to be accepting of what the reading is and trying to understand the science of my body.
I have been known to be borderline obsessive about weighing myself - but strangely, I don't let the number get me down. I just like knowing where I am what effect X (coming in from a work out, eating lunch, using the bathroom (ew, I know!), etc) have on my weight. It's some sort of "wow, that lunch must have weighed a pound and a half" morbid curiosity.
I figure if weighing myself constantly isn't a demotivator, and isn't depressing, it's probably "okay" (though strange).
I weigh every day. I just have the mindset that I am not going to lose every day, lol. I have had a couple days this week where the scale hasn't moved... but that's okay. It HASN'T MOVED which means it hasn't gone up. And, even if it DID go up, I know now that if I stay on plan, and keep up with my exercise, I can't just GAIN FAT over night. I would know that it's water weight, either from eating too much sodium or from not getting in my daily water intake, or I worked out too hard and my muscles are retaining water. I feel that at this point, I know that my goal isn't WEIGHT LOSS... it's FAT LOSS. Weight is just some arbitrary number that we use for it's convenience... but in the end, it only tells a small part of the story. If I happened to do a lot of weight training one week, and I didn't lose a pound, it could be that I still lost fat and just gained muscle mass... shouldn't THAT be celebrated? Who cares if the scale didn't move downward... I LOST FAT. I understand that my goal weight is just some silly number, because I will go into maintenance not based on when the scale hits 125, but based on how my body looks and feels.
If you want a better way to measure success, you should consider taking measurements of your body... your waist, hips, bust, thighs and arms. Lost inches is a better way to tell progress. I just don't do it because I am lazy... but if not having a loss on the scale is that disheartening to you, you should consider it. You could also go to the doctor every month or 2 and have your body fat % monitored. THAT is truly the BEST way to monitor your progress... but obviously, that can be a little inconvenient and possibly expensive.
Either way, you are doing a great job! The journey isn't easy... it's full of ups and downs, highs and lows, triumphs and disappointments. The important thing is that you stick with it and are consistent. Good luck!
I weigh every day. I generally lose weight slowly (say .5 lbs/week average). I'm used to that, but I still get discouraged when I fluctuate up; a couple of pounds up one day seems to erase weeks of OP behavior. But I know those fluctuations are temporary and *on average* I am making progress.
Weighing weekly instead of daily doesn't work well for me, because I am more likely to anticipate a drop and get more frustrated if I happen to fluctuate up. Whereas if I fluctuate up in a single day I *know* that the weight gain isn't real.
I weigh myself daily, and this morning I was up 2 pounds. I know I didn't gain 2 pounds of fat overnight - it's only water and it will come off in a day or two. But if this had been a weekly weigh-in, that temporary "gain" would have hidden the 2 pounds I really have lost in the last week, and left me thinking I hadn't lost anything. That would have really demotivated me!
I weigh pretty much every day. It has really helped me to see how salty foods, dehydration, and heavy lifting influence what the scale says. It is just a tool, not a judgement. If it drives you nuts, don't do it, but daily weighing has broken it's mystery for me. I look at the overall trend as what is the more important thing the scale can tell me. Plus, one of the habits of successful maintainers is regular monitoring of weight. Ignoring the scale bought me 50 pounds. Using it as a tool has helped me lose it and keep it off.
I kind of hit a middle ground--Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Monday to see what (if anything) the weekend has done to me. Wednesday to stay on track and Friday to see what the WW scale will say ('cause I don't like surprises).
I'm doing the daily weigh-in - I jump on first thing in the morning. I'm plotting it on an Excel graph, which makes it much easier to see the gradual downward trend. I do statistics and process control for a living, so I see the daily ups and downs as just "normal variation" - it doesn't cause me any issue. My scale only goes to 1/2 pounds, so I can't get worked up about a few days in the same place. It's also really obvious on the graph where the TOM falls ... and it doesn't actually affect the average at all.
I weigh myself every morning. I am fascinated about how my body works and the scale has helped me look into further why I might fluctuate in weight every day. It has helped lead me into adjusting my eating habits to where it is now.
Before I used to just berate myself after I stepped on the scale. It was horrible what I was doing. I think if you don't punish yourself for the number on the scale then you'd be able to use it a little more objectively
Maybe try taking measurements of your body and compare those it would be a bit more beneficial for your motivation.
I weigh myself every day, but it can definitely be rough--especially right now, since my body is still adjusting to a new birth control prescription and I'm getting TOM symptoms randomly throughout the month. (It's so fun being female!) I also use Excel to graph my weight so I can see that even the spikes in weight that depress me are spiking up to a lower number than where I used to be...As long as the general trend is downwards, I try to keep my chin up!
Thank goodness it hasn't demotivated me yet. My scale's been stuck since Valentine's Day although I have remained 100% on plan every day without fail. I even went and bought a fancy new scale just to make sure ~ and it's weighing me 5 lbs higher than the old cheap one, but that's OK.
I haven't lost any pounds in 2 months, but I've lost almost 2 sizes. Some of that is attributable to the fact that I joined a gym 2 1/2 weeks ago...but I think the majority of it is, my body just needed to catch up. I lost right at 100 lbs in six months and I think my body needed to take a break from losing so fast.
But hey as long as I keep getting smaller, I will cut the scale some slack.
Does the weighing scale demotivate anyone else?
I know I didn't gain 2 pounds of fat overnight - it's only water and it will come off in a day or two. But if this had been a weekly weigh-in, that temporary "gain" would have hidden the 2 pounds I really have lost in the last week, and left me thinking I hadn't lost anything. That would have really demotivated me!
