I do it at least twice a day...I just ordered a digital scale from Walmart so I'm hoping this one will be WAY more accurate than what I have right now (not sure how to describe this one, but definitely not digital.) But, I'm trying to go for a week without weighing, so we'll see how this goes.
Ok...so I'm obsessed with the scale...absolutely obsessed.
I weigh myself a couple times a day.
Anyone else do this?
Along time ago,I did it 6-12 times a day. What a waste of time. Once a week is sufficient. It is like having a kitchen appliance like a blender rule your life. Hide your scale, because over time it becomes really unhealthy. We are all more than numbers on a scale. Focus on the healthy behaviors and the weight will come off naturally. It is too easy too become obsessed about it. There are plenty of better things to do with our lives. If you feel healthy and have lots of energy and in the healthy BMI...who cares, it is just a number....
Last edited by better health3; 07-01-2012 at 02:19 PM.
It's only obsessive if it's interfering with your life or enjoyment of life.
For decades I tried to "stay off the scale" except for once a week, because I believed it was obsessive and would discourage me yada, yada... all the "common wisdom" of dieters and dieting experts.
I've come to realize a lot of the "common wisdom" is just plain wrong.
When I weigh only once a week, I obsess about my weight all week long, wondering, worrying, and hoping that I'm going to see a change on the scale.
Then a few years ago, I decided I was going to understand all the variables that caused weight changes on the scale, so I started getting on the scale up to 12 times a day (before and after meals, before and after going to the bathroom... a lot of befores and afters).
Something weird happened. I didn't get discouraged, I got more motivated, because I understood that my weight could fluctuate up to 10 lbs even if I was perfectly and meticulously on plan. Weighing so often didn't increase my thoughts about the scale and my weight, it decreased them tremendously.
When I weighed once a week, my thoughts about my weight and the scale would have to be measured in hours. Even when I weighed 12 times a day (now I only usually weigh two or three times), the amount of time I spend thinking about the scale can't even be measured in minutes.
I think about the scale, get on the scale, and get off the scale in about 3 to 4 seconds - even at 12 times a day, that's only 48 seconds, not even a minute.
So what's more obsessive, spending five minutes per week thinking about my weight and weighing myself, or spending 15 hours a week (a conservative estimate) thinking about my weight and weighing myself once.
Now I only weigh myself two to three times a day (10 to 12 seconds per day at max), but I can truly forget about my weight until it occurs to me again. If it occurs to me 12 times, I'm still spending less than a minute a day thinking about my weight.
My "excessive" (quotes because I don't think 12 seconds a day is excessive) weighing also helps me stay on plan, because when I only weigh once a week, come heck or high water, when I take a single bite off plan, I would feel like I had "blown it" and might as well keep on bingeing because I wasn't going to lose weight this week. Now, when I start to think "I've blown it," I get immediately on the scale to access the worst-case scenario of damage (actually - because you can't gain more than a food weighs, the weight on the scale after eating something is actually a worse-than worst case scenario).
If you're going to weigh daily (and I'd argue even if you're going to weigh monthly) your primary goal has to be "not gaining" rather than losing, because otherwise, you really will be discouraged every time you step on scale.
However, if you switch your goal to "not gaining," you will get to celebrate the weigh-ins much more often than when your goal is losing. The scale can help motivate rather than demotivate, because you get to celebrate a much larger percentage of the time. You get more rewards than punishments.
If you're a person whose weight fluctuates wildly, daily weighing is often much more motivating than weighing weekly (if you celebrate your not-gains as much as your losses).
Also, if you're going to lean off the scale for a while, try measuring yourself. I rely on measuring my waist and hips, as well because I'm starting weight lifting now that it's been recommended to me.
I am with Kaplids on this. For a while I would weigh twice per day and I started thinking that it was excessive so I decreased to once/week... for some reason I would binge, think it was all over and I ended up gaining back. Now I weigh 1-3 times per day to encourage myself because as long as I am on plan I am either not gaining or losing If I do gain, I know it is water weight and I move on. I keep a calendar on the wall on which I write my morning weight on.
Yes I obsessively weigh, several times a day...if I eat, I weigh, if I pee I weigh, if I walk past the bathroom I weigh, If I work out, I weigh....you get the idea....
I went through a period were I didn't weigh much, in fact I got to were I weighed maybe once every two weeks. That is when I gained 20lbs back....if I didn't see it, it didn't exist!
Now that being said, for me, once a day should be enough!
I check my weight every morning before I shower. I get on/off twice (to check the scale's consistency) and that's it for the day. Doing this does 2 things (1) keeps me on track; I'm not really good at judging where I am weight-wise and don't want to see a 10 pound boost up 'out of the blue' and (2) gives me a sense of how my body is responding to my food and exercise habits. I've found that, depending on how much salt and junk I'm taking in, I can see a 2 to 3 pound jump. But once I get back on track with my food I get back to my baseline.
thank you all for your help. I definately am going to stay weighing myself...and I totally hear ya on the enitre I can't gain more than it weighs.
I'm going to do my best to try and not do it consistently, but try to do it still.
I try to only weigh myself once a week but if I cheat or don't exercise...sometimes I weigh myself just for motivation. Like, "You can't eat that cookie, you how much more weight you have to lose!" Or, "Look how much weight you have lost! Now get to the gym and keep up the good work."
Does anyone else here weigh excessivly?
