For the Scale Obessed
 

There have been a lot of threads recently asking about scale obsession and how to beat it. While we may not ever entirely "beat it," we can make steps towards a healthy relationship with our scale and weight obsessions.

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Great thread, Zeff!

I guess I'd say I had a bit of scale obsession going on when I first started SBD. Fortunately, it moved fairly reliably for my first 6 months, with the exception of a few weeks here and there.

I read a quote on another forum here (Beck Diet Solution), which made so much sense to me. I bought the book and now use alot of the skills I learned. Dr Beck says;
"On any given day, the number on the scale is exactly what it should be, given what you ate, how much energy you expended in the past few days, the amount of fluid your body is retaining, and other biological influences."

I used to step on the scale pretty much every day but didn't record the ups and downs. Since February, I've weighed every day then entered the number on a graph so I can actually see the ups and downs AND the general trend.

Now I can say with certainty, that when I'm losing there are always upward fluxuations inbetween. Of course, I love it when I see a new low. A new low IS significant...but if it goes up I read the above statement, remain rational and acknowledge that I have not gained weight. It is a normal fluxuation.

I hear people say, "I only ate off plan 1 day and I gained 6 pounds!" Hmm....probably not. I just remember that stress encourages the body to retain water and any stress I have about numbers on the scale will probably just make it go higher.

My way to beat the obsession is to use the number as INFORMATION not an indicator of my self worth. It helps me remain rational and remember that the only way I will continue a downward trend is to eat OP.

How funny I came to this epiphany a few days ago, I'm moving to another state and life is just SOOOO hectic that right now I told myself I'm going to worry about being healthy and that's it! And since then the scale has steadily gone down because I feel like a lot of pressure has been taken off my shoulders. I still weigh in the mornings but I still only record on Monday. I don't let the scale dictate my mood or make me starve myself for a day cuz it went up. :)

I swear I started a big long thread about this. I was curious about how others have dealt with this and then also curious about what people's theories are on rest days with exercising is it a must even if you're not really running or weight lifting more like low impact stuff, walking, beginners pilates and yoga...that kind of thing.

[QUOTE=zeffryn;3816910]There have been a lot of threads recently asking about scale obsession and how to beat it. While we may not ever entirely "beat it," we can make steps towards a healthy relationship with our scale and weight obsessions.




I am going to put this on my Bucket List!!! I can imagine how "freeing" it is not to own a scale or count calories. I still have to reach goal weight, then a year or two of maintenance before I am comfortable ditching the scale- but what a goal. And I can mark this off my bucket list faster than cruising the isles of Greece! :D

Lex, I did the same thing with the graphing. It is a general downward trend that I am looking for, and now that I've done that, I can predict - almost to the day - when I am going to gain a bit, or have a big whoosh.

I'm going to start doing this. Forever, I was militant about weighing just once a week, but that's not working for me anymore. I need a better sense of my body and what's going on, scale wise. I like the idea of a graph. I'll do it!!

Interesting discussion.

I'll start off by saying that what works for any one individual is, of course, individual. Angela is clearly coming from a much different perspective (presumably somewhere on the anorexia nervosa spectrum, where "letting go" of food/weight obsession is key to recovery) than those of us that are overweight. For many of us needing to lose weight, although conquering an obsession with the numbers is certainly healthy, ending our relationship with the scale might not be. Weighing draws attention to the relationship between our weight and our caloric intake & expenditure; it's another form of accountability.

There's a fair amount of literature on self-monitoring in weight loss, and, interestingly, the self-weighing studies have shown a significant increase in weight loss in those weighing daily to weekly compared to those self-weighing less often, which was recently confirmed by a systematic review.

I think Dr. Beck (& Debbie) have nailed it. Weighing regularly can be very helpful as long as you take your numbers within the context of your behavior and their overall trend.

Shelf, I agree. Actually, Angela was on the overweight spectrum before and developed the same attachment to the scale that I see a lot over here.

I think the point is not to let it rule your life. There are so many times that I wish that I could just kindly remove one's grasp from their scale so they could step back to see just how many other things are changing because of their healthy decisions. I don't care who you are, weighing several times per day is not a healthy scale relationship.

Back in August, my husband and I took a little trip to New Orleans for the weekend. I had every intention of bringing my scale...and I forgot it. I had a full on anxiety attack because I would have to go two days without weighing. That is when I knew that I didn't have a healthy relationship with my scale and that I needed to do something about it. Now, I weigh once daily, but I don't let it ruin my day. If it is up, I examine what I may have done to cause that and there are sometimes that I have to be honest with myself and say that that "one little cheat" was actually not so little after all.