I agree that this article is utter BS. I love how the "I see this all the time" is thrown in right near the beginning, so that we can't dare question her crazy logic. :\ This is the sort of thing that meshes nicely with the logic of those people who are still in denial. (I probably would have framed it and hung it on my wall not too long ago.)

I would debunk this article in a mature fashion rather than just slinging these words around, but she didn't take the time to gather proper evidence for her conclusions, so I'm not going to take the time to give a well-thought-out response. ;)

Thanks for posting this! :)

I was afraid I might offend someone if I said, "BS comes to mind", but I guess not:lol:.

I think mind over matter in this case is wishful thinking. If it works, why aren't we all thin?

The kinds of argument the author use drive me mad (both in the angry and insane sense). It's more mind over matter doody, that implies one can control reality with merely the force of will. Not only our our actions to blame for our weight, now our thoughts are as well.

A watched pot will boil (as quickly as an unwatched pot, though it may not seem so). Thoughts and attitudes do matter, and it is possible to be too focused on the scale, but be careful in saying things that imply that the bottom line is so simple.

A recent study found that (on average) people who weigh daily DO lose more than those who don't. That doesn't mean it's best for everyone, but it certainly challenges this author's oversimplified theory.

I'm addicted to weighing. Daily. Sometimes more than once. I can't help it. I just want to KNOW. But when the numbers are higher, I don't feel like giving up and sabotaging my diet...I feel like crap and punish myself by eating a lot less than I normally would so maybe tomorrow it will look better. But when the numbers are down, I am encouraged to keep going. I can't imagine not weighing on a regular basis. Maybe that's an entirely different issue, though, lol.

I feel like a complete jackass. I just spent a whole day eating well and going to the gym and all I had to do was look in the mirror and tell myself I'm thin?
Man, I'm stupid.

Well it seems to be working so I'm going to skip the psycho-babble and stick with lower calories and more moving around.

I'm not going to bash the power of positive thinking, or even imagery. The whole time I was pregnant I kept seeing myself finishing my marathon at 128 lbs. This despite the fact that I hadnt been 128 since I was significantly shorter. This despite the fact that I had started millions of diets in the last 20 years.

But...uh...you have to do the rest too. I counted calories, I exercised (and I weighed myself nearly every day). The positive thinking is what got me through the self sabotage which is crucial for many of us.

So its not as easy as she makes it sound "just think yourself thin" but having a clear mental imagery of success has worked for many athletes and it can help.

I think the article was just very poorly written, and that the author was trying to make the point that people shouldn't get discouraged and quit a new healthier lifestyle just because the scale isn't showing immediate weight loss. Looking just at the last couple of paragraphs:

"For most of us, the act of ‘watching the pot’ is an indication of impatience, and lack of trust, which quickly turns into, “this isn’t working and, I quit!”
We create (or contribute to) an ongoing cycle of failure. What we need for success is a positive outlook with optimistic expectation, but it’s hard to do after years of failed diet and fitness attempts. You can however, undo the negative self-fulfilling prophecy through positive affirmations and greater awareness. Affirmations will recondition your thinking, and a heightened awareness will allow you to not take actions that sabotage your progress. Stay off the scale; you only have control over the actions that you take, not how quickly the results come. And unless you are from another planet, it’s unlikely that, on a physical level, your body is much different from everyone else’s. It will respond positively to increasing your exercise and reducing your caloric intake if you just trust, give it time, and stop sabotaging yourself."

Isn't this similar to the response that's often given here on 3FC to a newbie who's frustrated because they've just gotten started and aren't seeing much weight loss? Keep going, you'll see losses eventually, don't get discouraged, don't stop doing all the new healthy things you're doing?

There are some sentences where it seems as though she's saying just thoughts by themselves will cause a bodily response of holding onto weight. I think that's very unlikely. I don't think that getting on the scale, by itself, is a sabotaging action. But I do think that constantly checking your weight can sometimes lead to feeling discouraged, which in turn leads to giving up and sabotaging actions like stopping exercising and going back to old eating patterns.

She does give short shrift to the alternative option of continuing to weigh, but not taking the numbers too seriously or being discouraged by them. Like many of you, I think I need to weigh myself daily or I'll stop paying attention altogether. But "a positive outlook with optimistic expectation" is the coin of the realm here on 3FC, and what I think she meant by positive affirmations. Not that feeling good about yourself will lead to weight loss by itself, but that you have to continually give yourself positive affirmations to continue exercise and calorie reduction, rather than letting the scale rule your reactions and behavior.

I have to weigh daily, because I gained a LOT of weight when I quit doing it.

It really helped me to graph my weight as I lost, to keep the little day to day fluctuations from driving me crazy. Looking at my graph, I could see that I kept coming back to that same downward curve of weight loss, even after a few horrendous week-long vacations with way too much off plan eating. Now that I'm near the end of my weight loss journey, that curve has flattened out, and I'll be working hard to keep it that way!

Rainy

After many, many dieting attempts, I fell into that theory of don't worry about your wt. and it will come off. I stayed off the scale for literally yrs. All it got me was fatter and fatter and uber fatter.

I now weight at least 2-3 times a week. If I see a gain, I weigh daily until the gain is gone. I don't want the wt. sneaking back on me again. I've done that enough times to have learned my lesson by now.

The writer based her theory on ONE client. How scientific of her!;)

I agree with others that said the article was mostly just poorly written...but not totally off base. No, you can't just "think yourself thin" (as the author may be implying) but "thinking thin," positive imagery and affirmations can be an important part of our weight loss goals. I simply mean If you set yourself up to succeed you will...likewise if you set yourself up to fail you will.