I find that getting on the scale and checking my weight has the worst, worst, worst effect on me psychologically. No matter what I weigh, no matter how much I've lost, I still feel awful every time I step on the scale. It's unbelievable how powerfully the number on the scale is able to affect my self-esteem.
So, I never check my weight. I always dread and postpone weigh-ins, but I can tell I'm still losing because my jeans keep getting looser.
I wish I could check my weight loss on the scale without getting a giant complex about it. How often does everyone here weigh in and when you do weigh in, how do you avoid getting a complex about it?
I weigh in almost everyday. To me I find that by weighing every day I see the natural fluctuations that everyone has in their weight. I weigh in officially once a week at WW. Sometimes I will go in and know I had a good week but I don't show a loss or it is maybe a little loss. That used to just craze me. But, because I weigh in every day when that happens at my WW weigh in it doesn't bother me as much because I can see it as part of the natural fluctuations that occur. Last week I had a .2 weight loss at WW when it should have been about .75. I was OK about the official weigh in because my at home weigh in the day before and the day after showed the .75 loss so I knew the .2 was just a temporary fluctuation.
I think we're all different. I weigh too often BUT I'm not yet seeing a difference in my clothes; and I know, at least right now, I can handle whatever it says as long as I know I haven't done anything to thwart my progress. It's been 6 weeks since I've had any empty calorie sugary things or any of the other carbs I'm avoiding.
So, yeah, I'm weighing every morning and then maybe again at night even tho you really, I guess, should only be weighing once a week.
I know they say not to weigh yourself every day but I find it helps me stay on track. When I stop weighing, I start eating. So the scale is my friend.
When I am bloated for some reason or if I am on a plateau, I will go to every few days. But even then I prefer to weigh daily. Little mini goals are what keeps me going, even if it's just a half pound a day.
I weigh too often, almost every day, I think it's starting to affect my moods.
Seeing the weird, unexplainable daily fluctuations can make or break my day, seriously, if I see a number the same or higher than I like (even though I've been completely on plan) it ruins my day, and that number variation could just be due to water/bm/time of day...
I'm switching to once a week, hopefully that way my day won't be dictated by what the scale says
I've done weekly weigh ins, 3x a week weigh ins, daily weigh ins and tried to do biweekly weigh ins. What works for me right now is weighing in daily. I have had issues in the past were the number mattered too much to me and that's why I started weighing in less often. My curiosity always got the best of me and it never lasted.
I'm in a pretty good emotional state now when it comes to my number. I like that I now know what affect certain things I put into my body have on my weight. Who knew that having an ibuprofen caused me to gain but I now know that because it's happened multiple times.
I attend weight loss meetings, and the weekly weigh-in there is required. I tell myself it's simply a tool that often fluctuates and is not always an accurate way to check my progress.
Something that helps me is graphing my progress over time. Even if it goes up occasionally, I can look at the graph and see that my overall trend is going down.
I weigh once a week, at home. To avoid the temptation of hopping on the scale all the time (which works for some people, but not me...), I store it out of sight when I'm not using it.
As for not getting a complex, I try not to take it personally if it goes up. I view any decrease (even if it is just 1 ounce) as a win. If I stay the same, it's okay. If I go up...well, I'm never happy about that, but I look back at the previous week and see what I could have done differently and then move on. I view it as a temporary thing. It doesn't reflect anything other than my habits for that particular time period. i'm still the same person, still a good person so that is how I handle the scale.
I did a Whole30 (-ish) last month and one of the things forbidden during that was to step on the scale. It was nice and because it was the combination of a strict diet and not jumping on the scale every day, that connection kind of disappeared from my mindset. Previously when I've been on a diet I've either weighed myself daily or weekly. Now I think I'll do it weekly or biweekly or perhaps even just monthly.
My goal right now is to lose body fat, and I honestly don't know how much I would weigh when I reach my goal of 20% BF. Other people with similar height with that BF% seemed to weigh anything between 130lbs and 160lbs.
I've done carb-cycling so I know how carbs bind water and can make a huge difference (in my body I've seen 7lbs overnight). I've done longer diets and even when it was really strict (so the fat loss was rapid), there was always a 1.5 week period each month when absolutely nothing happened to my weight. So I learned how the menstrual cycle affected the weight.
Weight is such an arbitrary number. You don't need that information for anything, unless you are a competitive boxer or planning to tranquilize yourself. It just gives you information about something you have no direct control over, and that's what a lot of folks seem to forget. Unless you actually remove a body part, you can not directly control your weight. You can only control what you consume and how much and how much you move around and exercise. Even when you count calories consumed and expended, it's still just an approximation. The idea of control is an illusion and so it brings so much misery and feelings of failure. Demonic apparatus, I say...
emilym, I am exactly the same! I am doing WW online right now. I have tried going to the meetings twice, and the weigh-in did me in! I wore the same exact outfit every week. If I lost, I felt I should have lost more; if I gained or stayed the same, I literally sat there fighting the urge to start crying. I privately resented the big losers of the week! I was absolutely pitiful, and I realized that was not for me. I must admit that, even weighing in at home, can be a problem for me. In the past I have thrown several scales away because I could not stand seeing what they were showing me. I came to realize I cannot have a digital scale; waiting for the number to flash at me is high anxiety. What I do now is hang on to the vanity while weighing in - - then slowly releasing the pressure......I officially weigh in on Wednesday mornings, but I sometimes check it on Sunday or Monday...... I definitely have a thing about scales and weigh-ins.
I weigh every morning at home and then once a week with my coach. It gets me prepared for the discussion after weigh in. I must say I'm probably a bit obsessed with weighing myself, but I don't really let anything get me too upset. I just think of the whole journey
I weigh daily because I find that I stay on track better when I do. I am accustom the daily fluctuation and it does not bother me. It has helped me learn how my body reacts to certain food and situations. I now know that if I eat a high number of carbs (like over 100 grams) my weight will be one to two pounds higher the next day but then those pounds will go away after a couple of days of low carb.
When I very first started I did once a month weigh-ins. Then eventually switched to weekly.
I did daily weigh ins and I did find it helpful to see my body's natural fluctuations but it also would get me down if I went up / stalled for a couple days.
Now I do a weekly weigh in on Fridays and that is the only one that "counts" to me. I do weigh in throughout the week if I feel like it. Usually at least 2-3 other times. Seeing the number on the scale helps me because I actually don't notice much difference in how my clothes are fitting unless it's an item of clothing I haven't worn since last year.
Weight is such an arbitrary number. You don't need that information for anything, unless you are a competitive boxer or planning to tranquilize yourself.
Best quote of the day!
I used to weigh daily when I lost about 100 pounds a few years ago. Loved it. Swore by it.
Then, I restarted weight loss for serious in June 2012 and found that daily weigh-ins made me absolutely nutty, and I attribute that as at least part of the reason for my backslide and regain of about 30 pounds. (I had lost 70 pounds from June 2012 until January 2013, then maintained for several months).
Now, I refuse to get on the scale. I really want "this time" to be the last time in my life I have to lose a significant amount of weight. And in order for me to do that, I feel like it's important to not focus on the small steps and small (artificial) rewards. Rather, I am focused on integrating the healthy decisions into my life and doing those things for their own sake. Do I want to lose weight? Of course. But I am lifting weights and running so I can be stronger and better able to keep up with strenuous physical tasks. Those are inherent rewards. I also want to have control of my food so that I am not suffering "binge sweats" when someone brings something to work and I can't stop thinking of it in the break room and wondering when I can do an attack on the break room without anyone seeing. Those suck.
Like so much of weight loss, when to weigh is an intensely personal decision and there's a huge variety of reactions to it. For me, for now, hiding the scale is my best answer. Sometimes, I still crave it, especially after I've had a really good streak of staying strictly on plan. But I know that weighing invites my OCD behavior and my "this is temporary" mindset. So, my scale is staying out of sight until my "official" weigh-in day on January 11. And I desperately hope my reaction at that time isn't "How can I have only lost this much weight in the 2.5 months that I have been fairly consistently on plan?"
How often do you weigh yourself?
