Anyone else afraid of the scale?

I know I am! I'm working out, eating healthy... and yet knowing I'm going to get on the scale on Wednesday is just so scary. What if I didn't lose anything after all my hard work? What if I *gulp* gained weight? I'm only aiming to lose 15 pounds (for now - long term goal is more like 50), but I'd like to do it in the next two months. I've only started weighing myself recently (I have only one week of recorded data so far), and while that did show some positive loss, I got sick after the last time I weighed myself and thus didn't go to the gym at all this past week. I also went on a trip this weekend and wasn't able to eat healthily at all. I'm worried I'll get discouraged if it turns out I didn't drop any weight this week and that will kill my motivation/make me really discouraged.

Anyone have any suggestions/inspirations/advice to help kill this fear of the scale?

Get on the scale and out of the land of denial!  (LOL, but really!)  I ate horribly ALL weekend and was scared and embarrassed to face the scale, but I decided if I didn't, I might just get more scared and more depressed and discouraged and just keep eating.  So I got on the scale - EIGHT POUNDS UP FROM MY LOWEST WEIGHT - think movie scream here - and recorded the weight in my weight log and am about to go for a walk and plan out what I'm going to eat this week to drop both the water weight from all the salty foods and eat for a bigger deficit this week to at least get back where I was and move downward, not upward.  You have two days to eat well and if you don't like the numbers you see on Wed., you'll know what to do next week.  Moral:  Opportunity for strategy instead of setting yourself up for failure.  You can bluff anyone BUT yourself!  Be kind but be honest with yourself - you're okay!

I stay off the thing period until I HAVE to look-lol, really!  They horrify me.  Actually I have only looked three times in almost one month.

Kristy

 

 

I skipped the scale this AM because I had a lousy weekend. I just want to put in one day that I can feel really good about before I get the number. I'll be able to take it tomorrow knowing I've done better today. If I stick to it, a month from now it won't mean anything!

me and my scales have a love-hate relationship in that I love it when ti gives me good news and i hate it when it gives me bad.

I HAVE to get on the scale everyday, I can't help it. it's like, I have to know what I weigh that day or I'll go crazy thinking abotu it, so staying away isn't an option for me.

what i do now is I get on the scale every morning, if it's bad then I think about the things I did wrong and turn them into a positive...  I make a alist of stuff i did wrong and think what can i change?

if I ate lower calories than I should I think right , today I will eat more but make sure they are nutrious foods... if I exercised for 20 mins I say right, today I will do it for 30...

this probably works better if you only weight yourself once a week liek you say then you can make a list of goals for that week

- eat X amount of calories a day
- do X amount of exercise
- stay away from [this] type of food

things liek that then when it comes round to weigh day you can be safe in the knowledge than you did everything you could. and if you are still not losing weight or have put osme on, reasess the situation and try a different combination...

find out what works for you. everyone is different.

and on a final note, try not to get too upset about it as long as you are doing your best you can't do anymore. liek you said, you had a poistive result last week and if you haven't this week you've alreayd pointed out the things you think could have hindered your success so go into next week thinking you won't do those things and everythign should be fine.

I'm thinking of you.

Personally, I have the opposite problem. I am -addicted- to my bathroom scale. I weigh myself in constantly, even though I know you aren't supposed to. When I was younger I'd weigh myself several times a day. I just needed to see. Needed to know. it was a control thing for me, I think.

I'm scared -not- to look at the scale incase something changes and I don't catch it quick enough to fix it or something strange like that.

So, good things about your bathroom scale:

It lets you know where you are and how you're doing!

That's really important. If you've gained weight you know that you need to cut back and manage yourself more to achieve your goals. If you've lost weight you know you're doing really well! It's like a pat on the back. Ultimately, the scale is just a tool. You'll weigh the same whether you look or not, but if you don't look you wont know how you're doing.

I'm not saying you should weigh yourself every day - that's definately a problem to 'cause you get hit with all those tiny fluctuations - but you shouldn't be afraid of the scale. If anything, it's a good friend on your loss journey. An honest coach, and someone who'll never lie to you if you ask them how you're doing. :)

I got over it by overwhelming the system, and doing the counterintuitive thing of weighing yourself daily.

Yes, it's rough for the first week or two. There's constant emotions over the swings of the numbers. The goal is to turn the whole process as routine as possible, as sort of "out of the shower, onto the scale, on with the day" thing. Logging it is good. It adds to the routine and lets you see the flow even better.

After about two months, it becomes hard to look at it like anything but a number, and one that seems to move around on its own accord. It's hard to stay scared of it.

Your scale is like your totally honest best friend, there to pat your on the back for your good work and also tell you flat out that you screwed up. ;-)

I like to weight every day. And I force myself to log that weight in here because even though it fluctuates, sometimes wildly, the trendline on my chart shows the true story. I think if I was weighing once a week, like you, I'd be afraid to step on the scale, too.

Maybe if you keep a calendar and highlight each day you stayed to your calorie limit or exercised, you'd see day by day your success. That WILL translate to your scale and you will start to know what to expect by how many days you highlighted.

If you are dreading it because you've been eating out or not exercising, it's best to bite the bullet and get back on the scale and start fresh. If it's up, pump up your determination. If it's down, don't get cocky.

Another thing to try is to start weighing daily just to desensitize yourself to the ups and downs. Once you get used to seeing it go up and then go down, you'll be able to concentrate more on what you are eating and doing day to day and not so much on what the scale says.

Good luck to you! And feel free to give me a shout when you weight if you want to crow or vent!

Thanks everyone for the advice so far! Its so exciting to join this community and know that I am not alone in my weight loss struggle (I'm currently in a country surrouned by thin women, so I definately feel it alot)

I effin' HATE the scale lately. I've added quite a bit of weight-training to my routine, so I think I've added muscle. I am pretty SURE of it, actually, since people comment that I look smaller, but the numbers are NOT going down (in fact, creeping UP) and it's so incredibly depressing. I was 148 a couple of weeks ago, now I'm ~150 again. It's driving me crazy :(    

Original Post by shoe1200:

Your scale is like your totally honest best friend, there to pat your on the back for your good work and also tell you flat out that you screwed up. ;-)

 eh, not so much...... I can get on the stupid thing and see one number, get on it again and see another, and a third time and see another...... I got on this morning (after avoiding it for over week, having gone away for a weekend to see a friend... and what do you DO when you see friends? eat.... oh, I exercised more than usual while I was there because I KNEW we were going to EAT....) and then when I got back I was hitting the wine pretty good too.... so, I was afraid, but not, because my clothes have started to kind of "hang" on me....

I was up four pounds from the day I left on vacation, so, not horrible, BUT it's that same weight that I have been stuck at for over a month.... I was thrilled to see I was below that just before vacation (which also helped me to not REALLY overindulge on vacation).... still, I am discouraged.

Then there are the "doctor's scales" at various places that are all different. We have two where I work (one in the nurse's office, one in the "spin" room), both different; the one at the gym is four pounds lighter than our nurse's office one.... what's with that? I thought those "balance" type scales were supposed to be so accurate....

Anyway, I am afraid of the scale too......

I thought seriously about not weighing this morning because yesterday was so good, I knew instinctively that it wouldn't be so good this a.m. Not because I hadn't eaten healthy yesterday but more because I'd had some sodium in cottage cheese, and a sodium filled pre-packaged meal.

About a week ago I tried not weighing for about 4 days. Not a good thing, I gained like 4 lbs. I need to get on that scale every morning and be accountable. The thing is to stay calm and keep up with the program, over time the scale will reward me with a lower number! Geez, it's hard!

I find it hard to even do any exercise lately let alone add more weights to my routine.  I have been watching myself but with the rain.. today.. i came home and ate too much.. im over my calorie count by a few hundred.  soo Im thinking .. start again tomorrow. but I just cant get off my couch to go for a walk even.  I did a few crunches but nothing to write down.  I need to loose fifteen pounds in one month in order to get my sugars back down and not be become a Diabetic.. that is not what I want.....

Your weight is going up because of your weight training.  you will look better then if you just lost the weight.  its not the number on the scales.. it is what is looking back at you in the mirror.. do you like what you see.. I rate myself at a seven.. im 47 years old and not bad.. but I have a struggle with the numbers myself. 

i gave my daughter my scales.. maybe i should get them back...

Would you believe that 150 is my goal weight?  So, eventhough I hate getting weighed (I go to a special fitness person to get weighed) I know that it will tell me the truth and I have to get back to reality.  I have 30 pounds to lose and I have been going up and down for years.  So, don't be afraid.  It may make you upset for a while but then that number will be your reference point to lose instead of go any higher.

I used to always be afraid of the weighing scales, but if you have an electronic scale, something I think really helps is switching to the units that you are least familiar with. For example, I always think about weight in terms of lbs or stones, so I change the settings so that the weight comes up in kgs. This allows me to focus on if the number is going down or not, rather than getting depressed about the actual weight if that makes any sense?

I am finding more and more as I do cc's "lifestyle change"- I have more fear of the scale than ever...my body is changing however!  It is just soooo slooooow!  lol I seem to want faster results-so if I don't look-I allow myself to be patient!  It is working for me.  I am not getting skinny-just tone and fit.

I keep trying to remind myself that the scale is just a tool... (and an imperfect one at best)..  But you're right.  It does seem like a monster when things start to plateau.    I've heard some people say that measuring inches is much more accurate and rewarding.  I ought to do that myself....

I will not personally weigh myself right now.  My clothes say enough!  

Measuring tape is an excellent way to keep track of weight loss.  Besides, it's not the number on the scale that makes us look the way I desire, it's the way I feel in my clothes.

I tend to get addicted to numbers on scales, rather than paying attention to what really matters, like how I feel and what fits.  

I might just have a weird personality too though.  I just don't need the extra guilt and shame the scale tends to bring me.  My clothes are getting looser, so that's a good enough measuring tool for me.

I hate my scale! I have one of those "talking" ones, y'know, the ones that actually "speak" the weight?

But I'm gonna return it and complain to the manufacturer. Every time I get on it, it says, "HEY! BUDDY!! One at a time!!"

(ba-dump-BUMP!)

TOUGH LOVE TIME:
Like the above poster said, it's an honest companion. Remember, "FACTS are your FRIENDS."

"Afraid of the scale" is yet another way that we (and when I say "we" I mean "I") avoid facts. I've forgotten who first said it, but it's true: "Anything that can be measured can be improved."

The scale is NOT my enemy. My eating habits and attitude toward what goes in my mouth will be reflected (more or less, allowing for 'normal' fluctuation) by the numbers I see staring up at me from between my left and right foot. I recently stopped compulsively weighing myself everyday (couldn't take the aforementioned 'normal' fluctuations!!) and moved to a weigh-in every 10-days. I'm thinking of switching to a weekly weigh-in, but for now, I don't stress NEARLY as much as I used to.

In any case, it seems silly to me hating/fearing the very tool that will give you the feedback you need to make healthier decisions. Kind of like fearing the blood-pressure cuff, etc. We need to embrace these sort of things for what they are and deal with the REAL issue(s), which -- can we just be honest? -- is/are our habits and choices, and NOT those (lying!, no-good!!, stinking!!!) spring-loaded contraptions.

 

I'm completely terrified of the scale, but I also need to weigh myself every morning to check in and today was so upsetting. I just started calorie counting and do not exceed 1400 per day. I lost one pound, but today I gained it back, plus one!!!!!!!! YIKES. I wanted to cry and give up right there. I'm at 143 and would like to drop 13 pounds. And I am a gym rat, running 30-40 minutes 4 days a week and strength training too. How long is this going to take me? When will my body and scale start becoming my friends again? I wanted to resign on my ride to work too until someone emailed around a group photo from a work outing...gross! I didn't even recognize myself and thought that couldn't be me! I guess I need to cut the picture out for motivation.

Can anyone relate?

I had a long conversation with my personal trainer this week about the scale ... the first comment he made is that women seem to put way too much emphasis on what the scale says .... to which I fully agreed.  I know that I get so wrapped up in what it says that it will put me in a good mood or bad mood for the day (or week ... or month).  What he continued on to say is that everybodies weight varies throughout the day - the week - just over time.  I'm sure every one has noticed that if you weigh first thing in the morning you usually weigh less than at the end of the day .... but variations in weight are due to lots of factors - hydration, elimination, nutrition, hormones.... someone posted above that she can step on a scale three times and get three different readings - the fact is, the weight on a scale is only the weight at that particular moment.  I'm trying to decrease how often I step on the scale as I would rather think about how my body feels  (which now is firmer, leaner, and tighter) and try to get less caught up in how much I weigh .... anyway, that's my journey .... I'll see where it takes me!