Scale = God?

You weighed x lbs yesterday. You step on the scale. You weigh x+5 lbs today. You instantly feel like jumping out a window.

I was formerly guilty of this. I'm still guilty of this, depending on many factors including but not limited to:
a. the weather
b. the number of happy hormones running around my bloodstream
c. the extra slice of cake I had last night

Is there anyone out there who DOESN'T harbor suicidal tendencies over a few pounds (REAL or FLUCTUATIONS)? If you formerly worshipped the scale, what made you stop? Do you have any advice you can give to the rest of us?

Thanks in advance :D

The last time I was "on a diet" (more than 25 years ago) the scale had incredible power over my happiness.  I belonged to WW, and only weighed once a week, so if it went up, I agonized about whether it was that slice of cake last Saturday that did it.

This time, I am considering it a lifestyle change.  I have a lot of weight to lose, but as long as I am meeting my goals to control portions, eat healthy foods, and exercise more, I feel "successful".  Ironically, I am weighing every morning, so I see more fluctuation than I did on WW, but it bothers me less.  One factor may be that I can see the trend line moving down even when the scale goes up slightly.  But I think a bigger factor is that I don't feel as if I am on a "diet", I am not overly restricting my intake or my food choices (about 500 calories/day is my planned deficit), and I am rigorous (and honest) about logging my intake.  So, even if I don't lose, or even gain, I am confident that my "plan" will work if I give it time.  I started CC on March 25, and even have had a 13 day "plateau", but haven't felt the need to tweak my eating based on the scale.

I think it is difficult to offer advice about weight loss, since we are all so different, but I think that the more you can make a plan that really works for you in a long term sense, the more likely you will be to feel in control of your health, and the less power the scale will have on your life.

I had a shrine in my closet for my scale at one point.

But then I moved to a different house and the scale was just out of existence. so I don't use a scale anymore. If I want to weigh myself, I take measurements or I go to the gym and use their traditional scale.

I also try not to weigh myself every day or every time I'm at the gym.

Paul McKenna has a metaphor for weighing yourself every day. A farmer gives his daughter some seeds to plant, but they never grow. After a while he watches what she is doing. Every day she digs up the seeds to see if they are taking. Of course they don't.

I have been doing his system. I used to be hooked on the scales and had all sorts of excel sheets to track my daily weight. I now weigh once every two weeks. After the first time I left it for three weeks and I had lost 8 pounds, but I can't wait that long so tomorrow is Weigh Day. Hopefully there will be some improvement! I have gone down a size at H and M so I am hopeful.

I still have the spreadsheets lol...

Not any more.  Part of the treatment for congestive heart failure involves daily weigh-ins and blood pressure readings, monitored by a nurse, using a computer.  Seeing the readout of daily fluctuations that used to drive me nuts was actually good for me.  I finally see that weight can go up and down and it doesn't mean you've gained fat. 

Another great tool - the calorie count weight log.  I only log my weight twice a month, and only pay attention to the green trend line, not my actual weight.  As long as that green line slants down, I'm fine.  You can see it yourself in my profile.

So all I have to say is, use your brain power, think it through and get over it like I did.

I know exactly how you feel! I recently moved so I don't have a scale anymore, but in my former residence I was weighing myself several times a day and was hit with SERIOUS depression if I went up even a little, even after eating a meal. I live with my boyfriend now and he knows how I feel about my weight, so he asked me if I wanted a scale since we don't have one, and I immediately said "no!" Even though I would kinda like one cause I'm very obsessive about my weight, I know it would only make me depressed and I'd be on it 24/7...

I don't know what counsel to give. Except that our lives should not be controlled by our weight. We ar ethe only ones who "notice" and even then if we didn't step on the scale we would probably never notice the fluctuations either... I gained 6 or so lbs one week, and I was so down about it, and I told my bf that I needed to start dieting and working out, and he asked why.. and I said "I've gained weight". He hadn't the slightest incling of this... So for you and me both, we should try to get over weight controlling our happiness, not sure how. But I wish us both the best...

Original Post by helionix:

Is there anyone out there who DOESN'T harbor suicidal tendencies over a few pounds (REAL or FLUCTUATIONS)? If you formerly worshipped the scale, what made you stop? Do you have any advice you can give to the rest of us?

i don't.  i never have.  but then, before the age of 37, i only remember stepping on a scale twice in my life: grade 8 PE, in the locker room, when the fat, angry PE teacher weighed and caliper-tested all of us, publicly, callng out the numbers to a kid with a clipboard; and when i was 25 and just back from 6 weeks in central america (i know i was weighed more times, but i only remember those two).

by the time i decided i had a problem and bought myself a scale, it was just one of my tools for getting healthy.  it's never had any power over me.  maybe because i was an adult before i needed it.

i hate and love my scale depending on the number ...i get on it everyday..can't help it!

The scale is a good tool to use if you don't exercise. It is an easy way to keep track of how your overall eating is affecting your weight.

However, if you lift weights and do a lot of exercise, the scale is the last thing you should go by. People who first get into weight lifting, get discouraged when they see their scale weight go up, because they don't realize that muscle puts on weight. Then they immediately dial back the calories which can do more harm than good. A better way to judge progress if your exercise regularly is by getting your bodyfat % taken and other measurements and get new ones every few months or so. There was a great line on a website I read one time that said "A person can be overweight but not overfat". That is why I hate the BMI index. It is too general.

I put my scale in the closet last week. I would have buried it in the back yard, but my family has to use it, haha. I don't need a scale; I exercise, I eat well, and that's good enough. Why do I need a tempermental object to determine how I feel on a daily basis?

Several years ago I was dieting and stepping on the scale several times a day. If my lunchtime weighin was more than my morning weighin, it determined what I ate for dinner. Then I got pregnant, went crazy eating, got fat, and before really getting going this time I realized how totally nuts I was before. I don't want to be nuts. I want to be healthy. Sometimes I weigh myself once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row. It's just a tool now, not my arch-nemesis.

I broke free from the scale. I still weigh once a week, but it was really hard not to let the scale determine my mood for the day. If the scale was up, I would cry about it. Literally CRY because I felt fat and like a failure.

Then I took it as a science experiment and started to track how my body fluctuated. It did it all the time. My period came, and there I go up some pounds. I have a bowel movement and there it goes down some pounds. When your body is mostly water, eating a little more salt can give you a couple pounds increase.

Just as long as you are honest with yourself, the scale should never hold true value. I say let it go for a few weeks and just do what you do without it. It'll be hard, but just do it.

PS: One time I actually flushed my scale battery down the toilet I was so mad at it. And yes, I peed on it! Haha.

I weigh myself every day and record it.  I've been doing so for three years.  No, I've never harbored any suicidal thoughts over gains or fluctuations.  It's just a tool that provides more information the more you use it.  The scale's information gives YOU power, not the scale.

I have an anology for weighing only once a week or so.  A man decided to cross the Atlantic from US to Europe in his yacht.  He got the maps, the GPS, all the doodads, checked his position, and started out.  But then he put all that aside and just kept the boat headed in the general direction of the rising sun.  Every week, he'd check the GPS position and maps, and he was generally closer to Europe than before, but his latitude positions were all over the place, and he fell farther and farther off his schedule. 

If you are using weights and working out freqently dont pay as much attention to the scale. I was really frustrated last month. It was my first month with a trainer 2x a week plus I was doing kickbox classes, spin classes and lots of cardio weekly. The scale only went down 2 lbs ALL MONTH!!! Well I met with my trainer for a monthy evaluation and I lost a total of 6.5 inches and my body fat% dropped 1.2%. It just goes to show how much more muscle weights than fat.

I think it is important to weigh in everyday. For me, if I stop weighing in, then I dont have to face any weight gain. So for me, if I see the scale go up, I just eat right and try to get back on track. This is much easier than trying to lose 5 pounds when you ignore the scale. To not get obsessed with the numbers, I do not weigh myslef after I have had a cheat day. I know it wont be good, so I just eat right and weigh my self the next day, and the scale is usually good to me. Also keep in mind, the body fluctuates, and not to take each pound so seriously. :)

The reason why I weigh myself every day..is that I gain weight very fast..so I think of what might happen if I--say--don't weigh myself for a week..and then step on the scale and find out that I gained 8 pounds or something!!!!!

so I weigh myself every day to stay on track..like if I gain a pound or two..I will know that I have..and then try to get back on track...and manage my eating habits better...