I have an embarrassing confession to make: I have become addicted to weighing myself several times a day!

It started out innocently enough. I was near my WW goal, and wanted to check my weight before going to my meeting (hoping to not have to pay). Then, because my leader has meetings at different times of the day, I would check to see if I weighed less at noon, or at the end of the day ... (I was surprised that sometimes I weighed most in the morning).

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts/ experiences about how weighing yourself frequently affects your weight loss progress. I have mixed feelings as to whether this obsession has caused me to stall out and plateau. Yet I also have to add that in the past when I avoided the scale, the pounds really crept on quickly.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

Hello synesthesiac! Just wanted to see how you were doing since this post. I read the other post and you got a good feed-back. I hope it was helpful to you.

quote:

Originally posted by littlewhitedove:
Watching it takes our focus off the right things such as taking care of ourselves and enjoying life. ... with a terminal illness it is hard but my over all health has improved. hope this helps give you a few things to think about.

Thank you, Dove. You put it in perspective for me. It is all about taking care of ourselves, enjoying life and being appreciative of good health. I hope your health continues to improve.

I too became addicted to the scale. As you mentioned that when I didn't watch it so closely- I gained weight. I guess the problem is two-fold. Watching it takes our focus off the right things such as taking care of ourselves and enjoying life. Our focus shouldn't be on the scale because sometimes our weight has nothing to do with our over-all fitness or health. Second I think the reason I gained while not watching the scale is because I became less sensitive to the right foods. I ate crackers at bedtime because I have to take my night meds with food adn I have this thing about eatting after 7pm. I was shocked at the high fat content of what I thought was better then eatting food. I also have to get in large amounts of water. I hear some complain about 8- 8oz glasses of water. I am a kidney patient and must keep my out-put above 4 liters a day which means I have to drink over 3 liters every day and around the clock. I recently found my weight sky-rocketed because I don't sleep trough the night, meds and large amounts of fluids which aren't always water. Sometimes at night I sip clear soda to keep from spending the morning hang over ther john all day. These added up to a large amount of weight gain. I allow myself to weigh in once a week now and journal what I eat, when and what exercise I can do. I found that my ability to exercise is limited but when I journaled I added more of what I can do. I haven't lost any true weight yet as with a terminal illness it is hard but my over all health has improved. hope this helps give you a few things to think about.

quote:

Originally posted by kd:
This is a wonderful questions for Dr. Atkins. Can I pose it to her? I think we could all learn a lot from her insights.

KD, yes I would love to hear what Dr. Atkins would say about this. Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by Sheltieguy:
Or was it the other way around?:

People who were losing/maintaining weight tended to weigh themselves daily, looking for positive feedback.

People who thought they were gaining weight avoided the scale, to avoid negative feedback, and/or to maintain denial.

As someone who didn't weight himself for more than a decade, I know a thing or two about weight denial.

That is a really good observation... That is probably why they have to do more studies and break people up into random groups, as mentioned in the article.

And I hear you about the denial! But that is part of why I do weigh daily.

quote:

I think weigh in frequency is a very personal thing. If I were to attempt to weigh myself daily, I would eventually get bored, and quit weighing myself altogether.

I agree that everybody has to figure out what works for them.

I get bored with it... and once in a while, I do forget to do it... since it is such a non event in the day. I'm usually thinking about something else in the morning besides the scale... so it isn't exactly an obsession. Sort of like brushing my teeth... I do it... but I'm not obsessed with it.

And "losing" a lb is no longer exciting and gaining a lb is no longer cause for sadness. In a way, daily weighing has be good for me on the emotional side... but that is just me.

That's a good point, Sheltieguy.

Maybe they need to do a corollary to these weighing studies to see if people who don't weigh themselves and keep the weight off use other measures to track their weight.

quote:

...People in the study who weighed every day lost more weight or maintained their weight better than people who did not...

Or was it the other way around?:

People who were losing/maintaining weight tended to weigh themselves daily, looking for positive feedback.

People who thought they were gaining weight avoided the scale, to avoid negative feedback, and/or to maintain denial.

As someone who didn't weight himself for more than a decade, I know a thing or two about weight denial.

I think weigh in frequency is a very personal thing. If I were to attempt to weigh myself daily, I would eventually get bored, and quit weighing myself altogether.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sheltieguy,

There is a VERY interesting article at Webmd on this subject today:

Daily Weigh-In May Help Dieters Lose

Once-a-Day Weighers Lost Twice the Weight

Nov. 18, 2005 -- Making friends with your bathroom scale just may help you lose those extra pounds and keep them off.

While most weight loss programs don't encourage the practice, a new study suggests that daily weighing may be better for weight loss and weight control than weekly or less frequent weighing.

People in the study who weighed every day lost more weight or maintained their weight better than people who did not.

Daily Weighing Not for Everyone

It is clear, however, that some people shouldn't weigh themselves every day. Constant weight monitoring is common among people with eating disorders. And Linde says unpublished research suggests that daily weighing may not be a good idea for people who are clinically depressed.


Full article is at:

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/115/111806.htm

This is a wonderful questions for Dr. Atkins. Can I pose it to her? I think we could all learn a lot from her insights.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experiences and advice.

Several of you asked how weighing myself constantly could lead to a plateau. I guess I'd compare it to a marathon runner who starts looking over his shoulder constantly to check how far behind his competitors are. Have you noticed that's the beginning of the end for him?
Weighing myself constantly reminds me of that runner who is not confident and not listening to his body any longer.

When I am on program, doing what I know I should do, tracking accurately etc., waiting until the weekly WW weigh in was exciting because I wondered how much I'd lose.

Someone suggested I put my scale away. That's exactly what I was thinking! Maybe I will store it in the trunk of my car

Thanks everyone!

P.S. I just remembered something Oprah said on this: that the scale is not her friend; that if she weighs less she thinks it's okay to eat more; if she weighs more she gets depressed and loses motivation. Maybe a little of that is going on with me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: synesthesiac,

If you don't weigh, you need another gauge/charting method. So if you are going to not weigh, try measurements/goal pants.

Goal pants are pants that are too small, that you can't get over the hips of doom...where you try them on once a week, and they get closer to fitting (or every two weeks)

Or you could put your scale in storage, in a closet, and bring it out only on Wed.

I don't weigh myself. Its tempting to, esp on here where so many people weigh themselves. I've found I focus so much on the numbers that I really start going into starvation mode when I'm weighing..it triggers "diet" behavior.

I weigh daily and, like Bee said, "it works for me." I feel like I would be one of those people who could get in big trouble fast if I wasn't in the habit of "checking the gauge" regularly.

You may just be playing around with "scale science" (experiment: eat salty popcorn the night before and see what that does on the scale) or you could be getting a little too fixated on that number. Only you know for sure. For a while I was weighing multiple times a day, but I realized that those fluctuations over a day aren't that important and got bored with it.

Since you're near your goal, one thing you could use your "experiments" for is to see what time of day would be best for you to go to your meetnig if you have a choice. But if it's making you feel bad to weigh so often, and you find that you are overeating as a result, try to talk yourself out of weighing more than once a day or even every other day.

I threw my scale in the garage and said no more!
I was becoming obsessed by the numbers and not really paying attention to the healthy part of loosing weight.

I don't know how checking the scale can cause you to plateau or stall out, but it can cause you to focus too much on those numbers.

I had to think about what was really important.
Why was I loosing this weight to begin with, was it to meet that number on a mechanical object? Was that the ONLY method by which I could measure my success? And the answer for me was NO...very loudly and very clearly.

I weigh once a week at WW meetings. that is the ONLY scale I go by. Why? because it doens't matter what my scale says, they don't write that number down at WW nor at the doc's office.
I go by how my clothes are fitting, how I am feeling and knowing what I've put in my mouth to figure out my weight loss. The nnumbers on the scale are so iffy even at WW. They don't measure your true success or what you've done for yourself.

That's my story, others will give you another story. But if you are still weighing yourself everytime you enter the bathroom, put the thing away for a couple of weeks, and figure another way to measure you successes.

I know where you are coming from. I went through a period where I weighed myself every time I went into the bathroom. This was so bad for my brain, I let the number determine my mood, and the number changed through the day. A drop and I was happy, increase sad. It was a crazy cylce I was in. Now, once a day, in the morning when I get up, I weigh in.
Jill

quote:

Originally posted by synesthesiac:
I have mixed feelings as to whether this obsession has caused me to stall out and plateau.

How so? I don't really understand...

That is sort of like saying checking the gas gauge made me run out of gas.

That's how I think of the scale... it is a gauge.

I feel exactly the same as Bee...

The number doesn't wreck my day, and it usually isn't the best part of the day.

I often jump on the scale at night... because it is there... and I'm there... but I've never lost sleep over the info.

I've been weighing daily since June 2001. It never caused a plateau or hindered my progress.

The only time I've "plateau-ed" was when I ate too much... but the scale didn't make me do that.

I got into trouble avoiding the scale - like 50 lbs worth. So now I weigh everyday... retaining water, soy sauce the night before, feta cheese the night before (you can seriously retain some water eating that!) constipated, on plan, off plan... I weigh every morning.

I weigh in every morning. It works for me. I feel like I can better stay on top of even small gains and nip things in the bud.

I know that most professionals think it's a bad idea but according to the National Weight Loss Registry, most successful maintainers weigh in daily so I figure I'm in good company.