I thought this was a great eye-opener for me. I place so much emphasis on that crappy scale.

Wednesday January 16, 2008

Asking Too Much of Your Scale?

Posted Wednesday January 16, 2008 at 08:04 PM EST in Ask the Experts

Your scale is good at telling you how much you weigh. But are you asking it to do too much? Are you expecting it to make you happy, lift your mood, set the tone for your day, or establish a higher sense of self worth?

If you are, then you're asking too much of your scale - it can't be your friend, your enemy, your mood lifter, or your spirit crusher. All it can do is tell you the total of your weight - your skin, hair, eyeballs, bones, fat, muscle, fingernails, etc. It will never be your friend or your enemy.

It is a piece of equipment, nothing more nothing less.

It has no power over you except that which you give it.

It’s the second week of the Challenge, and the initial rush of enthusiasm may be fading. When the daily drop in scale weight tapers off, what will you have left to make you feel good about what you are doing?

Putting yourself through a workout and then expecting the scale to lift your spirits is missing the point of activity. Overemphasis on the scale will lead to more negativity and failure unless you can find a way to adopt a different mindset. Try these 4 Progress Questions to determine how you're doing:

4 Progress Questions: (a “yes” answer to two or three of these is a sure sign you’re making real progress.)

1 – Do you have increased energy, or do you feel more capable?

2 – Are your clothes fitting more losely?

3 – Are you starting to like what you see in the mirror?

4 – Are you getting people asking you if you have “lost weight,” or “gotten in shape?” (especially people who are only acquaintances and don't see you daily)

If you had ample energy to get through the day, were feeling good in your clothes, moved confidently about your daily activities, and were getting compliments from others that you were getting in shape, would you really care if the scale read 100 pounds or 400 pounds when you stepped on it?

(If you're thinking "yes," re-read the description in the first part and truly imagine what it would feel like to live that way, then ask yourself again and again until the answer is "no.")

The source of your frustration isn't you! There's nothing wrong with you, just with how you measure fitness. Using an intense focus on the scale to determine success or failure is certain disaster.

Read my previous posting on the scale:

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Jonathan Ross, National Body Challenge Fitness Expert

Award-Winning Fitness Expert Jonathan Ross

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Here's another scale article:

Scale, Scale, on the Floor. Who's the lightest...

Posted Saturday December 22, 2007 at 02:01 PM EST in Weight Loss Solutions

Do you have a dysfunctional relationship with your scale?

Maybe you are asking too much of it.

All it can tell you is how much you weigh - the total off all the stuff that is you. Your eyes, hair, skin, teeth, organs, muscle, bone, fat, toenails, etc.

Yet, many people treat the scale as if can decide if you are a good person, if you are a good parent, friend, or partner. Sometimes we even look to the scale to determine our disposition for the entire day. Are we asking too much of the scale to have it make value judgments on our self-worth as a valid member of the human race?

Uh, yes.

Consider the following example:

I have $100.

You don't know if I have a one-hundred dollar bill, 100 one-dollar bills, or 10,000 pennies. In the same fashion, the scale only tells you the sum of the parts. It doesn't give you a break down of how much each part contributes to the total.

The scale measures the total of your body weight. It doesn't tell you if you're a good or bad person, a decent wife, mother, or friend. It's a cold, lifeless, measuring tool that determines nothing about the quality and value of your life. The only power it has is the power that each of us gives it.

Jonathan Ross, National Body Challenge Fitness Expert

Award-Winning Fitness Expert Jonathan Ross

scales pretty much suck. The one thing people never seem to realize is that a scale does what it's designed to do which is report the weight of your entire mass: your skin, hair, and everything in and on your body. They do not tell you changes in your fat or size, just in your overall weight.

We get a lot of posts here of people freaking out because their scale has shown an overnight weight increase and they assume they gained fat. All the scale is saying is that your entire mass weighs more now than it did. It says NOTHING about your fat.

I've had to post this as a reminder to people whoa re freaking out about overnight WEIGHT (not fat) gain probably 50 times, if not more.

Hopefully your post will get some readers.

But of course we are stuck on the numbers on a scale. Since our birth announcements that list our weight and pediatrician visits that tell us where we are on the growth curve, every Dr's visit the first thing they do is weigh us and if we join a weigh loss program like weight watchers, success is measured by the scale.

I agree with the above posts but think it's hard to get away from the reality of the NUMBER on the scale. Let's face it, I cannot fit into a size 12 unless the numbers go down!

I used to be really bad about letting my scale affect my mood. Then I just made myself quit weighing until I could get on the scale and not be pissed off all day just because it hadn't gone down. Now I just take it for what it is; one piece of information that tells me generally how I am doing. If you are letting it affect your mood, don't get on it in the first place.

I weigh myself every day, and write the number down. To me, the number on the scale is simply a number. It does not define who I am. It's just another tool on my weight loss journey that helps me to know if there's something about what I'm doing every day that needs to change. I do like to see the numbers getting smaller, but if they don't over time, then I know something's got to change.

unfortunately, the beast affects my mood like no other. :mad:

i try to stay off of it, but its a compulsion of sorts. if it goes down, i'm elated... up and im pissed for the day.

i really need to work on this...

So get rid of your scales and buy a tape measure instead. Or a BF analyzer. There's no difference between saying "the scale numbers have to go down if I want a size 12" and "the tape measure numbers..." or "the body fat numbers..."

So get rid of your scales and buy a tape measure instead. Or a BF analyzer. There's no difference between saying "the scale numbers have to go down if I want a size 12" and "the tape measure numbers..." or "the body fat numbers..."

but ..

but...

but....

i guess im afraid i will lose control when i dont weigh myself. happened last week. i refused to step on the scale cause i was eating all the wrong things ... i gained ... oh boy... :mad:

I'm a horrible scale dancer and it has become a problem for me. I'm so emotionally invested in the number. I'm a sclae addict, with a love hate relationship with it. Plateaus are really depressing for me and I have actually destoryed (as in thrown and smashed to pieces) quite a few scales in my life.

Hello, my name is Leena and I'm a scale addict.

Losing I totally feel your moods with the scale. I have them too.

I'm considering letting DH be in charge of the scales, yes all 3 of them. Maybe he could lock them in his office at work and only bring them home every 2 weeks. Or maybe he could record my weight daily for me so I don't have to look at the number.

I HATE SCALES!

Or maybe he could record my weight daily for me so I don't have to look at the number.

oh good gracious NO WAY ... i mean he knows what i weigh now (in a round about way), but no way ... nuh uh...

i guess im afraid i will lose control when i dont weigh myself. happened last week. i refused to step on the scale cause i was eating all the wrong things ... i gained ... oh boy...

I do totally get it. I've been asked sooo many times by local/IRL bandsters, "HOW do you not weigh yourself everyday?" (I now weigh about every 2 months, and use either a BF analyzer or my measurements to gauge my progress - the scale is purely for fitday numbers).

I liken it to carb addiction - your first few days of not doing it really suck, you're constantly thinking about it, especially when you see the scale and you're tempted just to jump on it real quick, much like you're tempted to take just one bite... and then after a while of not doing it, it doesn't bother you nearly as much as it used to.

If you'd truly like to get away from it, throw the damn thing away. That's not really any different than not buying the ice cream while you're at the store (look at how many of us have to not buy it, because if we buy it we will eat it). Or if you have a SO, have him/her hide it from you.

The reason I hate scales so much is because 1) they're deceiving, but really 2) I've seen them destroy so many otherwise valid weightloss efforts, including mine. You give up and give up and go without, and get on the scale JUST KNOWING that you've lost 15 pounds, and instead you've lost 2 lbs, or maybe gained 3. In reality your body may be down 3% of its fat, but you're retaining Water. So what do you do when you see that higher number? You say "F--- this, I'm not giving up my chocolate & ice cream so that I can weigh more!", throw out the weightloss efforts, and usually binge top top it off.

It just kills me to see that happen. That's why I get so "matter of fact" about it when I post. Going by a scale to determine your success is no different than letting others' comments drive your self esteem. It really isn't. And no one or thing should have that much power over any of us.

The one thing I think scales are good for (aside from weighing your total body mass, which they do well) is for the maintenance phase. I think it's important to see where you're at so that if you start to gain fat, you can nip it in the bud before it's one of those invisible/unnoticed problems so many of us had the first time around. But even then, it has to be done with a grain of salt (my personal recommendation is to track how much you gain/lose at different times of the month, and set a range for your weight with those numbers.) If 150 corresponds to a good body fat percentage, and I know that I can gain up to 15lbs during my period, or drop up to 5 near ovulation, then I know there's a 20lb fluctuation associated with my weight and I basically have to ignore anything within that fluctuation at the respective time. Then keep in mind diet-related Fluid retention, dehydration, bathroom habits, etc. and take it all with a grain of salt.

Wheetsin,

how come you always make perfect sense?? :mad:

ok ... i will ask DH to keep the scale in his car. i will not be weighed until my tuck on the 29th.

oh boy, this is big... i've restarted Atkins (yet again) and i am obsessed with the scale while on Atkins, cause i usually drop about 5-7 pounds a week and it keeps me motivated. this is going to be really difficult.

Yeah, the scale is a huge Atkins killer. This is true for just about every weightloss effort out there, but on Atkins especially there is the "Atkins stall" which strikes (suually) right around week 3. Big drop, big drop... nothing! OMG it's not working anymore! (I moderated a large Atkins board for a year or two and I can't tell you how many times we saw this -- just about everyone there hit the stall, the only exception I can think of being, of course, men).

So -- expect a stall around week 3, maybe as late as week 6 or 7. When you see it, stick through it. And avoid artificial sweetners, esp Splenda -- known Atkins stallers. On Atkins I would sometimes stall out for a few months at a time, and then "lose" 25 lbs overnight. Per the scale. Surely no one out there really believes I could have truly lost 25 lbs overnight, without an amputation or something. (just another example of how scales suck). :mad:

QUOTE:;

If you had ample energy to get through the day, were feeling good in your clothes, moved confidently about your daily activities, and were getting compliments from others that you were getting in shape, would you really care if the scale read 100 pounds or 400 pounds when you stepped on it?

(If you're thinking "yes," re-read the description in the first part and truly imagine what it would feel like to live that way, then ask yourself again and again until the answer is "no.")

---------

I would still not be happy...while energy and feeling good and compliments etc...are nice, they are not the reason I had the surgery and am so gung ho about losing...I NEED to be HEALTHIER...

So, the scale makes me accountable for that. I don't, however, allow it to affect my mood because, as weetin (more or less) said, it's affected by so much more than just your amount of excess weight. Although, when I get to a new low...I am thrilled!!!

Just my two cents!

Rain

Except that the scale is NOT in any way an indicator of health.

There's a gentleman in my office who I'd have considered "healthy" who is actually quite skinny, and he is on light duty right now due to having to have a quadruple bypass.