Should I banish the scales.

[Twiggie]

I'm a daily weigher. Always have been and always will be...

Inevitably the scales have had several days, and even several weeks at one stage where they havent moved, but I dont let that get me down.

For me, the only time in the past that I havent weighed daily is as each failed diet comes to an end and I pile the pounds back on. Not knowing how much I was gaining somehow stopped me from feeling bad about stuffing my face.

So whilst I totally get why most of you choose not to weigh every day, for me, not to weigh every day is the slippery slope back to obese.

I'm with you on this one Sam, I'm so scared of regaining the weight I've lost that I have to weigh myself daily to keep a check on it. Obviously at the moment whilst on pre-op diet I'm also looking for a slight loss each day too but trying not to become obsessive about it.

As I said earlier up the thread, I've just bought some body analyser scales which I think are going to be invaluable over the coming months to see how my body is changing physically as well as visibly post-op.

Mind you I wasn't too impressed to learn my body is currently 64% fat, compared to my son's 7.3%

 

[fatbutnot4long]

i check at least once a day! im obsessed and i cant stop it.. if there not here i panick that ive put on and when they are here i even (sorry) weigh myself b4 and after i go to the loo! i never cared before (which is why i was over 22 stone) but now its taken over my life.. in time i know i will have to work through my issues in my head , as this op has made it all worse that way, but right now im too scared to stop.. my advice would be bin then while u can! there evil!! xx

 

[Sambucca]

I'm with you on this one Sam, I'm so scared of regaining the weight I've lost that I have to weigh myself daily to keep a check on it. Obviously at the moment whilst on pre-op diet I'm also looking for a slight loss each day too but trying not to become obsessive about it.

As I said earlier up the thread, I've just bought some body analyser scales which I think are going to be invaluable over the coming months to see how my body is changing physically as well as visibly post-op.

Mind you I wasn't too impressed to learn my body is currently 64% fat, compared to my son's 7.3%

Oh god, don't get me started on body fat! I posted in my diary about how I recently joined the gym and was flabbergasted when at my induction I was told I had 49% body fat... and thats AFTER losing 7 stones! Not bloody impressed I can tell you.

There was me thinking I was joining the gym to get a bit fitter and a bit more toned and she took the wind right of out my sails telling me I had to work on reducing fat first as it was pointless building muscle underneath all that fat!

 

[ladylite]

Well thanks for all your help I have made a decision (blimey I sound like Simon Cowell)

I think I would be addicted to weighing myself and know that if I gain or stay the same it will worry me. The battery on my scales had run out a couple a weeks ago and I did feel better not knowing what I weighed.

I am going to weigh and measure myself before the start of the milk diet and then the day I go to hospital.

Hubbie has agreed to hide them and I will get them out once a month. As a lot of you have said, I should be slowly going down in clothes size so will know if I am losing.

Thanks again,

 

[12dobidog]

I am with you rybens
I weigh each morning
but then work out my food and fluid intake for the day.
This is a take fron my experience of circuit training for cycling when I was younger.
You eat what your body needs to fuction without feeling hungry.
Back then we were obsessed but we learned some interesting facts.
I now mix what I learned then and what I can see is more practable. After all I did allow myself to get to the size I was and have taken a long time to get into the right mind set to do something about it. NOW is that time and for me weighing each day works for me.
I hope you dont mind the babble but it makes sense to me

 

[Lady_in_London]

Believe it or not I only eat 500-800 cals a day and can go weeks without a weight loss !!!!

Shhh don't tell the OP that!!!!

 

[LisaG]

That sounds like a great idea...so wish I could banish mine too. I get really obsessive with weighing if I let myself. At my worst (several years ago) I weighed myself about 6 times a day! This morning I weighed myself for the first time in 3 days so that's great for me.

Good luck x

 

[phatgirl]

Punishment by scale - very common in weight loss circles. I found myself weighing every day and feeling gloomy when I went several days without a loss. So I cut back to a couple of times per week until I reached my first goal then I switched to 2x per month. Now it is more like 1x per month just to check in and know where I am at.

Most people will have many days and even weeks all along their wls journey without weightloss. The measure of success is not just pounds falling away but also gained healthy and inches lost. So if you find that your scale has too much importance in your daily life - BANISH IT! It breaks my heart to see newly post-op people post about stalls and plateaus in the early days when their body is just recovering from surgery or saving up for a big loss in the near future. Scales shouldn't be used to torture yourself so let that be your guide.

Nic

 

[Stellap]

Whilst I totally appreciate that weighing can get obsessive and can depress if you have a bad result, I have a body that can put on 7lbs in less than a week and have found whenever I stop weighing myself for a period of time my weight gets out of control and end up putting on loads. In my case, knowledge is power and I can put the breaks on early if I'm starting to gain so I have decided to weigh myself once a week (sometimes twice a week) just to keep me in check. I know that its not just about weighing yourself, but also inch loss,TOM, muscles weighing more than fat etc etc, but in reality health professionals assess your health by weight (BMI is measured by this) and my dietician and surgeon also go by my weight loss as an indication of failure or success (EWL is also measured by % of weight lost). I wish it was different and that BMI took into consideration not only height and weight but other factors too. I had the surgery to help my diabetes and get to a healthy BMI. I'm not too bothered about how much I weigh per se, a normal size 14 or even 12 will do, but I would like to be within a normal BMI range. I think it's down to personal preference and what works for the indiividual person. If having no weight loss makes you head for the biscuits then bin the scales. I like that control that weighing gives me to keep on the straight and narrow. I think by the time we get to surgery we are all experts in whatever case works for us, be it the scale or the tale of the tape!

 

[ladylite]

Well when I got home from hospital my hubbie had removed the scales and quite frankly I was relieved when the werent there. I would be surprised if I hadntt put on some weight pre op as I feel so full of wind and am bloated and thats after losing 5 kilos before I went down to surgery.

We are all different and I beleive that compulsive weighers are not doing themselves any good, it as bad as compulsive eating. You weigh, you have put on, you are depreseed, even though you may have been 100%. Just like the old eating habits, you eat too much, you are depressed and have self loathing for doing it and so you eat again to console yourself.

I am glad that I now have two compulsions taking away, weighing and eat.

 

[Stellap]

You're right Mary, most people do put on when coming home due to all the air they inflate you with, fluid retention etc - I was 7lbs heavier. It's pointless weighing yourself for the first month. Good luck on your journey to the new you! One other reason why I do weigh regularly is my scales also weigh my bone density and water which lets me know if I'm retaining water and as I have osteoparosis in my family I'm concerned about my bone density and getting enough calcium (it has gone down a couple of notches since the op but my calcium levels are normal).

 

[seawaves]

This is a good question to have the scales or not to have the scales?! Well i'm terrible at the moment & i'm pre op, i'm on & off there all the time drives me crazy, i say to myself everyday right i'm not going to go on them today, but at some point during the day i cave in!! So i'm thinking they will have to be removed, well for me anyway

 

[ladylite]

I dont know if you have trigger foods, foods you cant have around as you know you will eat them. Food that call your name for the cupboard, foods that have your name on them. To me the scales are like a little trigger thing, I just cant help getting on them, so they have been banished and I feel really good that they are not calling me from the bathroom.

 

[angie790]

We are all consumed about our scales...they can make or break us for the day....but can we really live without them?!!!! I don't weight myself as often as I probably should ('coz it is sooooo depressing)....but then how would I know if I were putting on weight? Argggggggggggggg!!!!
To ditch the scales sounds like a great idea!!!!

 

[christine77]

my advice and my plan for when im post op is to get rid of them because i want to focus on the good points not have a day ruined cos the scales havent moved. ive been obsessed for 15 years with getting on the scales 6/7 times a day what good has it done me im still 12 stone over weight, and its only recently that ive noticed my 4 year old doing it to. so i have made a decision they are going and i will go and get weighed once a month in boots.

what ever decision you make im sure it'll be a good one - glad to hear your still pain free