Need someone to remind me that scales suck

[dracopervicax]

Here's the story:

I started on my fitness journey back in January. My goal was to lose 50 pounds. My scale told me I was 185, so I made my weight loss goal 135. It made a lot of sense, put me right in the middle of that ridiculous BMI thing, and it seemed like a nice, round goal.

I found out over the summer that my scale measures people about 7 pounds lighter than they actually are, meaning that I was 192lbs at the start of my journey. I decided to keep my 135lb goal for the same silly BMI reasons. At that point I was at about 153. I lost three pounds over the summer.

Here's when it all went screwy. When I was at home I did a pretty good job of only weighing myself once a week. Over the summer in Chicago? I was weighing myself every day. Sometimes twice a day. And I would feel guilty. Every day when that scale didn't budge from 150, I felt like shit. I started to feel guilty about eating. I didn't get quite as bad as to not eat (probs cause I'm a bit of an emotional eater), but it still wasn't healthy.

I talked with my fiance about it, and we agreed that it would be healthy if I stopped weighing myself alltogether. Just to worry about sticking to paleo and getting back into taekwondo.

Obviously, as I'm sure you know, I felt LOADS better. It was easier to stick to paleo, when I got back my size 12 jeans were loose. All my shirts -- that I had bought in May, mind you, were loose. I have been feeling like I made HUGE progress without really thinking about it. I even posted it in the woot room.

But this morning I broke all of that, it feels like. I was attempting to do a body fat calculation with measurements (which I know is really flawed, but that's the only thing I have to go on right now), and it required weight. I got permission from my fiance and weighed in.

The scale said 140, which means I was at 147 pounds. A three pound difference.

I am pretty disappointed. It's been, what, 8 weeks since I last weighed myself and three pounds is all I have to show for it?!

But none of my clothes fit well anymore -- I know I am stronger and faster than I was even a few weeks ago. I know I've built muscle. The scale shouldn't matter. It's a really inaccurate measure. But it still matters to me and I don't know why .

I need someone to remind me why, and in what ways scales suck. Maybe if other people tell this to me, I'll be able to get it in my head.

[Eatesalot7]

Why I don't weigh my self.... last year at this time I was around 172 size 14. Now I'm 168 and a size 8. I'd be depressed if I followed a scale

[SpeedRacer]

If you were on the moon would you be any more attractive? You'd weight 1/6th of what you do now.

If you were on Jupiter you'd be morbidly obese.

[ritabelle]

I wasn't seeing any progress on the scales, so I started measuring myself weekly. Even when the scale doesn't show progress, I've always lost an inch or two! It helps to see some number doing something instead of no progress at all. It also makes me feel really good when the number of reps I can do of a particular exercise goes up.

[catspaw]

To quote missjane on the JP forums:

Do you guys realize how silly this sounds?? You'd rather base how you feel about yourself based on a number on the scale rather than what you SEE in the mirror and FEEL about yourself.

So, really, if you looked great in the mirror, but the scale gave you what you consider a crappy number, you'd be upset?

BUT, if I tweaked your scale to be several pounds lower, you'd be thrilled? Even if the mirror didn't show any progress??

[NorthRoad]

The batteries for my scale just stopped working. So I [THREW IT ON THE GROUND] just don't bother to buy new ones.

[Hemi]

thanks draco for starting this thread, and thanks EVERYONE for the reponses. i needed this too. i have even started to fret when the number goes DOWN- "oh crap i'm not eating enough AGAIN!" Stress all around...

i'm was thinking of just giving my scale to goodwill but i might just go office space on it.

[pinupgeek]

I have never owned a scale but there's one in our kitchen at work for some reason. When I'm in the office alone I'll weigh myself, and the number has hovered around the same range all summer.

Yet my clothes are looser (I have to buy new jeans this weekend!), colleagues and critical family members are telling me I look much skinnier, and I can see progress in the mirror.

Yeah, scales suck. Measuring yourself with a tape measure or clothes is much better.

['Roos]

@Draco I'm totally in the same boat for you. In my six week challenge I lost 2.5 lbs, TOTAL, eating really cleanly and being ultra-super-stupendous good. I was really down on myself.

Then I did my body fat and realized I'd lost my goal of fat, but unexpectedly put on muscle (unusually high testosterone levels for a lady are good for something!) which wiped out my absolute loss. I feel better. I look better. My clothes fit better. But I still go, "I didn't lose any weight!".

Part of that for me is, whenever I go into the doctor, they tell me I should lose a ridiculous quantity of weight (what would put me at around 4% bf, if I lost only fat - not healthy for a girl!) and I always feel bad about myself that I haven't done that, even though I know it's crazy. I feel like they're judging me (well, I KNOW they're judging me) and mentally writing me off for not following their guidelines to the letter.

Hang in there - it sounds like NOT weighing is doing great things for you as far as BF% progress, so just don't freak out.

[bigm141414]

Draco,

I am here to remind you that scales suck. Don't forget.

[theanne]

Draco,

I am here to remind you that scales suck. Don't forget.

I came here to say this. Since it was already said, I'll repeat. I'm here to remind you that scales suck.

[shinigamiPUNCH]

Yeah I've come to that realization myself as well. I currently weigh 197lbs and wear a size 16. When I put on clothes I haven't been able to wear in years, I feel happy. When I see the scale says 197 I get angry. The funny thing is that the shirts I'm wearing now from years ago... I weighed in the 180s when I last wore them. So apparently more weight doesn't equal smaller clothing sizes or it's in a different place in my body.

It is nice to have the marker though - I'm a data person myself. But the emotions that come with the scale not budging (despite feeling and looking better) are kind of bad.

[NorthRoad]

I bet if someone did research on scales, it would show that scales increases cortisol. aaand we all know what that does to the body : (

[Knightwatch]

btw, scales suck.

[The Purple Diane]

Scales suck! Get a pair of reference pants and use those as your measure of success. The pants don't lie!

[Siha]

Scales do indeed suck!

[andygates]

Heh, I used to be a scale-obsessive. Not a happy place. Now I just make a reference weigh one a month so I have a clue what %bodyweight is for bragging purposes.

You're obsessing on it because everything bodyish says it matters, it's mainstream. Dude, chill, it means a lot less.

[Shortkaik]

I used to weigh myself daily, but I think I had a pretty healthy attitude about it. I know there are daily fluctuations, but as a scientist I also know when trying to accurately measure anything, maximizing data points and being consistent with measuring will paint the clearest picture and average. I also find it interesting to see if I can find trends. If I weigh myself once a week, and it's a number different from what I'm expecting, I might try to wave it away and say "Oh, probably just a bad day!" But if I see that my weight is consistently going in the wrong direction every day for an entire week, it's a little harder to ignore.

That being said... we all know that weight isn't really a good measure of health and fitness! Right?

[andygates]

Well, exactly! Weight's a pretty poor one: ninjas weigh little, strongmen weigh a lot, both are awesome.

Of course that's why there's other measurements: you can go to town on BMI if you want, but while it's better than weight, it's still not great for individuals. It works awesomely on populations as a quick screening tool. Add the filter question: are you fit and active and not unwell? Then BMI probably doesn't matter.

And then there's %bodyfat, which is what all the abs fans love and while it's better, it's still not the Golden Target and ... ah, it's all just numbers. And these are output numbers. They're not inputs or performance. They're just emergent properties.

If pure scale weight really mattered, people would hit their weight loss goals by sawing off a leg.

['Roos]

One of the interesting BMI notes I saw somewhere, was that if your BMI was higher than it 'should be', and your waist-to-height ratio was less than 0.5, that you likely fell into the "Ultra-fit" category, and were simply too dense for BMI to be an accurate (individual) meter of health. I'm an inch away!

[dracopervicax]

My waist-to-height ratio is like .44 haha. That's an interesting note.

Thank you EVERYONE who responded here. I'm sorry it took me a while to get back to this forum, but really, thanks. I talked with my fiance, and we are throwing the scale out. Despite the issues I'll mention below, I've decided that I've moved pretty definitively to the point where I am gaining more muscle than losing fat, and the scale just really isn't going to help me get where I want to be.

It's interesting to me that people say "go by how you look and feel" and "go by what the mirror says." While I think in theory I think this "method" works, these are pretty non-standardized ways of judging things. Also, things tend to be warped by perception. If I feel good one day, I may look thinner than a day that I feel like shit. Similarly, going by pant/clothing size is kind of odd, too, because clothes sizes aren't standardized to be the same, and some places vanity size. That is, they "scale down" their pants and other things. Essentially, a size 10 at one place could be the equivalent to a 16 in another.

I don't have a goal size or a pair of pants by which to measure. My goals were/are health and fitness oriented, and appearance being a consequence of fitness and all that...

So, for example, I went into Old Navy yesterday and steeled myself to try on a pair of size 10s (in January, I wore a 16). I was thrilled when they fit -- no muffin top or anything! But in the back of my head, I'm thinking "Does Old Navy vanity size? Do they fit larger than other clothes? Have I really accomplished anything at all?"

For another example, even before I kicked my 45 pounds, I never lacked for energy. I had energy IN SPADES and rarely, if ever, felt lethargic.

But I think that, ultimately, the scale is just gonna do me more harm than good. I will find a better way to measure my progress and focus more on settling into the paleo lifestyle.

...and kicking ass at taekwondo.

[Shortkaik]

Good job, draco!

I hear you on the "how you feel" thing, it's always been difficult for me to judge, too. Although when I was able to fit into a size 9 loosely from -the same store- I used to get a size 13 at, it did make me feel pretty secure in my progress.

Sounds like you've got it worked out, best of luck!