Weighing In On The Scale

Over the years I have had a hate/HATE relationship with the scale. A larger degree of hatred came a few years ago when I started Weight Watchers. I went to the weekly Weight Watchers meetings at work, and the only part I despised was the weigh in at those meetings each Tuesday morning. The scale solely determined success or failure in my mind, and how the program is set up. I remember one week the scale showed a 5 pound weight loss, and I was met with high fives and excitement from the meeting leader. She exclaimed "Good job! Keep doing what you're doing!".  The next week I had a +2 gain and the leader spent a good 10 minutes trying to determine where I went wrong "What was your sodium intake? Did you meet your water requirements? How many 'free' foods did you eat? Did you work out too little? Too much?", but the fact was that week was identical to the previous week where I was celebrating and receiving high fives. I started to really hate that everything was so fixated on that number. If it went in the wrong direction, I must have messed up the plan somehow and didn't know it, right? My entire mood the rest of the day was based on what that number read. The most frustrating part was that the weeks I felt I did my best were the worst on the scale, and the weeks I expected the number to get higher were some of my best losses. This lead to my eventual quitting of Weight Watchers. I simply got fed up with the frustration of it all.

Then a couple years ago I read about different weighing methods that greatly changed how I was viewing the scale. I learned that basing your success on 1 weekly weight is pretty much useless, even more useless for women who have imperfect hormones. And odds are if you're a woman trying to lose weight, you have imperfect hormones. Due to body chemistry, it's natural not to weigh exactly the same every day even if your body fat has not changed. Picking 1 day each week to log weight is just setting myself up for disappointment because it could be a day I simply weigh more than the last. My mood is ruined because the scale reflects something other than what my efforts told me about the week. Is there anything more demotivating than that? This lead me to learn a more accurate way to measure weekly weight loss. Here's the method that works for me:

1. Weigh in every day at the same time, and log it.
2. After 7 days, average the weight (add all 7 weight logs together then divide by 7).
3. Log this weight as your "real" weight for the week.
4. Repeat the same thing the next week.
5. Subtract the most recent week's "real" weight from the previous week's "real" weight.
6. That is your "real" loss/gain.

Determination of my success is a lot more health focused now than weight loss focused, but I started keeping track recently after my diet changed so drastically just to make sure things are going the right direction overall.  I put no time constraints on myself to lose the weight, just an expectation it will go in the right direction after applying a new, healthier way of eating. I am happy to report that my hatred towards the scale is less intense since adopting the above method.