Comments on: The Power of the Scale.

By: Kimberly Faye Thompson

Kimberly Faye Thompson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:48:28 +0000

My father began weighing me as a child, after dinner and before bedtime and after he had had a few drinks. I couldn’t have been over 10 years old, as my weight was between 70 and 80 lbs. He would mark my weight on his calendar nightly and if I had gained a pound or more from the previous night, I couldn’t have bread, potatoes or dessert the next day. By the time I was 15, I developed full on bulimia, not knowing what it was called. I also thought I had invented it, and thought I had found a way to eat and still keep my weight down for the weigh-ins. My mother was always on a diet as well, and my dad would chastise her for her “fat stomach”. She was about 5’3″, 145lbs – not at all obese. But she had had two c-sections with a vertical incision, severing her abdominal wall causing scar tissue. Her “fat stomach” was the bane of her existence and she even would hit herself in the stomach saying,”why won’t this go away?” She too weighed herself everyday and it governed her mood. Soon, as expected, it affected mine too. DAILY. If the scale went up at all, I was depressed, and if it went down, I was elated. No way to live. I memorized the calorie count for every food, and went on many fad diets with mom when growing up. The scale became my greatest enemy and fear.

As a result, for many years now, I have not had a scale and only weigh at the doctor’s or occasionally in the locker room. Weight is not an accurate measurement of fitness like body composition is. And you know how your clothes feel, fit and look on your body. When I notice my clothes feeling tighter, I up my cardio and cut down on portion size. I have been recovering from bulimia since I went into treatment at age 30. I am now 51 and have maintained a healthy weight throughout-even through a twin pregnancy and a singleton- all without a scale. I can’t imagine bringing all the anxiety back into my life that the scale caused.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:13:57 +0000

Miz great post! When I started Nutrisystem back in 2008 I weighed once a week no more no less.

I continued that after losing and starting maintenance and then found I had become obsessed with a number. This drove me to self destruction mentally. I felt like I was fat all the time unless I weighed 171 and the honest truth I am not fat just because I’m 9 pounds higher.

I stopped relying on the scale and started living life as a thin fit person and its been wonderful! I like you judge my weight by my clothes.

Its nice to be able to live in my skin now and be happy with just how far I’ve come in 2 years.

By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:07:35 +0000

I am very much opposed to weighing. The reason is this – the scales are MOOD ALTERING. I can go from ecstasy to depression based on the number that comes up.
This has been one of the keys to my complete recovery from an eating disorder

By: Laura Jane

Laura Jane — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:40:31 +0000

I couldn’t agree more! This is what I would have said. Weekly weigh-ins drive me crazy. I way daily but don’t pay too much attention to the number, realizing that it varies a lot. Plus, being rather overweight, I wouldn’t notice any difference in fit of clothing or the mirror until I’d lost about 15 pounds.

By: Angie

Angie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:55:44 +0000

Such a great post!

As a dietitian specializing in wellness and weight management,I see the damage the scale causes. I think it is more the emotions that we connect to the scale and the number. I’m with you – I don’t own a scale and I might step on one a few times a year to check in. Love the great discussion!

By: MizFit

MizFit — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:36:14 +0000

[...] It was sparked by our discussion here. [...]

By: Staying Away From The Scale & Primal Weightloss Week II Update - Primal Stride

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:10:30 +0000

[...] I was certain of my method, I put my scale away. Why? Because I wanted to be sure that I was truly committed to the method. I didn’t want to [...]

By: MizFit

MizFit — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:47:30 +0000

[...] a believer in selecting a pair of scale bottoms (pants, skirt, shorts. anything sans-elastic waist) which fit perfectly at goal weight and using [...]

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:12:49 +0000

I guess for once I cannot agree.

I’m a daily weigh person. I enter that number in Hacker’s Diet Online and I see a trend. That’s been a help to me to stay on track. However, I’ve always weighed daily when losing weight and I am quite used to the normal daily fluctuations, can predict them much of the time and they don’t phase me.

I see no need to make daily weighing out to be a problem action or something that if done, means a person should be in therapy. That’s ridiculous! If it is or becomes a problem for an INDIVIDUAL, then they should stop and find a different method to assess progress. Just as no one way of eating fits everyone, no one way of tracking progress does either.

Today, for instance, my scale is way up. I ate poorly all weekend. I’m dehydrated as well. I have a salt and sugar load on that is considerable. So yeah, the scale is up and so what? All I read in that higher number is that it is high time to get back on track now that I’m home and not on the road. It’s not a stressor, it’s simply a piece of data.

Pants fit is not a help to me. Every single pair I own has at least some stretch to it. Seriously, the sweat pants that fit me when I weighed 262 pounds STILL FIT ME NOW! The elastic waist stretch jeans I love are the same. They are looser in fit, they are starting to feel like they could be too big in the future, but they fit. That is some 40 pounds of difference, yet the SAME PANTS WORK. This has also been true with my swim suits. Oh, and I’m still wearing the same T-shirts too.

My gut feeling says that if I’d been trying to judge progress by clothes fit, I’d have gone ABSOLUTELY NUTS with frustration and quit long since!

When you are large and changes in body size come slowly, clothes fit is NOT always the kindest or least depressing way to judge progress.

By: Zandria

Zandria — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:31:07 +0000

I wrote a post on this subject not long ago myself. Unsurprisingly, I’m in complete agreement — years, ago, when I weighed myself every day, I was miserable. Our weight goes up and down sometimes on a daily basis because of all kinds of factors. No need to add another stressor to our lives.