It's official: I am too stoopid to use a Fitbit...

[Peachez111]

I got myself an Alta HR, determined to shed some blubber.  I got it a bit over a week ago and amazingly, managed to set it up with no dramas.  

On day 2, I got up, fed cats, had a cup of tea and headed for the shower.  Before diving in, I went and jumped on the scales to find out the awful truth.  Oh   my   goodness, I mean really?  What the actual f***!!!  I am not the kind of gal who weighs herself often.  I tend to go by how my fav jeans fit.  If they don't cut me in half, great but when they start cutting off the blood supply to your legs, you know it's time to get busy.

Back at the scales in the steamy bathroom I tried everything to get the nasty numbers down from 135 pounds.  Breathing in didn't help, neither did crying or having a wee.

After the shower and giving myself a good talking to, I set up my Fitbit with my goal weight and have spent the entire week striding about all over the place, dancing like a demon to 'A Head Full of Dreams' by Coldplay (turned up to number 11 to hack off the neighbours) in addition to living on celery and eggs.

I didn't go near the scales again until this morning.  Fed cats, drank tea, headed for the shower.  After getting dressed, cleaning teeth, trying to tame hair into something non-birdsnest like, I suddenly remembered I didn't weigh myself.  Got undressed again, even taking my ear rings out and jumped on the scales.  Are you ready for this?  122 pounds!!!  Nope, that can't be right.  I jumped off, jiggled the scales and swore at them a bit because of course this is a well known method of calibration...

I tried again and again.  Still 122 pounds.  Oh wow, so that means I have lost 13 pounds in a week???  Feeling mega smug I was about to get dressed when a thought struck me...

I turned on the shower, got the room good and steamy and took my glasses off before jumping on the scales again. 132 pounds!!!

In my semi blind state and with the steam I misread the scales.  See?  Like I said, too dim to use a Fitbit.  On the plus side it does mean I have lost 3 pounds.

Anyone for celery?

[GershonSurge]

Don't forget to cut your nails and trim your eyelashes before weighing.

[Dominique]

Your main problem appears to be related to widely / randomly fluctuating numbers on the scale, not so much to the use of your Fitbit Alta HR. Here are a few weighing tips:

• always weigh in the same conditions: the best time is first thing in the morning, after trip to the bathroom
• put your scale on a hard, plane surface (for instance, don’t put it on a carpeted floor)
• don’t move your scale (for instance, don’t store it vertically after use)
• keep your feet always in the same place (centered) when you step in
• if you have a smart scale that can sync to your Fitbit account, link your account to TrendWeight, a free web-based service that will plot a moving average of your weigh-ins
• understand that your weight can fluctuate because of water retention (depending on how salty was the food you ate yesterday, your hormonal cycle etc.)
• whatever you’re doing (increasing exercise, modifying your diet etc.), give it some time (= several weeks or more) before drawing any conclusion
• if you want to "shed some blubber", pay attention to what (and how much) you are eating (and drinking), as your diet will most likely play a bigger role than your physical activity

[Peachez111]

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@Dominique wrote:

Your main problem appears to be related to widely / randomly fluctuating numbers on the scale, not so much to the use of your Fitbit Alta HR. Here are a few weighing tips:

• always weigh in the same conditions: the best time is first thing in the morning, after trip to the bathroom
• put your scale on a hard, plane surface (for instance, don’t put it on a carpeted floor)
• don’t move your scale (for instance, don’t store it vertically after use)
• keep your feet always in the same place (centered) when you step in
• if you have a smart scale that can sync to your Fitbit account, link your account to TrendWeight, a free web-based service that will plot a moving average of your weigh-ins
• understand that your weight can fluctuate because of water retention (depending on how salty was the food you ate yesterday, your hormonal cycle etc.)
• whatever you’re doing (increasing exercise, modifying your diet etc.), give it some time (= several weeks or more) before drawing any conclusion
• if you want to "shed some blubber", pay attention to what (and how much) you are eating (and drinking), as your diet will most likely play a bigger role than your physical activity

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Thank you for the great advice Dominique.  You are absolutely right on all counts.  I know I have to give it time but heck I'm an old lady and can't afford to hang around too much.

Oh yeah, liquid calories.  I'm guessing my red wine intake is not the zero calories of water? 🙂  On the plus side, it's made of grapes so that has to count as one of my five a day...

I'm just about to go and give the scales a stiff talking to before I get on them.  They have not moved since yesterday so should be an accurate reflection of how much blubber is left to go.  I will report back...

[Dominique]

Liquid calories may very well be one of your "low-hanging fruits". @Baltoscott has devised interesting strategies for cutting them, like drinking only on odd days, maybe he can expand on that.

If your weight is around 130 lbs, you probably don’t need to drop that much, which means a couple of tweaks to your lifestyle may be all it takes to reach your goal.

[Baltoscott]

Very entertaining posts @Peachez111. Keep them coming! Sound like you are only about 5% over where you want to be which is hopefully enough to motivate you without freaking you out.

As to my liquid calories strategy, maybe because I'm stooopid too, I kept it simple.  I was enjoying a couple of beers or glasses of wine most nights last year and realized that if I just cut that in half I could make a great start on losing weight.  So at the beginning of 2017 I stopped drinking for the whole month (dry January), just so I could practice not drinking and prove to myself that I could.  After that i decided that I would keep my consumption down by not drinking on even-numbered days.  I don't like getting drunk, but I do like a couple of drinks at the end of the day.  And after proving to myself I could take off the next 30 days, taking off tomorrow knowing that I could have a beer or two the day after was a pretty easy.  I will break the rule every once and a while for a social event, but for the most part it is a well ingrained habit now.

[Peachez111]

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@Baltoscott wrote:

Very entertaining posts @Peachez111. Keep them coming! Sound like you are only about 5% over where you want to be which is hopefully enough to motivate you without freaking you out.

As to my liquid calories strategy, maybe because I'm stooopid too, I kept it simple.  I was enjoying a couple of beers or glasses of wine most nights last year and realized that if I just cut that in half I could make a great start on losing weight.  So at the beginning of 2017 I stopped drinking for the whole month (dry January), just so I could practice not drinking and prove to myself that I could.  After that i decided that I would keep my consumption down by not drinking on even-numbered days.  I don't like getting drunk, but I do like a couple of drinks at the end of the day.  And after proving to myself I could take off the next 30 days, taking off tomorrow knowing that I could have a beer or two the day after was a pretty easy.  I will break the rule every once and a while for a social event, but for the most part it is a well ingrained habit now.

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Oh I like this rule mainly because it's doable and you don't stress if you trash it once in a while.  I don't mind not drinking at all but most evenings I will have a small glass of red as a 'two fingers in the air' to what ever I survived that day.  Every other day?  Sure, I can do that.  

Today is an odd day - yay for us! 🙂  Off to the park now to burn some blubber.  Thanks for sharing your rules.  🙂

[Mukluk4]

This slide show will sum it up nicely for you.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/g19990871/weight-fluctuation-experiment/?slide=1

[Peachez111]

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@Mukluk4 wrote:

This slide show will sum it up nicely for you.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/g19990871/weight-fluctuation-experiment/?slide=1

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So true Mukluk4  but I did also find that my scales were broken so I swore at them and put them in the bin.  Meanwhile, the new ones are accurate and I don't have as much blubber as I thought.  Now, where did I hide that chocolate...:)