The Scale: Friend or Foe?

[BeCarefulIBite]

To Weigh or Not to Weigh. That is the question!

• What do you think? Is it a good idea to weigh yourself regularly (daily, weekly, monthly)? Is it helpful? Is it harmful? Why or Why not?

[WavyDavey]

Yes, I think it's good daily. Especially when used with something like Trendweight that can take averages to smooth out the bumps and show the trends.

We can do our best to log our exercise and calories burned. We can do our best to log our calorie intakes. But ultimately, the scale is what balances the two to tell us if we are meeting our weight goals or not. So for that, I think it's the most valuable tool for weight management.

[WendyB]

Its personal

I Weigh in once a week. Like today I went out to eat. I will be up 3-5  pounds tomorrow because of it. will i wi. NO

[GershonSurge]

@BeCarefulIBite,

Notice how you are being carefully led by the National Dairy Council who controls all the health education in the United States.

First you ask a question about clean eating. That's a safe question because people will parrot what they've been taught by the National Dairy Council.

Then you asked a question about "cheat days" as if they are the deciding factor on weight control and not what the person eats on the other days.

Now you ask if the scale is a "friend or foe." It is a catchy title, but a completely useless statistic. It will end up being one or the other, and people will be influenced to weigh or not weigh while not changing what they eat.

How successful has the National Milk Industry been since 1980? Obesity rates in the United States have skyrocketed from 7-9% to about 35%. I dare you to suggest discussing whether the health teachings in the schools have reduced obesity. If not, why not? They've been doing it, at least in many schools, since 1977. 

You are participating in what appears to be the next phase. Go out into the world and ask "What do you think about..." and misdirecting people to subjects that don't address the root problem -- eating inherently unhealthy food. 

You see, in 1983, Dr. Campbell from Cornell University, Oxford University and Scientists from China did a study known as the "China Study." You can read the book if you like. They discovered health is dependent on one ratio. Animal products eaten/Whole food vegetables eaten. This led to many research projects that proved the relationship. The milk industry's response? Have the lab at Cornell rebuilt, modernize it with a bunch of fancy equipment, and put a huge sculpture of a milk bottle in front of it. They don't care if they are killing people in the name of profits.

[Alicat2104]

It's a tool like anything else, and as such any benefit (or detriment) depends on the individual.

[SunsetRunner]

Depends on your self-acceptance. If you define yourself by what the number says, then no, a regular weigh-in is not a good thing. It took me more than 25 years to get to a point where I am on self-acceptance and don't care what the scale says as it does not take my overall health into consideration. Now, I just weigh once every few months to keep an eye on it. I have learned in the last 6 months that my body has become intolerant to sugar (not diabetic) and knowing this has helped me focus on eating more nutritionally, losing over 20 lbs. and giving me back my energy and ability to exercise.

[idahoerics]

A possible analogy: is it good to check your gas gauge every day? I think we live in a society with constant commercial and social pressure to eat high calorie food, and I think one needs to maintain a certain amount of vigilance to stay at a healthy weight. So I do weigh myself every day, but I do not, however, get too concerned about day to day variation in my weight.

[Dominique]

This is a recurring question:

The age old question. How often do you weigh/when?

How often should I weigh in?

how often do you weigh yourself?

We need to find what works best for us. Ever since I got the Fitbit Aria smartscale five years ago, I’ve been using it daily, since it’s so easy. At some point, I discovered TrendWeight (link in my signature), which allows me to focus on what really matters, longer term trends rather than daily fluctuations. 

[Dominique]

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@GershonSurge wrote:

Notice how you are being carefully led by the National Dairy Council who controls all the health education in the United States.

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The topic starter asked a clear and simple question: "To Weigh or Not to Weigh?"

What do we get: a lengthy post on a totally unrelated matter (some weird conspiracy theory involving the alleged dairy lobby). 

May I remind you of the Community Guidelines: "please keep your comments constructive and relevant to the topic on the forum or thread".

[GershonSurge]

@Dominique,

The answer is not out of context in the context of all the questions she asked. 

If you are going to attack me by calling it an "alleged dairy lobby" and call it a "weird conspiracy," then you better darn well read my source and retract your comments. Read "Whole" by Dr. Campbell, and you will learn about how the National Dairy Council (notice you watered it down by calling it an "alleged dairy lobby) controls health education in the schools. 

[Alicat2104]

@GershonSurge I'm with @Dominique on this one, your post seems totally off topic.

You said - "First you ask a question about clean eating" and then went on about conspiracy etc., but the OP asked no such question.

You're vegan, I get it, we all get it. You do not need to continually try and force feed everyone else your vegan lifestyle and turn every single topic toward it though. It's that kind of fundamentalist behavior that made me move away from the vegan community even when I was still living a vegan lifestyle. It's not a case of it being the one and only true way of living and anyone who thinks that is the case is misguided. Everyone has the right to find their own way without people trying to pressurize them into their way of life, whether that be religion or anything else. 

[GershonSurge]

@Alicat2104,

The OP chose my post on "cheat days" as the accepted solution. Apparently, it was on topic according to her.

Substitute "Keto" for "vegan" and you get the same issue of forcing people to live in a certain way.

Now, you and @Dominique are using the pejorative term "conspiracy" to discredit me. That's a common ploy. You are also incorrectly calling me vegan. I understand that, but vegan is for animal rights issues and all that entails. You are identifying me with a lifestyle, which includes far more than diet.

You win. Your prize is a population that is 35% obese and more in many countries and getting bigger. They are dying from diseases that need not occur. Hope you are happy with that.  

[Alicat2104]

@GershonSurge Difference is, I don't push keto on anyone.  If someone is interested and asks a specific question about it, I will answer, but I don't try and force it on anyone and don't try to turn every discussion towards it.  I recognise that it is my personal choice but not something that will suit everyone - maybe you should try that approach.

"The OP chose my post on "cheat days" as the accepted solution."

This is a completely different thread with a completely different question so your post about dairy conspiracies and the like is irrelevant to this discussion.

[GershonSurge]

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@Alicat2104 wrote:

@GershonSurge Difference is, I don't push keto on anyone.  If someone is interested and asks a specific question about it, I will answer, but I don't try and force it on anyone and don't try to turn every discussion towards it.  I recognise that it is my personal choice but not something that will suit everyone - maybe you should try that approach.

"The OP chose my post on "cheat days" as the accepted solution."

This is a completely different thread with a completely different question so your post about dairy conspiracies and the like is irrelevant to this discussion

May I remind you of the Community Guidelines: "please keep your comments constructive and relevant to the topic on the forum or thread"..

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[WavyDavey]

I find the amount of dairy in my diet isn't that relevant to how often I should step on the scale. But that's just me. 🙂

[Baltoscott]

And now ... back to the original question ...

The scale is my friend.  It is easy to use and provides an objective measure of the effectiveness of my exercise and diet choices. I weigh in daily. But, like a lot of the other supporters of daily weigh-ins that have posted so far, I've linked my WiFi scale to TrendWeight (link in my signature) which creates a moving average smoothing out the weight changes due to different levels of water retention that occur throughout the month.

[MandyH85]

I weigh in daily with my Aria scale, but I don't get too hung up on the actual numbers.  As others mention, its the overall trend that's more important.  whether you are going for weight loss, gain or maintenance.  If my numbers go up over a few days, its a conscious reminder not to slack off in my exercise programme, and to keep the nutrition on track, but im not going to panic or freak out that the number is 2lb higher than yesterday.

Its also important for women to remember and understand how their weight fluctuates depending on their monthly cycle, water retention etc, and appreciate what is normal for them.

[BeCarefulIBite]

According to the book Thin for Life by Anne Fletcher, M.S., R.D.

Ch1 Page 8

The most striking findings of my survey is that the vast majority of masters weigh themselves regularly so they can catch themselves when their weight starts creeping up: 98 percent of them keep their weight within a ten-pound range. Most have specific plan of action if their weight starts to climb. Bonnie R., who’s been a weight control master for 18 years (she’s kept 53 pounds off her 5’1’’ body), maintains her weight within a 1 -to- 5 -pound range. If her weight goes up, she stops snacking, finds it healthful substitutes and tries to determine what is causing her to put on the pounds. She says, “I stay conscious of what I gain and never let myself forget my ‘being heavy’ experience. I refuse to do that to myself again – ever!” My findings about weighing in were again corroborated by those of the Registry: most of their participants weigh themselves at least once a week, and many weighs in daily.