I fell into the rather silly habit of weighing myself too often. And even though I’d given others advice on this, becoming both annoyed and perplexed myself when looking visibly the same or even streamlining (according to my MIL) but seeing the scale number go up. Water retention? I am releasing water all the time. My WOE being closed to carnivore, my carb intake is usually 5-10 carbs at most. Bones growing denser? Not enough time to have seen those sort of changes. Muscle improvement? I certainly don’t see any. So why in the world has the scale number gone up again? Well, I have to ask myself. Do I care? My clothes feel no different. I certainly don’t look any bigger than I was. OK then, the answer is no. I don’t care. In fact, the scales are pretty useless. I’m not going to weigh myself for 3 months from here on. I’ll just go on measurements, photos and how the body feels instead. Well, that’s my goal. That, and replacing all my pasteurised dairy with a little bit of raw milk daily. As conventional dairy definitely gives me bloat. So it’s either quitting conventional dairy, or going for raw dairy, I choose the latter. Anyway, how often do you weigh yourself? Want to join me in quitting weighing for a while?
No more weighing
@never2late Good for you 
There’s a single simple explanation to explain your weight that I’m fond of citing…
It’s simply a measure of how hard the Earth is tugging on you. It says nothing about what’s going on inside of you, your health, metabolism, or what’s coming next in life.
Enjoy your newly claimed liberation 
Hi Joey, I like that definition. And I do feel liberated. As my body appears to know what it’s doing, I’m feeling pretty good, and tomorrow I plan to purchase my first carton of raw milk. 
I have been weighing myself daily or even more during this intense period of focus on my WOE, but I often feel similarly to you - why get myself all twisted up over a number spat out by a device that at best is recording random change due to water and bulk, and at worst seems to have a mind of its own. (Show of hands, who’s ever stood there shouting at the scale: “really? Really? I drank a small cup of coffee and had a poo … and gained a kilo? REALLY?” It’s obviously not the truth, but it’s still somehow infuriating.)
At present I’m trying to see if fasting is still providing the “ratchet down” of weight and I’d prefer to see maybe 5 pounds less subcutaneous fat, so I do check in daily and see what the trend is. Eventually, I’ll rely on my clothes.
We are so conditioned to believe that the number on the scale is all-important, it can be hard to shake. But you look fantastic, so I’d say that whatever the scale is doing, you are absolutely fine.
I know, right? It’s probably to do with water, constipation, how much we ate and drank, time of the day, time of the month, and a gazillion other mysteries besides. Lol your post made me laugh.
I wouldn’t be weighing myself if it wasn’t for my doctor, every Sunday I email my daily BP results for the week, and he wants weight with them, I did make him accept that I didn’t need to weigh myself but once a week on Sunday. I have been off all prescribed medication since about the first of the year. One of them was a diuretic that I had been taking for decades. When I first stopped the diuretic I showed a few pounds of gain but had no symptoms of swelling or enlarged ankles like I use to have. The other medications were a stomach pill for acid reflux, a cholesterol medication and a calcium blocker for blood pressure. I stopped the diuretic and the cholesterol medication first, then a week later the stomach pill then two weeks later the other BP pill. It took me maybe the month of January to mentally be sure of the results I was seeing, and my doctor said he was happy and surprised at my results without the medication. But he is holding me accountable by having me do 3 BP readings each day, and a weekly weight. I had some lab work done Friday and hope the results are good. All he was wanting to check was my zinc and potassium levels.
Normally I would say I am perplexed why thin people care about it but I know you don’t want to make your lipoedema worse so that’s different. But you see it that gets worse, right? If you see no problem, I think it’s fine even if I understand the negative feelings about not knowing WHAT is the extra weight. I like to know things. Not just anything as I have no idea about my lipid panel as I never had it done in a way where I got any info about it (who knows what the hospital did but probably not that and once when there was some bloodwork I just got “it’s great”, still zero info. I don’t even know my blood type, maybe that would be nice to learn one day…). But if I focus on something and it’s about my body, I wanna know why… Too bad we just don’t have that info quite often. Oh well, as long as my body tells me it likes what I am doing to it or not but guides me to do things slightly differently, it’s not so bad.
Weighing? It’s irrelevant if I measure it once a year or 2 times a day as I am pretty much immune to seeing any number but as my weight never changes, I stopped measuring it. It’s boring. So I usually forget. I will weigh myself when my pants will be falling off from me. So probably not in 2023 unless I break this rule again or a miracle happens… As sometimes I do weigh. Sometimes to test if eating a ton of sugar did anything to my weight (nope unless I epically overeat but that often happens with carbs).
My old mechanical scale can’t even measure tiny changes like +/- 1 kg I suppose 
Theoretically yes but its accuracy seems to be just like that in the best case… And it’s fine. 1-2 kg matters absolutely nothing. Actually, 10 kg matters nothing either, my pants are way more reliable to show what I am interested in. My belly fat is what is the most bothersome so I want to lose fat from that, mostly. If that happens, my other parts surely will be slim enough…
So I typically forget to weigh myself but as I like numbers, sometimes I do. Whenever I get reminded, usually, that happens quite rarely. (Okay, now I won’t.) If it’s in the evening, I weigh myself then, I don’t care 
It’s not very informative but it’s nice when it’s 75kg (almost never) as it means I will be less in the morning. Not like THAT means much… So it’s just some useless harmless thing, to measure myself.
By the way, nowadays if anything happens to my body, it’s muscle gain. I eat a lot and I am pretty active compared to my last more than a decade. It’s not measurable yet though and I wanna lose fat too and that should go way, way quicker, muscle gain can’t balance it out normally. But when I did lose weight at a decent pace? Never but even my slow pace was zillion times quicker than my muscle gain (I still don’t do it perfectly but I am me)…
But I already wrote way too much. So, focus on important things. Weight is a strange thing, not very important, a too great or tiny number shows something is off, people losing fat at a decent pace can see the trend but that’s it. Too many people overestimate its importance.
Hi Chuck, that is wonderful that you are off all your medications!
How great it would be if we could all be off our meds and live healthy and strong, getting everything we require from our food, and perhaps some supplements. The ketogenic WOE raises my hope that this is possible.
I think, at least for me, it’s because I’m a newly thin person. I’ve been a newly thin person many times in my life, and I know that a loss of attention usually leads to me turning back into a newly fat person, which I’d prefer not to be. Getting on the scale is a way of maintaining attention, even though it’s pretty annoying and unreliable. I also prefer loose stretchy clothes, so it can be 10 kg before I actually feel the warning of being uncomfortable in what I’m wearing, at which point it’s another uphill battle back to thin. Hopefully sticking with a WOE that works makes constant weigh-ins unnecessary.
That makes sense too…
Wow! I have loose shirts but I like just right pants so I quickly feel the difference, even when the scale doesn’t show anything… Okay, my pants aren’t always that but even then, I have some that shows where I am going and sometimes I wear those. But I admit it helps a lot that I go to a walk every day using pants that were too tight some times ago and now they are very comfy (my weight is still 75kg)…
But isn’t 10kg is very, very apparent on a slim one? Maybe not in every case… My SO gains 2 kg and he gains a pot belly, that is extreme but 10kg seems much and few lucky people gains everywhere… As I never was even remotely slim, IDK how it works for me but 10kg still a lot. I didn’t notice losing 10kg when I did that once but I was still fat with a big belly and that changed little…
Wow. People still surprise me sometimes.
That’s the best for sure. And it can’t be the really healthy diet that automatically and surreptitiously causes fat gain I would think… Though maybe I will have that if I slim down (I hope I won’t), I just can’t imagine eating little on any diet… Maybe I will need muscles and some proper activity like my SO or else I will gain fat too… I hope I keep my big maintenance range though. I don’t like to eat wastefully but if I inevitably do it, I don’t want to gain fat. Or just slowly so I could lose it in a few days after a year of gain. But I am bad at losing so I would rather not.
Imagining being slim is a bit scary. What if I lose my automatic maintenance abilities?
yup. part of why I weigh in is trying to get a feel for those “automatic maintenance abilities”. I ate what felt like the right amount for me. But is the right amount for my appetite the same thing as the right amount to stay at the weight I want? At some point I might have to find a compromise, but I’d rather know sooner than later.
I love leggings, and they’re incredibly forgiving. TOO forgiving! I lost 30 pounds and I’m wearing the same leggings, even though my waist went down 3". (which means on the flip side, I Gained 30 lb and they still fit ok.)
Hi Shinita, losing your automatic maintenance abilities would mean a decrease in your metabolism, the body has a way of doing this when one’s calorie intake is too low, and it tends to shut down. The body has, according to Dr. Fung, a set weight it prefers, and when you go above it, it will fight to bring you back down, and if you go below it, it will fight to bring you back up to its preferred set weight. Dr. Fung has some very interesting lectures on this, on his youtube channel. I haven’t read his books. I eat to satiety and trust my body’s hunger and satiety signals, I eat till I’m pleasantly stuffed. 2-3 meals a day. I believe OMAD could make the body compensate, as I’ve mentioned earlier, and downregulate metabolism, as it’s more difficult to get in all the calories you require, all the fat and protein in just that one meal. And it’s the calorie deficit that sends the signal to the body it needs to shut down, whereas a higher intake of calories would send the signal, there is food aplenty, and thus make it rev up its metabolism. But then individual factors must also be considered. It’s a complicated puzzle.
I love leggings too, yup they’re so comfy and forgiving. These days though, I always wear my black Sigvaris compression tights with my go to pencil skirts and dresses. They look good so I don’t mind as they prevent my ankles from swelling.
No, it’s 2 different things and it’s very normal for the metabolism to go down a bit when losing fat. Unless (what I totally want) one gets more active and muscular.
2000 kcal is so little food, I can’t imagine I could ever eat below longer term… Or if I could, I still would feel a bit miserable, barely eating…
No, I talk about being able to start eating way over my current energy need without gaining any fat. My metabolism shoot up and meets my intake so I maintain.
If I ate 2-3 times until I am pleasantly stuffed, I would overeat. I actually do that but I am fat and I stay fat eating like this… Years pass with zero fat-loss and it’s not the fault of my few carbier days.
OMAD is my way as I would eat at a cute deficit so I could lose fat. I always lose fat when I eat at a deficit (well obviously) and never when I don’t but carbs don’t seem to matter in my case and my metabolism is pretty stable unless I overeat so it goes up but it goes down when I eat less again. It doesn’t do anything when I eat at a deficit, I lose there. My SO is the same but he doesn’t have this maintenance range. He eats a bit more, he gains. He eats the same and moves less, he gains. He eats less (no matter how little), he loses. While I maintain all the time. I am aware not everyone is this simple regarding fat-loss but it seems pretty clear in our case.
Eating TOO little is a problem, yep. That’s why people should eat only at a smaller deficit, never a huge one (unless they know what they are doing, some people were successful like that but usually heavy men. sounds bad but apparently some can pull it off).
OMAD is still a frequent enough eating, why would it matter how many meals we have if we eat a good amount of food? Makes little sense to me but maybe it is like that for some, they shouldn’t do OMAD then. While I have little chance without OMAD. I have too big meals for multiple meals. Not always, I expect OMAD and TMAD days in some mix when I finally start to lose but OMAD sounds so much better for various reasons. If I can pull it off. But I have long periods where TMAD is impossible too. And more meals surely can’t work.
All the fat and protein sounds awesome in one meal to me. Of course if one can’t eat big enough meals, they shouldn’t do OMAD. When I can’t eat a big enough meal, I simply can’t do OMAD as I get hungry again soon.
Nope, calorie deficit tells the body it needs to use the fat reserves. I have plenty and they stay put on keto and on carnivore because I don’t have a deficit.
It would be quite weird if we would work worse just because we ate a little less than needed for a while… Or if my body would start to throw out its precious fat reserves for no reason. Though it does waste when I overeat and as far as I know, it’s pretty common though the majority of people gain fat in that case (though the diet seems to matter to some extent).
Tons of people experience all the time when they overeat that nope, the metabolism stays put. They just start to gain fat immediately. And many of us experience that whenever we eat less than needed, we start to lose fat smoothly. It was amazing when I still could do that. Keto or fat adaption wasn’t needed and sadly, they couldn’t really help when my fat-loss stopped (as I lost enough fat to have a smaller energy need and my tiny deficit disappeared). Good direction, good idea, I LOVE fat adaptation but I still overeat. But it will work out, I am too stubborn and I do evolve. It’s not easy to battle decades of overeating even many years after I changed the original reason for it (too much carbs).
You can think about eating below 2000, and I can’t even come close to eating that much. But I am 75, I have managed to increase the amount I eat from about 1250 to about 1750 and I am still losing just a little weight along. The calculation says that even at no activity at all I should eat about 2040 a day. But I am active at walking 9000 to 13000 steps daily, and I am not talking a flat track, around here everything is either uphill or downhill.
Hi Chuck, there are so many variables I don’t think it’s plausible that Feltman’s calorie intake would work the same for everyone. In fact, I think we’d get miserable just from trying as overeating generally never feels all that good. I follow my hunger/satiety signals which usually leaves me at 2-3 meals, mostly 2, and I eat till I’m pleasantly stuffed. But I wouldn’t have a clue what my calorie intake would be, as I only eat whole foods, fatty cuts of meat, fish, seafood, eggs and some dairy, for the most part. And most of the time I’m just not that hungry. According to Dr. Fung, if you’re cold and hungry all the time it is a sign of lower metabolism. But what then if you feel fine, but just not all that hungry? I do hope there’ll be a lot more extensive research on ketogenic and low-carb WOEs, in time to come. Meanwhile, it’s a lot of N=1, and if the body is happy KCKO.
Sorry couldn’t resist, again.
Overeating feels bad (therefore quite impossible for me except in the face of the worst compulsion but carbs are very much needed) beyond about 4000 kcal, though it depends… 3000 kcal feels amazing to me most of the time (when I actually do it, I mean. on some days I am low enough and wouldn’t like to eat any more. But I probably could without problems). I might need to keep myself to eat more at midnight… But it depends on the timing a lot. And the food as well though that mostly influences my satiation from my meals alone, not my daily one. Carbs mess with me in other ways though, appetite without hunger is most serious with them and compulsive eating is almost non-existent at extreme low-carb in my case. Except maybe at night, that’s bad timing…
Today I got subtly hungry before noon again. I ignore it as I should. 3pm is early enough, I typically overeat starting that very early. It’s quite easy waiting until it, actually and I rarely get hungry this super early but I do feel the urge and some tiny bites may happen. Fortunately I can handle a little without getting hungrier and the knowledge and feeling of eating something helps a bit and that’s enough.
I usually eat until I get satiated. Wait a bit and if my hunger comes back, I eat again. I hate feeling full so I rarely reach that unless my appetite is out of whack and can’t avoid it. Having opposite appetite and hunger is so bad… Either way.
It seems to be common. For some reason, I never had that. When I actually starved in a cold house in winter, I had little hunger and wasn’t cold. I don’t even get it, it was 8 Celsius and even washed up without problems The lack of hunger is understandable, it wasn’t a perfect fast but close especially in the end and ketosis AND lack of meals put my body into a state where food became something abstract (it’s crazy as I LOVE food and think about it a lot and eat and cook and read about it as well. but when I stop for a few days, I feel disconnected from eating. at least it happened in the 2 times I managed such a long fast). But I suspect it was my hedonism too. It’s not good to feel hunger when I simply can’t have food anyway… Smart thing. Never happens when I could eat but doesn’t want to… Unless I have epic determination but that’s hard to get.
But this coldness must have some personal factor. I don’t seem to get it even when I really “should”, maybe because I have so much extra fat…? But it’s not enough to give me enough and normally my body screams bloody murder if I dare to eat little… Sadly, even zero doesn’t work anymore, I start to function not so well. But no coldness and often no hunger either. But I get carried away again instead of talking the opposite when people feel cold even when they have a quite short fast. At least I think I heard it from people doing IF only… But maybe it was their calories… I never have a big deficit (at least for more than 1-2 days but that’s super rare too), OMAD has no chance to make me colder. But I suppose not everyone is like that.
Starving is bad even if it’s low-key and we feel fine. Some people track just to see if they eat enough as one may or may not realize it. I personally am super bad at guessing my calories, many years of tracking didn’t help. And if one eats differently than usual, it’s easy to think one eats little or much when it isn’t true, at least for people like me who are pants at guessing. I even eat somewhat similarly on most days and I still think oh, it was a modest day and it was overeating. Mostly because I like fat and use it and it doesn’t satiate me well while it’s very calorie dense. Keeping my food items very restricted help a bit but 1. I am not the type who handles such restrictions well 2. I still can eat 12 eggs without noticing… I AM aware I had a few but 12…? Some days I barely eat eggs, it seems and it’s 9. Eggs are sneaky little things with a modest satiation level (and I did keto at 2000 kcal while egg was my most satiating item… Well it’s not BAD at it, just not as great as… Almost nothing, actually but meat and gluten are better. Dairy is very bad except maybe the most protein rich lower-fat ones, nuts too.)
Hi Shinita, I’m always entertained by your gentle musings🙂I wouldn’t call it starving, but when I came home today from my morning walk, I was hungry and so I ate the other half of a really large pork shoulder joint we cooked up yesterday. And I was pleasantly stuffed afterwards. I’ve only had a cup of plain coffee since then, which I drank one hour after the meal so as not to inhibit iron uptake, though I suppose the iron content in pork is negligible, as opposed to beef. I am still feeling very pleasantly full, and I don’t believe in eating more just for the sake of eating more. If I’m hungrier later I’ll probably have 2-4 pork chops, depending on how hungry I am, and another plain cup of coffee. I’ve cut out conventional dairy, as of yesterday. But coffee taken plain is fine. A bit hard to tell about feeling cold all the time being to do with metabolism, as I have Reynolds. But one interesting thing, when I keep to carnivore eating I feel warmer, it’s very odd. I definitely don’t aim to undereat, but I can’t bring myself to eat more than I want either. But if I am feeling rubbish and my body is feeling week, I generally take it as a sign from my body that it wants food, and then I feed it. Feeling pleasantly full, and nice and warm, doesn’t seem to me like starving. But we are all very different, and will have differing goals, and different results. Me, I can’t do extended fasts, but keeping to TMAD is very easy.