Most of us want to lose fat, not weight. A scale needs to be combined with other tools such as a tape measure or skin fold calipers to be able to track body fat. And still it will be a noisy imperfect measure.
Scales...toss or not?
andy71
#22
I’m a numbers guy too - the more you are comfortable with the fluctuations from an intellectual level the easier it is to deal with them on an emotional level (no too different from checking your stock market portfolio). I think weight is an important tool for me to keep track of how I’m doing. i use it to sometimes throw in an extra day of fasting or be particularly mindful of my eating habits. Late night snacking while TV watching is deadly and I can find bad habits creeping back in and correct thing before i get too off track for too long. Tracking is also helpful to notice patterns that correlate with sleep or going to the gym (water retention following weight lifting) or eating too much salt (like a whole jar of half sour pickles). i think its a great tool if you let it be part of the picture of your health but not the whole thing.
collaroygal
(KCKO, KCFO)
#23
I weigh everyday and record it. I am in maintenance, I have been here before and always gained it all back plus some. So this time around I do weigh ins, I follow the eating plan, I no longer tweak my WOE as I used to back in my WW and Zone diet days. I do light exercise including resistance training and walking. So far this has kept me within 3 lbs.of my goal weight, I have gone down further but not even .1 lb above it. for over a year now.
While I was losing, I weighed but learned to use that feedback to make sure I was doing what I thought I was doing. I did have to start following different fasting protocols to lose the last stubborn 10 lbs., that did it for me. So then I started maintaining and fasting & weigh ins are part of my maintenance, because this isn’t a diet you do then stuff up with carbage so you start gaining again.
I freakin’ love keto/lchf WOE. The scale does not rule me, it is just a tool in my keto bag of tricks.
Madeleine
#24
I’m very much a numbers person, and I love tracking things but I’m one of those “toss your scale” folks. I don’t own a scale myself because I just don’t think it measures anything I’m interested in tracking. I’m very interested in how I feel (scale’s useless for that) and how I look (scale’s pretty much useless for that as well). I do track measurements in many places - I take them 1x/month- which gives me a clear guide of how I’m doing in terms of size and proportions, neither of which will be reflected in a number on a scale.
trudieb
#25
Yup! I am like this. Love those data points! And I do the same thing, weigh twice, if same delete one, etc.
Here’s my FB chart from June 18th through today!! Seeing this global view actually helps me mitigate any bad day, this sucks, haven’t lost a thing, frustrating thoughts that creep in!
kib
(karen)
#26
I was just gonna say it, what I find helpful is a daily weigh in with a chart like the one above. Looking at a column of numbers, my weight seems all over the place - wait a minute, I weighed that much a month ago! What the hell, I had a salad and some coffee and gained two pounds! Wow, that glass of wine must have been magic because I’ve ‘lost’ four pounds since Tuesday! The longer I’m doing keto and the more data points I accumulate, the easier it is to extrapolate and recognize a bit of random fluctuation vs. a true trend.
- maybe at some point I’ll trust enough to stop doing this and just ‘know’ that my weight loss is progressing or I’m satisfied with my body volume, but at the moment I still get great satisfaction and peace from my chart.
margot17
#27
I weigh every day, for the reasons already explained, there are all these fluctuations and the only way not to have false data is to have the ups and downs on chart. And I consider the lowest number in the week to be my curremt weight.
The scale is my friend when the weight goes down but when it doesn’t, it’s upsetting. But I prefer not to put my head in the sand, like I’ve done in the past, as it didn’t do me any favours, it just made it easier to be in denial.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#28
I got on the scale today, and while it was settling, the numbers ranged from 185 to 213. They finally settled at 192.4, but now I don’t know what to believe, lol! Best to laugh, I think. 