Scale

Steve

Steve

Member
Staff member
What does the scale mean to you? More importantly, what does the number that faces you, mean to you, when you stand on the scale?

Obviously, it means a whole heck of a lot around here, since everyone's diaries pretty much revolve around what the scale is telling them.

What if we lived in space, where gravity isn't a factor? Would you still care about what the scale said back on Earth in a "gravity containing" environment? Or then, would it finally click that what the scale says is really unimportant. It is what you see in the mirror and what direction your actual measurements (in inches) are heading.

Nobody in the world other than you, and maybe your doctor, care about what the number says on the scale.

I find that people who ONLY care about the number on the scale usually experience weight loss, and not fat loss. There is a big difference. They usually end up becoming a smaller version of their current selves. Obviously, this does not leave them feeling too good. Being a smaller, still fat person is not ideal to most.

People don't care about your weight, if anything, they care about what you look like. Do you think people would look at someone like Arnold (pre-governor) and say, "Boy he has big muscles, but who cares, he is a disgrace b/c the scale tells him he is over 300 lbs."

I am not ranting simply to discredit the importance of the scale. I want to stress that progress should be based on a whole lot more than the simple number on the scale. If you are basing your progress solely on that, you are grossly misinterpreting progress.

My favorite is when a client is griping about the scale not moving. However, their measurements all moved in the right direction. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Just something to think about. :)
 
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Hi Steve :)

I guess I'll venture out to tell you what the scale means to me...but first, I fully understand you and agree with everything you say...just wanted to answer your questions from my perspective :)

I guess I care about the scale b/c its a form of instant gradification (sometimes it can be the opposite) but you see...for me the gradual change of weight loss for me is way slow for my eye. I want to know right away if my diet and excercise are improving anything. Yeah, it sounds silly and I dont care as much about the number as I do the way my clothes fit...but I still weigh myself...b/c I cant see that 1/2 a lb I've lost but it feels good to see it on the scale and know "well dang it that 30min on the elipitcal was worth something!"

ha...silly I know...just trying to help you understand my view ;)
 
LynnZ said:
Hi Steve :)

I guess I'll venture out to tell you what the scale means to me...but first, I fully understand you and agree with everything you say...just wanted to answer your questions from my perspective :)

I guess I care about the scale b/c its a form of instant gradification (sometimes it can be the opposite) but you see...for me the gradual change of weight loss for me is way slow for my eye. I want to know right away if my diet and excercise are improving anything. Yeah, it sounds silly and I dont care as much about the number as I do the way my clothes fit...but I still weigh myself...b/c I cant see that 1/2 a lb I've lost but it feels good to see it on the scale and know "well dang it that 30min on the elipitcal was worth something!"

ha...silly I know...just trying to help you understand my view ;)
Click to expand...

I understand the "why" for most. I just wanted to state my opinion of how it is a futile process basing progress on scale weight. Instant gratification never got me far in my life.

Plus, what if you lost a pound of fat but gained 2 lbs of muscle. Unfortunately, I think most around here wouldn't take the time to understand that this could be the scenario and they would change what they were doing in order to trigger "weight" loss.
 
my scale is now safely in my linen closet and won't come out again until april 1 - which will be a nice april fools joke i'm sure..

the numbe fluctuated too much from day to day to give me any real sense of validation as to what I was doing. measurements don't change quick enough for it to be meaningful to me to measure more than once a month.

I know how i feel, I know how my clothes fit and I know what Im eating and when i'm working up a sweat - Iand I'm gonna go with that for now.

However , and I've said this before -we'd like to believe the scale is just a number and for m en - it is -but for women -it's something we're judged on - buy a pair of panty hose and it's sold by height and weight -not by measurements... When I was in college, I played a few sports and and my name and stats were always in the book put out by the athletic department -my height was 5'9 I probably weighed anywhere form 175 - 185 and people wouold look at that and say -ooh she's really fat - when in fact I looked fine in a swimsuit just was very muscular... but boys saw the number as fat because girls at 5;9 are supposed to weigh 125 lbs in thier porn world :)
 
Steve said:
I understand the "why" for most. I just wanted to state my opinion of how it is a futile process basing progress on scale weight. Instant gratification never got me far in my life.

Plus, what if you lost a pound of fat but gained 2 lbs of muscle. Unfortunately, I think most around here wouldn't take the time to understand that this could be the scenario and they would change what they were doing in order to trigger "weight" loss.
Click to expand...

True :) I fully agree w/ you...I guess it all started sometime generations back and its just ingrained in us all, we are creatures of habit...keep working on us Steve we'll soon learn the way :D
 
maleficent said:
my scale is now safely in my linen closet and won't come out again until april 1 - which will be a nice april fools joke i'm sure..

the numbe fluctuated too much from day to day to give me any real sense of validation as to what I was doing. measurements don't change quick enough for it to be meaningful to me to measure more than once a month.

I know how i feel, I know how my clothes fit and I know what Im eating and when i'm working up a sweat - Iand I'm gonna go with that for now.

However , and I've said this before -we'd like to believe the scale is just a number and for m en - it is -but for women -it's something we're judged on - buy a pair of panty hose and it's sold by height and weight -not by measurements... When I was in college, I played a few sports and and my name and stats were always in the book put out by the athletic department -my height was 5'9 I probably weighed anywhere form 175 - 185 and people wouold look at that and say -ooh she's really fat - when in fact I looked fine in a swimsuit just was very muscular... but boys saw the number as fat because girls at 5;9 are supposed to weigh 125 lbs in thier porn world :)
Click to expand...

Right, but nobody is judging you when you buy your pantyhose. There is nobody standing over your shoulder saying, oh my gosh.

Sports, its a little different.

For a vast majority, nobody cares about your weight. Male or female. 99.9% of the people that you will encounter don't know it, so why place so much emphasis on it?

While I think basing judgments on looks is shallow, it is a part of today's society. People aren't basing these judgments on the number the scales says. Rather, they are basing them on the inches? If there are too many inches in the WRONG places, they pass judgment.

So why not care more about what the tape measure says?

That is all I am saying.

On top of this, I do think the scale is a valid tool to measure progress. Not the best, it should be used as part of your total arsenal of monitoring tools. Not as your ONLY and certainly not as the most important.
 
So why not care more about what the tape measure says?
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I'm not disagreeing - i've also never quite understood why some females get so hung up on what size they wear - as long as something fits no one sees the size but you...

however i'm being ornery and argumentative right now the tape measure doens't often move as quickly as the scale does... while the scale movage might not be an accurate assessment of how you're doing (as there's a person around here who claims he can lose 2 -3 lbs by simply using the restroom) it gives that instant gratification and incentive to keep going.

when the tape measure doesn't move for weeks - it can be frustrating...
 
maleficent said:
I'm not disagreeing - i've also never quite understood why some females get so hung up on what size they wear - as long as something fits no one sees the size but you...

however i'm being ornery and argumentative right now the tape measure doens't often move as quickly as the scale does... while the scale movage might not be an accurate assessment of how you're doing (as there's a person around here who claims he can lose 2 -3 lbs by simply using the restroom) it gives that instant gratification and incentive to keep going.

when the tape measure doesn't move for weeks - it can be frustrating...
Click to expand...

When the tape measure doesn't move for 2 weeks or so, it is time to alter an approach or two. ;)
 
I totally agree with the idea of the scale only being one (often overused/misused) tool in the arsenal...but I think the reality is that for a lot (maybe even the majority?) of people in weight loss mode it's probably the only tool available.

Every woman I know owns a scale, but I only know one who has a tape measure, and for the ones who don't belong to a gym (most of them), none that have access to body fat % testing in a semi-accurate fashion.

When you've only got one basic tool to measure progress, I think it can feel very, very scary to give it up. Personally I know I weighed myself every single day, had measurements every two weeks and body fat every 6 weeks....and it was only after months and months of "re-education" into what the different "numbers" meant and being able to see how they worked together to paint a complete picture that I was able to let go of the "security" of the scale weight.
 
Good post Cym. And I really wasn't asking in a serious demeanor. I know the answers to my questions. The post was meant more, to educate.

A tape measure costs a whole heck of a lot less than a scale, and IMO, is more important than the scale.
 
It's an interesting question though "what does the scale mean to you?"...made me go "hmmmmm"....

I know when I was weighing every single day that one number influenced a lot of the rest of my day...a downward drop made me happy, no movement could frustrate the heck out me and any upward movement (heaven's forbid) could sink me mood wise.
 
Interesting thread. I am a slave to the scale because I am fascinated by all the things that allow the scale to move up or down each day. It's the quickest, easiest thing I can do each morning to measure my progress. True it may not be the most appropriate measure but much emphasis in the popular press is given to weight. The body mass index scale is used widely as a measuring stick of healthy weight. Less used is the waist:hip ratio which tells you how much weight you carry around your mid section which is a strong predictor of metabolic syndrome and risk of heart attack amongst other diseases and disorders. My BMI is within the "healthy range" however my waist:hip ratio is higher than deemed healthy. Measurements are definitely important but I think it's sometimes hard to find a goal through measurements so weight is often the fall back option. I'm inclined to agree that the scales are a tool, especially in the case of athletes who weigh in as obese because of the extra muscle weight they carry. At the end of the day it's our health that is the real goal.
 
When I first started here a couple of months ago, I only had 4 measurements:
  • the scale
  • BMI
  • systolic bp
  • diastolic bp
  • resting pulse

Each month, I've added more measurements, because seem to plateau for a month at a time, while the scale doesn't move.

So now, I look at the following measurements each month:

  • the scale
  • systolic bp
  • diastolic bp
  • resting pulse
  • body fat percentage
  • average daily calorie deficit
  • average daily exercise calories
  • body measurements in about 6 places
  • weight measurements for all the exercises I do regularly
  • which hole in my belt I'm using

I think you're right about the scale -- it's just one measurement out of many, and a fickle one at that. Part of the reason we concentrate on it so much may be that that's what society really does concentrate on. The "miracle diets" don't say, "Increase your lean body mass by 5% in 5 days!!" No, they all say "Drop 10 pounds in 10 days!"

And when you go to your doctor, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical gadgets, but they cannot seem to figure out how to measure your body fat percentage. So they concentrate on weight, and their stupid pet tool - BMI. Because you doctor looks at weight in a certain way, you are likely to do that too.

That doesn't mean that I won't stop weighing myself every day, though. For me, it functions as a useful reminder. I don't get freaked out when it goes up or down a couple of pounds, but when it does go up, it helps keep me on track. I also read that most of the people who have successfully kept their weight off, and who registered with the National Diet Registry, do weigh themselves daily.
 
I try not to weigh myself, because of the knowledge that I may be gaining muscle with my workouts. And my expectations about what I would lose are never what I see when I look down between my toes.

Also, the other day I weighed myself and then, just for snicks, I moved the scale to another part of the room and it gave me another number.

Feh.

For measuring my waist and hips, I couldn't find the tape measure, so I am using a bootlace, marking it in pen each time I measure (about once a week.)
I also am using a pair of pants to see if I can fit in them, but that is not always accurate as that could also depend on the time of the month.

You don't need fancy tools - just look in the mirror! And how do you feel? I feel awesome - more energy and just cleaner.
 
So...I've been thinking about this a lot today...

I don't know if men do this, but I do know that myself, as well as most of my girl friends seem to measure the passage of time with the scale.

I know what I weighed going into high school, graduating, college, when I met Bob, when I got pregnant, when I went into labor, after I delievered, what my highest weight was, as well as a lot of little incidental weights and times along this last year.

Yes - I agree, it's a hypor focusing that only shows a snap shot in time, and like any picture, you only see one side. I know that at my highest weight, I didn't WANT to measure myself, I didn't need (or was ready) for any other comfirmation of what I knew.

I will say this, up until I first started losing this weight a year ago January, I NEVER told anyone how much I weighed. It simply wasn't discussed. Bob never once knew any given number along my memory yard stick.

Once I started losing weight, I was able to discuss the actual number, and for the first time in my LIFE, feel proud of me because I was actively working at losing the weight. The number on the scale no longer shamed me, but liberated me. It was a reminder that I am NOT the number on the scale - it was merely a snapshot of me during a time I was actively changing.

Being able to tell someone, anyone what I weigh has given me the freedom to step away from the number and see it as nothing more then a work in progress.

While I agree with you whole heartedly Steve, I do think there's reasons we get caught up in that number. It measures where we've been, where we are and where we're headed.

It's not the only measurement for me now. I look at clothing sizes now and add that to my tool box of yard sticks. In my head, normal size women were 10-14, thin women were 8 and under despite knowing that a short 10 and a tall 10 are two totally different body types.

While on this journey, I have discovered I want more then a number on the scale - I want to be fit (cardio) and defined (strength training).

Every part of this adventure has brought new insights & information!

Good subject to think about Steve, thanks for bringing this up!
 
Steve,
OK OK OK I admit I am sort of 1 of those people BUT I do go by my clothing as well since I never really learned the corect way to measuring.
Yes the scales has helped me to stay motivated but so does lose clothing
I found a pair of my size 22 pants that I used to love and held then up to
my 13's and what a huge difference!
I am trying not to weigh as much I used to hop on morning noon and night
now a few times a week is all.Thanks for the info and it's so true,tammy:)
 
God, Steve, I do agree with you, and I've wanted to throw the scale out the window so many times.

I have been following a great schedule recently with 5 meals per day, 3 days of HIIT, 3 days of weight lifting, 2 days of pilates each week. The scale has only budged 6 lbs, but I definitely have looser clothing. I know the difference is that I am actively losing fat, and retaining muscle.

Here's my only argument. Life insurance companies look at the numbers on the little scale they bring to your house, and then they crunch those supposed meaningless numbers into a formula to determine the cost of a policy...if I want to get a good policy, I need to see the scale numbers go down!

Jen
 
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