Do you want to look good or do you want to weigh good?

[NY Disney fan]

So many people are addicted to the scale. Weighing yourself everyday will assuredly lead you down the wrong path. What you are weighing is essentially the water in your body everyday. Why would you measure your body's water? To see real progress, do strength training and see your body shrink. If the scale doesn't go down, your pant's size will! Eventually the scale will catch up.

Many people chase the number on the scale so much that they will eat or not eat any old thing just so they could see the scale go down, not thinking about how much water they are losing. I mean, how many flabby skinny people are out there? We've all seen them. They fit into the size 4 jean but there is tons of flab and cellulite underneath.

Don't be scared of the dumbell, barbell or resistance band. Use them often and heavily. Your weight may even go up after using them, but your body's response cannot be denied... you will shrink and be sucked in to pefection.

So I ask, do you want to weigh good or do you want to look good?

 

[FireDancer]

Weight is really one one part of health, and has to be put in context. Your body requires more calories to maintain one pound of muscle than to maintain one pound of fat. As you replace fat with muscle your resting metabolic rate will increase as will the number of calories per day your body burns just maintaining itself.

I think daily weighing is a bad idea. As the OP said it will pretty much just weight the difference in weight per day. Monthly weighing is better while you are trying to lose weight at the beginning of the lifestyle change (not diet). After you have shed a good amount of fat and start weight training the scale is less important than what the mirror says. Getting a reliable body fat measurement is also a good idea and that is not using one of those two handle machines or a body fat scale. Those are unreliable and since underwater weighing is not convenient the best way to get a good measurement is with body calipers.

A lot of people are under the assumption that cardio is the only way to burn calories. It is a good way and the best way to build endurance and cardiovascular health but weight training is just as important. You will burn calories longer after doing resistance training than cardio because your body continues to use calories as it rebuilds the muscle you have just broken down.

What you look like in the mirror is more important than what the scale says, it is an incomplete measurement of your health.

 

[::Snow_White::]

The way I feel and look is way more important to me than the number on the scale, but not that it's unhealthy. I used to weigh every week until I hit my goal, now I weigh myself maybe once a month or less just to make sure I haven't gone overboard or dropped too much weight. One of my friends and I were talking about health and she said I didn't look like I weigh as much as I do. (I'm very healthy, but she weighs about 20 pounds less than I do and we do look like we weigh the same.)

So as long as I'm at a healthy weight, I focus more on how I look and the muscle I have, rather than trying to lower the number on the scale. I don't like to say, hey look, I weigh this much. I like to say, hey look, I look/feel really good and healthy.

 

[ohMom]

i want my jeans to slip on easily and be comfy...

 

[ShortyNBug]

I'm an everyday weigher. I don't let it affect my mood, my eating, my day...whatever. I've done it enough that I know what foods will cause me to go up the next morning, what tinme of the month to expect a gain, all those good things. I do it for me. Just because I need it right now. Is it unhealthy, probably. When I get to a better place I'll start just looking once a week. I only record once a week (on Friday) anyway. The in between is just to see where I'm at.

That being said, I want to look good and feel good. My doctor already told me that weight isn't that important in the big picture. You can take a tiny little thing and she can weigh way more than you'd think because it's all muscle. Who sees the number anyway? People see what size you are and how you look, not the number on the scale. People ask how much I'm trying to lose and as much as I hate the question I always say, "54 pounds by April". They all gasp and say it's too much but they don't know my number. It's not. Infct, I should probably aim to go lower. I will feel comfortable at about 49 pounds lost but wanted to push it to 54 just to see how I feel there.

So, I want to look good. But, I want the scale to go down as this happens. (And it will, I know.)

 

[LAinSEA]

Our bodies are all different and everyone carries weight differently. For me it is not the actual number on the scale when I reach goal weight, but being a healthy BMI. I'm not sure if it will be at the low end or the high end of the range, but I do know that many employers and insurance companies will begin to use it to charge you more if you aren't in that range (just like many are charging smokers more.)

Right now, I'm about 15 lbs away from reaching the top of a "normal" BMI. My goal weigh is 15 below that and during the past 20 years, I've not been at the normal BMI for long. My body has always fought to gain despite watching calories and exercising regularly. I just want to get to a healthy size and weight and be able to maintain it.

Laurie

 

[redlight]

I do weigh at least once a week because it helps me track my progress, and I'd like to weigh less than I do. But I am more interested in having a flat stomach and smaller hips than I am with the number on the scale.

 

[natale1980]

I lost alot of weight last year without really trying. Since then I had put most of it back on.
About 5 weeks ago I started dieting and exercising. I am still about 10lbs away from where I was this time last year, but I'm allot less lumpy. I like losing weight this way better... sounds silly... but even though I weight more I am in better shape then I was last year AND will look better once I get down to the weight where I was last year.

I do have a certain goal weight, but, I really am looking forward to being less 'lumpy'

-nat