Scared to weigh myself..

[Pezalicious]

Is anyone else like this?

I know I'm at my heaviest ever right now. Last year, I went through a bad break up, which started things off bad. Then I met a new guy (9 months later and it's going GREAT!), but because of college, it was a long distance relationship until last month, when he graduated and moved in with me. Because of the distance, we would talk on the phone every night and either play video games together or watch movies/tv shows together while we talked. I have a desk job, so this meant I sat on my butt all day and all night. Really NOT GOOD for my health, not to mention my waistline!! Add a lot of take out to the inactivity, and I am now heavier than ever before in my life.

Now, I've decided enough is enough. There's no excuse for not being active anymore. My boyfriend and I keep talking about going out for nightly walks, but so far that hasn't happened, so I'm gonna move ahead when it comes to exercise without him. I plan to walk a few times a week or so and then go to Curves 3 times a week. But I know at Curves that they weigh you, and that terrifies me. I don't want to know what my highest weight ever actually is. I'm thinking of asking them to either let me skip that, or let me get weighed backwards so I don't know, and they can just tell me my progress.

I know I attach importance to the number on the scale, but I can't seem to not care. I don't want to get weighed and feel depressed over it or defeated before I even begin.

 

[zigzagzerr]

Look at it as a starting place....gotta do it so you know where you stand!

Go ahead, I'll just wait here. You can do it!!!

After that, we'll do a few of these to get our heartrates up, drink a giant sized glass of water, and you can make your plans.

(seriously though, take a deep breath, it'll be okay).

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I've been right where you are and I understand completely. I used to tell the doctor's office that I was closing my eyes and I didn't want them to tell me what the number was. Like you, I just wanted to know that I was making progress. I'm all for whatever method works for a person. I had even had my DH weigh me weekly at one point and he charted things for me-only conveying the amount of weight I lost, but never what my number was. When I was down a good amount, then I was okay with braving the scale on my own.

 

[delilah]

I was terrified for years of weighing myself, to the point I would go into a cold sweat at the thought of doing so. I was weighed a total of three times between February, 1998 and May of this year. I started out at about 125lbs, which was heavier than I wanted to be. We were adopting a new baby in 1998, and I stopped exercising and wasn't so careful with my diet (for a time I was eating as much as I wanted of whatever I liked). I was aware that I was gaining weight, but had no clue how much. I was in major denial about my weight. I was weighed for an nsurance physical in 1991, and had gained nearly 70lbs. I then became more careful about my diet, but, refused to weigh myself, until this past spring when I noticed that I was outgrowing my size extra large clothes. I never wore numbered sizes, so, I don't even know to this day how big I was, or how much I weighed at the start of my weight loss program. After a few weeks, my clothes were beginning to get loose. Finally, was able to work up the courage to weigh myself. I started at the 300 lb mark and worked my way downward. (I didn't want to embarrass myself if I started at too low of a weight). My initial weight I know about was 197lbs, but, I may have weighed as much as 210 or so. I have now lost 43lbs since then, and feel so much better.

 

[tiggerlover]

I think whatever works for a person is the way to go and if you don't want to know your weight just tell Curves to withhold that information from you. It is hard weighing as it is very easy to become a slave to the scale. But if you are exercising, eating healthy and drinking plenty of water you will start seeing the results on your body as opposed to the scale. Good for you for making healthy changes, I wish you nothing but success.

 

[goofyisinphilly]

I work at Curves and constantly tell ladies that weight is just a number. Yes it is an indicator but really just a number. Be more concerned with your blood pressure and percent of body fat. NOT your BMI. BMI is just a height weight ratio. Percent body fat is a much more accurate judge.

If you don't want to weigh at Curves you don't have to. I would recommend going ahead and asking them not to tell you the number. Without lbs. they can't figure % body fat with the scanner. I prefer to go by inches lost instead of lbs.

Good luck!

 

[If U Had Wings]

I felt much the same way for a long time. I avoided the scale thinking if I had no idea how much I weighed the problem would just go away. It didn't and I was always well aware that I was wasting my prime adult years being overweight and using it as an excuse. Last year I finally got motivated to do something and got on the scale. It was sobering to find out just what the damage was, but I use it as a milestone to see where I've come from. As I've been working on losing I go more by sizes then by the scale, but I still weigh myself periodically to compare to where I was. All it takes is that first step.

 

[delilah]

I work at Curves and constantly tell ladies that weight is just a number. Yes it is an indicator but really just a number. Be more concerned with your blood pressure and percent of body fat. NOT your BMI. BMI is just a height weight ratio. Percent body fat is a much more accurate judge.

If you don't want to weigh at Curves you don't have to. I would recommend going ahead and asking them not to tell you the number. Without lbs. they can't figure % body fat with the scanner. I prefer to go by inches lost instead of lbs.

Good luck!

17

I'm not sure how they determine body fat percentage at curves. The gold standard for determining body fat percentage, of course, involves weighing a person under water. Other methods involve using calipers to measure skin fold thickness, and alternatively, calculating an estimate based on various tape measurements. Another method involves measuring bioelectric impedence. I have never had the underwater body fat determination. I don't know, but I doubt they do that routinely at curves, although my receptionist goes to our local outlet, and I could ask her. Skin fold measurement and the bioelectric impedence methods give a variation of 15%. I just calculated my body fat percentage at several different websites, and got 6 different numbers ranging from 8.8-42%. The mean was 27.17 and the standard deviation was 11.4, which means that my body fat percentage is between 15.8 and 38.5. I don't know about you, but, I think I can do better than that just looking in the mirror and guestimating that I need to lose about 30lbs to look and feel my best. Basically, those body fat calculations are essentially worthless, and not worth my time and effort to measure all those body parts.

My basis for stating that I think that I need to lose 30lbs to look and feel my best is because that was the weight I was able to maintain as a young adult. When I was very young, I probably suffered sub-clinical anorexia nervosa. I didn't quite meet the clinical criteria, but, I was close. If you read Dr. Roizin and Dr. Oz Real Age, they recommend the weight a woman was at 18 years of age. I was 95-99lbs at that age, constantly hungry, and not as energetic as I was at a slightly higher, still healthy 120lbs. So, 120lbs is my goal.

Now, I am a family physician, and to get back to the original question of the thread. Weight on the scale is a surrogate marker for body fat percentage. I am not going to take the time to do caliper skin fold measurements on every patient who comes to my office every day to measure body fat percentage, but, it only takes a few seconds for my nurse to put them on the scale. Many people, myself included, are really sensitive about their weight. I can assure you that I see morbidly obese patients every day in my office, and there is at least one patient every day who refuses to let my nurse weigh them. Sometimes, there are patients who don't get weighed because our scale doesn't go up that high (we have one that goes to 350lbs). Sadly, there are people who won't go see the doctor for their routine health checks because they don't want the humiliation of being weighed. I totally relate to that emotion. I know that I am too heavy, and it would not be helpful to me for a doctor to tell me that I am overweight. Losing weight is like stopping smoking or abusing alcohol or drugs. I cannot make my patients lose weight if they are overweight, just like I cannot make them stop smoking, drinking or abusing drugs. I could not lose weight until I was first able emotionally to deal with that issue, and even now, it is hard. The fact is that I was terrified to be weighed, even though it is only a number, as you say. But, for me, it was more than a number. It was a challenge to my identity to acknowledge and accept, and then do something to change my weight.

 

[Pezalicious]

I still haven't made it to Curves because I forgot about a gift show for my work, but I'll be going this week. Scary scary!!!

I think I will take the advice to not know my weight, but record and pay attention to the inches I lose. After a while, I know I'll be motivated by my progress and my weight won't scare me so much, no matter what it is. I just need to get through this first step and make some sort of progress that I can notice.