Dear Newbies: STAY OFF THE DAMN SCALE!!!
Seriously. This is something of a vent and you can call me “mean old Nik" but honestly I am about sick of watching you all torture yourselves. For those of you with children, I’d liken it to watching your kid slice into their own arm. It’s painful. And it has to stop.
If you are less than two months out, get off the damn scale! I would argue for not keeping a scale in your house at all, but that’s a whole other post and debate topic.
For those who are “newly cut" here is my reasoning for staying away from the scale.
#1 - You are HEALING from MAJOR SURGERY. There will be swelling. There will be gas inside you that needs to come out. All this is MATTER and it has weight and that weight WILL show up on the scale. And you don’t heal overnight. So it can take a few weeks, sometimes a few months depending on your situation, for all that to work itself out. If you can’t take the number on the scale with a grain of salt, stay off the damn scale!
#2 – Metabolism is a fickle thing. It’s different for all of us. It is typical for the body to stall early on as it tries to figure out what the hell is going on. After all, you went quite rapidly from ingesting enough to support the body’s functions to not nearly eating enough. The body needs to stop and assess. While it is doing that it isn’t quite sure if it has or will have the calories it needs to support future…um….life…so it slows down the burning of calories. Once it figures out that a) you really aren’t going to eat a substantial amount more and b) that it has the energy it needs to survive, your body WILL start burning fat. I know we all think we’re special but I haven’t met a person yet that defied the laws of science. In relation to the scale, this means it may stop for a time. That’s normal. And it doesn’t mean you aren’t shrinking, it just means you aren’t losing weight (and yes, that is entirely possible). If you can’t take those numbers as just one of the many measures of your progress, stay off the damn scale!
#3 – You are you. Not me. And not him or her. I know it’s natural to want to compare your losses at certain points with other people’s losses. But it really is futile. While every human body operates under some basic rules, that’s where the similarities end. We are each unique and we will each get our own unique result. Comparisons can fuel what I call “scale addiction." And as you get deeper into scale addiction, negative emotions can take over that really CAN derail your progress. You are in this for you. Not to look like me or anyone else on God’s green earth. Remember why YOU did this. Remember that the scale is a TOOL to get you to where you want to be but that there is other things you probably want besides a goal weight: like longevity maybe? Fertility? Energy? Whatever! If you can’t see weight loss as one part of a holistic plan to be healthier, stay off the damn scale!
There…I feel a lot better having said that. Curse me if you want. But this scale obsession is maddening for me to watch. The scale doesn’t tell your story, so stop making it the narrator. I’m not saying never weigh yourself but just as you keep trigger foods out of your pantry, you need to keep trigger items out of your house too. If the scale makes you feel bad about your progress or in any way distracts you from the work you need to do that WILL produce results, stay off the damn scale!
RNY Gastric Bypass 1-8-08 350/327/200 (HW/SW/CW). I spend most of my time playing with my food over at Bariatric Foodie - check me out!
I listened to what the Nut told me and what I read on OH...which is do not weigh yourself every day! I actually feel better now that I have stopped weighing myself all the time!!
RNY Gastric Bypass 1-8-08 350/327/200 (HW/SW/CW). I spend most of my time playing with my food over at Bariatric Foodie - check me out!
