From: jbyrd@chpc.utexas.edu (Jan Byrd)
Newsgroups: alt.support.diet
Subject: Throwing away the bathroom scale?
Date: 17 Aug 92 20:05:12 GMT
Organization: Center for High Performance Computing, Univ. of Texas System

Since I find I am somewhat addicted to weighing myself when I'm intent
on losing weight, I've been curious about this "throwing away the bath-
room scale" advice and how that's supposed to keep me from being neurotic
about my weight.

First I noted that several people wrote in to say that they needed the
daily feedback on how they were doing, and that if the scale reported
that the weight was up, then they would re-double their efforts to stay
on track, etc, until the number on the scale goes back down.  That
sounded really good, but then I began to wonder if it works like that
for everyone.

Frankly, when I step on the scale and it says I've gained or, if I've 
been really "good" and it doesn't say I've lost, then I'm pretty
demoralized.  I even think I'm more likely to be "bad" that day because 
I feel depressed.  Conversely, stepping on the scale and seeing that I've
lost some weight is a great encouragement to me.  I'm much more likely to
have a "good" day that day - because I'm feeling successful.  Isn't that 
why set points and plateaus are so hard to deal with?  It's just too long 
between "good" actions and "good" results.  We lose heart waiting for en-
couragement.

O.K.  I realize this is allowing an inanimate object (a bathroom scale)
to tell me what kind of day to have, but my point is, even if I'm not 
weighing every day at home, eventually I will GET weighed, like at the 
doctor's office, and the shock could be fatal.  [Don't tell me I might be
pleasantly surprised; it doesn't work that way.  If I don't weigh frequently,
I ALWAYS weigh more than I think I do.  Last time I stopped weighing myself
I gained 15 lbs.]  Not weighing myself seems to allow me to *imagine* that 
I'm doing all right when in reality I'm gaining.  

I've heard the advocates of the throw-away-the-scales approach say that 
this is O.K., and that you might gain a little before you stabilize, but 
I haven't heard a single person say they reached their desired weight/
fat-percentage/loss of inches/feel-of-the-clothes (take your pick for 
whatever describes the goal you have) with this approach.  "Throwing away 
the scales" has sounded very much like "throwing in the towel" where your 
figure is concerned and accept yourself at whatever weight you would 
naturally arrive at.  Frankly, I shudder to think of what that figure might 
be and what a huge shift in my self-image would be required to accept that 
figure without complaint.

This sounds to me like shooting an arrow into the sky and then rushing to
move the target to where the arrow is going to land.  That way you can 
always say you hit the mark.  ("Whatever I weigh, I'm sure it's just exactly
right because I feel so good about myself.")

If someone can tell me that a fat person has become a thin person by throwing
away the bathroom scales, or that weighing myself is *preventing* me from
becoming a thin person, then I might become a convert.  But don't tell me
that I need to decide that becoming a thin person isn't important.  The
day I decide that, you can just kick a little dirt over me, 'cause I'll
be dead. :-)

Jan