Some thoughts about the scale:
FWIW, I think the biggest issue facing anyone looking to make changes to their body is dealing with the mental issues that caused the physical problems in the first place. I have no idea what yours might be, but I know mine include everything from addictions (food, eating) to depression (mood eating, lethargy) to denial (ignoring the results, being unable to face the problem). The way I look at it, I didn’t get fat by just deciding to eat a lot of food and not exercise at all. I made bad decisions because over time I slid into letting my underlying mental issues connect directly to my actions.
So facing those problems is, IMO, an important part of the physical body-correction process.
Sure, your final goal isn’t likely to be a specific number on the scale. I know I don’t work out because I want a specific number to show up on the scale but rather because I want to look a certain way and be able to perform certain tasks. But that doesn’t mean weight isn’t important. Weight is a piece of data. Data doesn’t lie. We often do. It’s part of how we got into a bad body situation in the first place. Data is useful because it gives us indicators of whether what we’re doing is working and how.
I collect an imperial crapload of data every day – pretty much everything I can get my hands on. Some of it isn’t particularly valuable by itself, but put it all together and you get some useful stuff. For example, here’s the information that I collect and provide to my trainer at every appointment (this is the March data):
Note that even though I weigh first thing in the morning in almost identical situations, my weight varies a good bit day to day. This is normal and to be expected. The trends mean more than the individual weigh-ins, though sometimes significant changes make me look to other data to see what’s up. By comparing my daily/weekly/monthly weight change to them I can check the accuracy of my food log and Bodybugg calorie burn estimates. (It’s kind of like instrument flying: If the DG shows stable heading but the compass is turning, better check that vacuum pump. And the HSI might be boned, too.)
The same thing applies to the electronic body fat measurement I do daily with my weigh-in. It’s not accurate at all – there’s no f’in way I’m at 8% body fat, the trainer clocks me in at more like 21% via calipers – but the relative change seems to match up pretty well. So I can watch the trend and see when I’m making progress (or losing it) and adjust before I lose a whole month’s worth.
I guess what I’m saying is that in my opinion asking whether or not to weigh yourself is asking the wrong question. You should. You should collect all the data you can and use it to tailor your eating/exercise plan to get what you want for your body more quickly. You should also not obsess over it. Bad news: that’s a hell of a lot harder to accomplish than most people think. It’s why many people give up when they start logging food, or when they start weighing, or they start doing anything that puts the problem front and center with no denial.
But learning to look at the data without obsessing (in a bad way) is an important part of the process. Hiding from the changes in our bodies got us here in the first place. Let’s stop hiding from them and face 'em head-on. We CAN (even if we don’t think we can on a given day) control ourselves in terms of eating, exercise, and general well-being. Thankfully we’ve got friends here to help us out. Go ahead and weigh. Log your food. If you freak out, don’t feel alone. Come here and let everyone help you through it.
Bottom line: You’re going to have to eat less, eat better, and exercise if you want to get in shape. Excuses or justification doesn’t knock off pounds or put on muscle. But ignoring the mental side of the equation is foolish, too. You need folks around you who’ll keep that reality in the forefront while helping you through the mental changes needed to keep you on the path. And that’s what you’ve got here. :)
(And if it makes you feel any better, it’s a battle I still fight. I still want to eat when I shouldn’t. I sometimes don’t want to go to the gym when I need to. And I have all kinds of embarrassing and stupid personal problems when it comes to what I eat. But I’m working on it.)
Edit: And yes, now you can see all my jackass for the month of March – where I didn’t get enough sleep, didn’t eat enough some days (sometimes now I don’t eat when I’m down – just as dumb, btw, as eating more when down), missed my gym times, did something other than what I was supposed to at the gym because I was lazy/in pain/etc. Doh.
