Aversion to scales

This topic contains 18 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Sarah57 7 years, 2 months ago.

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Sarah57

11:00 pm
14 Sep 16
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Hello

I have just started 5:2. This is my second week both on the diet and of having scales in the house! I knew I had put on weight and my weight does fluctuate quite a bit. But for the last 8 years or so I have judged my weight by the way clothes fit and generally how I feel. I have gone to some trouble not to identify my true weight. Clearly I was completely deluded because I had misjudged my weight by about 15lbs. I am almost 5ft 9 and weigh 207 lbs. I want to get to 160. BMI of 30.6 – current TDEE 2,184.

I have decided to measure by pounds because I think that might help psychologically for some reason. I plan to weigh every Friday morning but didn’t weigh last week for a variety of reasons so this week I will weigh after my final fast of the week. I have done 5:2 before and lost a good bit of weight after 6/8 weeks or so. But I now realise I was only doing a watered down version, just sticking to 500 cals two days a week and forgetting about it the rest of the time. I lost enough to make my clothes feel better and then sort of drifted away. I had no idea about TDEE etc until I found this forum. I feel I have learned a lot from many posters already and have been reading avidly but not posting for a week. I am really determined this time to do it properly and get down to a weight I know I felt good at about 12 years ago.

I have now got the scales and eye them with anxiety whenever I take a shower. I have stuck rigidly to the fast days for two weeks and been quite careful during five days but not counting calories and might have been having too many calories. I am worried about the first weigh in but determined to weigh. I sometimes feel I am lighter but not sure if it is my imagination and my ridiculously high levels of optimism!

I am pleased to have proper goals at least and want to monitor progress properly. I have set an end date to lose the 47 lbs by next June which sounds reasonable from what I’ve read on the forums but my intermediate goal of 30 lbs off by Christmas might not be totally unrealistic. I doubt my weight has been static for very long, always up a bit, down a bit and now up a lot so I need a plan for life and something I can maintain long term.

I love good food, meals out, cooking (though work gets in the way of that sometimes) focus on mostly fresh healthy ingredients, never eat low fat or artificial sweeteners etc. I would have said I know a lot about food but not really about calories. I am beginning to grasp just how much broccoli you get for your 40 cals! The things I like that don’t fall into the healthy category are things like cake or salted snacks with a drink before a meal and especially alcohol. I love cheese and bread and the odd bacon sandwich or bit of chocolate and it is not sounding so healthy now. i wouldn’t have said I overdo alcohol particlularly but could easily have a large glass of wine or two most nights. I had been doing that just before starting this but back to a more normal weekends only now. I am going to find a restriction to that quite hard.

Goodness, this is sounding dull even to me so thanks if anyone’s managed to stay awake to the end. I will keep reading and learning and will get on those scales on Friday AND keep my eyes open! Fingers crossed I will have lost something! S57

bigbooty

2:02 am
15 Sep 16
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Hi Sarah,

There are two camps here with regards to weighing and scales. Some have an aversion to using them as the fear of seeing the weight go up scares people to death, they throw their hands in the air and give up. Then there are the ones that weigh daily and it gives them a steely resolve if the numbers go in the wrong direction and they try harder. Im in the later camp. Weigh yourself the same time every day. I do it in the mornings just before I shower.

Try and avoid all grain based carbs like, bread, pasta, pizza, rice etc. Avoid potatoes. Avoid breakfast cereals like the plague, they are NOT healthy for you. This has been a food marketing con job. Avoid sugar like the plague, including carbonated sugared drinks.

Alcohol contains 7 cal per gram. It must be processed by the liver and stored as fat. Two glasses at 250ml = 500mL. Lets say its 15% alcohol, so that’s 75mL of alcohol. 75 x 7 = 525 calories. So that’s roughly a quarter of your TDEE by just having two glasses of wine.

Meals out are fine. But beware that youre probably having more than your TDEE just by having dinner out.

Shoot for one pound per week loss and it will be sustainable. I went from 202 to 156 over the course of one year, so that’s only about 0.8 pounds per week.

Good luck. It works if you give it a genuine go.

simcoeluv

2:45 am
15 Sep 16
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Hi Sarah and welcome:

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of 5:2: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Sarah57

7:40 am
15 Sep 16
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Thanks Bigbooty and Simcoe. I have not posted on any forum ever before and it does help. At other times in my life I have weighed in every day and I am inclined to think my aversion this time was a way of denying the reality of where I am. I don’t think i could cope with daily fluctuations so weekly it is.

Luckily I never eat cereal or carbonated drinks. I do have porridge with a drizzle of maple syrup sometimes or peanut butter on whole grain toast for breakfast. One of the things I have learned by reading posts is that it helps not to have breakfast at all on fast days. Avoiding all sugar and bread, pasta, potato carbs is going to be a challenge!

Sarah

Sarah57

7:41 am
15 Sep 16
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Ps your weight loss is inspiring Bigbooty!

HappyNow

8:14 am
15 Sep 16
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Hi Sarah,

Like you I had an aversion to scales for most of my adult life. I’m a 5ft7 pear who gains weight all over, so by the time my waistband is tight I’ve gained half a stone 🙁 And clothes fit is all a bit subjective for me too, I was still wearing mostly UK size 12…Just rocking the overstuffed sausage look!

I dug out the scales when I started 5:2 back in January 2014, thinking I’d stop weighing myself when I reached goal (and somehow magically maintain my weight with no means of monitoring it!?). The first weigh in was definitely the most depressing! Anyway, fast forward to now, I’ve been maintaining since May/June 2014 and still weigh myself daily.

With daily weighing I’ve learned that my weight can fluctuate quite markedly day-to-day and even during the course of a day, and if it’s up I can often attribute it to e.g. hormones, increased food in transit (depending on whether I’ve eaten out, bowel movements, etc!), and water retention (so if I’ve overdone the carbohydrates the scales tell me!). My weight is always highest on a Monday morning post-weekend and lowest on a Friday/Saturday morning pre-weekend! So this is just what my body does, nothing to be scared of. Although I weigh every day and use that to guide me, I only record the Saturday morning weight for the purposes of longer-term trend monitoring.

I find daily weighing keeps me accountable. If the numbers don’t do what I expect during the course of the week, or stay high for several days (now I’m maintaining a set weight), then I know I need to be a bit stricter. In the absence of the scales it would be easy for me to kid myself that the extra slice of bread/cake/biscuit won’t matter!

I eat home cooked high quality food, now limit my red wine habit to weekends (pre 5:2 I could easily drink half a bottle of wine every night, but I don’t feel deprived now – I think I’m sharper in work for abstinence, definitely richer, and with a healthier liver!), I’ve largely cut out refined carbohydrates and added sugar during the week too (too much bread was my undoing I think!) but enjoy in moderation at weekends, and now tend to crave savoury foods more than sweet things (I eat A LOT of raw nuts!). None of this is conscious restriction or deprivation, it’s been a natural progression as a result of intermittent fasting, and my tastes still continue to change.

Except for getting an idea of what 500 calories looked like for fast days I’ve never counted calories. I think if you have a reasonable idea of appropriate portion sizes and eat a low refined carb/sugar diet then you don’t need to. And I certainly don’t count my wine calories at weekends 🙂 I’d rather weigh myself than count calories! (Actually I’d probably rather do anything than have to count calories every day 🙂 )

Not sure this helps! But some of your post certainly resonated with me.

Good luck. And remember the scales are not your enemy! The scales are just the messenger!

Sarah57

11:17 pm
15 Sep 16
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Hi HappyNow

You must feel great, getting to where you want to be and maintaining it so well. I have actually never maintained in that I have made a conscious decision that I am at a good weight and need to stay at it. I have previously got to a goal and then decided to go down further or got complacent and as you say just assume I will magically not put on weight. I laughed out loud at the overstuffed sausage look. Although at the moment as it has been a FD and too much consideration of sausages is probably not a good idea! I am going to learn not to fear the scales – it is quite true, they just tell me what I need to know. Getting on them doesn’t actually make me fatter so the aversion is bonkers! It’s weird as I wouldn’t behave like this in any other area of my life. I usually just want to get on with whatever and sort it out and don’t usually indulge in avoidance tactics.

It was great to read your post because I want to be where you are now and for a change I need to see this as a long term commitment and not get bored and drift off. I am definitely seeing the week as the time to be very careful, though I don’t plan to count cals except on FDs, but I know I will still lighten up at the weekend.

Have a good weekend and enjoy that glass of red!

Sarah

Sarah57

7:17 am
16 Sep 16
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First weigh in after two weeks with four fasts to 500 cals accurately completed. Have lost 3.2 lbs. my first thought was that it wasn’t much, given I have nearly 44 to go. but thinking again, this is a clear reminder that this is a plan for life rather than a quick fix. The attraction of 5:2 for me is that it only invloved five days a week and that I don’t have to count calories all week which would drive me crazy and I would find really hard to fit in. I may have to be more mindful of what I am eating on the non fast days.

HappyNow

7:02 pm
16 Sep 16
Permalink

Hi Sarah,

That’s a really good result! The average for women is 1lb or thereabouts per week. I think the main thing for me in the first few weeks was ‘wow, this really does work!’.

While you have more to go, you will of course notice the difference long before you get to goal. Don’t forget to enjoy the journey! You’ll find bending over gets easier, as do stairs, clothes get loose then need replacing, bones you’d forgotten you had reemerge, and you start to realise you can look at yourself in the mirror and no longer hate…and in fact start to like…what you see.

A lot of people find that the fast days spill over onto other days, portion sizes may naturally reduce and tastes may change. And you may find you start to look forward to the fast days, bizarre as that probably sounds to you now!

As you will have seen, there are quite a few popular threads on the forum, everyone is very supportive and welcoming to newbies, and you quickly make new cyber buddies (and actually a lot of 5:2ers here have gone on to meet up in real life). You might want to choose one that appeals and join in (I know some have English/Aussie titles, but they’re not exclusive!)?

Sarah57

9:59 pm
16 Sep 16
Permalink

Thanks Happy! I am going to get involved with a couple of the threads for mutual support. There’s great info on some of them too and people who’ve hit brick walls amd come through. i fast on Tuesday and Thursday because Mondays are sometimes late at work and my OH is sometimes out on a Monday night and I am worse left to my own devices. He is supportive but entirely clueless, never having to worry about putting on weigh in his life. He is naturally slim. At least he only eats 85% chocolate which I hate so no worries I will attack that if he leaves it lying around. Anyway after two fasts this week with just a day between, today I am definitely less hungry and more aware. Have enjoyed a large glass of merlot though! But at this time I’d frequently be thinking about a bit of cheese and a cracker and I really don’t feel the need or inclination.

Oh for hip bones again amd not having to search for clothes which hide my problem areas. I have quite slim arms and legs, it is my stomach, hips and bum which carry much of the excess. I do feel a bit slimmer already. I was reading simcoeluv’s posts on exercise and have recently had an enforced very sedentary 6 weeks or so after an op. I am more active again now, not quite back to pilates but doing as many dog walks as I can fit in and I want to up this now. Feeling pretty good. Thanks for your support!! Sarah

Sarah57

7:55 am
24 Sep 16
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Week 3 is over with a 2lb loss. 5lbs off in total 42 to go reach my target of 160. My bmi is now just under 30 at 29.8. A small movement but somehow feels better than just over.

Week 3 has probably been a bit easier. I am hungry in the evening of FDs but not the following morning. I don’t think I am imagining that I feel less tired and more energetic. This diet does fit into life without too great an adjustment.

Hoping for a similar loss in week 4!

whyamisoshy

10:55 pm
26 Sep 16
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i wish i had an aversion to them. i am darkly addicted to mine though i know they are only a vague indicator of whats going on!
x

Sarah57

6:45 pm
27 Sep 16
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Hi Why, have you tried measuring? I am not doing this at the moment, just weighing once a week. Although only 5lbs down at the moment I feel thinner that loss indicates. Might start measuring. Good luck!

whyamisoshy

10:59 pm
27 Sep 16
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well i dont really cos one day my waist is 29 the next its 33 the next its 35 the next its 31 etc. i think i retain water. xx

Sarah57

7:55 pm
7 Nov 16
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8 weeks in and 13lbs off. Almost a third of the way there. Weight loss is now noticeable and certainly affects how I feel in clothes. I already look amd feel better. Now coping with very low calorie liquid fasts and generally behaving better on NFDs but these are still the danger zone for me. I actually find it easier to eat nothing on FDs rather than a little.

It is so very easy to slip back into old ways. It is hard work sometimes and will go on being hard I am sure.

That being said my tastes are definitely changing. Sweet things sometimes taste unpleasantly sweet. For the first time I think I have found a WOL I can live with. Maintenance is not an issue for me just yet (sadly) but this time I want to learn how to stay slim and healthy for the rest of my life.

Self inflicted plateau for a couple of weeks in October after upheaval at work, a short holiday and family staying, but back on track in November. I most definitely do better when I limit carbs and especially refined carbs.

I feel ready to start exercising again and after a break after an operation in mid July. Need to keep on keeping…obv indefinitely….

coldpizza

8:42 pm
7 Nov 16
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Sarah57,

Many fasters here prefer no-calories FD. I also find it hard to stick to 1/4 of TDEE for fast day, so no-eating seems very reasonable.

I experienced that “slip back”. Lost 23 lb and quickly gain 10 back. Now I am trying again. So be aware!

You have a great start! Congratulations! 😀

Sarah57

8:45 pm
7 Nov 16
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I am warned. 🤐 I hope your loss is going better now. 🙂 Thanks Coldpizza.

Sarah57

10:19 pm
8 Nov 16
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Just when I think I have NFDs sorted, I overate at the weekend. Nothing like the disaster it would have once been. Going to try a third LF this week and really focus in NFDs with as low carb as possible.

Sarah57

7:11 pm
2 Feb 17
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I am midway through my fourth month of 5/2 so thought it was time for an update. I am 26 pounds down as of last week with 21 left to get rid of. I no longer view the scales with terror, though find any upward fluctuations a bit destabilising. I record a weight on a weekly basis only. I have had lots of support from various posters on various threads and that has helped.

I mainly do very low calorie liquid only fast days and still struggle a bit to keep carbs very low on NFDs. I have mainly ditched pasta, rice and potatoes. Potatoes were the main surprise. I really was the baked potato queen and yet don’t miss them at all. There will always be the odd occasion when I succumb to the odd chip. But I have probably had those about three times over the last 3 months. I still struggle with bread. I love a chewy sourdough and find that very hard to give up, but I am down to a slice or two a week.

Aside from Christmas and new year when I put on a pound I have generally lost steadily with only a couple of exceptions. Mostly it has been one pound, sometimes two and very occasionally and thrillingly three. A couple of weeks I have stayed the same.

Although I still have quite a bit to go, I feel and look so much better, younger and have more energy. I no longer grimace when I catch sight of my reflection. My face is much nicer, less, oh I don’t know jowly I suppose. A big bonus has been wearing clothes which used to be too small. That is an amazing difference. I am into almost everything now. I have also made the decision to chuck anything which is too big aside from a couple of things which I plan to have altered. After the yo yo years, I want to remove the option of putting on weight again and remaining fully clothed! Trying not to buy anything much yet though. I really want to lose the lot before investing in new clothes.

For any newbies out there, maybe struggling a bit, I can tell you that this works and the struggle is so worth it. You won’t regret it!