I Had My Surgery But

[kimmy*custis 276]

I have to admit, I do it daily. I need to change that, weekly would be so much beter so I dont obsess about it. If you can do monthly...go for it! I dont have the willpower for that!

[Vance_ 217]

I still weigh daily. I too think weighing daily helps identify patterns. I would not weigh daily if it discouraged me by seeing a weight gain. To each his/her own.

[DebiC 181]

I do every two weeks. On (or near) the anniversary of my surgery (the 14th) and around the 1st of each month. I stop by my PCP's and just go in and weigh. I don't want to have a scale at home.

[Catracks 865]

I still weigh daily. I too think weighing daily helps identify patterns. I would not weigh daily if it discouraged me by seeing a weight gain. To each his/her own.

I agree. If I've gone too heavy on the carbs or salt I will know it quickly. As I said, my weight really does not fluctuate.

I normally do not weigh on the weekends.. My bad eating habit if any will show up on Monday. If I eat right and take a long hike I can drop 3 punds over a weekend. This is 3 real pounds because they stay off.

I also don't let no weight loss or a .2 gain ruin my day.

[gramaof4 58]

I am 5 weeks post op...I have been weighing in daily and this last week, I have been so frustraited...only losing a few ounces a day....I try to wait several days in between so it gives me a bit more loss.

I find I lose more when I'm closer to my liquid intake and the correct Protein intake...

[MeMeMEEE 206]

I wouldn't weigh any less than weekly. That way, if you are getting out of hand or of track you will know before too much damage is done. I actually weigh daily, I know my body and it's small fluctuations don't bother me. I also know ME and when I avoid the scale for any length of time it spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E...

[ouroborous 519]

I agree. If I've gone too heavy on the carbs or salt I will know it quickly. As I said, my weight really does not fluctuate.

I normally do not weigh on the weekends.. My bad eating habit if any will show up on Monday. If I eat right and take a long hike I can drop 3 punds over a weekend. This is 3 real pounds because they stay off.

I also don't let no weight loss or a .2 gain ruin my day.

With respect, you cannot lose 3 lbs of fat over a weekend. It's simply not physiologically possible.

I'm not saying you don't see the scale move by that much, and I'm not saying you don't lose SOME weight. But I will flat-out guarantee you that it is not 3 lbs of fat. You would need to run a calorie deficit in excess of 10,000 calories (cf: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_pound.php) to lose 3 lbs of fat, which is simply not possible in a weekend. You would have to eat NOTHING, and be basically doing flat-out cardiovascular exercise at your max heart rate to run this much of a deficit, and you would collapse and likely die if you even tried.

This is why I don't recommend paying too close attention to the numbers on the scale. Almost ALL of the short term (less than one week) fluctuations are Water weight.

[Liliana Arleen 173]

Well' date=' you're right -- it's not weighing yourself that's the problem. You could weigh yourself every five minutes and it's not like it would be bad.

It's just that most of us obsess over the number on the scale. Towards the end of your weight loss journey (when your BMI starts to get closer to that magical "normal" figure), your week-by-week (and sometimes even month-by-month) weight loss can and will sometimes be eaten up by an hour-by-hour fluctuation due to Water weight, going (or not going) to the bathroom, what you just ate, and so on. As a result, the actual number on the scale becomes almost meaningless from the perspective of tracking your overall fitness. That being said, if you can avoid the trap of obsessing over the actual number, and learn to use some science and math to plot the trend over time (so that you can see the overall downwards trend, despite all the bumps along the way), you can still do just fine weighing yourself weekly. I wouldn't really advise anyone weighing more than weekly since the information becomes pretty useless for us.

Most people just don't have the self-discipline to not freak out over a slight blip on the scale, which is why I think weighing yourself monthly is about perfect. That's a long enough time to "average out" some of the bumps in the road, and short enough that you're not letting a bad trend get too out of control.[/quote']

Well said!! I love what you wrote . As a former scale addict , I support everything you said :)

[Tippy2us 11]

Great thread! I let the scale ruin my day, every day. I'm going to quit weighing every day. Thanks for posting this.

[Catracks 865]

With respect, you cannot lose 3 lbs of fat over a weekend. It's simply not physiologically possible.

I'm not saying you don't see the scale move by that much, and I'm not saying you don't lose SOME weight. But I will flat-out guarantee you that it is not 3 lbs of fat. You would need to run a calorie deficit in excess of 10,000 calories (cf: http://www.caloriesp...orial_pound.php) to lose 3 lbs of fat, which is simply not possible in a weekend. You would have to eat NOTHING, and be basically doing flat-out cardiovascular exercise at your max heart rate to run this much of a deficit, and you would collapse and likely die if you even tried.

This is why I don't recommend paying too close attention to the numbers on the scale. Almost ALL of the short term (less than one week) fluctuations are Water weight.

Well I guess I've lost 52 pounds of Water then. Some days I lose more than half a pound and it stays off.

The calorie deficit formula does not work the same for everyone.

[Catracks 865]

Oh wait. Make that 53.

[Liliana Arleen 173]

Well people I used to weight myself everyday 3-4 times a day and YES now I think that doing something like is crazy and is not going to help me emotionally ,with all my respect to those who do it,I was driving myself crazy. My scale broke and my husband fixed it but I told him to hide it where I can't see it and guess what? Since I am not weighting daily,I am feeling much better and stress free. This does not mean that I won't check my weight. I keep working out 6 times a week and trying my best to make better choices as far as eating The scale only says a number,it's all about how you feel,you know you will do good if you exercise properly and eat clean.

[ouroborous 519]

Oh wait. Make that 53.

So -- you've lost 53 pounds in 3 months. That's just over 4 pounds a week, which is an admirable weight loss rate for someone with your starting BMI (I was in the same area) for the first few months. It's quite common to see this in the first 1-4 months, after which it usually slows down to about 1-2 pounds a week for maybe 4-6 months, and then 1-2 pounds a *month* after that for a LONG time, eventually see-sawing to a steady state. Losing 4 pounds a week implies that you run a caloric deficit of about 4 lbs * 3500 cals/lb / 7 days or 2000 calories per day. This is possible because in the first few weeks after surgery you're typically on a very restrictive diet which significantly limits the calories you can consume (plus, most of us are riding a bit of loss from the pre-op diet, and usually we're still being very mindful of carbs, which tend to be among the most calorie-dense foods). Sadly, after the first couple of months, this rate of 4 or even 5 pounds of fat lost per week slows down dramatically.

Even so, you were talking about losing 3 pounds in a weekend, which is just not possible if it's fat we're talking about. Losing 3 pounds of fat would require you to run a deficit of about 5200 calories per day. Your resting metabolism is no more than 1700-1900 calories per day if you're very physically active. You'd have to burn another 4000 calories every day to sustain a 3 pounds in 2 days fat loss. That's simply impossible; you'd have to do about 10 hours or more of intense cardio every day -- we're talking about 80-90% max heart rate -- to burn 4000 calories, and I'd guess that you would die long before you burned the calories. No, whether you believe me or not, if you lose 3 pounds in 2 days, the bulk of that is Water lost.

You are right, everyone's body is slightly different, but what you're talking about is not a minor difference between body types. It would be a miracle of modern science. I'd guess that most of your 52 lbs lost IS fat, because it's reasonable to lose 52 lbs in 3 months. Breaking the habit of looking at the scale every day is part of how we can train people to have realistic, healthy expectations of weight loss. Daily weigh-ins are not useful for weight loss, and they are actively harmful to some people who obsess over single-pound fluctuations that are utterly out of their control.

[MimiMermaid 13]

I dont understand why some people feel the need to chastise others because they dont have the same beleifs or behaviors... Its simple, someone asked a.question. She asked the question not to get a lecture but to get a variety of opinions, views and.to see what worked for some.and what didnt.. Some people need to just accept that we are all different and it doesnt make any of us wrong... Just different. Stop being jerks just because you dont like or do the same things that clearly work for them. If they dont work for you.. Then just say they dont but you cant say that just because they dont for you, they cant for anyone else.. Stop being hostile. We are supposed to support and advise eachother and if we are afraid.to answer a simple question because we are afraid of being ridiculed, then it simply is not possible.

[FluffyBleu76 32]

So -- you've lost 53 pounds in 3 months. That's just over 4 pounds a week, which is an admirable weight loss rate for someone with your starting BMI (I was in the same area) for the first few months. It's quite common to see this in the first 1-4 months, after which it usually slows down to about 1-2 pounds a week for maybe 4-6 months, and then 1-2 pounds a *month* after that for a LONG time, eventually see-sawing to a steady state. Losing 4 pounds a week implies that you run a caloric deficit of about 4 lbs * 3500 cals/lb / 7 days or 2000 calories per day. This is possible because in the first few weeks after surgery you're typically on a very restrictive diet which significantly limits the calories you can consume (plus, most of us are riding a bit of loss from the pre-op diet, and usually we're still being very mindful of carbs, which tend to be among the most calorie-dense foods). Sadly, after the first couple of months, this rate of 4 or even 5 pounds of fat lost per week slows down dramatically.

Even so, you were talking about losing 3 pounds in a weekend, which is just not possible if it's fat we're talking about. Losing 3 pounds of fat would require you to run a deficit of about 5200 calories per day. Your resting metabolism is no more than 1700-1900 calories per day if you're very physically active. You'd have to burn another 4000 calories every day to sustain a 3 pounds in 2 days fat loss. That's simply impossible; you'd have to do about 10 hours or more of intense cardio every day -- we're talking about 80-90% max heart rate -- to burn 4000 calories, and I'd guess that you would die long before you burned the calories. No, whether you believe me or not, if you lose 3 pounds in 2 days, the bulk of that is Water lost.

You are right, everyone's body is slightly different, but what you're talking about is not a minor difference between body types. It would be a miracle of modern science. I'd guess that most of your 52 lbs lost IS fat, because it's reasonable to lose 52 lbs in 3 months. Breaking the habit of looking at the scale every day is part of how we can train people to have realistic, healthy expectations of weight loss. Daily weigh-ins are not useful for weight loss, and they are actively harmful to some people who obsess over single-pound fluctuations that are utterly out of their control.

Hey... you sound like an Exercise Physiologist! That or you have done quite a bit of research on how the body burns it's fuel (calories) and how to keep motivation up. Back in the day when I was fit and trained people, I would recommend they avoid the scale. But, to each his/her own! Some people need to see the numbers to feel like this procedure was worth it.