I use a weight maintenance tool described in the book Refuse to Regain by Barbara Berkeley, MD.
I weigh in daily.
I know a lot of people "throw away the scale". That's cool. I get it . Totally. Long term weight maintenance is a complex road. Building my own weight maintenance template has been key this time around.
I weigh in daily during weight maintenance. Daily weighing is strictly a data gathering system for me. I use the data as a Quality Control tool. No shame, no blame. Cold hard data for my science brain.
What works:
1. Look for trends and shifts overall.
2. Look for foods that may be inflammatory (2 pound gain in 1 day)
3. As a way to objectively problem solve.
4. As one way to evaluate effectiveness.
5. As a way to save money for using the same size clothing month-in- month out.
Now to be fair, the inputs to the process- food types, emotional/binge eating remission, travel, death in the family and death of close friends, weight training, full time work, unplanned gluten exposure, chosen sugar exposure are highly variable and complex. Sometimes I may make the wrong decision about what to try next. I may conclude incorrectly cause and effect. That's okay, because I always re-evaluate.
I made it okay to make mistakes, make the wrong decisions, but I decide and move on. Right or wrong- the cause of weight regain will be told. Left for me to problem solve. Which I know I can do.
Overall, I keep an open mind, positive attitude, and keep trying what works. It's an experiment. I don't have all the answers. But many times I can guess. It's made all the difference. Long term maintenance. Yeah!
What did not work:
1. Not looking at root causes for higher shifts in other weight maintenance attempts. Overeat, repent, repeat. ( eating Skinny Cow Ice cream and mini-Snickers bars caused the scale to go up, I'm not strong enough, I'll start my diet on Monday- not so effective. Failure to connect the dots)
2. Not correlating wheat/grain and sugars with weight gain, acne, high hs-CRP values
3. Blaming myself for "failing" at weight maintenance.Not looking at my process inputs/outputs
4. Stopping weighing in when the scale went higher and higher.
5. Spending $$ buying lots of different sizes of clothing to accommodate the yo-yo dieting and weight gains/losses.
I'm enough. Strong enough. I needed to add the effectiveness check and good problem solving skills to the mix. Those are the basic skills I tap into for the long haul. Work them every day. That and an ability to be honest and make decisions.
And tomorrow I will weigh in gain. One top priority. Life is good. Life is good because I customized my own template in long term weight maintenance.
Can you explain what hs-CRP is? :)
ReplyDeleteGood post! Says a compulsive daily weigher. :)
Hello KCalla! hs-CRP is an inflammation maker. I believe our health screening includes it so that ,in combination with triglycerides and HDL, cardiac risks can be evaluated ( there are sets of about 5 tests summarized on a page with green, yellow, and red ratings). Bacterial inflammation, arthritis, etc can also raise hs-CRP. I love lab tests online for a trusted, peer reviewed site for lab test interpretations. I use it all the time to "translate" to non-lab peeps. Especially good for friends and family. :)
Deletehttp://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/hscrp/tab/test
http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/hscrp/tab/faq
I daily weigh as well... people have told me not to, that it's not a healthy behavior, but when I stop daily weighing, my weight continuously trends upwards till I am 10 pounds overweight! When I weigh daily, I stay within a 3-4 pound range, which is best for my physical and mental health!
ReplyDeleteProjection (their feelings projected on to you) is a peculiar thing, Jeanette. The people I know personally who maintain the tightest weight range with fewer large gains weigh in more often. I have a close friend who is a long term weight maintainer and I fought the idea for a while myself while loosing. Once I got to maintenance in the first year- I could see how my emotional eating brain could quickly take over and I'd be heading back up the scale again! Yes- I agree- 3-4 pounds- I think I give myself 2 pounds on the low side and 2 pounds on the high side for a range with 1 pound in the middle. Checks and balances for the WIN. :)
DeleteI also weigh daily. I find that if I don't, the scale can take a big jump up, just like Jeanette said above.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to be able to get to where I only weighed once a week...emotionally. But it just doesn't seem to work for me. Once a day it is. That is what works for me, too.
ReplyDeleteJoyful Susan and Primal Gwen- I did have to work through the mental emotional side when switching to daily weighing. I did it while in weight loss, so by the time I got to weight maintenance, I was over the scale up and downs and into data collecting. I don't mind seeing a gain in the scale when it's because of muscle building. My clothes tell the tale. :)
DeleteI weigh in every day and have for years ... I did still manage to regain while weighing in every day though, dang it. I just watched it inch up. I was never counting/controlling calories though, that needs to be daily for me too. Started that mid-May, I've lost 20+ and have another 20 to go to get to goal. And this time maintain! I'll continue to weigh, continue to count calories, continue to exercise.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE graphs too, so interesting how just changing some of the numbers (your axis, or the time) can really change the look completely too!
Jen B, congrats on your success at loosing the re-gain. Sometimes it takes 3-6 months worth of data for me to really figure out what is going on. It's funny how different graphs might show different clues. Sometimes normal variation. If I eat an inflammatory food- the scale shows it. I''l be doing a blog post soon showing a big spike after eating pork again. I've got a pork sensitivity and the scale shows it. Like a poor man's allergy test!!! ;) Glad to find other graph happy people.
DeleteI too weigh every day except when we go on holiday. It is kind of freeing to not weight then and great when I return to find I'm still all good. I will have a week without weighting from today but as I will be eating my usual food I don't expect any changes.
ReplyDeleteMy weight hardly changed now and I eat well - not a lot of calories but I certainly don't go hungry. When we choose great quality food, you simply don't need as many calories to be satisfied.
Lynda- it is the BEST feeling ever to go on holiday, return and be RIGHT on track- clothes fit, energy is good, relaxed and feeling good. It's so true, once you are eating from a quality food template- the right calories/nutrients are there. My "stop eating " switch now works much better. Whew! Glad to finally experience normal satiety. I thought it might not be in the cards for me.
DeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteThis is actually the exact reason I stopped weighing myself daily. Doing it daily or even weekly I have such big fluctuations, like 4-6 pounds at a time, that it made me crazy. It would affect my mood way too much. But weighing in monthly was the check in that I needed. It was almost always about the same and I never got wigged out over the fluctuations. ;)