weight

[keryx]

I meant to talk about this after I came back from Hawai'i...

My little beach cottage that last night had a stocked bathroom, which included a scale (among other things). I don't know at what point I transitioned from desperately needing to get the scale out of my house to one for whom getting to weigh myself is a treat, but that? Is apparently what I've done. I weighed myself at least 5, and possibly as many as 10, times in under 24 hours. In that time, my weight fluctuated by 10 lbs according to the scale.

Dude! That is quite a range. I suspect some of it was scale inconsistency, but at least some was also natural variation in my weight (that day between 208 and 218, if you care). If it was, in fact, all me, my weight varies by as much as 5% on a daily basis.

I'm tempted to buy an inexpensive scale and chart variances till I find a trend - like, maybe I gain or lose 10 lbs as I sleep. But. I'm paranoid that having a scale in my house would revert me back to a critical, "OMG I'm so FAT [bad]" thought process about weight. Am I a 4th level fattivist, or whatever you need to be in order to find weight a curiosity without any particular value attached to it? And could I retain that curiosity?

Huh. Interesting. Do I sound like I'm terrified of scales? Because I? Am terrified of scales.

Comments

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I don't suspect I'd learn anything except how much my weight varies. But you never know.

I could, of course, get a scale, do this project, and then destroy the scale in some artistic fashion.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I had a scale like that - I did not want to have a scale; it was left by the prior tenant, perhaps because it seldom gave the same reading twice. That's why I made this.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing pics of your scale before. Totally cool & fun.

[tzel.livejournal.com]

With the rheumatoid arthritis I can be one size in the morning and two sizes larger in the evening or vice versa or any fluctuation in between. Generally it's a six to ten pound difference.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

My weight varies about 5 pounds over a day, sometimes up to 8 pounds or so over the course of a week. When I was seriously hypo and under-treated, I had bad puffiness from water retention, and my weight swing was ever bigger over the course of a week.

I also have a pretty complicated relationship with the scale. I think it tells me *something* but not what other people seem to think it says about me. I haven't gotten rid of mine, but I keep it in the closet and have to purposely pull it out to weigh myself, which cuts down how often I actually do so.

I'm feeling pretty shaky about the whole fat and fat positivity issue today. I'm so angry and sad I've been shaking and on the verge of tears for several hours. I have an LJ friend who knows that weight-loss dieting doesn't work, but she's tired of being ridiculed for being fat and is considering WLS. The clueless comments about "Just eat well and exercise!" on her entry about this are making me SO angry and filling me with despair, as is the fact that she'd rather mutilate her stomach than be 300 pounds.

Sorry you got my upset dump today, but I didn't want to dump on my own journal or any of the communities where she posts, because I'm sure this is an agonizing enough issue for her without me spewing all over her...

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything physically wrong or even unusual going on. So I am curious why I vary so much. I was in a lot of sun and water, so it's possible that I actually had that significant a difference from dehydration & subsequent rehydrating.

Also. *HUGS*
People are stupid when they don't plan on it. I'm sure the people offering the ridiculous advice are trying to be helpful (and failing). And I feel for your friend. It isn't easy being fat, particularly if you're not "outly" (aggressively, actively making an effort to be & make other people be comfortable with it) so. I hope whatever she ends up doing is something she can be happy with long-term.

[zorah.livejournal.com]

I am also terrified of the scale and have banished it from my house. Whenever I go to my mom's I have to literally stare at it for a while and tell myself 'noooooooooo'.

She probably wonders why I take so long in the bathroom.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I usually just weigh myself at my parents'. But there's definitely the eek! should I even TOUCH this thing?! feeling. Oh yeah. And I won't do it if anyone's even in like, the next room.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

And this is why I can't fathom the whole Weight Watchers "I lost a pound and a half this week!" thing. Dude, I gain and lose that HOURLY.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I'm guessing most people do. I mean, I know they say to weigh yourself the same time every day, but I think my greatest variance was mid-day the first day vs. mid-day the second, if I recall correctly. Unless your life is extremely routine, I'm not sure a pound tells any kind of story.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I only weigh first thing in the morning post-pee and pre-shower, and yet I've seen fluctuations of 5 lbs and more, day to day. This "I gained two pounds!" thing is completely mental. I can POOP that much on a fiber-rich day!