Should I weigh?
If so, how often?

Should I throw my scales away?

This issue is frequently discussed by those dealing with diet for weight-loss.

After a lifelong battle with food and with weight (see ABOUT ME), I’ve established what works for me.

Over the years, I have just about every reaction possible to the Scales.

•  I've eaten because they showed a loss,
  
•  I've eaten because they showed a gain.
  
•  I've eaten because they didn't move up or down.
  
•  I 've felt bad because they went up,
  
•  I've felt good because they went down. 
  
•  I've felt bad because they didn't move at all,
  
•  I've felt good, when they didn't move at all.

Over time, I tried different variations to my use of the scales.

I tried weighing whenever I felt like it, even if it was many times a day.

I tried weighing once a day, and once a week, and once a month; twice a day, not weighing myself, but having a club or doctor weigh me. I spent several years not weighing at all.

I've bought many scales of various kinds, and I've thrown away many scales.

I finally came to realize that my problem is not with the Scales themselves. My problem is dealing with the Reality of objective truth  - which is shown by numbers that the Scales repeatedly registers.

  
Here is my basic and ultimate problem:

I hate the Reality of the fact
that
I cannot eat everything I want to eat, all the time.

THAT is what I feel frustrated by, and THAT is what sometimes angers and disgusts me. The Scale is merely a Tool that shows me an objective number, and that scale number tends to force me to face my Denial of the above-stated Realty. 

Like many overeaters, I have a strong tendency to lie to myself. I find it extremely easy to lie to myself about how much I eat,  and ... when I don't use the Scale regularly... it's not hard to lie to myself about how far away I am from my preferred weight. 

In order to face Reality, I need an Objective Standard. So....

• I weigh every morning after using the bathroom, but before I dress.
  
• I write that weight number down.
• I then record that weight number on charts and graphs that I keep.
  

I feel emotions during this process, just like I feel emotions about lots of my other daily activities.

I can emotionally eat because I do or don't like the number the scale tells me,
.............or

I can emotionally eat over something I hear in the morning news.
............or over anything at all.....

Facts are facts, and emotions are emotions.

I continually work to avoid excessive emotional eating, no matter what the cause. But, not facing the truth of facts is no solution to emotional eating.

Some mornings the scale shows that my body is up 2 or 3+ pounds from the prior morning.
.................. I don't like that.
However, I KNOW my body didn't really gain 2 or 3 or more pounds of fat overnight...
...................because I'm not a moron.

 I know that it's the Big Picture that counts, ...  rather than one individual day, or one individual weight. ... It takes eating somewhere around 3500 calories above what my body burns to gain 1 pound of fat, and I know that the calories I took in the day before was far less than the amount that could cause a 2-3 pound fat gain.

I also know that eating salty foods, or an especially large volume of food, will affect my body's salt/water/waste levels for several days. This means that my body will register numbers higher on the scale.

Whatever the reason, when I see higher numbers on the scale, I know that for the next few days I will need to eat smaller amounts of lower calorie foods.

Sometimes I feel frustrated by this.  Sometimes I am angry and disgusted. But......
I am determined to stay the course and view the numbers on the scale in a positive way.

Accepting the Reality of the fact that I cannot eat everything I want to eat all of the time, is an ATTITUDE CHOICE, which isn't always pleasant or easy to repeatedly and consistently make.

Here is something I find to be an ultimate Truth:

I must face Reality
then...
Change what I can
and
Accept what I can't Change.

 NOTE: Originally posted on 1/29/2017.  Bumped up for New Viewers

You have to eat small to be small.  If you eat large, you will be large.
When reducing your meal-size,
it is Important to stick to your normal number of meals. 
If you just start eating smaller meals more frequently,
you're not necessarily eating less food overall,
you’re just reducing the amount you eat at each sitting.

A normal undistended stomach is about the size of your fist. This is really helpful in visualizing how much food to eat.  An average-size fist is about 1 cup. A bigger person usually has a bigger hand. A smaller person’s hand is usually smaller. 

Your own hand is a personalized (and portable) measuring device
for your food intake,
and can be helpful in estimating portion size. 

Taking in small meals to lose weight is not a foreign concept.  It’s been around for decades. Your body will show positive weight results if you:

    ▪    Eat at mealtimes only; and
    ▪    Eat no more than three meals daily, and
    ▪    Visualize your fist over your plate at every meal, and
    ▪    Make certain your entire meal’s food portion is NOT larger than your fist.

The digestive system is only able to digest a certain amount of food before it has to start storing the food for later.

Think of your stomach like a muscle. When it's filled with large meals three times a day, the distensibility (the scientific term for the amount your stomach walls can stretch) increases — just like your biceps would get bigger if you were working them out three times a day,

And when you head in the other direction — eating only small meals of a similar volume — your stomach's capacity drops.

After adapting to eating small meals with no food in-between you'll naturally feel full with less food, and your body will send signals to stop eating sooner.

So, if you regularly eat large meals, your stomach's distensibility (or ability to become stretched) will increase to accommodate the food. If you instead eat only small amounts at a time, your stomach's distensibility will decrease.

Remember, however, that without some type of bariatric surgery, one’s stomach reduction or expansion is only a Temporary measure.  The stomach will stay adapted to eating small meals only as long as one CONSISTENTLY eats only a small amount of food, of about the same small volume, at EVERY meal.  

Consistently practicing portion control has taught me to be more satisfied with the process of eating less food.  An IDEAL weight-loss or maintenance plan for ME is eating small food portions of approximately equal volume at three regular semi-set-mealtimes, with no in-between meal eating.

After bariatric surgery, the entire amount of the food on a person’s plate for their entire meal should be no larger than the palm of their hand.  I found that two Splenda packages exactly fit the palm of my hand.  So I took some photos of the packages, my hand, and my plates.


Below is a photo of that process.

Notice how a palm-sized food portion looks on four different size plates: A tiny dessert plate; a teacup size saucer; a salad plate; and a 10 inch dinner plate. For more, read my article, Palm of the Hand.

I've posted a great many of my actual meals here at DietHobby under the Menu Heading: RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.  The section, Petite Meals demonstrates some of my personal efforts at Portion Control.

One thing that I fully understand is that no matter how precisely I weigh and measure and record my food, it is impossible … due to many reasons…. for anyone living outside a laboratory to get a totally accurate calorie count.

However, tracking my food intake …which includes counting calories… has been essential to me in my own weight-loss and maintenance journey.  I do the best I can to track my food accurately, but (except for a temporary trick of the scale due to excess salt/water/waste) … no matter WHAT number my calorie records give me… if my weight is increasing, it means that I need to manage, in some way, to eat fewer calories.

This is because eating only 100 calories above one's own individual-personal-energy-balance-point every day for one year will cause a 10 pound fat regain. 

Serving oneself on a very small plate is helpful for Portion Control.

Think small, eat small..... be small.....

Note: Originally posted in May 2017 - Bumped up for new viewers.

The size of an adult woman’s palm is equal to somewhere between one-fourth and one-half cup depending on her basic frame size. 

Bariatric surgeon, Dr. Duc Vuong, says that his patients should always serve themselves only a very small portion of food, and that the entire amount of the food on their plate for their meal should be no larger than the palm of their hand. 

He makes an exception for salads consisting of ONLY green leafy vegetables, and says for a meal that consists of only raw leafy vegetables, the portion can be as large as the entire hand.  This recommendation is based on the fact that during the first 6 months or so after a person has Weight Loss Surgery, the stomach pouch will only stretch to about the size of the palm of the hand.

Dr. V talks about this in his Facebook videos.  He calls the rule, 2x2x1. The circumference of this food volume is the length of 4 fingers across the palm of the hand, and the height of the food volume is 1 finger. 


In his videos he demonstrates the concept of 2x2, by placing two fingers on one-half his palm, then two fingers on the other one-half of his palm.  Essentially, a “sleeve” gastric surgery results in a rectangular thin pouch (2x2), while a “RNY” gastric surgery results in about the same size square (2x2).

For a long time I’ve been working to eat very small food portions, and now I’m experimenting to see if I can tolerate eating meals that are only as large as the palm of my hand. 

This morning I found that two Splenda packages exactly fit the palm of my hand.  So I took some photos of the packages, my hand, my plate and my breakfast. 

Below is a photo of that process.

I learned that a portion of food the size of the palm of my hand
is even smaller than I previously believed.




Here's how a meal the size of my palm should look on my different size plates.

I've posted a great many of my actual meals here at DietHobby under the Heading at the top of the page, RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.  Those of you who are interested in Portion Control might want to take a look at the photos posted under various meal categories there.

Dr. Duc Vuong, the Support Surgeon

Five points made by Dr. V, a bariatric surgeon,
in his recent Facebook video: "How Much to Eat?"
(Recommending the amount of food-intake after gastric bypass surgery)

1. Palm of Your Hand - a complete meal should be about the size of the palm of your hand.
   
   
2. You Plate Your Own Food - Use a Very Small Plate - a small Teacup saucer size Plate
   
   
3. 2x2x1 - The circumference of this food volume is the length of 4 fingers across the palm of your hand, and the height of the food volume is 1 finger. 
   
   
4. Salad = the size of your whole hand. A leafy green salad is an exception to the 2x2x1 rule because it is a raw vegetable with very little density.
   
   
5. Don’t Trust Your Brain!   Your brain wants you to eat more. Before eating, portion out an amount of food that is ONLY the size of the palm of your hand. Unless you do this, despite what your brain tells you, the amount of food that you will wind up eating will be more than the size of the palm of your hand. 
   

Note: Originally posted in May 2017 - Bumped up for new viewers.

The Scale
is not
your enemy.

Consistently tracking food and weight requires a great deal of effort, patience, discipline, and can frequently feel emotionally painful and frustrating.

A lack of awareness and general ignorance of the ongoing amounts of our caloric intake, and of our resulting scale weight can sometimes bring temporary “peace of mind and self-acceptance”.

Many of us would like to be able to believe the commonly held Fantasy that a person (even if severely obese, or reduced-obese) can trust the urges and needs of their body to guide them in their eating choices. 

The problem with this Myth is that the body will guide us where it wants to go.  There is clear and convincing evidence, from scientific research, and from experiential dieting results,  that an obese body wants to stay fat, and a reduced-obese body wants all of its lost fat returned as soon as possible.

Successful weight-loss or maintenance of weight-loss generally takes an ongoing Awareness of one’s eating Behaviors and the Results of those eating Behaviors.

It requires consistently following SOME METHOD of conscious eating Behavior that restricts calories to an amount which is the same-or-less as the amount used by that individual body. ....Together with a consistent and precise METHOD of measuring the ongoing weight Results of that eating Behavior.

How do you figure out how much you weigh? Be careful not to fall into the trap of weighing yourself weekly, because it’s just not enough data for you to know what’s really happening. Weigh yourself every morning, but ignore the number that comes up on the scales. Instead take the average of the last seven days (preferably ten or fourteen), and after several weeks look at how that average is changing over time. That’s where the real truth lies.

Daily Self-Weighing to Control Body Weight in Adults: 
A Critical Review of the Literature
Carly R. Pacanowski, Fredrik C. Bertz, and David A. Levitsky

"Published data appears to strongly suggest that people who weigh themselves frequently lose more weight and can maintain their reduced weight longer than people who do not weigh themselves frequently."

"Although we must be vigilant of possible negative side effects of frequent self-weighing on restrained eaters and people who might be vulnerable to eating disorders, the data, so far, does not present a cogent argument for daily self-weighing as a serious risk."

"A critical review of the literature suggests that daily self-weighing, with or without personalized messaging, may be an effective tool to help individuals counter the subtle effects of the many food-related stimuli in our obesogenic environment that seduce us to eat a little bit more, causing us to gain a little more weight."

New advice for weight loss:
Get on the scale every day
    ….paraphrased portions of
         a 2016 article by Kim Painter.

The bathroom scale is not your enemy.

In fact, if you want to lose weight or prevent new pounds from packing on, the latest research suggests the scale could be one of your best friends.

"The old conventional wisdom was: 'Don't weigh yourself more than once a week. It will drive you crazy,' " says Dori Steinberg, an obesity prevention and treatment researcher at the Duke Global Health Institute in Durham, N.C. "But now we are seeing more and more research showing that the optimal frequency for weighing oneself is likely every day."

That's right: every day —  contrary to the popular theory that such frequent trips to the scale could be confusing, discouraging or even psychologically dangerous.

"Stepping on the scales should be like brushing your teeth," says David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University.

Levitsky and Steinberg are among researchers who put daily weighing to the test after preliminary studies linked it with weight loss and maintenance. Those preliminary studies, based on observations of people in broader studies, did not prove that frequent weighing helped people control their weight. It was possible that cause and effect went the other way —  that good numbers kept people coming back to their scales while disappointing numbers kept them away.

But newer studies have directly tested daily scale use. Among the findings:

• College freshman told to weigh themselves daily during their first 12 weeks of classes put on no weight. Their classmates put on an average of 5 pounds — typical for pizza-loving freshmen.  In a two-year study of 162 overweight and obese gym members, those asked to weigh themselves daily and chart the results were more likely to lose significant weight and then keep it off.
  
  
• Another study of 92 overweight adults found increased weight loss among those assigned to daily use of a digital scale that sent results to a website. The numbers were accessible to both users and counselors — who followed up with tips and encouragement. The daily weighers saw no increases in depression, binge eating or other signs of disordered eating.

"We found no negative outcomes," says Steinberg, who led that study.  However, sometimes people have begged off the studies after learning they will have to face a scale every day,  "Some people say they just can't stand it."

There are people who allow themselves to get lost in the numbers and start indentifying their self-worth with what's on the scale. 

A scale weight number is an objective fact that is true whether one chooses to be consciously aware of it or not.

People need to understand that individual weights are far less important than weight averages over various time periods.

It is also important to understand that weight fluctuates day to day, hour to hour, depending not just on what you have eaten but how recently you have had a bowel movement or a drink of water.

People who choose not to weigh daily need to pay very close attention to body measurements, clothing fit, and closely follow long-term trends.

Proponents of daily weighing say it can be a powerful tool.

"If you see your weight going up a little bit, you may consciously or even unconsciously be more resistant to all the cues in the environment that might otherwise make you eat a little more," Levitsky says.

Steinberg says frequent weighers can start to see patterns and act on them. "If you go out to a buffet dinner, you could be up 4 pounds the next day," she says — and choose to consume fewer calories that day. "Or if you change a behavior like snacking at night, you might see your weight drop three days in a row" and decide to keep that change.

Weigh yourself each morning, and "it's a nice kick-start to the day,"  a reminder to keep up what's working or change what's not.

Weigh at the same time of the day, in the same state of undress, each day. Most experts recommend early morning, as that is when people tend to weigh the least.

A scale weight number is an objective fact that is true whether one chooses to be consciously aware of it or not. 

Appearance, and clothing sizes are SUBJECTIVE ways to measure one's weight-loss, weight-gain, or maintenance, while scale weight is OBJECTIVE.

An objective perspective is one that is not influenced by emotions, opinions, or personal feelings - it is a perspective based in fact, in things quantifiable and measurable.

A subjective perspective is one open to interpretation based on one's personal feelings, emotions, and momentary aesthetic judgments.

Therefore, when accuracy is desired, an objective method is preferrable to a subjective method.

Refusing to consciously acknowledge or accept an objective fact is commonly known as "Denial":  a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with reality is avoided by denying the existence of that reality.

The scale is merely a tool that tells me the number of pounds that I weigh at the moment I’m standing on it.  It does NOT make value judgments.  It is an inanimate object, a machine with a function, just like a refrigerator or microwave; a washer or dryer; a clock or a vacuum cleaner. 

If I choose to go into my kitchen outside of mealtime, open the refrigerator, take out a food item and eat it, I’m not stupid enough to blame the refrigerator.  Yet somehow it has become common for people in our culture to surround the scale with superstitions.  To give it life and assign it personal motivations, even though we KNOW it is totally lifeless, insentient, and inorganic.  

It’s Like choosing to avoid the refrigerator ….
...........“NO!… Don’t put that leftover chicken in the refrigerator, when you reopen the door a chicken zombie will attack you and peck your eyes out.”  

If you heard someone say THAT you’d think they were wacko, yet, how many times have we said … or heard others say …  things about the scale are are just as totally off-base.

I am a small, elderly, sedentary, reduced-obese female, who after a large weight-loss has now maintained my body at or near a “normal” BMI for more than 12 consecutive years. 

Eating Small to BE Small is the method by which this is being accomplished. 

Every day I work continually to restrict my food to very small portions;  weigh and measure my food; and record it all … every day… into a computer journal which provides me with a calorie count along with other nutritional values.  I’ve written many articles about my personal application of this method, and many of them are located in the DietHobby section BLOG CATEGORIES… Status Updates.

When working to eat small, I find it helpful to use tiny dishes, and even tiny flatware. Using a tiny plate instead of a regular size plate makes a big difference in the amount of personal eating satisfaction that I receive at mealtimes.

Here is a photo of a stack of my plates.  From Bottom to top: Regular size Dinner plate; Salad plate; 6 ½ inch saucer; 4 inch dessert plate.


The photo BELOW shows that these two 4 inch round sauce or dessert plates are about the same size as the palm of my hand.

I work to eat slowly in order to eat small, and using baby-size flatware slows me down, because a baby fork, or baby spoon holds a lot less food than regular-size utensils. 

Here are some comparison photos of
regular-size and baby-size flatware
when placed on:
a Dinner Plate;
a Salad Plate; and
a Dessert Plate.

The size BOWL one uses can also make a big difference. 
I normally eat from one-fourth cup, one-third cup, or one-half cup bowls.
On a rare occasion I choose to fill a 1-cup bowl, and when that happens,
I feel like I’m having a GIANT portion. 



On the far right of the photo ABOVE are two white bowls holding ¼ cup of flour. 
The top white bowl is a 1-cup bowl, the bottom white bowl is a ½-cup bowl. 
Above and to the left of that 1-cup white bowl is a 2-cup blue bowl,
and NOTE that the blue 2-cup bowl
is actually what MOST people consider to be a regular serving size dish.
(Not large or small, but "regular")

See more photos of my Measurement Tactics in DietHobby’s RESOURCES, Photo Gallery section.

Petite Meals in DietHobby’s RESOURCES, Photo Gallery Section shows many additional photos of dishes which contain foods prepared and eaten by ME. … Yummmm.

For a couple of helpful articles on this same subject, read:
Eat Small to BE Small, and Palm of the Hand.