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Original poster

Help me throw away the scales

26 replies

hello2022benew · 18/01/2022 20:56

Pathetically, I feel terrified to get rid of them. I've had them for 15 years and weigh myself daily. I feel I need these specific for control and to feel 'safe'. But they don't make me happy and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing etc.

They have to go for my mental health. Anyone freed themselves from the scales?

OP posts:
Paranoidandroidmarvin · 18/01/2022 21:20

Yes. I would get to the point where I was weighing everyday.
Then I just woke up one morning and realised that the number actually didn’t matter. And it was making my mental health worse so I threw them away.
I then ignored my weight for a long time and re switched my brain around.
I am now trying to loose weight again. But no scales. I have clothes I want to get back into and that I’m happy with. Then I will stop. No number. Too old for the rubbish anymore.

Dita73 · 18/01/2022 21:27

I wish I was brave enough to ditch mine. I’m so obsessive I have a back up set to get verification. Honestly it’s ridiculous

Original poster
hello2022benew · 18/01/2022 21:33

@Dita73 it's so hard isn't it. I feel like they are some sort of safety net. Not healthy. and I only 'trust' these particular ones. They are so old, they broke once and I got DH to fix them as I didn't want new ones.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin I need to follow your lead!

OP posts:
Longfurry · 18/01/2022 21:36

Did this five months ago.
It has been so hard. It was an almost daily habit since I was about 12. I'm now 42.
I was never skinny and never ever got to goal despite very restrictive and obsessive periods, every diet under the sun.

I have almost certainly gained weight but I am trying to resist both weighing myself and diets. Really hard. Who knew than not dieting could be as hard at time as dieting!!?

My mental health is better but it's still a very difficult process for me - not allowing a number on the scales to dictate my self-worth, happiness and mood. I haven't quite cracked it yet but I think for me getting rid of the scales and refusing to weigh myself ever is a necessary step towards food/ body/ mental freedom.

Good luck.

Do you know there are people who naturally never or rarely weigh themselves like ever!! I found this news mind boggling and then realised the only person preventing me from being like that was.... myself.

thistimelastweek · 18/01/2022 21:42

I threw mine away years ago along with the obsessive daily weigh-ins that achieved nothing.
My main reason for chucking the scales was my concern about the example I was setting my teenage daughter. Not a healthy role model.
I can't pretend I never think about my weight but I try to concentrate on what feels healthy rather than the numbers on the dial.

AlphabetStew · 18/01/2022 22:42

Yes. For about two years I was getting increasingly obsessed (and frustrated) with my weight but last year I finally turned a corner.

It's hugely important to me that I never go back to that terrible headspace. It got so bad that I wanted to throw myself in front of a train.

Verbena87 · 18/01/2022 23:07

We didn’t have any for about 10 years. Can now have them in the house without needing to weigh myself. Definitely do it! Less mirrors and more time outside both also highly recommended for better wellbeing and self worth.

Longfurry · 20/01/2022 06:44

@AlphabetStew this resonates with me.
I feel in to a deep depression last year and was prescribed anti-depressants. I just crashed.
I am glad I got the medication and it did help. But in amongst all the stuff the doctor and I talked about (being a single mum, full time working - at that time working from home with no childcare, May 2020 etc) I couldn't bring myself to mention my weight. I am not huge but clearly not skinny/anorexic "looking". Deep down I feel that one huge trigger was gaining a few pounds and seeing that number on the scales. But it sounds so silly/ vain to be so dramatic about it. A bad result on the scale was like a huge dark cloud instantly descending on my life. It can be hard to say that to people around me and for them to take me seriously. They just give me diet tips........

MrsSkylerWhite · 20/01/2022 06:45

Never weigh. Know by my clothes.

Cuddlemequick · 20/01/2022 06:50

I've never owned scales and never weigh myself. Why would I keep scales in the house, and why set an example to my daughter that my weight matters? I tell her my legs are strong, they carry me, my arms are strong, they carry her, my belly is round, it housed her.

onlyconnect · 20/01/2022 06:54

Dita73 I have a backup set too and always get on both just so I can't kid myself.
I don't weigh every day but am a long- term dieter and wish I wasn't. The time in my life when I was slim and relatively stable in weight was in my late 20s for about 5 years and I had thrown my scales away.
I'm not brave enough to try again though.

Roselilly36 · 20/01/2022 06:55

@MrsSkylerWhite

Never weigh. Know by my clothes.
Exactly this.
BusterGonad · 20/01/2022 07:04

I've only owned scales for 1 year, previously I'd weigh myself in Boots, once a week if dieting, maybe a few times a year if not, I do think having scales is quite unhealthy and does lead to a low mood. If you're finding them problematic then you do need to bin them.

quixote9 · 20/01/2022 07:05

Ask your partner or a friend to throw the scales out for you when you're not looking? Then maybe once it's a done deal, you'll find it's possible to get used to not having the unnecessary thing around.

BusterGonad · 20/01/2022 07:05

Just to add, I bought mine as I needed to lose weight as my blood pressure was up.

Newrunner29 · 20/01/2022 07:15

Look into intuitive eating it will help u get rid of scales and diet culture, im early days into and i really believe its such a better place to b , using my body to decide not what diets tell me

GiantSpider · 20/01/2022 07:46

I am a long term dieter who has tried many different diet plans over the years. One of them, a few years ago, recommended to stop weighing yourself, so I did. Then somehow I've never started again (even though I've fallen off that plan in every other respect!).

So I still own my scales but I hardly ever step on them - maybe once a month or so - I was someone who used to weigh every day for decades. I do feel freer. Not any lighter though!

If you can't bear to chuck them could you put them away in the loft or somewhere not very accessible?

NorthernChinchilla · 20/01/2022 07:48

I've never owned a set, no idea what I weigh.

I saw my Mum's obsession: she had MH issues and they were partly expressed through disordered eating. I was simply lucky that I went the other way instead of following.

OP, would it be worth looking into either a short, focused session of counselling to explore your need for them, or equally a chat with the GP for a short course of low level anti-depressants/anxiety meds, just to get you over the hump, so to speak?

speakout · 20/01/2022 07:56

I don't own scales. Last had a set about 18 years ago. I don't need to know my weight. It's just a number.
I have lots of size 10-12 clothes that I have owned for many years, some tight fitting things like dresses and jeans- and they all still fit me perfectly, nothing pinches nor have become baggy.
Why would I need to know my weight?

Joystir59 · 20/01/2022 08:00

Scales are my friend. They prevent me lying to myself.

speakout · 20/01/2022 08:07

Scales are my friend. They prevent me lying to myself.

Don't a pair of jeans do the same thing?

If I feel my jeans starting to feel a little tighter than usual I cut back for a couple of weeks until they feel comfortable again.

AlphabetStew · 20/01/2022 08:13

@Longfurry ((hugs)) Yes, you do feel so selfish too, especially when you think about people with limited mobility. I mean I despise my body but it is at least functional. And I got that too! Diet tips. From the doctor l. Yeah thanks, that'll help me become less obsessed with my weight.

HarlanPepper · 20/01/2022 08:22

@speakout

Scales are my friend. They prevent me lying to myself.

Don't a pair of jeans do the same thing?

If I feel my jeans starting to feel a little tighter than usual I cut back for a couple of weeks until they feel comfortable again.

I used to go by how my trousers feel but since I've started weighing myself I've noticed there can be half a stone difference in my weight and the same pair of jeans can still feel comfortable! It depends on how you put weight on I guess.

This is not to contradict your post or challenge the OP, I totally get how weighing yourself can become obsessive and unhelpful. But it was useful to me when I had a couple of stone to lose. One tip I was given then was to weigh myself in kg rather than stones and pounds - that takes the emotion out of it somehow because the numbers don't have the same resonance. Worked for me!

AlbertBridge · 20/01/2022 08:39

Why would I keep scales in the house, and why set an example to my daughter that my weight matters?

But weight DOES matter. That's why it's one of the things that routinely gets checked in medical appointments.

speakout · 20/01/2022 09:53

I used to go by how my trousers feel but since I've started weighing myself I've noticed there can be half a stone difference in my weight and the same pair of jeans can still feel comfortable!

Is that important? If my weight fluctuates by half a stone or so It's not an issue to me - totally OK in my world.lf they become uncomfortably tight or I can't get them fastened, then I would cut back until they feel good again.
I think weight does fluctute a little with most people. My appetite takes a nose dive when I am stressed, so buying a new house and- I may lose half a stone without trying!!
I may put on a little over the festive season or on holiday at an all inclusive resort, half a stone of fluctuation wouldn't worry me at all- but then I wouldn't know as I have no scales.