Weight Loss and Verifiable Outcomes

June 23, 2010

I don’t talk about work stuff here because, well, this is a weight loss blog. But as I was leaving the gym this morning, I thought of something that might be kind of relevant.

I’m a corporate marketer. I have my MBA in marketing. I judge the success of marketing initiatives by pre-defined metrics. You see, when you set out any marketing program, you have to come up with your goal. Who is your target? What are you trying to accomplish? How will this work out better than other methods? How will you measure success? What metrics will you use?

via fragmented on Flickr

I have a confession. Despite my scale boycott, I have weighed. My feet can’t stay away from my trusty Tanita high-capacity scale. This scale is the only metric I’ve ever lived by when measuring my fitness and weight loss goals. I mean, I am a weight loss blogger after all- seems pretty common that I would check my weight- right?

If bodies were just true machines- steel, nuts and bolts- and you could easily predict the outcome based on the inputs, then I’d be golden. My food has been good, my exercise is better than ever, my sleep is slowly but surely getting better. My body though? Not giving me the output (weight loss) I want. I put in the right ingredients, processed it in this crazy body of mine, but it’s not producing widgets (weight loss) like it’s supposed to!

I’m chalking it up to faulty equipment. This body, poor thing, doesn’t know what to do. My brain, poor thing, doesn’t know what to think. How do I know if I’m fixing the equipment? The only logical answer is to get on the scale to see how I’m doing. Trainer Rob says I’m doing great with my workouts. Random lady at the gym says she can tell a difference. My BodyMedia FIT tells me that I have at least a 1000 calorie a day deficit between my eating and my working out.

But this brain? It just wants the facts. When my feet hit the scale, I hold my breath and scream in my head “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” and wait for that magic confirmation that my hard work is paying off.

Instead? I see the same number as I saw before. The same. And I feel defeated.

So, how to break out of this? I’m having my hubs hide the damn scale. Seriously. When he gets home tonight, that thing is going somewhere that I won’t be able to find it. If I ever get the urge to check my weight, I’ll have to remind myself that a) that is stupid; b) I don’t know where the hell it is

I also need to learn to read my body’s signs better. There are verifiable outcomes there, I’m just not used to reading them, and they’re harder to recognize.

For example:

  • Just 1 week ago I couldn’t do 3 sets of stair runs without feeling like I was going to absolutley puke (me + stairs = FAIL). Yesterday I did all 3 stair runs and my puke meter was only at a 3 instead of a 9.
  • The first 2 weeks of training, my body was SCREAMING at me. Sore all over. This week? Despite raising the intensity and adding in a 5th day of work, no pain.
  • When I started working out with Trainer Rob, I was going sooooooo slow to keep my heart rate under 140. Now? If I go at the same speed I was going 3 weeks ago, my heart rate is around 125.

So for now, I’ll have to “listen to my body” (sounds so “new-agey” right?) to see how I’m doing. I’ll still do my planned weigh ins on Mondays, and have hubs hide it during the week.

How do you measure your success?

Tagged as: fitness, scale, success, weigh in

  • http://twitter.com/LisaEirene Lisa Eirene

    DON'T let the scale number get you down!!!! I am in that vortex right now and it's discouraging. My solution was to only weigh myself 1x a month so I wouldn't get discouraged with the daily/weekly ups and downs.

    Do you measure yourself? This was something I did not do during my weight loss. It was only about a year ago that I started measuring because I wasn't seeing a number change. But low and behold, I'd lose inches!

  • http://amerrylife.com Mary (A Merry Life)

    I weigh myself, but I don't let it discourage me. Whether it's up or down I'm still going to do the things that I know are making me healthier, whatever the scale says. We tend to put waaaay too much emphasis on that number.

    Listen to your body isn't new agey at all. That's stupid. It's what people have done for thousands of years before scales were invented. Knowing and obsessing over your weight is what's new agey and strange. So yes, get your husband to hide the scale. Live a little without it until you know how to listen to your body and do what it needs.

  • Brittany

    I think our body does know best. It knows what it's doing, the changes it's making, and what it needs. It's hard to learn how to listen though. I left a comment on another blog the other day, saying that my body is probably screaming at me, “It's like talking to a wall!” ;D I'm trying to get better…

  • Katdoesdiets

    LOL! I have had hubby hide the scale more than once. You know you're in trouble…when you're looking for it when he's not home…or, so I've, uh, heard ;)

  • http://www.biggirlbombshell.com Big Girl Bombshell

    Good job Emmie! There is much more to this journey. The scale isn't the ONLY measure…you are finding other things to see your success! Listening to your body isn't really new agey either. It's kinda old fashioned. Before scales, people ate when they could, or when they were hungry and that MOVED alot.
    That's what I tell myself anyway….Back to Basic and getting to know this body that I've ignored and punished for way too long!

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I think I need to get to weighing myself 1x a month. It's so hard though when I feel like I'm just starting on this journey and I feel the intense need to drop some of this poundage fast. Hovering around the 400 mark is NOT a comfortable feeling knowing I'm working my butt off (figuratively at least. literally is not working!)
    Yeah, I do measure, once a month. I'm due up for measurement in a couple of weeks. Hopefully there will be a little change there.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    Maybe “new agey” isn't the right word, but it is definitely a foreign feeling to try to “listed to my body.” My body used to tell me to binge. I don't trust myself to listen to my body- it's something completely new, and frankly, uncomfortable.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    You hit the nail on the head, Brittany- “it's hard to learn how to listen”
    This is such a foreign concept to me. To put my trust in something that I have to interpret versus just seeing a tangible number is super scary. I'm hovering around 400 pounds. To have to just “trust” that I'm doing everything right puts a lot of faith in myself that I don't think I've earned yet.

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    LOL Kat! Hopefully if I do go looking for it, I'll realize how stupid I'm being before I find it ;)

  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    I know- like I said to Mary below, I don't know if “new agey” was the right word- perhaps “foreign” is correct because I don't trust it. My body seemed to love being 455 pounds and telling me to eat. Of course, that was my head doing that work, not really my body.
    I've been trying to think of a bombshell name for the past couple of days. Maybe it could be “Emmie, the No Scale Bombshell” LOL

  • http://www.build-muscle-and-burn-fat.com/ benjamteal

    Emmie, it's good to see someone approaching the metrics side – a partner in crime. My whole think is treating your body like a business, with metrics and measures and verifiable outcomes.

    Have you considered using a formula (like the one from the US Navy) to estimate body fat percentage? It won't be 100% accurate, but it will be directionally correct, and is probably a better metric for changes in your body, especially as you workout and your body composition changes (fat down, muscle up, weight same, but still good).

    Ben

  • Drfattofit

    I know exactly how you feel. Last week I gained .2 pounds. POINT 2. WTH? I was irritated and in fact sometimes the scale takes on a personality in my head and laughs viciously. But, you are totally right about other measures. It is about being fit, not just losing weight. Today I noticed a muscle in my are I've never seen before! That's victory. Hang in. It'll happen.

  • http://wesandthefatguy.com Marh Wilson

    I love this post Emmie! I understand exactly what you are talking about. My Body seems to not lose what I want it to, even though I do everything I should. But my clothes are loose, my breathing is better, and I have more energy so I know I have to remember those results are also the widgets my body has produced.

  • Noel Depp

    I have had to do that too. Casey hid the scale from me for a month.

  • http://www.biggirlbombshell.com Big Girl Bombshell

    How about the Trim Trusting Bombshell…..because I trust you will learn to do all of this and become everything that is hidden in your heart

  • http://diaryofcurvyjones.com CurvyJones

    I locked mine in my trunk for two weeks once. Hahaha!

  • KCLAnderson (Karen)

    I stopped weighing some time last year…not sure when. I am so glad I did because weighing had me in an awful cycle of self-loathing, obsession, and fear. It was hard at first, and it took a while for the cycle to stop, but it did eventually and I am grateful because I am truly learning how to eat intuitively and to trust myself. For me success equals peace with food and my body.

  • Clstin31

    Emma,

    I am glad I found your new blog. Since I restarted my journey, I have made a few decisions. One was weiging weekly – weigh day on Saturday because that was the first day I weighed. I restarted some months back and said I was not going to weight at all and measure by the fit of my clothes (in truth that was another denial tool). So I am committed to weighing once a week only. It's a compromise between daily weighing which leads to obessing in my head and not weighing which leads to denial in my world. I started on May 8th and it is working for me. I still say “Show me the money” as you put it but the weekly weighing has definitely been better for me.

    Claritta aka going_down

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  • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

    Ben- I hadn't heard of that formula before, but just looked it up and it looks really interesting! At this point, it'd be much more realistic than just doing a weight & height “traditional” BMI calculation. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.build-muscle-and-burn-fat.com/ benjamteal

    No problem! I gave up just using the scale a while back, but I am a numbers geek, so I have been using that formula ever since…

  • Gwen

    Found you through FGG. I totally relate to what you're saying…it's hard to stay on the right track when you aren't getting the widgets that are “supposed” to result. Five years ago or so I spent a summer really trying to shape up (I worked up to working out 5 days a week for an hour)…in two months I lost no weight at all according to my scale and then in the next month 7-10 pounds came off. This made no sense to me until I realized that I had been getting stronger and building muscle the whole time…which made my metabolism faster. The body is a nonlinear machine, and you just have to hang in there. I try to keep this in mind now when I start up new exercise programs. Like, no change in a week? I just do my best to ignore it, and keep at what I know is good for me.

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