Everyday Systems

...to distinguish one's nosdiet journey from all previous ( failed ) diets?

This is my fist visit here and I have followed the plan for a day and graded myself a resounding success.
I've had a resounding success with every other diet I have tried . At least for the first few weeks, until I fail.

I am wondering whether it might be a good plan to deliberately NOT weigh myself at the start of this journey, or indeed at any point in my presumed path to slimness and freedom from the tyranny of overeating.

Or do you think I might regret not weighing in at the start?

I have spent hours reading the site and am really impressed and feeling vey hopeful.

Thanks from a fattish Scottish lass.

Well, you're likely not to get a consensus. I'm with Reinhard in thinking that the scale is a bad way to measure real success, meaning making new habits automatic. Of course, this demands that a person be as honest about keeping to moderation over time as he be with calorie counting.

I get the willies when I try to eat to meet a weight target, but I am very willing to meet a moderation limit, and I've lost more and more as my body gets full on less and less AND I cooperate with that fullness.

However, I do weigh for 7 days before the solstices and equinoxes and average the weight of the 7 days, so I record it 4x a year.

If you don't think you can be true to the concept of moderation and will eat just because you can, the scale might be good. I suggest you weigh daily and use a weight tracker that will average the weight; you can try to ignore the amount each day and focus on the average. (Scientist will weigh anything they are trying to measure multiple times and average; one time weighings are not considered accurate.) Fluctuations of whole pounds each day usually cannot be explained by overeating calories, but are more the effects of water and waste retention (or lack of retention) so that is what people are actually manipulating on a daily basis whether it or not they realize it. It's almost impossible to lose a pound of fat overnight because it's very hard to create a calorie deficit of 3500 calories in one. (Doesn't this sound tedious?) Fat pounds are lost over time.

And there will be the weekly and monthly camps.

Or how about trying a pair of pants that are too tight? But not daily...

New user here, Badger01.

What I use is not the scale but:
1) mirror (check for facial leaning out) side view for body thickness.
2) belt (or waist size) - did I hit a new belt hole this week?
3) tight reference clothing (buy a shirt that's just a little too tight and try it on once a week).

The scale is a harsh mistress, lol.

I weigh. Once a year at the doctor's office. The heck of it is, I'm supposed to weigh daily because of a medical condition: congestive heart failure (full disclosure: I did weigh daily for quite some time and slowly stopped as I could tell in other ways if I was retaining fluid.)

Is knowing how much weight you've lost important to you? If it is, weigh; if not, don't weigh. Which is going to be more more comfortable and natural for you? Is weighing or not weighing going to make you crazy?

Do what works for you.

Thanks for all the views so far.

I should rephrase my first question.
Previous diets have NOT failed. They have all succeeded , pretty well actually. But they have not been sustainable , or rather , I have not been able to sustain them or settle back into a non disordered eating pattern.

What attracted me to nosdiet is it gets to the heart of the problem - inability to repeatedly make wise food choices FOR ALL TIME.

It looks simple, if not exactly easy.

The problem with frequent weighing , I think, is it fosters an obsessive diet mentality. The appeal of noSdiet is it takes attention AWAY from food / dieting.

I look forward to posting my successes .
I have decided to weigh at the start of each month.

This morning I was 178.2 .
For my age/ height frame I should lose about 40 pounds .

Here goes!

Just this morning I heard someone say that losing weight is easy; maintaining the weight loss is not.

Years ago I read "start as you mean to continue." With No-S, what you do on the first day is the very same thing you'll do 5 or 10 or 20 years after you've lost the weight you wish to lose. You don't do one thing to lose the weight and another to maintain the weight loss.

I try to weigh on the first of each month, and it works well for me. It gives me a gauge without being obsessive.

I lost 45 lbs in year one and maintained that loss in year two. I would like to lose some more in year three, but feel pretty good about maintaining. I have never maintained a loss this long before.

Welcome to No S.

Weighing yourself is not necessary on No S. Your main tracking tool - and the research shows that new behaviors are more easily acquired if some sort of monitoring is involved - is the Habit Cal.

I like Joe's Goals as it gives me a degree of granularity that I don't get with the HabitCal.

And one more thing: most people in France and Italy (mostly 3-meal a day-ers and the lowest BMI averages in Europe) don't know how much they weigh. But they know when they've had enough food. And they don't snack.

The last couple of times I've come to the discussion board and seen this at the top of the list I've thought, "Yes. Peace of mind."

Also, read what I posted here.

It keeps you focused on your habits rather than the number on the scale. That's good, because you don't have complete control over your weight. It can fluctuate from day to day for no good reason. On the other hand, you always control whether or not you eat between meals, eat sweets, or take seconds.

I think you can quite easily be successful without weighing yourself. You could use another measure of success - just being on track with habits, perhaps how you feel day to day, or how well your clothes fit? If you feel better and happier eating the NoS way, then does it really matter the exact number on the scale? I'd say no, although some people would probably advise that knowing if you are in a 'healthy' weight bracket is a good idea.

Personally I struggle with NoS compliance. Weighing is sometimes a method I use to see the results of good vs bad compliance - a motivational tool if you will. I never aim to see a certain number on the scale, or change my eating because of the number.

As already mentioned, there are many issues with using weight as a guide. One additional problem, as far as no s is concerned, is that it takes the focus away from the habit and places it on results. This is my biggest problem with staying on no s. I am good at compliance, but if my weight moves up instead of down I feel like a failure despite my habitcal declaring success. So I start looking for the next diet miracle and undo all the good I've done.

Plus, weight loss can be slow and focusing on the scale instead of the habit becomes demoralizing for me. So, I am trying to break my scale habit and judge by my habitcal (actually way of life app on iPhone-- it is very similar to habitcal ). I also have a pair of jeans I want to fit into. So I intend to measure short-term success by habit success and long term success by fitting into those jeans.