It sounds like the scale has been a great choice for you – but I just would note that I have been dieting since June and am now below my target weight (yay) – and I achieved roughly the same thing with a cheap digital scale and using a free website account to track my weight. The difference is simply that I have to manually enter the weight online. I don’t do a daily weigh in, but do weigh at least once a week, usually about twice a week… and I have the nice chart showing the downward trend. (The problem with weighing daily is weight normally fluctuates a few pounds during the course of every day – and it’s not really healthy to lose at a rate of more than 1 or 2 lb. per week… so I actually think that it’s easier to see progress with at least a few days between weight checks.)
Bottom line, for me, was a different scale – the equally cheap digital scale in the kitchen. I started weighing literally everything that went in my mouth, and keeping a log of everything. Now that my goal has shifted to weight maintenance rather than weight loss, I’ve slacked of a little -but I still weigh about 60% of the food I eat, and write down everything. (It’s just that after a while, a banana is a banana, an egg is an egg – it really doesn’t matter if one particular egg weighs a couple of grams more than another). But if I am going to fix myself a bowl of cereal-- I weigh the cereal - because it is very easy to overdo things on and misjudge portion size.
The part where I got hung up in the past was being able to “hide” from myself on a bad day. I then rationalized about not getting on the scale for the next few days, for fear of seeing that number go up. Now I know that even on the “perfect” day, the numbers sometimes do indeed go up. In a strange way that makes it easier for me to just hop in the scale…no matter how bad the day prior was. The fact that I don’t need to input anything is good for my lazy self…I know that my support group is watching for my update, as I am theirs. It’s been fun, but as you said, a regular scale works as well.
I love my WW scale…use it every day. Gotta train my eyes to better eyeball portions.
My H lost about 50 pounds using a kitchen scale. Part of the problem was learning what a portion of food should look like. He had tried dieting over the years but always gained the weight back. Now he pretty much eats what he wants but with smaller portions. As a side effect of his healthier eating I lost weight also without even trying.
We both have fitbits and really like them. For me it is a great motivator to get up and move. I like watching the steps add up.
Portion size is a HUGE issue. Many folks have no idea what “one portion” is, especially with increasingly super-size portions being served at restaurants (they don’t want to reduce prices so they just have humungous portion sizes instead). A portion size for protein is a deck of cards. That’s MUCH smaller than is commonly serve most places or in the ready to eat take out items. It’s great that this tool is working well for some folks. We just have a regular scale that H bought on coupon from Costco. I avoid scales since I had a malfunctioning one that convinced me I was losing weight when I was pregnant with our 1st child. It caused me to gain over 20 pounds in 1 month and over 50 pounds for the pregnancy. I vowed then never to rely upon scales and now only weigh myself when I check in at MD offices. I am close to “ideal” BMI and am happy to fit all my clothes. I have been about the same weight and BMI since I was 12, give or take 10 pounds, except when I was pregnant.