My saga with the scale - after letting it control my life, I hid the damn thing. Turns out that for ME that is a big mistake. WITH a scale, I'm subject to daily mood swings depending its vagaries.. But WITHOUT it, I'm not accountable and my weight creeps up...and up. I have an ordinary bathroom scale right now that seems accurate and is fine, but I'm wonder if the Fitbit Aria will improve my results because of all the extra data.

If you don't want to "let the scale control your life" again...then definitely do not get more data!

And while you are at it, "Take Off that Fitbit"

Great article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...m=.a96b4dfaa34f

And https://intensivedietarymanagement....gy-expenditure/

Oh, but I love my fitbit! I'm not manic about it - but I'm such a slug that it is a little motivator to go out for a little walk if my steps are a bit lower than usual. For the record, I'm nowhere near the 10,000 a day, yet LOL

YNot - I think any scale that gives kind of consistent results is fine. I personally would not invest in a new scale if I had one that worked.

I have tried many different approaches to the weighing thing. And I've settled on weighing every day. Yep, it fluctuates. That's one reason I like the weekly weigh in over at TDC - because it can show trends. For me, I think it's too easy for me to close my eyes and suddenly be up 10 pounds, the weighing keeps me honest. It's just one of the many tools I use to show me the way.

OK, but don't risk your mental health with that thing either!
Like Casey I still weight everyday as my control but do the averaging Phinney mentions.
I use a simple little app called Happy Scale MYFitnessPal has progress reports you can create from the raw data too.

Whether or not a particular tool is worth having depends on how you use it. I don't generally need a scale as a motivator although it has been useful at some points on my journey, especially at the beginning. I also was able to lose 30 pounds in 2 years without even owning a scale and only found out how much I lost because I had a physical at my doctor's office, but that's me. I do own a scale now but haven't stepped on it for a while. Of course I have been eating this way for a long time so I am unlikely to go very far off plan.

On the other hand I really like my Fitbit. I don't consider it a weight loss tool but it does seem to motivate me to keep moving. I also take it off every now and again, sometimes for a week at a time, just so I don't become too attached to it. It is possible to become obsessed with it and perhaps at one point I was, but now it is just one of those things that help me stick to my fitness goals, helpful but not necessary.

In other words, all this technology can either help or hinder depending on how you use it. Ultimately your mind is what determines its utility.

Jean

I found my fitbit most helpful for figuring out what I was doing right to sleep deeply through the night and what was causing interrupted or short sleep cycles. I'd notice a difference if I forgot to take my magnesium before bed or let myself get too mad about some triviality.

I go by pants. That's what I care about, not how much the earth's core is pulling on my mass

That's one method, but when I started on my LC journey I had to lose 40 pounds before I noticed much difference in how my pants felt. I would have given up and gained the weight back if I didn't have the scale to rely on! Even now, I've experienced some weight creep over the last 10 months since breaking my wrist, so last month got strict again. I'm down 15 pounds since then but my pants feel no different at all.

So the scale is necessary for me, but I just use a regular scale, nothing too fancy.

LOL - well put, but until I get out of 'stretchy" pants that won't be very helpful. ALTHOUGH I'm wearing a pair today that I recall being a little snug the last time I put them on.

Yep, I agree. Starting at over 300 pounds I'm not sure how many pounds actually makes a "size", so it could be a while. My current loss of something like 10 pounds isn't going to look like much, but for my skinny daughter it could be a whole size!
Edited to add, I just read TWO websites that say one "size" is 10 pounds. I haven't done the math, but that should put me in negative numbers by the time I hit goal.

Exactly! I started out much higher than you did and had to be down almost 50 pounds before I was even reliably in a smaller size. Even down 100 pounds I'm still only down 2-3 sizes from my start! About 35-50 pounds per size, .

Yeah, "Take off that FitBit!", just cut out those sugars and starches.

Exercise alone, or too many of the wrong calories is just going in the wrong direction. Sell the thing on eBay.

I use a $12 spring scale I bought on sale at my local HEB. I like it, it's big, it's accurate and easy to read even without my glasses -- not so with digital ones. Then there's the dying battery issue. How do I change it, I can't find the instructions? I always put receipts and instructions in the box -- who threw the box away?

I fo have a digital scale which is hard to read, but it's a "talking scale" and reads the weight aloud to me. My grandson was the one who picked it out, he loved the talking feature. Price was similar to others so I let him have his way, but I've found the feature pretty useful!

Debbie also makes a goid point about sizes. Feedback is important, but its a trendline, not a single data point, that matters. If a weight upswing makes you throw in the towel, or rationalize a carb binge because you can't see it on the scale the next day, it is not helping.