What is your relationship with the scale?

 Ok - so 21 mos out and stable at 145 give or take 3 lbs for the past 2 -3 months.  I've been getting on the scale daily to ensure that I stay at the set point range...  but  I notice if I am 145, I feel happy, and if I am 147 I feel frustrated, hasty and have a bad day.  So, getting on the scale daily pretty well guarantees that I'm going to have some frustrated, nasty days.  This might be why some people pitch their scales out the window.

I've never had a trusting relationship with my body - and I think that is why I've needed the scale.... to help me realize I can stay in one range.  I'm considering giving up the scale- but wonder if anyone else has, and if you have - how do you keep trust in yourself?  I'm especially interested in hearing from those farther out - but all are welcome...

I think you are missing the healthy "middle ground" here... not weighing yourself every single day but also not throwing away the scale entirely. When I was still losing and found myself being affected emotionally based on what the scale said and getting frustrated when it did not move or did not move "enough", I started weighing myself once a week, on the same day every week. I will be 4 years post-op in a few days and am maintaining at only 5-7 pounds up, and I STILL weigh myself only once per week. That is often enough that I can catch any weight creep before it becomes a problem, but not so frequently that I obsess over a couple of pounds.

I also instituted a 5-pound gain limit for myself. I have found that I can easily fluctuate as much as 6 pounds because of normal water retention, so the 5 pound limit allows for that but does not allow me to gain more than what I can take back off in a couple of weeks. If I am at (or just above!) that 5 pound limit 2 weeks in a row (ok, I confess, if I am right at that limit I sometimes weigh myself mid-week just to check on whether it is water or not), I increase my protein just a bit, increase my water, and cut out all carbs that are not dairy, veggies, or fruits (and I seriously limit the fruits). I have been able to take the few extra pounds off in about 2 weeks.

I have been able to use this to maintain my weight and have a client (non-WLS) who has used it successfully (so far) to maintain a 30-pound weight loss.


(edited because half of my original message disappeared!)
Lora

 I think the part about figuring that you don't want it to get to a point that you can't take it off in TWO weeks is the best part for me...

My emotional reaction is to want it off NOW.  (And I haven't even had anything to take off!).  My biggest help is to remember to breathe - best weapon in the battle against anxiety.  So to BREATHE if the scale goes up - and then realize that I can change up this or that and that should take care of it it if I give myself the gift of time...  sounds like a good rescue remedy.

Me, I'm a scale person, but I try to keep the results in perspective and use them to keep me on track. I have a Withings wifi scale that communicates with my computer and my iPad and keeps a graph of my weights, my average, and my objective. It's very helpful to have that in front of me- that way I don't get so hung up on the day to day. You should see my weight graph over the months- it looks like a sawtooth with very irregular teeth! It's the average that counts!

I was weighing myself 2-3 times a day at one point. I try to weight myself once a week, and I'm 8 months out.  I get frustrated when I see i have gained even 2-4 ounces, so I'm trying not to weigh myself so often.

I hope you cut yourself some slack, I'm learning to do so too.

I still weigh every day.  It keeps me honest and I don't let it effect my day other than upping my water or backing off the carbs.  I adjust accordingly.  Its a tool.

 I weigh myself only at the doctor's office, whether it be my surgeon or my PCP and I'm a little over 18 months out. I refuse to be a slave to the scale and let it own my moods. 

My scale is like a second cousin I see every so often. I can go 2 - 3 weeks and not step on it, and then I may hit it every day for 3 days. Usually that is a result of disbelief that the scale really said the number I saw.

 Thanks for replies, everyone.  I find it interesting that at least 2 people said "I refuse to let it own me" no matter if they weigh every day or once in awhile.  That's the part I'm dealing with which is very basic.  I can tell myself it doesn't own me - but it owns me!

To be real, I weigh every 2 weeks because to do so more often would mean
I would let the scale own me.  We all want to see a good number, and it's
disappointing and familiar failure and angst when we see otherwise.
Lora has a healthy outlook.  Weigh often enough to keep things in check
but set limits on what you will allow the scale to do to you.  This is just
a surgery. It's not magic and doesn't have the power to make your life
or body someone else's.  Celebrate YOUR body's changes, do what
you know is right, eat well MOST of the time and don't set arbitrary and
unrealistic goals.  Most of us have spent our lifetimes doing that.  Use
the tool to do something different and healthier.  I refuse to make the
scale my barometer. I celebrate other things deliberately... a bit of
a waistline, a neck, a thin face, looking 10 years younger than I am
(I'm told), shopping in misses sizes, wrapping up in a small towel,
crossing my newly thin legs....and many, many more.  It's fine to set
a goal, but if your body doesn't want to get there, this is not a capital
offense!  Goals are fine to reach for, but wisdom is learning when
to re-adjust.  Good luck, and love yourself more than a silly scale.