Interesting Stats...

Hi friends. :-)

So, I am doing a self-portrait project for one of psych classes, and I decided to just use obesity research and comparison of myself for fun. The psychological aspects of obesity fascinate me.

Anywho~ I came across this interesting study done on successful and unsuccessful diet strategies. And although, our success rates will obviously be higher because we all know how well JUST dieting works, I thought this study was applicable for us VSGers to use for a few key points.

People who exercised 30 min a day:  47% were successful
Those who did not exercise: 38% were successful

Those planned meals: 36% were successful
Those who did not: 25%

Weighing yourself daily: 20% were successful
Not weighing daily: only 9% were successful

Anyway the conclusion of the study was this: exercising 30 min a day, planning meals, and weighing daily were main strategies used by successful dieters compared with unsuccessful dieters.

That is really interesting.  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing! 

 I agree with the study- another aspect is obsession with food.  Those who focus on what they could not have have tend to fail.  While those who focus on what success they will have tend to succeed.

The same is true in sports: atheletes who see themselves doing well do better than those who see themselves fail.  Example a professional golfer or boxer will visualize themselves making the perfect swing and nailing the target.  

So for those who see wieght loss in the same weigh a professional athlete sees their sport will have better success.

JB

I know a lot of folks here don't weigh daily but I do.  I have for as long as I have been old enough to read a scale.  Every morning as soon as I urinate, I get on the scale.  Every night before I go to bed I weigh. Personally I don't fly off the handle when the scale doesn't move but I do start strategizing.  Sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't...LOL!  I like to know where I stand and what I weigh especially now helps be plan for my day.  More water more walking etc.  I feel like it makes me more successful even if I dont lose for days. 

I would like to see a comparison between those that weighted daily and those that weighted weekly.  I am a big believer that weighting too often (daily) will cause one to be more susceptible to the emotional ups and downs than one who only weights once a week.  I'd be interested to see if there are any of the daily weighers, that have logged their weights, how many stalls and weight gains would you not even know about had you only weighted once a week? 

Thanks for posting, good information.

Whether weighing daily freaks a person out or not is *their* choice.  I weigh daily for myself to check fluctuations.

When I was in my loss mode, I weighed daily to see trends, not to flog myself or to judge me.  It was an experiement I WROTE my weight on a log weekly.  I told everyone ELSE that I weighed once a month, and I would not know my stats until X day.

If you are in a stall, you WILL KNOW IT if you weigh once a week.  A stall is not no scale movement in a week, its WEEKS, plural, multiple.

But folks have to learn that the scale is just a machine, it can only give feedback on what you put on it, its not personal, its not a judgment - nobody gets mad at the spoon because you keep cramming stuff in your face with it, but a scale that SHOWS you have been cramming your face?  The enemy ?

Nah, its just a machine.  FOlks gotta be responsible for their own emotions and chill.

 Ya, lets not go there with the great debate of to weigh or not to weigh... cause there isn't a right or wrong answer. Its 100% a matter of personal preference. :-) 

I did not mean at all to criticize anyone for their choice of when to weigh.  I'm sorry if it came across that way.  It is totally up to the individual and as long as they do keep in context what the scale is telling them that's great.  I do however know people that weigh themselves daily and their emotions go up and down from day to day or worse yet day to night as they see the scale fluctuate.