8 Mo. Anniversary/Funny Business with Scales

[Guest guest]

Dear All:

Today is my 8th month anniversary. I'm doing great and have

lost " about 90 lbs. "

Why the quotation marks, you're asking yourself. Well, I'm going to

come clean.

I have a doctor's-type scale, with the balance beam and sliding

weights. It's very accurate -- within 1/4 lb or so. But I've been

inconsistent in the way I've been measuring my weight.

At first, I was looking for where the scale balanced exactly, with

the beam precisely in between the brackets. Over time, though, I

would take my weight at the point where the beam almost touched --

but not quite -- the top bracket. This shaved about 1 lb off my

weight. Still balanced, I told myself and, hey, 1 lb is probably

within the margin of error. At any rate, what's 1 lb in the scheme

of things? This is the way I took my weight for most of the time

I've been a post-op. (If I had stuck with that, I wouldn't bother

making this confession, because 1 lb here or there is really nothing,

considering my overall weight loss.)

For the last 6-8 weeks, though, I've cheated more. I've had more

plateaus, as is to be expected after losing more than 80 lbs, and my

rate of loss has slowed. Probably out of frustration I would stand

on the scale, not believing that I hadn't lost any more weight, and

then would flex my knees. Well, whadya know, the beam would move!

So I would take my weight at the point where the beam would stop

moving evenly between the brackets. This erased about 5 lbs!

Well, this morning I weighed myself again. I'd lost weight over

night. As usual, I took my weight all three ways, but this time the

discrepancy between the first method (precise) and the last method

was more than 8 lbs. This was too much, even for me.

For the record, my weight today according to the three methods was as

follows: 176 3/4, 176, 168.

I am therefore not going to change my reported weight until my actual

weight catches up with it. (No, I'm not going to backtrack; that

would make me feel as if I've gained weight, which I haven't.)

Throughout this, I haven't been kidding myself, as I've known all

along my true weight and the differentials with the alternative

methods. I've managed to give myself a morale boost when needed.

What bothers me is the thought that I've deceived others with false

reports of my progress. I apologize. I think the error has been

minor -- who really cares if I've lost 85 or 90 lbs? -- but I like to

think of myself as an honest person.

So there's my full story.

Does anyone else play games with the scale?

Best to all,

Jon in Tuscaloosa

MGB 11/22/00

263/170(?)/150