Unofficial poll: Let's discuss...
Written by
deeannao (deeanna)
on
4/17/2012 9:04 AM
What's more important to you:
- The number on the scale, or
- The number in your clothing label?
Discussion:
I posted the above question because I was inspired by a post I saw over on the Maintenence board today. The poster was about 2 lbs away from her lowest allowable weight, but wanted to lose about 5-10 more lbs anyway. Her reasoning was that some of her clothes were still more snug than she's like them to be, and if she could just fit into those pieces she'd finally be happy with herself.
It should be noted that the part that piqued my interest the most was found in her signature. She noted that she's gone from a size 10 to a size 2, and never thought she could look and feel so good. Her signature quote led me to my advice. I said, "You admit you look and feel great. Maybe it's best not to force yourself into that size 2 if it's too small. If you look and feel great it doesn't matter if you're a 2, a 4, or a 6. I'd just buy clothes that fit and leave my goal weight above WW's minimum."
Okay, so maybe it wasn't the most tactful response.
But the whole thing got my wheels turning. I asked the question without explanation because I didn't want to lead the answers. I really wanted to see what everyone else thought. Here's a tally of the first 60ish replies.
Size: 10 votes.
Scale: 29 votes, including one emphatic male voice.
Both: 11 votes. Those of you who were waffling got counted in this category. :-)
Other: 6 votes, with measuring tapes being the clear "winner" of this group.
I also got one vote for "your question is unclear, and as such doesn't make much sense." You, who posted that, you know who you are, and you gave me the BIGGEST smile. I bet you've been accused of overthinking before. I do the same thing.
I know those numbers don't add up to 60. Some of the comments were elaborations as to why the vote was what it was. Math nerds, relax. I also know that the 2nd two categories weren't options. I can't help it if you people don't follow the rules. I changed my poll to fit the will of the people. Apparently my blog is a democracy.
I'm having fun, can you tell? We may have to make this a regular blog feature!
Among the points I thought were the best:
- Vanity sizing makes clothing labels nearly useless when it comes to determining if we truly are at a healthy size.
- Exercise and muscle/body fat composition, and water retention can make the scale insanely unreliable too.
- Neither measurement is a perfect quantifier of health. Okay, I may have made up the word "quantifier." I don't feel like checking the dictionary at the moment.
My opinions on the matter are kind of surprising to me. Why? I can't figure out exactly what I think! LOL. I always know what I think about everything. Not being able to pin down an exact opinion on this is really throwing me off. I think my answer is something like: It's all important, but none of it truly matters. But when forced to pick, I'd say scale. The message board poster, in my opinion, is giving credit to a clothing label that the clothing label doesn't deserve. And she's discounting the number on the scale more than it should be discounted! But if the question were reversed and posed: "I'm 10 lbs over WW's highest recommended weight but I'm happy with the clothing size I fit into, should I just stay at this weight?" My answer would be an emphatic, "Heck no, lose that 10 lbs!"
Here's a little more explanation of the idea I'm trying to communicate here.
And I wonder, is my emphasis on the scale simply due to the fact that there are scale guidelines, and I am a rule follower? Being over or under the weight range feels like rule breaking to me, and I don't LIKE it. Which means my answer m
ight not be a very good answer, because it's not based on truth. It's simply based on my predisposition to want everyone to follow rules... Right?
Well, doesn't matter anyway. This blog has become a democracy, and majority rules. You said scale, so scale it is... It has been decided.
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