kelliemk

I had weighed myself on Monday and had lost 3.5lb in the first week of my diet. I get on the scale today, 3 days later and I am up 0.4lb. I know body weight can fluctuate based on water retention, etc, but does anyone else find it frustrating? I know I shouldn't weigh in multiple times a week, but it helps keep me on track. I was about to eat a Dunkin Donuts flatbread sammie, but not anymore. Dumb scale.

justawalker

Hey Kellie,
I weigh all the time. I know bad thing...I dont care I use the temporary water gain to modivate me to get my a$$ out of bed tommorow and do my cardio!!!!
It has no negative effect on me at all. I believe in what I am doing and know it is going to work.
Dont let the number on the scalemess with you. The first thing people want to do is "eat less", Dont drink as much water, worry, etc etc. All bad responses.
Keep with your calorie restriction (betwen 500-1000 less calories per week) and in 3 months or so you will have lost a substantial amount.
Remember dont starve but dont pig out either. Go to the gym but dont try to do it in 1 day aint gonna happen.

If the weight fluctuations bother you dont weigh as much stick to whatever plan you have that you think is going to work and give it a couple weeks jump on the scale and figure you should have lost between 4-10 lbs. If you dont lose weight GET A NEW PLAN....

It really isnt that hard you just have to stick to it. No majic no miricles just consistancy.
If you do screw up suck it up and get back on it as soon as you can. Also eat anything you want just change the amount you eat and how you prepare it if you can and log the calories.
I had tacos last night for instance but I used soft corn tortillas asn lean ground chicken no cheese and no refried beans healthy and satisfying.

Hang in there you will figure it out Too much in too little out = weight gain.

Good Luck to ya you can succeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fletch8502

Scale? Frustrating? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about! My scale always shows me the number I want to see, and that number's always going in the direction I want it to go! I LOVE my scale!!!!

(Just kidding. =) But wouldn't that be nice?)

I weigh myself daily, and I too am frustrated by daily fluctuations. So why do I do it? Weighing daily definitely keeps me on track. No matter what the number is, I'm much more likely think about working out and eating right if I've seen and thought about my weight first thing in the morning.

But I also try to focus on the weight graphs here on FitDay to show me that even if I'm up a little on any given day, I'm definitely down in weight overall.

Since the scale helped you to make a healthy eating choice, maybe it's not so dumb, eh? Maybe more like an annoying little brother or something.

Best of luck!

cjohnson728

Good points, justawalker. Katie, I hear you. I used to get very frustrated with it. At one point I had my husband take the scale to work for a week or two so I would stop jumping on it every day. That helped. Another thing I found helpful was to go to the FitDay graph and watch the line...of course, this is best when you have several weeks under your belt. Even though it zig zags up and down a bit during the week, the overall direction is down, and it helped me to see that. The last thing that helped me get out of head games with the scale was the fact that I have one that measures body fat as well. I kept an eye on that number, too. The way that worked was to look at the change. Say I weighed in at 20% body fat one day and the next day it was 16%. There's no way I lost 4% of body fat overnight, so that was a pretty clear indication that I was holding on to more water (more water = higher weight but a lower percentage of body fat at the time of measuring).

Hmm...guess I could've just waited for Fletch to post!!

almeeker

Scale, scale on the floor, just whose hips do you adore? I bet the evil step mother in the fat girl version of Snow White would come up with something waaaayyy tastier than an apple.

I feel your pain on the weight fluctuations. I'm retaining water this week, for no apparent reason, AF is a ways off so it's not that. I've been drinking water although not quite as much as I should be, but my hands and feet are huge and nearly shiny with water weight. So today I've upped my water, and hopefully in a day or two all this swelling shall pass, meanwhile I'm feeling very fat and the scale is not my friend.

efduncan

Just happy to have almeeker back.
Have a great loooong weekend all.
Ed

almeeker

Thanks efduncan, as much fun as Disney was, I'm glad to be back.

petensfo

I can offer my suggestion, with the caveat that I struggle with the issue myself... I use FitDay, eat right, exercise, etc so that my overall health improves. I try really hard to 'let go' of the expectations about weight loss & try & take my positive action steps, a day at a time, knowing that eventually I will see improvement- It will just never be on my time schedule! lol
Pete N SFO

yauncin

I would suggest getting a tailor's measuring tape and using it.

reprise

It happens. You should either not worry about a daily increase or just measure weekly--but then you can have a positive fluctuation after a week even with real fat loss, and that would be demoralizing to feel a week has been shot. You simply need to have trust in the process. More than anything I defer to hunger; if I'm legitimately hungry and my calories are in check I don't care what the scale said. It can lie, but in time the truth will always arise and give a negative weight.