The first time your scales give you bad news

[Newlee11]

I've been at this 8 days now. For the first 7 days straight I experienced weight loss every single day, and even if it was just .2 pounds it was fun to enter it and watch the weight trend go down.

I've learned enough to know that I can't have a very low cal day every day or my metabolism slows down so I have a higher day some days although not more than my burn rate. Yesterday was one of those days but it was hard to judge because I had to eat my meals out, still I tried very hard to make good choices and I turned down a lot of favorite things that were offered to me. It was hard especially since I was tired but I knew it would pay off.

Then this morning I got on the scale and I had gained. I was expecting level but gaining doesn't seem fair to me when I didn't get to eat anything I wanted. So today I've been bummed and I'm eating badly.

How do you stay motivated when you don't get the reward of good results?

[azazelsfyre]

Look at your weight vs your weight goal once you've been logging for awhile. It'll go up and down all the time, but the overall trend will be down. That always cheers me up. Also, different things make you hold on to weight. I go up and down but eventually my down drops below what it was before, and I know I'm losing weight. Just remember that when you eat better you feel better

[cjohnson728]

Originally Posted by Newlee11

How do you stay motivated when you don't get the reward of good results?

By remembering that there are soooo many things that can throw off a weigh-in. By thinking logically, have I done everything right? If so, then going up in weight is an artifact of water retention, natural processes, whatever. By asking myself, realistically, if I'm up a pound, did I really eat 3500 extra calories the day before? By staying off the scale when I know it's going to send me into a tailspin. By not giving up even when the news is bad.

If you had meals out, more likely than not, your sodium was higher than usual, which can make you retain water.

Weight loss isn't a steady linear decline, unfortunately. Maybe consider weighing in weekly or biweekly instead of daily if you feel you really need to see the drop to keep at it.

Hang in there. We've all been there and it will go down again.

[Kathy13118]

First, remember that you're asking for trouble if you rely on a scale to chart your progress every single day. A lot of the loss and gain you see is simply water weight fluctuating. Fat doesn't simply melt like that. If you lose a bunch of weight at the beginning of a diet, you can be sure you will see at least some of that show up again - because quick losses just aren't that stable.

I was way up this week at Weight Watchers - and I had to swallow hard and realize that it's just one weigh-in out of many. My weight loss has been fairly steady, week to week, in small increments, or staying the same. Over time, that adds up quite a bit! It's REALLY going to destroy that progress to gain one week - even what seemed like a lot to me (4 lbs!)? Seriously? I'll be down next week. Maybe a little. Maybe a half pound, maybe a lb, maybe 2 lbs. But I'll be back on track.

I'm a whole hell of a lot calmer not tied to those numbers on the scale every day. Once a week is fine for me. And I know their scales are calibrated and very accurate.

[Newlee11]

Thanks all of you. I'm not sure if I can stay off the scale. I think I'm fairly obsessed with it right now. I didn't handle it well this time but next time I'll be better prepared for it and I'll remember natural fluctuations and not take it so seriously.

Besides, it was going too well. I mean if it were that easy nobody would have trouble losing weight. Back on earth now and I'll work hard at it again tomorrow. One day off track isn't the end of the world.

Thanks again.