As long as I stay under my points limit, I won't gain, right?!
I'm having a rough week.
I'm very scared of gaining the 1.5 pounds I managed to lose last week.
I have less energy than last week and am finding it difficult to exercise as much.
But, I'm wondering, as long as I don't eat more than my daily points allowance, shouldn't that at least maintain what I'm at now?
I honestly think it will crush me if I'm back up that pound and a half on Tuesday.
Is it too late to turn things around this week before weigh in on Tuesday?
I'd say it's almost always true that staying under means at least maintaining, BUT I've also noticed -- in a year's worth of experimenting -- that there are certain times when my body is just gonna do what it wants! Weight loss is so unpredictable and it's not an exact science. I think the beiigest thing I learned over the last year is to think long term. Track the short term, but notice patterns and don't get too worked up if you're not losing exactly the way you wanted in a week. My loss is definitely influenced by TOM and my weekly numbers reflect that.
Well, it depends. By "points limit" do you mean daily points or do you include weekly points. For me, I can't eat all of my weekly points and daily points and lose. Some people can, just not me.
Also, we all have natural fluctuations in our body weight that are related to fluids and so may have some variation each week that has nothing to do with actual fat loss or gain.
I'd say it's almost always true that staying under means at least maintaining, BUT I've also noticed -- in a year's worth of experimenting -- that there are certain times when my body is just gonna do what it wants! Weight loss is so unpredictable and it's not an exact science. I think the beiigest thing I learned over the last year is to think long term. Track the short term, but notice patterns and don't get too worked up if you're not losing exactly the way you wanted in a week. My loss is definitely influenced by TOM and my weekly numbers reflect that.
Thank you. I find it all really difficult to understand properly. I just kind of have an eat less than I did before, and move around more than I did before, mentality and I'm just hoping results show.
I guess everyone wants results straight away. I just hate the idea of taking backward steps. Cause it's undoing hard work and it's frustrating. I'm only in my 5th week of weight watchers. Still getting the hang of it!
Thank you for your support though. I'll probably be less tentative about it now.
You can do everything right and still see normal fluctuation weight gains. I truly believe that as long as I was drinking water, even if I ate nothing at all, I would still gain weight during PMS/TOM.
There are so many things that can affect the scale:
Hormonal issues - some women gain the week of their period, the week before their period, or even during ovulation. Some even see gains for more than one of these.
Carbohydrate intake - the body needs more water to process carbohydrates, so if you're eating significantly fewer carbs than you normally do, your body will let go of some of the water it's used to carrying because it doesn't need it. Likewise if you increase your carb level, you're going to see a gain on the scale because of the extra water your body is needing to process the carbs.
Sodium intake - sodium and potassium and other electrolytes affect the water balance. You can drive yourself nuts trying to control them all, or you can accept that fluctations are normal.
Illness and injury - both can result in water retention. The body uses water in the healing process. I actually learned that this summer, when I gained a few pounds unexpectedly after a significant sunburn. I wondered if the sunburn was responsible (as it was the only change) and in searching some reputable medical websites I learned that any illness or injury can result in water weight gain, because water is used in the inflammation and healing process.
The weight of your food and beverages - when you eat or drink anything, the weight of the food will show up on the scale until (and there's no delicate way to say this) you use the bathroom. If you ate three pounds of cabbage, you'd see a 3 lb gain on the scale, but you'd only be taking in 312 calories.
(Actually you'd only be taking in 240 calories, because 72 of the 312 come from fiber, and humans can'd digest fiber so we can't access those calories. As a result, three pounds of cabbage would have 312 calories for a cow, but only 240 for a human. It really bugs me that so many of the calorie counters don't subtract the fiber calories, because it makes some healthy foods seem to have far more calories than they actually do. If humans can't get to those calories, they shouldn't appear on the calorie counting websites in my opinion (unless it's a calorie counting site for species who can digest fiber. If you were putting Bessy the cow on a diet you would have to count those fiber calories).
At any rate, the weight of your food is going to be your weight until it comes out the other end. Digestion (mouth to toilet travel), can take up to 3 days (and even longer if constipation is an issue), so what you see on the scale can include what you've eaten for the past three days or more. I've read that a normal, healthy person can hold up to 15 lbs of poo in their digestive tract (and the medical record is disturbingly, much higher).
There are so many things that can affect your weight, that it's extremely important not to see minor weight fluctations as tragedy. You need to know that for absolutely normal reasons, you can see fairly significant fluctations.
If you expect a loss every single week, you're very likely going to be disappointed, and if you let that become frustration because you believe it "should" be different, you're going to put yourself at risk for failure. I'm convinced that frustration is the number one enemy of weight loss. We don't quit because we're failing, we quit because we feel like we're failing. And we feel like we're failing, because we don't understand what's normal.
Normal is NOT losing 2 lbs every week. Losing 2 lbs every week is freakish. Yes some people manage it. Some people even manage it consistently, but most people don't. As my doctor pointed out to me, most people don't lose anything (at least not anything that they don't gain back because they give up when they think they're failing). Even losing 1 lb a month is not "normal," it's extraordinary.
Know that, and you won't be disapponted by a no loss week, or a teeny loss week, or even by a gain week - because it's normal and most people experience it. If you think everyone else is doing better, you're going to feel discouraged, perhaps even discouraged enough to quit.
Since my doctor told me that even a 1 lb per month loss was extraordinary, I haven't even been slightly tempted to quit. I've stopped beating myself up for extrordinarily great results, because I wasn't satisfied with extraordinary (because I didn't know it was extraordinary - I thought it was poor).
In my TOPS group (a group that won state recognition for best weight loss results, so we're not a bunch of slackers) we have a monthly contest in which the people who have not had a gain during any of their weigh-ins that month, split a $10 prize. Most months (at most), one or two people split the $10. This past month no one did (so this month the prize will be $20). That means that only 1 or 2 people (and nobody this month) out of 25, manage to go a whole month without gaining (and more than half of our group is made up of men and post-menopausal women, so PMS/TOM weight gain isn't an issue for those members).
In the long run, I think it's a lot easier to learn to accept that small gains are going to happen once in a while, than to try to control everything that could cause them (because it's impossible). You have to know what normal is to know that you're actually doing much better than normal.
I just hate the idea of taking backward steps. Cause it's undoing hard work and it's frustrating.
But you see, the normal weight gains from all those factors I mentioned - they're not backward steps, and they're not undoing anything.
The only gains that are backward steps that "undo" anything, are those caused by backward stepping behavior (that is, overeating). And even those don't really undo anything, because even those steps are normal, and most people won't be able to entirely prevent them.
We're taught to treat weight loss much differently than most other skills we try to learn. If we were to take up mountain climbing, none of us would react to a stumble by throwing ourselves off the nearest cliff, so that we could "start fresh" tomorrow or Monday. In fact, doing so would probably eliminate the possibility to start fresh.
The appropriate response to a slip or stumble in dieting, is the same as for mountain climbing. Pick yourself up and keep heading in the direction you were going. You can decide to stay where you are and rest until you're ready to go on, or you can even decide to go back - but you do either by intentionally deciding to. You may stumble (either intentionally or accidentally) but you don't have to decide that a stumble means you're doomed to failure.
And gains that aren't caused by overeating, aren't even stumbles. They're just part of the normal progression of results. You just have th wait them out. When mountain climbing, a rockslide or snowslide can push you back, but it doesn't "undo" the effort and accomplishment that went into the climb. It can be frustrating, but experienced climbers aren't going to let it get them down. We likewise, don't have to be sidetracked by occasional gains (even when they are due to our mistakes).
You can do this. I can't tell you how long it will take, or how many mistakes you will make, or how many obstacles you'll face, but as long as you face the right direction, and keep making steps toward your goal, you will get there.
I've "failed off" 94 lbs. I say failed off, because I always quit diets in the past for failing to lose at least 1-2 lbs per week. Until this month, I don't think I've even had a 4 lb per month loss. So I've "failed off" 90 of those 94 lbs, and I've only "succeeded" on month out of 7 years of work.
All that time was success, because I was doing far better than the average. I was doing extraordinarily well, but I didn't always feel that way, because I didn't know how well I was doing.
You truly have to understand normal to know how well you're doing just by sticking with the effort. Just not giving up makes you extraordinary.
You can do everything right and still see normal fluctuation weight gains. I truly believe that as long as I was drinking water, even if I ate nothing at all, I would still gain weight during PMS/TOM.
There are so many things that can affect the scale:
Hormonal issues - some women gain the week of their period, the week before their period, or even during ovulation. Some even see gains for more than one of these.
Carbohydrate intake - the body needs more water to process carbohydrates, so if you're eating significantly fewer carbs than you normally do, your body will let go of some of the water it's used to carrying because it doesn't need it. Likewise if you increase your carb level, you're going to see a gain on the scale because of the extra water your body is needing to process the carbs.
Sodium intake - sodium and potassium and other electrolytes affect the water balance. You can drive yourself nuts trying to control them all, or you can accept that fluctations are normal.
Illness and injury - both can result in water retention. The body uses water in the healing process. I actually learned that this summer, when I gained a few pounds unexpectedly after a significant sunburn. I wondered if the sunburn was responsible (as it was the only change) and in searching some reputable medical websites I learned that any illness or injury can result in water weight gain, because water is used in the inflammation and healing process.
The weight of your food and beverages - when you eat or drink anything, the weight of the food will show up on the scale until (and there's no delicate way to say this) you use the bathroom. If you ate three pounds of cabbage, you'd see a 3 lb gain on the scale, but you'd only be taking in 312 calories.
(Actually you'd only be taking in 240 calories, because 72 of the 312 come from fiber, and humans can'd digest fiber so we can't access those calories. As a result, three pounds of cabbage would have 312 calories for a cow, but only 240 for a human. It really bugs me that so many of the calorie counters don't subtract the fiber calories, because it makes some healthy foods seem to have far more calories than they actually do. If humans can't get to those calories, they shouldn't appear on the calorie counting websites in my opinion (unless it's a calorie counting site for species who can digest fiber. If you were putting Bessy the cow on a diet you would have to count those fiber calories).
At any rate, the weight of your food is going to be your weight until it comes out the other end. Digestion (mouth to toilet travel), can take up to 3 days (and even longer if constipation is an issue), so what you see on the scale can include what you've eaten for the past three days or more. I've read that a normal, healthy person can hold up to 15 lbs of poo in their digestive tract (and the medical record is disturbingly, much higher).
There are so many things that can affect your weight, that it's extremely important not to see minor weight fluctations as tragedy. You need to know that for absolutely normal reasons, you can see fairly significant fluctations.
If you expect a loss every single week, you're very likely going to be disappointed, and if you let that become frustration because you believe it "should" be different, you're going to put yourself at risk for failure. I'm convinced that frustration is the number one enemy of weight loss. We don't quit because we're failing, we quit because we feel like we're failing. And we feel like we're failing, because we don't understand what's normal.
Normal is NOT losing 2 lbs every week. Losing 2 lbs every week is freakish. Yes some people manage it. Some people even manage it consistently, but most people don't. As my doctor pointed out to me, most people don't lose anything (at least not anything that they don't gain back because they give up when they think they're failing). Even losing 1 lb a month is not "normal," it's extraordinary.
Know that, and you won't be disapponted by a no loss week, or a teeny loss week, or even by a gain week - because it's normal and most people experience it. If you think everyone else is doing better, you're going to feel discouraged, perhaps even discouraged enough to quit.
Since my doctor told me that even a 1 lb per month loss was extraordinary, I haven't even been slightly tempted to quit. I've stopped beating myself up for extrordinarily great results, because I wasn't satisfied with extraordinary (because I didn't know it was extraordinary - I thought it was poor).
In my TOPS group (a group that won state recognition for best weight loss results, so we're not a bunch of slackers) we have a monthly contest in which the people who have not had a gain during any of their weigh-ins that month, split a $10 prize. Most months (at most), one or two people split the $10. This past month no one did (so this month the prize will be $20). That means that only 1 or 2 people (and nobody this month) out of 25, manage to go a whole month without gaining (and more than half of our group is made up of men and post-menopausal women, so PMS/TOM weight gain isn't an issue for those members).
In the long run, I think it's a lot easier to learn to accept that small gains are going to happen once in a while, than to try to control everything that could cause them (because it's impossible). You have to know what normal is to know that you're actually doing much better than normal.
Wow. Again.
You people are amazing.
I feel much better. I did some exercise, which just jolted me out of my low mood, and seeing all this broken down for me, so that I can actually understand it, has perked me up significantly.
thank you very much. I'm feeling more optimistic now. It's not as black and white as I had previously thought it was.
thanks once more.
Also, I think we should all take a moment to be grateful that we cannot digest fiber - poor Bessie the cow has much more to lose than any of us do!
But you see, the normal weight gains from all those factors I mentioned - they're not backward steps, and they're not undoing anything.
The only gains that are backward steps that "undo" anything, are those caused by backward stepping behavior (that is, overeating). And even those don't really undo anything, because even those steps are normal, and most people won't be able to entirely undo them.
We're taught to treat weight loss much differently than most other skills we try to learn. If we were to take up mountain climbing, none of us would react to a stumble by throwing ourselves off the nearest cliff, so that we could "start fresh" tomorrow or Monday. In fact, doing so would probably eliminate the possibility to start fresh.
The appropriate response to a slip or stumble in dieting, is the same as for weight loss. Pick yourself up and keep heading in the direction you were going. You can decide to stay where you are and rest until you're ready to go on, or you can eve ndecidee to go back - but you do either by intentionally deciding to. You may stumble (either intentionally or accidentally) but you don't have to decide that a stumble means you're doomed to failure.
And gains that aren't caused by overeating, aren't even stumbles. They're just part of the normal progression of results. You just have th wait them out. When mountain climbing, an rock or snowslide can push you back, but it doesn't "undo" the effort and accomplishment that went into the climb. It can be frustrating, but experienced climbers aren't going to let it get them down. We likewise, don't have to be sidetracked by occasional gains (even when they are due to our mistakes).
You can do this. I can't tell you how long it will take, or how many mistakes you will make, or how many obstacles you'll face, but as long as you face the right direction, and keep making steps toward your goal, you will get there.
I've "failed off" 94 lbs. I say failed off, because I always quit diets in the past for failing to lose at least 1-2 lbs per week. Until this month, I don't think I've even had a 4 lb per month loss. So I've "failed off" 90 of those 94 lbs, and I've only "succeeded" on month out of 7 years of work.
All that time was success, because I was doing far better than the average. I was doing extraordinarily well, but I didn't always feel that way, because I didn't know how well I was doing.
You truly have to understand normal to know how well you're doing just by sticking with the effort. Just not giving up makes you extraordinary.
Thank you so much for this. That's all I have to say. x
I think this is my 4th week of WW. I found WW kind of rough for the first two weeks until I got a hang on the fruits/vegetables. I am learning slowly and the weight is coming off slowly.
I have not used all my weekly points so far.
Get back on plan, go easy on the salt. Eat your vegetables and fruit. Drink your fluids. Make sure you fit in proteins and milk in each day.
This is a life style change and it may take some time to slowly lose the weight and keep it off.
Follow the plan, fit it to your life. It will work. There are obviously going to be up weeks and down weeks. The plan works over time.
However, why do you feel as though you're going to gain back weight?
If you're feeling weak, you might want to try adding in more protein, and make sure you're getting your vegetable and fruit servings in.
This seriously calmed me down - thank you.
I was being so hard on myself but seeing everyone say that fluctuations will happen and ups and downs are pretty much out of anyone's control, has made me more realistic.
I'm making more room for veg and fruit in my diet too and learning to cook healthy proper meals.
All I can say is WOW as a long time 3FC reader this is the first time I have seen so much great information about the "why's" of weight loss. 4 years ago I stalled for 6 months and I gave up. Went back to my old eating habits and never got back on track for any lenght of time again. After reading this post and re-committing my efforts (as of yesterday) I am more than charged up to make the lifestyle change instead of the quick fix diet change
As long as I stay under my points limit, I won't gain, right?!
