I was WI yesterday and down another pound not a huge success by any means but still down a pound, this afternoon I get on the scale and I am up 4lbs I started crying, this is so upsetting is this true, does this happen often to others, then you stil manage to lose by next WI? It is also TOM just started today so not sure but any encouraging experinences would be wonderful.
I was WI yesterday and down another pound not a huge success by any means but still down a pound, this afternoon I get on the scale and I am up 4lbs I started crying, this is so upsetting is this true, does this happen often to others, then you stil manage to lose by next WI? It is also TOM just started today so not sure but any encouraging experinences would be wonderful.
Weight varies throughout the day. It depends on a lot of things--how much water you drink is a biggie..whether or not you've had a bm...how much you've eaten. Don't worry about it; but save yourself some grief and don't obsess over it. If you MUST weigh in; do it once a day, preferably at the same time and in the morning.
Now stop crying and be proud of the weight you've REALLY lost. This other stuff is just temporary.
My weight varies 5lbs+ throughout the day. It's just the way it is. I take my morning weight, cuz it's easily duplicated and I weigh at home. A week a go, I kid you not..morning was 192, afternoon 193.6, evening was 198.6, then the next morning I was 191.8. I don't weight during the day anymore, it's just too stressful. I know that what I'm doing is working for me, so that's good enough for me.
Yup, I'm with the others on this one. Weigh once, mark it down, then forget about it until the next day. So much influences your weight during the day, as already mentioned, that stressing over it will only make you feel worse (as you just learned!).
The other trick, if seeing those numbers moving slowly is too frustrating, is try measuring yourself. Inches can come off a lot faster than numbers, particularly if you're exercising.
I gained 6 pounds the week I got my TOM...I understand your frustration. I did lose it all and an extra 2 pounds on the weigh in. Just remember to keep drinking water...i retain A LOT when I have my TOM.
As of yesterday (as advised on the forum), I stopped weighing myself throughout the day...now it's just once in the morning.
You will get over this, I promise...just stick with it...it does get better.
I dont weigh everyday. It's counterintuitive to me & there are too many factors that can affect the numbers. I weigh Mon,Wed & Fri first thing in the morning. Also I just started taking my measurements & will measure 2x a month or so. You'll be surprised, when the scale hasn't moved much the inches don't ever disappoint!
So, yea, it happens to all of us & usually your scale will say something different tommorow.
How is it possible? Because you're dealing with a human body, not a machine.
One glass of water = 1/2 lbs
10 glasses of water = 5 lbs
1 head of cauliflower = 3 lbs
The weight of the food and water you drink, becomes "your weight" until you go to the bathroom. If you retain water (and there are dozens of reasons your body can retain water) or experience a delay in pooping, you will seem to be carrying more weight than you actually are.
If you drank a quart of water and stepped on the scale, it would look like you'd gained 2 lbs, but in 45 minutes to an hour, you'd lose those 2 lbs again. During TOM, many women have constipation AND water retention, and there are all sorts of other reasons that the scale doesn't always reflect what's really going on.
Losing slow, and losing erratically (different amounts every week, even gains and no-loss weeks) are entirely normal. The person who drops a consistent 2 lbs each and every week is NOT the normal one. Slow and irregular losses aren't wrong, abnormal or failing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjslilmommie
I was WI yesterday and down another pound not a huge success by any means but still down a pound.
WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG! This is indeed a huge success. I'm assuming you mean one pound in a week (but even if you mean in a month) this actually is a huge sucess (because most people who would like to lose weight aren't losing even this much. Most people who want to lose weight, lose nothing. And while losing more than one pound in a week, is common, most people don't do it - either because they give up, or because they face normal ups and downs.
Somewhere around my 30 to 40 lb lost mark, I was only losing about 1 lb per month, and I griped to my doctor that I "should" be able to lose at least 2 lbs a week like "normal people," and my doctor scolded me. He told me that most "normal people" who try to lose weight, lose absolutely nothing. "Normal people" give up and gain the weight back faster than they put it on. "Normal people" give up when the weight loss slows down. "Normal people" start a diet and then fall right off again withing 2 to 4 weeks of startingt.
Just by hanging in there, and not giving up, even my average loss of 1/4 per week put me in the top 10%, not trailing behind everyone else (like I thought). And while my weight loss averaged 1 lb a month, it looked more like this
gain 8 lbs (TOM)
lose 6 lbs
lose 0 lbs
lose 3 lbs
So yes, even 1 lb is HUGE success if you don't decide it's practically a failure and it leads you to giving up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjslilmommie
, this afternoon I get on the scale and I am up 4lbs I started crying, this is so upsetting is this true, does this happen often to others, then you stil manage to lose by next WI? It is also TOM just started today so not sure but any encouraging experinences would be wonderful.
This is absolutely normal, and it doesn't have to be upsetting. If you see it as horrible and frustrating, it will be horrible and frustrating. If you see it as normal and temporary, it will feel normal and be temporary.
If I make no diet mistakes, I gain 7-9 lbs every month with TOM. This is water retention, and will disappear as quickly as it came IF I don't use it as a reason to eat off plan. It used to be worse. When I weighed closer to 400 lbs, I would gain 10-12 lbs.
The important thing is to squash at all costs, the very normal thought "I've blown it, I might as well eat what I want and start fresh tomorrow/Monday..."
Thank you everyone for your encouraging words. My husband has taken the scale away and said he will only allow me to weigh on the morning of my offical WI at the clinic. It was 1lb down last week and 1 3/4 inches lost so that is amazing yes, I am realizing that slow and steady will win me this race!
I am realizing that slow and steady will win me this race!
That's a great attitude, but you're not losing "slow and steady," you're actually losing at a good clip. You're a hare who thinks she's a tortoise.
If you were in a TOPS group (taking off pounds sensibly, it's a not-for-profit weight loss group), you'd see that most women of your size (and many larger) aren't losing any faster than you are unless they're trying to lose weight on a starvation diet.
We've been culturally brain-washed to believe that weight loss of one pound per week is "slow weight loss" regardless of our age, starting weight, or dieting history.
To put it in the language of the tortoise and hare myth - we don't want to be the turtle, we don't even want to be a smart rabbit (after all the rabbit would have won if he hadn't been a fool), we want to be the cheetah - and there aren't many cheetahs. Although magazines and television shows only show the cheetahs, because no one wants to hear about average to good weight loss, we all want to hear about amazing, miraculous weight loss - the Biggest Loser Contestants, the WLS patients (and even then only the fastest losing gastric bypass patients), the vlcd dieters (and just because a lot of people lose quickly on very low calorie diets doesn't mean everyone does).... The people who are losing 2% or more of their body weight every week.
We think of 1 - 2 lbs as the "average" weight loss, but that's not the reality. It's the ideal set forth in women's magazines, but ask your doctor some time how many of the patients he sees who are wanting and trying to lose weight, how many are losing more than 1 lb per week. Ask how many ever make it to losing 25% of the weight they want to in the time that you have and you'll learn just how "in the lead" you actually are.
Most people don't even make it to the point you already have. Most people give up before they even reach the 10% mark - usually because they think they're losing too slow for the effort to be worth it.
Hold your head high, you're a fast bunny, not some sluggish ol' turtle.
I hve to totally agree with everyone else... Your body weight fluctuates +/-5 pounds at any given time of day. For me, the scale was my worst enemy. I would weigh myself, see that I had gained a pound or two, and think "hmm.. why bother? I'm working THIS hard, and I'm gaining weight? I might as well have pizza and chicken wings now...". I had to put the scale away - it was messing with my head.
For me, weighing myself every week or two works best. I know i'm shrinking, since my clothes are fitting better.
My mindset has changed recently. To me, my goal is not a number... it's better health, being a good example to my kids, and not having to buy plus size clothes. Although a number is somewhere in the ideal... it's more about how I feel than anything.
My mindset has changed recently. To me, my goal is not a number... it's better health, being a good example to my kids, and not having to buy plus size clothes. Although a number is somewhere in the ideal... it's more about how I feel than anything.
WOW! Those are certainly words to live by. I totally agree with you! I've got a LOT of weight to lose myself... and while sometimes the scale isn't moving much, my clothes are telling me that I am successful because they're starting to get big on me. Thanks for sharing this.
HOw is this possible???
