Weight loss is not linear. You cannot gain 5 lbs over night. You also cannot lose 5 lbs over night. Your body contains a LOT of water. At times, it also contains food and waste and other various and fluctuating bodily fluids.
DO NOT let the scale be the only measure of your progress. You will be SORELY disappointed.
Carry on .
I agree completely of course but if we all used terminology better we could all educate new people better. Because you CAN gain 5 lbs of weigth over night but you can not gain 5 lbs of FAT overnight.
People always talk about weight loss. We should be talking about fat loss. Big difference between those two things.
Weight loss is not linear. You cannot gain 5 lbs over night. You also cannot lose 5 lbs over night. Your body contains a LOT of water. At times, it also contains food and waste and other various and fluctuating bodily fluids.
DO NOT let the scale be the only measure of your progress. You will be SORELY disappointed.
Carry on .
Yep, the scale contains a lot of error that we're not interested in. Also, interesting read here about why it may be non-linear:
I agree completely of course but if we all used terminology better we could all educate new people better. Because you CAN gain 5 lbs of weigth over night but you can not gain 5 lbs of FAT overnight.
People always talk about weight loss. We should be talking about fat loss. Big difference between those two things.
You are totally right! I reread what I'd written (post coffee) and realized the same. It should read just as you stated.
I've seen a lot of threads the last few days about 'gains' and I'm feeling a little .
This should be the FIRST thing every person learns about weight loss! I'm going to edit my first post.
What? You mean I didn't gain 13 pounds of fat in 17 days over the holidays? And my 1 hour workout at the gym isn't what made me lose several pounds overnight? Now you tell me!
The reason I have stayed away from weighing myself weekly - or even monthly - is because I don't want the scale to be my measure of success and dominate my life. Since I started this journey on July 18, 2011, I have only weighed in once, on March 2 (which is why my ticker hasn't changed in a month and won't change again for a while).
My top priority is my health and improving fitness level. While I love the weight loss and enjoy dropping clothing sizes, seeing improvement in my fitness level is what is driving me.
I couldn't handle looking at the scale weekly or daily. I would be so depressed if I worked hard and didn't see a result. That's how I sabotaged myself in 2007 in my last major weight loss attempt. I had been losing 15-19 lbs monthly (too much, if I look at it in retrospect), and was expecting a huge number the following month because I worked so hard. But I "only" lost 9 pounds that month...and I felt so depressed that I stopped working on weight loss and gained it all back.
What? You mean I didn't gain 13 pounds of fat in 17 days over the holidays? And my 1 hour workout at the gym isn't what made me lose several pounds overnight? Now you tell me!
The only scale I ever use is my own scale I have at home, so there are periods of time (when I am deployed for example) when I do not weigh-in for months. I usually come home and hop on just to see where I am, and am usually shocked by what I see. The number is never in line with what I *think* it should be, which just goes to show that it's not really important!
Even I do need this reminder from time to time, so thanks for the bump ValRock. I do weigh myself once a week (unless I am out of town) as a bit of a check-up, because there was a time when my refusal to get on the scale allowed me to gain a lot of weight from denial. Now I know that since I am not bulking and trying to add more muscle mass at the moment, any weight gain is probably from vacations and days of indulgence. It makes it much easier to see when I have been a little too lax. It's that sanity check that I need from time to time.
The flip side of that is letting it determine my attitude or worse, my actions. A few months ago I was getting into a routine where I would see that my weight was too low and use it as an excuse to binge. The truth was that I was super stressed and overworked and thats why my weight was plummeting, and I knew better than to use that as justification for stress-induced binge eating. Thats also when I found this forum.
I have a balance back in my life again, and am back to using the scale as I planned to; just one of many tools (to include the mirror, my clothes, pictures and a measuring tape) to let me know how I'm doing... not the ONLY tool.
Maybe we can get the mods to make a sticky for sontaikle's weight loss graph, showing all the bounces up and down.
I totally get it that it's really motivating to see a big loss when you first start, but too many people think that's the norm and that's just setting them up for disappointment.
I weigh myself daily, but I try to keep the long-term trend in mind always.
I vote for making this a sticky! Our weight fluctuates all the time so the thought of me judging success on a daily basis with a scale is daunting and depressing. I weigh myself every 7-10 days. I prefer to just look at my body in the mirror, use a tape measure, or try on the snug jeans to see if I'm really making the progress I want. Sometimes all the work I've put in won't show on the scale until 2-3 weeks later and it's oddly during the week I didn't eat or exercise nearly as well. As Val said, weight loss is non-linear so the results won't always match up to our efforts (and yes when I was scale obsessed, I would be to the point of a nervous breakdown when I just knew I was going to show a loss on the scale and and it showed none or worse a "gain"). What would really happen if we all took at 30 day break from the scale and just focused on the NSVs? We would probably lose an extra pound from the reduced stress (stress raises cortisol levels which is bad for our middle).
By noting the natural fluctuations in my body, I am able to better deal with the notion that "but I was down 3 lb yesterday!" - it makes perfect sense, especially when I look at my food intake & notice that I ate a TON of sodium on the day my scale says I'm up 2 or 3 lb, and then by eating lots of raw veggies and drinking lots of water, the very next day (or 2nd day) I'm down 2 or 3 lb.
These natural ups/downs make me realize that WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR. And by getting to know my own body, I've been able to rationalize my eating habits and pinpoint my exact problems, therefore learning to solve those problems.
This doesn't mean that I don't sometimes get down or whatever about my weight. I'm still not at goal. 2.5 years.... 39 lb... and STILL not at goal. Sometimes I just want to give up, but that's not my nature. And when I look back at my eating habits, I realize exactly why I'm not at goal. I wish I could just eat whatever the **** I want whenever I want, as much as I want & not worry about my weight. But nope - I have to watch it, be careful, ever-mindful of what goes in my mouth. And there are times when I choose to ignore it - like my b'day, special holidays, etc. I expect to see the scale go up when I've had pizza (loads of sodium!!!) or more than one serving of ice cream cake (b'day, woohoo!!!!) - and when I get back into my normal eating mode, I expect to see the scale go down. And you know what? IT DOES.
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