I started weight watchers on my own and I have been weiging everyday and it appears I am going up in weight somedays. Has anyone else have this problem. I also have a hard time motivating my self to excercise I seem to come up with every excuse in the world. I used to weigh 245 pounds I lost 45 pounds doing a high protein diet but have never been able to get below 200. Thank you Vicky
Vicky
1. your a woman ( at least i hope so ) lol no really we retain water somedays and not the others
2. my advice of course is weigh in once a week i actuly look forward to it and when a gain and KNOW i've been on plan etc i chalk it up to either water or muscle from exercise
just my 2 cents
you really shouldnt weigh everyday you'll drive yourself crazy
Michelle
Vicki--I was just wondering if you are on the Weight Watchers Flex or Core plan? I have another friend who claims that when she follows the Core plan she gains weight--I think this is because she eats beyond the 'satisfied' point. I am doing the points program and writing all the food down really makes me accountable. I'm like you, I weigh myself daily and it can be frustrating at times! Keep up the good work!
Vicky, I agree with Michelle. Pick a day to weigh in and stick to it for a couple weeks. Avoid the scale on other days! Also, try to weigh the same way each time.....same time of day, same type clothing, etc. Weighing in shorts and a tank top today, and jeans and a sweater tomorrow is a shocker!
Thank all of you so much. I guess I am obsessed with the scale somedays I step on that darn thing 10 times and if I go up a pound oh god it is turture believe me. Im really not that great at writing a talker I am so this is new to me One of you asked if I was on the flex plan r Core Im doing the flex plan I wish I had the money to go to weight watchers but my husband job is really slow now that it has been snowing so much here. I had a friend who gave me her set of books and I have been trying to follow them. One of the things I have noticed is that I have been eating almost everything I ate before so it really does not feel like a diet. I had a hamburger at mcdonalds and ate half of the frys and fiqured i was doing great because before I would of had a Big mac Large fry and Large Coke. The only thing that is really hard is dinner time when Steve gets home He does not feel I need to lose weight so he is yelling at me almost all night about how little Im eating hes driving me insane When I was in my 20s I used to work out 3 times a day and used to throw my food up after I ate. All he does is make me want to do that again So what I do is make what ever he would like for dinner and I eat half of what I used to I hope that keeps working( and oh boy if he decides to make popcorn he brings me a pepsi and that darn butter popcorn and the other night I lost it a threw the popcorn on the floor and the pepsi down the sink and went to bed crying I need some suggestions on how to deal with Steve before he drives me crazy I hate my body so much and dealing with Steve and dieting at the same time is hard I hve not even started to excercise yet LOL Vicky
The scale is not always our friend! There are a myriad of reasons the scales go up and down from menstrual issues, to retaining water, to menopause issues, etc. I would quit weighing everyday and weigh once a week at the same time wearing the same clothing if you weigh at home. If you are going to meetings, hide the darn scale at home, just lock it up and only weigh at meetings.
because of daily fluctuations like whether you drank a whole bunch of water before getting on the scale. Supposedly a weekly average is better, but I have abit of scale obsession myself.
Vicky, I'm so sorry you're not getting the support you need at home. Many of us do not, that's why you'll get so much support here! Come here to vent or to get your head screwed back on straight, and you can do this.
A couple suggestions for you:
1. Make extra veggies for dinner, as well as a salad. You can load your plate with these things for very few points, and to Steve it will still look like you're eating enough. Fill up on these good things, and limit the amount of the other items you're putting on your plate.
2. Popcorn seems like the devil, but it isn't! Make either the 94% FF microwave popcorn, or make your own microwave popcorn by putting a tablespoon of regular popcorn kernals in a small brown paper bag, folding it over, and zap it in the micro. You now have totally fat free popcorn! To make it extra yummy, after it's popped drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil on it. It makes it seem more like movie theatre popcorn and helps you get in your healthy oil requirements for the day. Be sure to calculate your points for the oil.
3. Lighten up your hubby's favorite foods slowly without him even knowing it! I still cook with butter occassionally, but I only use the lite butter now. The family cannot tell the difference. When making steamed veggies I used to always put butter or margarine on them and I stopped that completely...they can't tell the difference. Oatmeal that I used to make with milk, now I make with water. Buy the lighter bread like Healthy Life or Wonder Lite and cut your points in half. Cheese lover? I can't do the fat free cheese, no one will eat it. I did, however, switch all our cheeses over to the 2% cheese and they can't tell the difference!
Overall, make the changes you need to make for you, so that you will be healthy and live a long life. Steve is just gonna have to come around!
Location: Ft Campbell KY/Clarksville TN - studying in Vancouver BC
Posts: 65
S/C/G: 220/113/100
Height: 5'5''
Quote:
. Lighten up your hubby's favorite foods slowly without him even knowing it! I still cook with butter occassionally, but I only use the lite butter now. The family cannot tell the difference. When making steamed veggies I used to always put butter or margarine on them and I stopped that completely...they can't tell the difference. Oatmeal that I used to make with milk, now I make with water. Buy the lighter bread like Healthy Life or Wonder Lite and cut your points in half. Cheese lover? I can't do the fat free cheese, no one will eat it. I did, however, switch all our cheeses over to the 2% cheese and they can't tell the difference!
These are all fabulous tips.
I use an air popper instead of brown paper bag in the microwave and I think the "lite" bread is awful but I did go from white to wheat to whole wheat (the Sara Lee whole wheat bread is A-MAZING). I also use Olivo spread which is 2pts per tablespooon (I think).
And homemade dips are your friend. There are SO many low point dips that you can put all over veggies (if you're not a fan of veggies on their own).
While my husband is supportive of me dieting (thank goodness!) it was a little hard in the begining to plan meals since he refused to eat anything considered "diet" or "healthy" because he'd swear it tastes bad. But guess what... he can't tell the difference!
I cook with Splenda; I get the whole wheat bread, pasta, rice, etc; and I substitue everything else I can as well. I use the WW cookbooks (which I just recently got and I LOVE them!) to make healthy meals and he loves them, too.
As for soda... I still buy him his kind, but I drink everything diet now. It took me a little while to get used to, but now I love it. The regular kind tastes way too sweet for me now.
As for support - I don't attend meetings either; nor do I do the WW online program. I do it all from home with the books (I bought them off of eBay) and I use this message board as my support.
And finally... the scale!! I too am a daily weigher, but I need to be. It gives me motivation and lets me know where I stand - no matter if it's a gain or a loss. When I don't weigh myself daily (which I haven't been doing in about a week) then I don't diet like I should be (which I also haven't been doing! I need to get back OP!). I remind myself of the things which make me personally have a gain day-to-day: 1) I ate too many salty foods the day before; 2) I snacked late at night; 3) It's near my TOM; 4) I'm constipated (sorry for the TMI!); 5) Water weight. But I ALWAYS weigh myself not long after I wake up, completely naked, and dry hair.
I hope that *some* of this helps! I realize a bit of this may be a repeat from what others have said - but that only means it must be really good advice!
Vicky, I can't add anything everyone has not already said, I too get on the scales daily, you just have to use it as a guide to do better and not beat yourself up if it is a gain. Good luck with the husband, I know that must make it more difficult, the advice about switching to low fat everything is good. I get no complaints from DH or son with low fat but do occasionally with no-fat.
Jen, have you tried the baked or light chips. I preferr the Lays Light, but if the olean bothers your stomac you may want to try the baked (not as good IMO). The Pringles Fat Free are good.
WW works if you work the program. Good Luck Ladies!
This article is great for realizing that we need to not focus so much on the scale:
Why The Scale Lies by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer
We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.
Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.
Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.
Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.
Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.
Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.
This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.
Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.
I just started weight watchers
Are you on Flex or Core?
