Minor Ups & Downs
 

Admittedly I have been losing weight pretty quickly, but every few days or so when I get on the scale (which I'm doing often now but will probably lighten up about later) it says I have gone up in weight (overnight) between 1-4 pounds. I haven't been counting these increases in my charting, I've just waited a day for the extra pounds to subside (and so far they leave as quickly as they came), but they can be hard on morale.

Besides keep to your diet/lifestyle change and excercising, what do you do when this happens? Or what do you tell yourself?

I only weigh in once a week. That way I don't see those "fluctuations" - I just see the downward numbers. I was a "scale addict" and the once a week works great for me.

I do believe they should really put huge and I mean huge warning labels about how a scale can become obessive. I weight myself everyday, its a ritual and its been like that for a year and three months, I have tried only weighing myself once a week but it just doesn't work out as well. Im better off weighing myself daily because I can see my changes and how my body flucuates. At first understanding these flucuations can be hard and they can really take over people, with emotions and what not. The key thing is to try to not let it dictate your life. Its just a number on a scale, we can't let it take over our lives. I know my weight flucuates day to day or sometimes it doesn't its life and it happens. Try not to get discouraged, even though I weigh myself once a day, I only count my once a week weigh in as "offical" I still write down the other numbers. If you find yourself hopping on more than you should post a post-it-note on the scale saying something like don't get discouraged or only once a day! After all you are working hard and you are eating right so be proud of yourself!
Good luck!

I tell myself it's just a number, and I think to what I ate/drank/did yesterday that could be the culprit. Higher sodium? Not enough water? Strenuous exercise (especially strength training)? It could be a number of things. But look at the overall picture, not the day to day. I weigh daily and enter my weight into a spreadsheet. I have all kinds of ups and downs on the chart, but the trend of the graph is down. That's what you need to look for.

while i weigh every day i only count it once a week...up or down for better or worse.

i go by how much better i feel.
i go by how much easier things are to do.
I can't go by the scale. I'd just have given up a year ago....

The scale is just one way of measuring how you're going, and you shouldn't get too worried about minor ups and downs - you can gain up to 5 lbs at TOM, for example, and that's all water weight. Sure, the scale gives you a number, but don't rely on it completely. If you haven't done so already, take your measurements and take a note of how your clothes look and feel - I can feel my clothes getting looser, even if the numbers on the scale aren't dropping....