[nicolen]

So this morning I got up, hopped on the scales and my heart sank. I'd put on 3 lbs overnight and could only put it down to TOM as I've kept on programme all week. I thought everything through and checked my journals and figured out that there really wasn't anything I'd done wrong so just wrote it off as one of those things and resigned myself to a gain at my WW weigh in at lunchtime.

Lunchtime came and I made my way to the WW meeting - getting a huge compliment from a co-worker who hasn't seen me in several weeks, but that's another story - and as I went to get on the scales I told my WW leader that it wasn't going to be good, but all I could put it down to was TOM. Got on the scales and ... I'd lost 1/2 a pound. So between 5am and just after 12 noon I've lost 3 1/2 pounds. I'd had breakfast at the usual time and it was the usual sort of thing and a snack at 10am as I usually do. But I've lost 3 1/2 lbs and I can't figure out how.

I guess we're not here to reason why, but every now and then I'd like a semi logical explanation for the things my body does. Surely that's not too much to ask?

Has anything like this happened to anyone else?

[khep]

YES! Your body and my body have been chatting and conspiring They like to play with our emotions, and the scale is in on their fiendish plot!

I posted about the same sort of scenario recently, and the biggest advice given to me was to not weigh myself daily- and if I did, to keep a running chart so that I could see the overall big-picture downward slope. I have started only weighing myself once a week, and I am feeling a lot better, though it was rocky at first because the validation when it happens is so motivating, and because I have issues being able to 'see' whether or not I am on the right track. It's gotten better, and in the meantime I'd recommend it, because our bodies do fluctuate so rapidly that seeing the minor ups (though minor) can be so disheartening.

Congratulations on the job you've done so far!

[sunshine900]

hi nicolen...
I always weight myself with the same scale because not all are the same....

[Heather]

I was going to note that about the scales too... they aren't always the same!

And just know that our bodies DO fluctuate during the day. Usually I weigh least in the morning and more at night, but lots of factors (especially with regard to water weight) come into the mix...

CONGRATS on the loss and good luck!

[SexyRevealed]

OT: wyllen, I love your new avatar and sig pics. Look how much your face has changed! You look very beautiful.

[synger]

We lose and hold water in so many ways -- hormones and salt can hold it, and perspiration and breathing loses it. The body can fluctuate in water weight by as much as five pounds.

The trouble is, we get on the scale and the number we see translates in our minds as "how fat I am" or if we subtract it, "how much fat I've lost". That's just not how scales work. They weigh the whole thing -- bones, fluid, muscle, fat. Of those, bones stay pretty much the same. Muscle grows and atrophies more slowly. Fat can go up and down more quickly. But water is very... pardon the term... fluid.

You REALLY have to look at the long-term trend information to get an accurate picture. Or ditch the scale altogether and go by other indicators -- energy levels, how clothes are fitting, physical things you can do that you couldn't do before.

It's not the losing weight that is the problem. It's how we measure it.

[pigginpodgey]

Lock your scales away in a cupboard!! We gain water, hold water, out bodies are crazy! I try and weigh only once a week to save my sanity!!

[sharonrr]

Originally Posted by SexyRevealed

OT: wyllen, I love your new avatar and sig pics. Look how much your face has changed! You look very beautiful.

YOU READ MY MIND. I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING.

[sharonrr]

Sorry I got off the track. I weigh myself everyday. It definitely is not for everyone. I do not let the daily change of the scale freak me out. I figure that not weighing myself for 26 years is what got me obese. So weighing myself keeps me accountable for what I put in my mouth. Now it is only healthy good for me food. I only count my weekly weigh in on Wedneday night at my TOPS meeting. Good luck to all of you. We all do what works for us.

[Heather]

Originally Posted by sharonrr

YOU READ MY MIND. I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING.

Thanks, guys!

I like the reminder right now that I'm not where I was... though I don't like that my most "accurate" before pic has me looking so sad!