My weight's been creeping up over the last few days So I examined the possible causes:

1. Eating too much - I'm not sure. I should definitely start journalling my food again, which I stopped doing after a couple of weeks. But then I underestimated my activity level and discovered that I needed to eat about 300 calories more each day, and perhaps I'm not doing that...or I'm going over.

2. Eating the wrong stuff - I need to get down with the planning. Especially the veggies side of things. I love steaming my veggies, but I need to make the commitment (again!) of being at home at meal times so that I can invest the time into cooking them.

3. Muscle/water retention - I've been upping my workouts this week (well, I've kept to my original exercise plan better) and my muscles ache a bit. It's very possible my body's rearranging itself, building muscle (there's STUFF under the fat in my upper arms!!!) and needs lots of water right now to help it along. So I need to also be patient (because I am drinking lots of water!)

What do you all think? Any other possible causes? Any other steps I can take to help my body out?

If your muscles ache, there's definitely some water in them. Other causes are hormones, extra sodium on a regular basis (I always go up after eating anything Asian-inspired, for example), or certain medications (it took me 3 months to figure out that my higher weight was primarily related to a pain medicine I was on, once).

But stick with it! Blips happen, but they don't last forever (even if it seems like it). Track those calories carefully for a while, push the water, and things will get moving again.

Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement!

Sodium could be a co-culprit too, you're right: because I've not been eating at home much this week I haven't had complete control over what's been in what I have been eating. And that kind of stuff does tend to be higher in sodium than I'd normally like. Oh well. These things happen - I'll keep chugging on and then watch me whooooosh into the 210's

Look at you posting and reread #1 and 2.

It's hard to know, but I agree that journaling your food will shed some light. Good luck!

I don't know if this will help but I try to use it when I get discouraged. When I went to OA they viewed compulsive overeating as an addiction to be overcome. The focus was not on the food or the weight, but on overcoming the addiction. The goal was to refrain from compulsive overeating and the rest, the consequences, would take care of itself. So, I try to follow my written food plan and not focus on the scale and try to cure the addiction rather than "be on a diet." I weigh every day because I have to; but when the scale is up it can ruin my entire day and make me depressed, so that is why I have to try another tact and try to keep my eye on the rest of my life. It's hard. It's so hard for anyone with this addiction to not eat. but it can be done and on this board we have seen it over and over.

If you are not writing down your food then you're probably not sure exactly how much you are eating.

Try writing everything for three days....

I've also found that it helps me to eat single ingredient foods. It's much harder to guesstimate how much is in foods that combine a lot of ingredients.

Maybe stick to simpler foods for a few days and see if that helps.

Absolutely write down your food every day.

But I notice you've had some rapid weight loss in the beginning--way to go! Your body may be slowing down a bit, now. Maybe. Mine has and that's fine as long as the trend continues downward.

Secondly, my weight fluctuates wildly throughout the week. I gave up weighing myself except for the once weekly "weigh-in" because it was rather pointless. AND I can gain five to six pounds in one day--from morning (empty tummy) to night time.

Remember, if you drink a pint of water--you will be one pound heavier until that water moves through your system.

Hang in there--you are getting great results!

Go back to journaling your food. Most of us need that constant awareness of what we're putting into our bodies, and that should also help you ascertain if your food choices/amounts are the issue or if it is normal weight fluctuations.

But for me, at least, I've had to accept that at least minimal journalling of what I am eating is crucial for me to maintain a healthy weight. Once I accepted I would be doing it for life - just like wearing glasses to correct my vision, I need food journalling to correct my overeating - I was a lot more content doing it!

Thanks for your input everyone - keep it coming!

I'm encouraged to get back to journalling and will update you with how it goes I'm staying with my sister this weekend, she's forbidden me from stepping on her scale so I'll weigh in at the gym on Monday.

My weight slowed and crept up a bit when I upped my exercise too. When that passed....BAM! there was a big plunge inthe scale.

Keep on trucking.

What she said... I find if I don't write it down I end up under estimating. At least that way you'll be able to hone in on if it's a cause or not.

I do think that my exercise/activity levels this week have something to do with it, along with the normal "slowing down" that Alana mentioned and my not being as precise as I should be with charting my food. Over the next few days I'll fix that last thing; the other two will be tackled by lots of water (and trips to the loo) and patience, I think.

Thank you for sharing your experience, though. I'm looking forward to my whooooooosh once my body has realised that having stronger muscles is not an emergency situation It's so good to know that others have gone through something similar!

journal journal journal. I can't say it enough. Accountability is key. You can totally do this you've just stepped a wee bit off of the track. And that's okay... do some journaling and figure out what's going on