ok so last week was my first offical week of doing WW. I have been walking every other day for 1-3 miles and have been doing well, or so i thought. So i get on the scale and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH i was up a pound to 231.6. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT????
The leader i swear was just trying to be nice to me and said it is more then likely because i am walking now and was not walking before so i am putting on muscle.. I dont think that is it. but i am just miserable. I was so excited to go and now, well i dont know what...
Scales are a pain in the ***, people fluctuate that much that I don't think you should let it dishearten you. You're obviously doing really well, you're exercising and doing well and feeling good about it so if you keep that up you will start to see the difference on the scales. It could also be clothes (they do make a lb difference) or timing..
When you said it was a disaster, I was thinking someone was rude to you or you tripped and fell on your face or something. One pound isn't a disaster! My weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds from day to day, and I'm fairly short/small. So a one pound gain doesn't even phase me anymore... I look at the trend over time. I do weigh once a week, sometimes twice, but I worry more about what I weigh now versus a month ago.
If you've been following your WW guidelines pretty closely, there's no way you gained a pound of fat in a week. You'd have to eat 500 calories more than your maintenance calories every day... which is probably more like 1000 more than what you are eating on WW.
You wouldn't gain a whole pound of muscle in a week (I wish that were possible!) but sometimes when you work your muscles harder than usual they hold on to more water.
It's probably extra water that you're retaining for some reason. Did you eat anything particularly salty the day before (packaged soups/dinners, restaurant food, salted chips/pretzels/crackers)? Have you been sure to drink lots of water -- even more than usual now that you're exercising more? Some women gain water weight at certain points in their cycle. Some people get bloated if the weather is warmer than usual.
Did you wear more clothing than last time? Are you feeling as *regular* as usual? Did you eat anything before?
Lastly... sometimes your weight will do funny things, good or bad, that you can't explain. Don't let it throw you off plan... just keep doing what you know you should. Even when the scale isn't dropping, you're getting healthier and stronger and that's always worth the effort!
Edited to add: sorry for writing you a novel here, lol... I haven't had much time for the forums for the past few weeks, and I'm just happy to be posting again.
So i get on the scale and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH i was up a pound to 231.6. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT????
I have had several instances where I was so sure since I worked out I would have lost and sometimes it depends on numerous factors. Number one, you could be retaining a little water, or did you have your period by some chance? Could be from salt intake, or maybe your clothes. I try to tell myself, don't weight yourself more than once a week and stay on top of your own routine.
I know how you feel and you gotta stay confident, that is what has gotten me through ww without going nuts on junk food. And I have been committed to it for 7 weeks now. That is the longest I have EVER EVER gone without breaking a diet/lifestyle change!
My first weigh-in, I lost 0.4, and I was distraught!! I had followed the points perfectly, and used up only 5 of my extra ones. The WW lady said it was because I didn't eat enough protein. The next week I was down 2.6. The next week, I started exercising, and still followed the plan too strictly, and didn't change at all. Who knows? I was mad at first, but I feel sooo good eating healthy, drinking enough water, and exercising, that if I only lose a pound here and there, it's worth putting in the effort!
Thanks all,
I know you are correct it is just depressing that i actually did try so hard and that it didnt show this week.. Hopefully it will be different next week..
Thanks all
Have you gotten your body fat percentage? How about inches? The scale is the devil. It might not show on the scale, but other places may. There are thousands of reasons why you could be up a lb, I actually read that the first week, you may gain because your body is not used to going from a sedentary lifestyle to active. Watch next week you'll lose, don't worry. It's only week one, in two months time, you'll see much more of a difference.
Disaster!? What's going to happen, are you going to explode or something?
(Joke).
Try to keep your head here. Calm down. Take a deep breath, maybe two or three. You need to minimize your stress here. Remember that stress is mostly in how you interpret the situation, not in the situation itself.
If you want to succeed, you have to be ready to throw away all of the unrealistic expectations and beliefs you have, and be willing to deal with the unvarnished truth. The unvarnished truth of weight loss is that it is not a linear, predictable, steady, or rapid process. It just isn't, and there's no way to make it fit your desires and expectations. So you have to learn to accept the slow, small steps, and the occasional step backwards - often with no identifiable reason.
You can't always (or even often) tie a weight gain or loss to only what you did the week before. Your body is alot more complicated than that.
Hang in there. Stay calm, and know that healthy eating is the best thing you can do for preparation for your wedding day. I'm not talking crash dieting to fit into a smaller dress. Looking and feeling exhausted and sick on your wedding day is a lot worse than wearing a size larger than you'd hoped.
If your wedding is very close, maybe weight maintenance would be a better goal, and anything extra is bonus. Or at least, don't set up a goal loss, because you'll be stressed if you don't reach it. Just do your best at eating right, and getting in some stress-relieving exercise.
It's extremely, extremely unlikely that you will gain weight, following WW's plan. If you're following plan and gain week after week (and I'm talking really gain, not just fluctuate for a couple weeks - I'd give it at least 4 to 6 weeks, before deciding it isn't working), then you really need to have a good checkup, including blood sugar and thyroid, etc.
Hey all,
i guess i should have not said disaster, i just meant that i hope i dont gain anymore weight, that is all, my goal is to get it off not put it on. even if it is only one pound. I guess i just had my hopes up of being at a small number this past week cause i did try so hard and when it sad the 231 (even though it is only one pound) it still was a big deal to me. especially when i just came from a higher weight.
Believe, me I do understand your feelings. I've dieted most of my life, and there were definitely times when I was nearly suicidal over my weight. But, you know what, I discovered that being fat, even hugely, nearly 400 lbs fat fat, is not a fate worse than death, and when I let myself feel that way, I was seriously underestimating my value to myself and others.
It can feel like a really big deal, and we can feel like crap if we allow it. But alot of those feelings are a result of very twisted thinking as to what is reasonable, or how we are doing compared to others (or truthfully, how we are doing compared to how we think others are doing).
Not too long ago, I complained to my doctor that the weight was coming off, but very slowly and I was frustrated that I wasn't even losing a pound every week. I whined that at my size, I should be able to lose much faster, and the doctor pointed out that the average weight loss for people trying to lose weight (no matter what their starting weight) is actually much less than one pound. He said, if I lost only quarter pound a week (12 pounds a year, give me a break, that's failure isn't it?), within a couple months I would be ahead of most people who started a weight loss program (because most drop out).
When I was in WW, many leaders would encourage the big losers to share their loss for the week. So, hearing people were losing 7 lbs one week, it made it seem that they did this every week and that most people were losing weight a lot faster than me, but that isn't the case.
In my TOPS group, the weight recorder announces how many pounds were lost by the group and how many people gained. By dividing it among the number of members attending, I found out that the average for the group was much less than 1 lb per week, and there were weeks when more people gained than lost. That's not the kind of information I think most of us really realize. We assume that if we're not losing 2 lbs every week that we are trailing behind everyone else, not that we're in the middle or even ahead of the crowd.
It's really important to know the reality, so you don't feel like crap when you're not as successful as you want to be because your expectations aren't realistic. If someone won a marathon, or at least came in in the top 10%, and told you the race was a disaster and they felt like crap because their time in completing the race wasn't faster, what would you tell them?
You have to become your own best friend, not your own worst enemy. How would you encourage someone else who felt the way you do, what would you tell them? Hopefully, it would not be "you deserve to feel like crap, you big, fat loser." And if that isn't what you'd tell a friend, why are you telling yourself that?
Feel better! You are doing so great already. Don't let the scale sabotage you. There have been MANY times when I have stepped on the scale after working my butt off all week to find myself at the same weight or weighing more. UMM. HELLO? Which to be honest, used to make me feel like 'what's the point?' and end up eating something I know I shouldn't. But how is cheating helping? How is giving up on myself helping?? You have to persevere. The scale will catch up, I promise.
My First Weigh-In at WW was a DISASTER!!!
It might not show on the scale, but other places may. There are thousands of reasons why you could be up a lb, I actually read that the first week, you may gain because your body is not used to going from a sedentary lifestyle to active. Watch next week you'll lose, don't worry. It's only week one, in two months time, you'll see much more of a difference.
