[inadreem]

I know I'm supposed to be weighing myself only once a week but I just couldn't help myself this morning. I had a really good day yesterday and I was so curious. So I hopped on the scale and stared in open-mouthed astonishment at the number I saw. I gained two pounds! Why? Could it be all the coffee I've been drinking? I do allow myself a little half and half in the coffee. I don't know. Makes me wanna order a big breakfast deluxe from McDonalds. (I'm not going to, of course.) What a downer.

[Casandra]

I got some good advice before. When you weigh yourself, always try and do so at the same time of day. I notice that I weigh a lot less in the mornings than I do the night before!

I've also had a tip that, because I eat a bowl of cereal every morning for breakfast and one for lunch, the milk I'm having could be adding pounds (whenI was weighing myself in the afternoons)

Apparently, 1gallon of milk can weigh 10lbs!

[Heather]

that is really normal.

remember that the scale measures ALL of you. Your bone, skin, hair, muscle,fat and WATER. Water especially fluctuates a lot in us.

So, when we get on the scale, how do we know if we've lost fat, or water, or muscle? We don't. The scale is an imperfect measurement.

So, don't worry, you DIDN'T gain 2 pounds of fat unless you ate 7,000 extra calories!

You may be retaining water (from sodium, or exercise, or TOM)... also, when you DO weigh, weigh at the same time everyday. Usually I weigh first thing in the morning, because before you digest it, the weight of your food adds to your weight too.

Don't get discouraged! I honestly think scale fluctuations make many people give up! Don't be one of them!

[NotTheCheat]

For me the big factor is salt. I can eat something low in calories but high in salt and I can easily hold several pounds of water weight. Coffee wouldn't be the culprit because caffeine is a natural diuretic.

If daily scale fluctuations are going to depress you - then the trick is to not weigh daily. For some people this means asking someone to hide the scale from them so they don't peak. The important thing is the change over time, and for that once a week is usually good.

[Misti in Seattle]

My weight always fluctuates. But I weigh myself twice a day, morning and evening. I keep a chart in Excel... sometimes it goes up, on good days it goes down.

[ladybugnessa]

I too chart in excel

i have daily charts
weekly charts
and monthly charts

the daily is up and down up and down up and down but the TREND is DOWN and that's what matters.

getting on the scale daily is not the way to determine what to eat... it's merely a data point blip in your life....