So I was on plan all last week. Eating well and exercising and I was down 3.5 pounds. Well, guess what? I have gained it all back in a matter of 1 day. I am so frustrated. I really don't believe that it is water weight either. We went out to dinner on Sunday night and I had fish and a sweet potato. Also had a few onion straws and a piece of bread. Surely that was not enough calories to make me gain the weight that I lost last week. I just feel so frustrated today. Now that I am 43, I feel like the weight never comes off and sticks to me like glue. I am in desperation mode and have been wondering what really works? I am eating fruits/vegies etc, working out 5 times a week and then this happens. What the heck????

Ok, thanks for the vent.

It's a temporary sodium gain. It will go. You have to roll with the punches. Trust me, it gets worse at lower weights. You wait until you hit 180 and below.

It is water gain from good ol restaurant sodium. Your hard work is still paying off!!!

My scale goes up and down a lot. I check my food diary for up days and those are generally the high sodium days or days where I drank less water. I just look at my calories, if I'm in my range or barely over, I know I can't have gained that in lbs because it scientifically doesn't work that way. If I've eaten a surplus of 500 calories a day and gained weight... I'd believe it was more than sodium. XD

This has been one of the hardest things for me to do - focusing on the long view. I try not to focus on daily weight, or even weekly weight, frankly. I look at the weight trend over longer periods of time to keep me motivated. It requires more patience than I possess at times!

I have had days where I ate NOTHING and had a gain on the scale the next day. (I don't make a habit of eating nothing, it just works out that way on occasion.) By the same token I have had days when I ate way more than my normal calories and had a loss the next day. Unfortunately there aren't as many of those
Looking at my daily weigh in chart helps keep the long term progress in focus. There are lots of ups and downs but that trend line is still pointing down.

Patience is the hardest thing to practice during weight loss. Hang in there. As everyone has said, the scale will fluctuate alot day to day. If you stick to your plan, don't freak out, ignore the scale -- you will lose weight. Just stick with it!