Frustrated by scale-needing reassurance
 

Hi everyone,

Yesterday, I weighed myself in the morning and was at 247.4-already at a 2.4 lb lose from last week.

I had plans last night to go out with friends for beer and bar food, so I put in all in daily plate, and I did an extra long workout (yoga and a longer than usual walk) to feel more at ease about eating all the crap food.

It should have been all okay, especially since I've been lower on calories than I had to be for the past 3 days. (And eating all healthy foods)

This morning I get on the scale, and it's at 249! What the...!? And today is my official weigh-in day, so that's the number that I have to record, a .8 lb lose for the week.

I know I didn't actually gain that weight, it must be water, it has to be--right? I just want to make sure I'm not fooling myself. Plus, I feel a little bloated, and I'm about to be on TOM, so that might be part of it too. I just didn't think that so much water weight would be able to jump on sooo quickly!

Has anyone had such a large jump in such a short amount of time?

Its water: bar food, beer and TOM will all make you retain water.

Remember that your weight can fluctuate up to 3lbs A DAY. You don't actually gain or lose those 3lbs a day, its just water, and heavy meals and such.

Push the water today, to help with the salty foods, and just take a deep breath.

I heard of one person who records their lowest weight of the week as their official weigh in....

I have the same problem because I typically have a couple beers on sunday and monday is my official weigh in.

Most likely water weight. Don't stress out *hugs*

Of course it's water! Just relax. You'll see that 1.6 pounds that didn't get recorded next week when you weigh in.

just drink lots of water....and you should be fine..and dont stress over it!!

ANG

It's ok. It's just water. You would have had to eat 7000 calories OVER what you burned before it turned to fat so breathe. It's ok :hug:

And so you don't feel alone, this past Saturday was my lowest weight yet at 224. TOM hit on Sunday and by Tuesday I was up to 226.8, 2.8lbs! But I pushed lots of water & upped my cardio and today I'm at 223.4. Remember, those fluctuations are going to occur every day. But the overall trend will still be down.

My weight will go up 3 pounds from morning to afternoon, so yes, that much fluctuation is possible.

Don't sweat it. Keep weighing and recording on your appointed day. Next week you'll see a bigger difference, barring food disasters... ;)

Jay

You don't *have* to record that as your official weight. When that happens, I might record and then record a couple days later when it comes off, or I just wait a couple days and record then.

So much encouragment! Thanks guys, I know you're all right. I know I didn't have 7000 extra calories yesterday!

I'll be pretty excited about a huge lose then next week! Hopefully it will motivate me to be extra good.

Originally Posted by Cebsme:
Remember that your weight can fluctuate up to 3lbs A DAY.

Not really true. I've seen my flucatuate at 10lbs in 1 day with normal eating!

Booze and salty food tends to cause you to retain water. My personal policy is to not weigh for at least 3 days after hitting the bar unless there was a few hours of dancing involved. Seriously, don't freak. It'll balance out in the end.

Why record it at all? I ignore any up blips for any purpose other than looking at whether my food needs tweaking. The way I see it, who cares what I weigh at the end of every week. All I care is that the trend is a DOWNWARD one. This helps me try and see the way I eat as just the way I live rather than thinking about myself on a diet with a start and a finish. Its just life. There is no start and end to living healthier.

I like the idea of not recording it, but I'm too controlling for that. I need to have a weekly record, and I need it to be even. Don't know why.

But Danni-you're totally right, there's no start or end to living healthier. As long as it's all going down, it doesn't matter.

I totally understand! I needed to go in 7 day increments and had to know what I weighed every 7 days . . . . and then one day I was like what am I doing? Do I really care if on day 7 the scale went up and then on day 9 it goes down by a huge amount????? Now I track the ups and downs but as long as my trend is down I am a happy gal :)

A little off topic . . . I used to not need the scale at one point in my life and I like that I know that I can be free from it - but I went from not needing it and maintaining well for many months to not wanting to see it bcos I knew I was gaining. For initial weight loss its the best tool to show you what direction you are travelling in, but its not the only measure of fabulousness :)