New and having hard time getting baseline weight
 

New to the forums. I have 2 kids, and havent' been able to lose the weight since kid #2. I was at 160 lbs in Jan 2015. Then did a couch-to-5k in June and was up to 175 lbs (oops). I started counting calories in January, then started weighing each Wednesday morning more-recently. I'm not sure if drinking water would help, but I'm having a hard time figuring out where I'm at.

Week 1: 163.5 lbs
Week 2: 160.0 lbs
Week 3: 162.5 lbs
Week 4: 158.5 lbs

I'm tempted to think I need a better scale... I eat consistently each day, and avoid salt. I'm not sure if hormones can cause this much swing? It was very depressing when I stepped on the scale, in Week 3... So I don't trust my Week 4 weight at all now.

How about weighing daily, and averaging it out on Wednesday?

I weigh every day (lots of little ups and downs depending on all sorts of things), but Friday is *the* day. That way I can spot a trend, and if it's bad, nip it in the bud.

And your trend IS downward! In four weeks you've lost 5 lbs, I'd take that!

As for the scale:
Are you weighing at the same time each day?
Is your scale on a flat surface?
Does it need new batteries?

The thought of weighing daily is terrifying! I get so un-motivated if I see the scale going back up. I might need to check the battery on the scale - it did say "Lo" recently when I set it down.

It may seem a bit terrifying, but having more data to work with from weighing every day can give you a better picture. If you check out some of the threads with weight loss challenges, you'll see what I mean. Many of the people doing the monthly challenges weigh in every day. You'll see that most of them don't have an absolute straight line down.
Fressca is on to something. Give it a shot for a few days and see how you feel about it!