I was so confident about losing weight this time, I weighed in at 216, a new low for me, last friday. Now I'm weighing myself and I'm all the way back up to 222? How does this happen? I'm working out SO hard, I'm eating on plan. I had a huge mess up on Friday, but been on plan ever since.
I feel myself just wanting to give up. How can I be working SO hard and eating SO well, and be back up in such a short time?? I hate my body. I feel so trapped inside it....

I find that PARTICULARLY with PCOS, the scale can be, well, fickle. My fluctuations are pretty much legendary (10 lbs of water every time I take my pain meds!)

Look, you know you're on plan. You know you're working it, right? So let the scale go. It'll come back on down, just keep on going.

Hey now, take a deep breath. In....out...

This happens to me all the time. I'm 276, then I'm back to 282, then I'm down to 273, oh but then I'm 278...all in about 3 days! But for you, I'm betting that even if you haven't lost pounds, you've maybe lost inches? I'll bet you have! Maybe it's water, as I have this problem with sodium making me bloat. But no matter what it is, don't give up only a week in. Just breathe deep and remember that it's a journey to get there.

One thing that helps me is that I try not to obsess about the scale, or the numbers in general. I just do what I know is right and healthy, and I find myself just floating along. Sometimes, at the end of the week, I'm disappointed. But there's one thing I can't deny, it's that I AM losing weight! I take that tremendous fact and hold it close!

Hang in there! I know everything's going to be ok, if you just relax and breathe deep!

Do you weigh daily? Maybe it's a combination of water weight and sodium? Every time I have alot of sodium, the next day i'm up on the scale.
It is very frustrating. I'm right there with you. I was losing and then all of a sudden i just stopped. Some days I want to give up but I know that is not going to solve anything. Right now I'm in the process of tweaking my calorie count trying to get the scale to move again. Don't give up. You can do this. Just take it one day at a time.

I doubt you ate enough calories in one mess up day to gain back those pounds. I am in the SAME boat, and feeling pretty crappy about it. But I am willing to bet we are both looking at water weight. We are both doing SBD. Heres to staying on track and getting the scale back down.

Don't forget your NSVs - you are working hard and doing well. So you had one bad day - but then you got right back on track! That's great!!! Keep going!!! We're rooting for you!

Hi! I am you in 6 months after you quit. I am now back here, feeling shame and self pitty because I gave up and put all my weight back on in 6 MONTHS!!

I went 3 months with no scale movement other than a jump up a few times so I quit. I called it a break. I called it maintenance and now I am here, lost, crying and not remembering where to begin.

YOU HAVE COME SO FAR! Pshhhhh 5 lbs up or down...? Could be water, tom, hormones ect... Don't quit. Take it form the you of the future. 2 weeks/3 months/6 months/ a year can make all the difference and if you quit... it makes a difference in the wrong direction.

Take a picture of the body part you hate most... butt naked!! Now print it (in secret) and glue it to the fridge, the bathroom mirror, your wallet. I felt like I had come so far... what was the big deal talking a break? My motivation was gone. Well now that I see the ripples in my a$$ again... I remember why I should have stayed motivated.

YOU CAN DO IT! DO IT FOR THE OLD ME and the rest of us who wasted months quitting!

Just buckle down and barrel though it! Crazy things cause temporary gain -- it doesn't have to mean it was fat tissue coming back!

Even just TOM can slap 5 lbs on me and I feel all emotional and sensitive... but it isn't fat tissue. It's water retention. Drink water to combat it to flush out the extra sodium or whatever is causing you to hang on to the water in the first place. Try to relax. You will make it through this!

A.

I totally hear you... I have been tracking EVERY calorie, doing 2 hours of cardio daily, etc. and got a 3 lb GAIN this week!! But I listened to an old Jillian Micheals podcast on itunes today and luckily someone called in with the same problem- she said to check your salt intake and up your water intake. So I tried, and I am getting back to normal... If I could just post a loss!! So much hard work to stay at 190lbs!! Good luck

Obesity experts consider that a combination of convenient and affordable high-fat diets, and less active lifestyles lie behind the nation's ever-expanding waistline.

Thank you so much for all the encouragement. I know I'm not going to give in. I don't want this to be like all the other million times I have tried to lose weight. I want this to be it.
I am so glad I have a place to come and talk about how I feel and people understand. ALL of my siblings struggle with their weight, I just don't want that to be me anymore.
Thank you again. You all said EXACTLY what I needed to hear (minus the last post which I am not understanding what it had to do with anything??? LOL)

I hope this helps you...it helps ease my mind every time I have a scale-monster flux...in order to GAIN a pound you must eat 3500 calories more than your body burns off. You naturally burn between 1400-1600 calories every day by just being alive (if you want to find the exact amount, Google BMR Calculator). That is how many you burn if you were to lay in bed all day doing nothing. So, to gain 6 pounds, you would have had to consume nearly 30,000 calories. so more than likely you are retaining water or maybe you gained a little muscle, which will also help you burning calories in the long run! So not to worry, it's probably just a little bump in the road and in a day or so you'll be right back on track. Good luck in your journey, and congrats on your weight loss so far!

I love this post! I love this post because that was me too and it's my biggest fear for everyone I come across on these boards!! I can not believe how many times I quit because of exactly the situation on this thread. So I believe I speak from experience!

I want to know too if you weigh daily. That helped me tremendously. When I hit new lows, I ALWAYS bounce back up and then work my way down past that low to a new a low, and then bounce back up. EVERY time. And those bounces can be drastic. I didn't know that when I weighed weekly. One Friday I may see a new low and the following I may see the top of a huge bounce. That's NOT a gain. But I don't know that if I'm only seeing the weekly weight.

And if you had one off day AND you're exercising a lot then it's quite possibly you're retaining water from both salt and muscle repair. It's enough to make a girl want to quit, but actually you're doing just fine!!

Give it a year. Just give it a year. You will be so happy you did that you'll end up with a lifetime.

I second the calories thing... to gain six pounds of FAT you'd have had to eat over 20 THOUSAND calories over your maintenance level.

It's a scale flux. It happens. Remember that the scale measures much more than just fat. It measures the weight of water, muscle, bone, and fat. Heck, I think it sometimes measures my mood and tacks on extra pounds if I'm down!

There are a couple ways to deal with it. You can weigh daily, so you can see the many fluctuations of the scale, so a jump like this won't surprise or defeat you in future. You can weigh daily, and average the last week's weigh-ins to get a smoother line (easy enough to do on a spreadsheet). You can weigh monthly, so you're fairly sure to see some solid downward trends without the daily/weekly fluctuations. You can weigh quarterly, or not at all.

All of these options help you see the scale as simply another tool for measuring results, rather than the be-all and end-all of your plan. Your PLAN is to eat a certain way, and exercise a certain way. THat's your day in and day out lifestyle. The scale only measures the results of those lifestyle changes.

So focus on working the plan, and the plan WILL WORK!