The first thing that came to mind when I read this, was that maybe your not getting enough calories throughout the week while your counting calories. When your body goes into starvation mode.. as soon as you eat regularly again, the weight just jumps up FAST. Your body holds onto anything it can get. Soo I may be way off. But what is your calorie intake on a regular day when your counting?

I ran into this problem.. alot when I was restricting too many calories. I know all too well what its like to lose 10lbs and gain 15. Its a vicious cycle.. this time around im trying to do it more slowly.

Dont give up, you can do this! *hugs*

You have to look at it like it was one day. Or even a couple of days. You are up 3lbs from the huge amount of salt on all those foods & from going over your calorie limit. That's just what happens.

Now, it's time to pull yourself up by your boot straps & get back on the wagon. Even if you're not dropping weight like crazy, you are changing your lifestyle. That's the key - a healthy lifestyle. Everyone has days where they overeat - it's what you do once you realize you mess up. Write out a plan for everyday & stick to it. Post it all on here to keep yourself accountable. Find ways to keep yourself going forward whether it's a wall calendar or do rewards every time you drop a certain amount of weight.

Don't wallow & make yourself feel like a failure. You aren't - you're human. Now, go & be awesome!

Hey! I am sorry you are feeling discouraged! Please don't throw in the towel or give up on yourself! If you have lost weight and kept it off for four years, then you can do it again! I know how frustrating it is to see the scale go up but remind yourself that it is mostly water weight. Drink lots of water and hit the gym.

I have a partial success story...I yo-yo dieted all through college but finally lost the 20 lbs. and kept it off for two years. I had PPD with my daughter but finally feel healthy mentally and am working on getting physically healthy too. On The Biggest Loser someone said, losing weight isn't a race that you finish and stop running, you just start another race, you keep running!

You CAN lose the weight but you have to keep up the healthy living that helped you lose weight. Hang in there, you can do it!

Don't give up! You have a great fighting spirit. All of these days will all blend together in the big picture, so it just matters what you do after this!

I always say The Key is Start strong & stay strong & Regardless NEVER GIVE UP~U WILL REACH YOUR GOAL~We have all had off days..ect.~NEVER GIVE UP! TRUST ME THIS IS THE KEY!

I've been dieting since age 5, and this is the first plan I've ever stuck with long enough to lose the weight.I've lost slower this time than any ever, by a long shot. But I started by choosing only make changes I was willing to stick with even if no weight loss resulted. That worked for me.

I'm more convinced than ever that the only "secret" is choosing not to give up, and making a mistake is never justification for making an even bigger one.

We have diet traditions that we follow because everyone else does, not because they make sense. "I've blown it so I might as well eat until I get sick so I can "start fresh" tomorrow" makes as much sense as throwing yourself to the bottom of a canyon, because you stumbled while climbing the mountain.

It's hard to stop a stumble from becoming a landslide only because it's not what we've been taught to do. We've been taught to go for the full-fledged avalanche. If you're going to make a mistake, do it in grand style and really screw it up.

We do know that we're going down an illogical path, but we don't know why - so we end up thinking we're lazy, crazy, or stupid (because we're taught that too - the real reason - which is perfectly logical for social creatures - is that we're following the behavior we've leared - it is that it's how dieting is done in this culture, and we're following the only path we've seen followed).


So the biggest challenge in weight loss isn't learning, it's unlearning. It's unlearning all the patterns that we've learned (often without learning that we learned them).

What is the "natural" response to seeing a gain on the scale?

If you think even for a minute, "Rage, frustration and the decision to chuck all the hard work and abandon the diet to eat everything in sight" you're thinking with "tradition" not logic.

You're not craqzy for thinking it, but you do have to unlearn it, or you'll keep making the same mistakes over and over.

For me, the unlearning started with changing my focus. I started making changes that I was willing to commit to whether or not I lost any weight at all. The weight loss was then a reward rather than the goal.

That may not work for everyone, but it got me started.

I also decided that even when I was convinced that I couldn't lose another pound, I could decide to work to keep off every pound I've lost so far, and to try for "just one more." This kept me focused on the fact that I've been successful, and not losing doesn't "undo" the success of the weight I've lost so far. If I never get another pound off, I've still succeeded at losing 88 lbs. I can't let myself believe that only getting to goal weight counts (how many times I used that as a reason to quit - "I'll never get to goal, I'll always be fat, so what's the use....?" Now I answer myself. Every pound counts. Every ounce counts. Giving up never solves the problem, because it doesn't mean just giving up on weight loss, it means accepting weight gain. I reminded myself of that every time too. Giving up on dieting, isn't just giving up on weight loss, it's choosing to regain.

For me, I had to focus on the positive and reward myself for every small progress. I had to make my weight loss plan fun and positive. I had to focus on the success, not the failure. I had to stop thinking of myself as inadequate and inferior. I wasn't fat because I was lazy, crazy, or stupid, I was fat because I had learned behaviors that didn't work with my body. I had to experiment and learn from my mistakes.

Learn from your mistakes, but don't make them cliffs to dive off. Keep going. Stay positive. Celebrate the successes, in whatever form they take, and strive to make them bigger.

We're taught to make weight loss unpleasant (in fact, if we're having fun we suspect we're doing it wrong), and I think that's why virtually no one sticks with it. If it's annoying, boring, frustrating, and painful - who in their right mind would stick with it (I think it's why we don't).

Make it better. Make it more fun, more interesting, more exciting... a way to reward yourself, not more creative ways to punish yourself.

You don't have to be miserable to lose weight. I suspect doing the opposite is more helpful.

Google "Why the Scale Lies" -- I can't get the link right.

Remember when it's just WEIGHT. It doesn't meat FAT TISSUE gain.

Sodium is always a prob for me, and I retain a lot of water and see a weight gain. But I know it is just not possible for it to be 3 lbs of calories taken in in a day that turned into fat tissue over night! That would be eating my normal plus another extra 10, 800!

Hang in there and just keep moving forward. Don't let a little bump on the road trip you up, and if it did, don't just lay there on the ground. Stand up and move along!

GL!

A.

hugs to you hun...

i'm also inclined to think that maybe you're not getting enough calories in? also, it might just be water weight. staying on plan for a couple of days and drinking water will tell you.

also, and i know its hard, try not to let this discourage you. sometimes our bodies are just so sensitive, and we just have to keep going and fight the tendencies of our bodies. you can do this. you can get past this- it's a journey with bumps and obstacles, and you CAN do it

It's only 3 pounds...Seriously I get how frusterating it is but the only thing you can continue to do is work at it. I screw up my diet ALL the time you want to know the weird thing I tend to lose weight when I don't care. I first moved back out west in October I stopped excersising and eating properly in sept. I lived in a house hold from the middle of Oct to Dec 1 and it was frusterating I lived off of Pasta and Peanut butter sandwichs and eggs once in a while.

The weird thing is I never stepped on a scale for that time and I could swear to you I gained back all the weight but it turns out I lost 10 pounds. (the wonderful thing the mind can make you see...)It wasn't the healthiest diet and it wasn't the best but I did it in moterations and I mostly had to. (there was times I had extra money when I got paid and bought food and brought it to work, like salads and stuff but eventually I ran out of money and had to eat just pasta and peanut butter - I couldn't bring the food to my aunts house because my cousin would seriously have it all gone within 24 hours...)

The point I'm trying to make I guess is stop worrying about it so much. I gained 7 pounds over the week of the xmas holidays just that one week 7 pounds came on to me. I was pissed and it took me the first three weeks of jan to get back down to my post xmas weight. I refuse to step on a scale right now and my eatting habits have been processed food the last week (lack of money cheaper to buy) But I also drink a lot of water. Take different things into consideration, the amount of sodium and sugar in take, are you also getting enough calories in your body. Are you working out and so on. It's not an easy journey but like anything else in life you have to work at it.

Stay focus and remember why you are doing this for yourself, 3 pounds is easy to manage...letting go until you hit 20 or 30 again isn't something you want to do.