I started eating healthy and exercising on the first of January. As of two days ago, I was down by 8.4 pounds and so excited!

I'm 2 days into TOM and of course the scale is up 2 pounds. I was/am aware this would happen and my husband has been telling me for days not to let it get to me, but it does. It bothers me that I can't see any "progress" because it is likely hidden by the water weight gain. It really is driving me crazy, because I'm obsessed with checking my progress on the scale. I know it's bad, I know. I just can't help it.

Aside from that, is it possible for TOM to interfere with exercise? I am slower and seem to have less stamina. My walks take longer, and my body aches. (Soreness mostly fibro, I'm sure.) I actually had to take Advil today for a bit of relief!

I also had absolutely NO motivation to get out and walk today. I got out there anyway and pushed through it, but I was disappointed with my pace time, lack of stamina, and general ick feeling. This evening I even got in another 5 laps with the dogs, just because I didn't go as far or as long as usual this morning.

I'm sure the scale will go down after my TOM is gone. My unanswered question is if the "lag" I feel in my work out could be due to TOM? Or is it more likely something else?

I often experience fatigue on the first and second day of TOM - I figure since I am leaking, my body needs to conserve its resources.

As long as you aren't feeding every single craving for two weeks before TOM comes, you should have nothing to worry about. For me the hardest part BY FAR is saying "no I don't need that" to myself when my body decides it needs like, 3500 calories a day.

You can use a site like physicsdiet (just add the dot com) or something similar (I have seen a few mentioned), to track your weight loss. It focuses on trends more than it does daily numbers which means if you gain some water weight during your tom you can still watch the line go downwards. I log my weight daily there and find it really helps me stay positive during any water fluxes.

As for exercise, I always ease up on ab work during that time. Also cardio is still good but when your body wants to stop during the tom, it is probably a good idea to listen. Also be sure to check with your doctor and get their input on the issue. I always run all major exercise & nutritional changes or questions past mine.

I agree that your body might need the first couple days to lay low. I do that and find I have so much more stamina after the time waiting is done. Just be patient w/ your body.

Just be patient. TOM, can wreak all kinds of havoc.

One thing I have done that has helped, is to weigh each morning under the same circumstances, jot it down on the calendar above my scale, and then ignore it until the end of the month.

At the end of the month, I take a look at the calendar and my food journal.

What this does is give me feedback as to how different things affect what is going on.

When I first starting doing this, I kept a food journal, a thought journal and the calendar, stuck with it, and didn't actually do anything with it for 90 days.

The reason is I wanted to track trends, and get long term feed back. This gave me a great insight, as to what certain foods and activities and hormones and stress, and so on, had on what I was doing.

Basically, instead of beating my self over the head, I took a long term, objective approach, like it wasn't even me, and looked for feed back, and gave up the failure mentality.

Thanks everyone! I have been tracking daily weight, and will watch for trends! Thanks so much!

Just wanted to add. . . this happens to me every month, it does suck. I go up, or at best just don't lose during my NINE day TOM. I feel like crap for a good 3 days of it; heavy, bloated, achey, crampy. It definitely effects my exercise!

Agree to all of the above! I had a similar experience, although my second week of my weight loss journey was my TOM, so for a total of 2 weeks my weight was just a wee bit less than my starting weight. Just weighed myself this morning (not officially) and I'm already down 2 extra pounds and didn't do anything special - it is just the TOM being over and body back to normal.

It is going to happen every month, we just have to accept it and maybe even appreciate it - if our bodies need a little break once a month, we do too!