so i've just ended week 2 on the restart of my healthier life-style. Been eating mostly within my calories (one bad night where 5 choc biscuits were eaten) and ive walked/jogged for 30-40 mins on 3 days each week. The first week i lost 2lbs and tomorrow i weigh in again. I am so scared that it will be bad, its all i can think of. I tell myself all these sayings - slow and steady, remember TOM is due soon, remember water retention, remember building muscle, remember even 0.5lbs is a loss but i know if i dont see a nice solid 2lb weigh loss tomorrow i will be disappointed and it might throw me off track.

HELP! what do i do? part says, just dont weigh, then i cant get wound up about it but i dont know if not knowing would be worse.

Just do it. It's only data.

Saw this saying the other day.

"The scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity."

Fluctuations are normal. Just keep concentrating on the little things and the big things will fall into place.

Weigh yourself anyway. Remind yourself that it's just a number and not kind of judgement. You've been doing well. Trust your plan. But knowledge is power. Your weight will be the same whether or not you measure it, so measure it. As you build a data set, being familiar with regular fluctuations is very useful.

A weigh-in is a photograph, and your life is a movie.

I've lived this question, an also seen it asked over and over on this forum. If your psychological relationship with the scale might lead you to backslide or self-sabotage your efforts when you see a "bad" number, then, in my opinion, you should weigh yourself daily OR monthly (or even less frequently).

I weigh every day and graph the results. If I only graphed Sunday's weigh-in results, or Tuesday's, or Thursday's, etc. and compared the weekly results, I would draw different conclusions regarding the success of my efforts. It's the average that's instructive.

Have a look at some of the daily weigh-in postings. The daily weights can vary quite a bit even for ladies who are losing quickly. PATIENCE is important.

if you think you are going to be thrown off one week in, what does that tell you about your commitment to this?

I weigh daily, too, and it prevents the whole "ooh, all my hopes and dreams depend on the one number on this one day!" It is a number, and if you weigh daily it takes some of the power away from it.

It;s more important that you find a sustainable plan you can live with, day in and day out, come holiday/bad day/good day/etc. You said you are in "re-start", think about what you stopped that you need to re-start.

This is a long journey. Breathe, have patience, and work on the things you can control. The scale is not one of them.

Yeah, it's just a tool. Not the end all and be all. And it's not a static number. There are all sorts of things that can show a variation. I have shoved the scale around to different parts of the floor just to see if I could get a change and, yep, after enough tries, it'll sometimes change by a half a pound.

But, if it doesn't, it doesn't throw me off either.

I lost down to my goal weight without stepping on the scale even once during the process. When I finally weighed myself (after I decided I was the size I wanted to be), I was under my goal weight. That was more than two years ago, and I still only occasionally get on the scale (every couple of months). For some folks, getting on the scale daily helps them to conquer the fear of weighing. For me, though, I tend to fret about fluctuations too much, so I find it best to avoid it and just check up every now and then to be sure I'm not lying to myself.

If seeing the number is going to stress you out too much, then I say wait another week. But make sure to keep up the good habits until your next weigh-in. It still shows commitment.

Unless seeing the number is going to push you to work even harder, which if that's the case, go for it and see what you're working with.

One reason I weigh every day is that I get used to the every day fluctuations in weight. This morning I was up .4 pounds. But I know that I did fine the last couple of days, so I'm not panicked about it. I weigh in officially once a week at WW and it used to drive me crazy to be up, particularly when I had had a good week. I would avoid going so I wouldn't weigh in at a gain. And, that then meant I went off track.

So, now I weigh every day and while I don't like having a gain at WW I am much more philosophical about it, particularly if the day before I have a loss and the day after I have a loss. I realize that "up" weigh in was just a normal fluctuation.

On the other hand, if I'm up every day for a week then I know that I actually have gained weight so I need to change something.

Aww, I really wanted to get down to 6 pounds. I mean, I wouldn't even be a complete head, right?

I agree with what was said about putting it off to your next weigh in if you're super nervous about it. If you do weigh in on the day you'll be holding yourself accountable which is pretty empowering. Neither is really wrong or right. You know your mistakes and your accomplishments. It's just a number girly. Don't let it rule your life. You've made a lot of progress just keep your head up and keep pushing ahead

Once you have a few more data points under your belt, the weigh-ins do get easier You'll see that weight loss isn't necessarily an even, same number every week weight loss. It may even be a gain here and there, some same weights, and a lot of losses. It's the overall big picture trend that counts. I've been doing weekly weigh-ins since last July without fail, even when I reeeeaaaally did not want to get on that scale, lol. It taught me that, yes, factors like water retention, TOM, and muscle building do indeed "interfere" with weigh-ins, but that is part of the process. Have faith in your methods and don't let an undesirable weigh-in derail you. Stay the course, and good luck

thanks all for your replies. I did weigh in and was down 0.4lbs. To say im disappointed is an understatement but i have to keep going. This is my second burst of weightloss, i lost 25lbs a year ago and then fell ill with random blackouts and unable to get out of bed most days and if i did by lunch i was exhausted. during this time i managed to maintain within a 5lb bracket without much effort. I think im better now health wise so thought i should get going again.
i wanted slow and steady but 0.4lbs is too slow for what i hoped for my third week. its disappointing but i wont let it stop me. i will keep going and if in another 2 weeks i havent lost much more (say 3lbs) ill revise what im doing. Its frustrating because before i got ill i was losing great.

I weigh every day, because it keeps me on plan. I either am so happy to see it moving down that I stay on plan, or I'm ticked off that it went up and I work harder. Basically, weighing once per week or less wouldn't keep me accountable enough.

But I'm one type of person. If you're this freaked out about it, then you aren't doing yourself any favors. Maybe take your measurements once a month. Or watch your clothing sizes fall. As long as you have the willpower to stay on plan and some way of tracking your progress, then you don't really NEED the scale.

We must have been posting at the same time!

.4 is still a loss. And since you're weighing weekly, it could be a one day anomaly masking real progress. Keep up the good work!