ok.... please explain to me what i'm doing wrong! i've been on and off the weight loss train many times now, some more successful than others. but this week i've busted my butt with my diet. i lost 5 pounds in about 3 days... AWESOME! then another pound over another two days. i've stuck to 1200-1400 calories a day. but NOW i have gained back 3 pounds. no joke. i KNOW i haven't overeaten... i measure everything, cut out the soda and stick to one cup of coffee a day and the rest is water.

as for exercise, it's difficult since i am a waitress and am on my feet for 8 hours a day. when i get home my feet hurt so bad i can barely stand. so its a little hard to go for a walk on most days. i do a few arm weight exercises and whatnot, but i DON'T GET THIS!!!!!???? whyyyyyy!!!!

and i'm probably overreacting, right?

My weight can very anywhere from 1-5 lbs in a day. For me, I only weighed once a week, in a very routine way. Sunday morning, get up, pee, strip, weigh. Then I charged my weight and watched it over time. It might have bobbled a little bit, or occasionally stayed the same, but over time I could see the downhill movement on the chart.

If daily weighing frustrated you, don't do it. The scale can be an emotional rollercoaster, don't get on the ride if it's not fun.

Not sure how long you've been restricting, but I see by your stats that you want to lose over 100 lbs -- almost the same amount as I do, actually. And so I can tell ya that it's a long haul.

For now, just try not to think about how many pounds you want to lose by tomorrow, or next Tuesday. Think about how many lbs you want to lose by next summer, and keep on trucking!

Because you will lose weight, based on what you've posted. I know this; your calories are also similar to mine. My weight loss is charted on a graph in my blog. Sometimes I "lose" 3 lbs in a week and a couple times I even "gained" 1 lb in a week -- but so far I've still lost an average of 8.25 lbs per month. That adds up month after month!

There seems to be two techniques to overcoming unrealistic scale issues - weigh daily (to learn what your body's natural fluctuations look like) and weighing weekly or monthly (to be more likely to see trends).

If I don't weigh daily, I tend to lose focus - but I only "count" the Monday weigh in. That's my compromise, and not necessarily one that fits your needs.

The payoff with weight loss isn't always linear - it's just something you need to learn to cope with. There are so many variables that play into your body weight at any give moment, you can drive yourself nuts, if you expect that every scale glitch means you're doing something wrong.

I don't know if that helps, at all, but I think the longer you're at it, the better feel you will have for what the scale can and can't tell you.

It IS maddening isn't it. But, I gotta tell you, expect more of the same. You had an amazing loss, and now the scale went up. This was very normal for me - particularly if I was exercising intensely.

It could very well be water weight. The scale WILL go up and down within a 5 lb range even when you are perfectly on plan.

Like Colleen, I need to weigh myself daily. But I am a data geek so I put everything into Excel. I tracked "averages" by the week, two weeks, month, and two months. When my daily weight went up, I could look at the averages and see that my weight was actually going down - that it was just a "blip" for that day (or even couple of days or week).

If you don't like excel, I bought a scale that keeps the weights for 4 people, and gives you today's weight and compares it to yesterday, last week, last month, and 3 months ago - it is really a wonderful thing

So - stop, breath, relax and realize that you are normal. Stick to your plan and those pesky lbs. will disappear soon.

I too, weigh myself everyday and it can be maddening! The scale goes up and down within the hour. If you are going to weigh each day, then just remind yourself that it will go up and it will go down. You have to look at it over a "time." Every few days or a week as some do it.

Then you can get more of a picture. I now simply say to myself before I step on it each morning: if it's more than it was yesterday I am not going to get upset or flip out- I will refocus and move on. I don't mean I say those exact words, but I just generally think of this and get myself together for the day.

ok thanks guys...... i just had a freak out moment. i like the idea of weighing everyday but only "counting" one day.

you all rule.