Sooo, i've been in maintenance for a year, maybe slowly losing 7 lbs during that time, idk...did most of my weight loss w/out a scale until my neighbor gave me an ancient one (non digital) and then i started weighing daily.

For those who don't know, i follow a strict plan 6 days a week and have a "free" friday where i eat whatever i want in whatever quantities i want and i DO. i eat A LOT of calories. And i still managed to slooooowly lose those last few lbs over a period of months doing things this way so in other words this pattern has been going on for quite a LONG TIME very successfully.

However during Christmas i had a cheat day the day before (Tuesday), then Christmas (Wednesday) Thursday was back on plan, then the cheat Friday and then Sunday when i was out with a friend turned into a cheat day. Since then i have reigned it back in again and am strict and on plan 6 days a week with the normal cheat day. I am up almost 5 lbs and the scale hasn't budged this time. Normally it goes up about 3lbs after the cheat friday and then gradually back down by at least Monday but this time either my scale is wonky (it is very old) or for some reason this weight is staying on?
Trying not to let it get to me and am just staying on plan and keeping up w/exercise, all the normal, in fact tightening up the plan even more.

Any thoughts?

I'd say give it time, and don't panic. If you want you could always skip a couple of cheat Fridays, or maybe make your normal cheat Friday a little more moderate than usual for a couple weeks.

But I'd guess that your scale will respond soon since this is how your body is used to operating!

And congrats on a year of maintenance!

There are a few things I can think of...
1) You had some extra cheats, but then went back to your regular maintenance plan. Perhaps your maintenance plan didn't create enough of a deficit to make up for the extra cheats.
2) Have you been eating more salty food lately? You may be retaining water.
3) You need more time to recover from the holiday indulgences perhaps.
4) Is it TOM? That can cause temporary weight blips.

Just curious: What is stopping you from getting a new scale? The age of the scale and its wonkiness came up twice in your post.

You need good, true data so that you can respond appropriately to it, and a new scale would help with that.

Do you feel fluffier? Is the scale trustworthy?

Not a maintainer, but for me, when I eat at a surplus or deficit, it shows. I rarely mask real loss - the scale is all too honest with me hahaha.

I'm thinking, at the very worst, it is real gain of a few lbs which you can get off.

You had four cheat days in one week just a couple of weeks ago. You are probably still carrying some water retention from that. It can take me 2-3 weeks for things to settle out after several high days off plan, especially when I'm being especially restrictive leading up to them. It will come back off as you get back into your routine.

Get right back on plan

No especially now when i've been on plan and strict, feel even slimmer than ever! The scale is an old ancient one and idk if it's trustworthy in comparison say to a doctor's scale or someone else's but i have a feeling maybe it's telling the truth on it's end if that makes sense because it's been consistent. i cannot afford even a $20 scale right now, bills and food and essential living expenses come even before a scale so i've been relying on that one, i think it's wishful thinking on my part that it's the scale.

Thanks so much everyone for the encouragement, i needed it. i suppose it is because i allowed myself the unusual few cheat days instead of just one but i'm so used to the scale bouncing right back after going on plan and it's just STAYING there which is very unusual and i'm stricter than ever with my eating and exercise. In fact at one point, a few weeks before all of this i had considered upping a bit my calories during the week even with my cheat day because i was tired of the "you need to eat" comments (people aren't used to the way people look after a 100 lb weightloss and at my age, i look it).

i am ok with the way i look with this extra 4 lbs, i just don't want to trend that way and want to keep my plan of 6 on 1 off that i've had for close to a year.

Just today i've swapped out my 1 piece of 100 calorie 21 carb bread (that i top an egg and cheese for my breakfast) for a 50 calorie 3 carb tortilla, hopefully that'll help even more. i eat relatively low carb diet and oddly enough, i think the jolt that the cheat day gives my body was one of the keys in successful weight loss.

This has always bugged me - the fact that I have to lose it again.

I know it's just water weight and it takes a while for it to settle down but going back on plan means going back to losing again. The weight (even if just water weight) doesn't simply magically go away.

We need some fairy dust!!!

You mentioned that you eat a lot of calories on your cheat days. If in those 4 days you consumed massive amounts of calories, there is a real possibility that some of that weight is not just water... But real honest to goodness fat pounds.

Trust me when I say that I have been there, done that. One time I binged so badly that I gained 10 pounds in one day. Much of it was water, but it still took over 2 weeks of perfect 1200/cal/day to undo the damage. Ugh.

LOL oh i'm SURE it's not water weight but some gain. The weird thing is is that my clothes don't fit any different and i FEEL a bit slimmer now that i've been back on plan and strict so idk. Lesson learned-don't ever extend a cheat day which i never have until then but you'd think the scale would have gone back down esp since i do it every week and it always goes back down and it's been almost 2 weeks since all that (well throw in last Fridays cheat day) so idk....i'll just keep on keeping on and see what happens over the next month.

Isn't it shocking how little it takes to gain (theoretically) and how much effort it takes to lose or at least that's how it feels!

Sigh, I'm glad in a way that I'm not alone in this but I'm mourning for us lot in not being able to eat more without consequences!!

Where's that fairy dust??!!

If you think about it, you had the equivalent of four weeks' worth of cheat days in one week. As such, I would think that it would take several weeks of maintenance to get back to normal. Remember: You're not eating in losing mode right now; you're eating in maintenance mode, and it will take a lot longer for your weight to drop at that calorie level. However, if your clothes fit well and you are back on track, I wouldn't worry about it. Just eat at your normal comfort level, and the weight should eventually come off. If you try to go too strict, it may backfire (i.e., lead to overeating----that happens to me at times).