the gym scale yesterday said i gained 4 lbs since friday. how could that have happened? i messed up on friday and had 800 extra calories, but that is not 4 lbs worth. i always use this scale, and don't have one at home, so it bugs me that it's off. when nothing was on it, it balanced at one pound. the other one there looked like it right, but said i had gained 5 lbs!!! grrr. i will be so ticked if i dieted for two months and am have a plateau 69 pounds away from my goal.
are any of y'all having scale issues right now?

Ugh, I feel your pain. My weight fluctuates daily - I carry water weight very easily. I have to stop weighing myself so much, it's just bad for me to do when I know my weight can change by 4 or 5 lbs each day. The best time for me to weigh is about 2 hours after I wake up with no clothes on, that's the only time I get a fairly accurate reading. Even then, if it's my "TOM", I am at least 3 to 4 lbs heavier until I am off of it. It's really annoying - I agree.

I would say try to weigh yourself less often, at the same time of day each time & on the same scale each time. I am sure you didn't gain a true 4 lbs from eating 800 calories too much one time.

Keep at it, you are doing great.

Melanie

I don't know if this applies to you or not, but if you weigh at a different time of day your weight goes up or down. For instance, most people are lighter in the morning or early after noon, but the very same person could be 1-5 pounds more if they weigh late in the evening. I've also heard some people say that they weigh more after they work out.

I am a scale addict, so I know how often the scale fluctuates. Usually AFTER my workout I weigh more than I do before, and I usually weigh the least first thing in the morning, with no clothes on and nothing in my system

I'm sure it's just water weight, becuase 5 pounds is a lot to gain in 2 days...

LegallyBlonde is right...you weigh more after you work out. My personal trainer told me this on Saturday after she "caught me" weighing myself secretly in her office (she's a fanatic about weighing oneself as little as possible). I didn't believe her so I tested it out. Saturday after 1 hour of cardio I weighed 155. Today (BEFORE cardio) I weighed 152. And believe me I DID NOT lose 3 pounds in 48 hours!!! Apparently, you weigh more after working out because your body retains so much water when you're exercising. Maybe somebody else knows more of the science behind this (?)

I actually weigh LESS after a workout--I assumed from sweating out so much water. Then again, everyone's body is different, so who knows

I wouldn't worry about it. Probably you ate something salty the day before or are hanging on to some water weight for some other reason. I can always tell the day after I've had too much salt. I've also noticed that sometimes I gain a pound or two and then the next day I might lose 4 or more. I always have to remind myself to try not to pay too much attention to the scale on a day to day basis (it's hard). You are doing great...hang in there and the scale will start moving in the right direction again soon!

It is hard not to freak out when the scale doesn't say what you want it to, but if you are going to weigh often you should try to keep track of when your weight tends to fluctuate so you know what is up when the scale is acting crazy. Lots of things can make your body retain water. One thing I like to remember is that when your body starts adjusting to new changes (diet and exercise) it will hang on to more water than usual.
Just keep working and it will come off!!

Hi, First time posting here but I feel your pain! The DEMON scale is a terror for me. Then, I found that I needed to let go of it and NOT give it so much power. I have gone from a 28 to a 24 jeans in 3 months without losing a POUND. I just recently lost 10 pounds and am down to a 22 jeans!!

I also have be reading alot and came across this piece:

THE #&$%*@! SCALE

If you're easily frustrated, brace yourself when you step on the scale. Just on the basis of water retention, digestive contents and other factors, your scale weight is going to fluctuate by as much as 3-4% of body weight almost on a weekly basis. If you've eaten a lot of carbs, you'll tend to retain a lot of water for a couple of days. People often freak out about this, thinking they've "gained" 5 pounds because of a single free day. Conversely, people often get excited that they've lost 5 pounds over a few days, and think it's all fat. Then the scale jumps up again, and they get upset and give up on their programs. Please don't take these fluctuations seriously.

Short-term fluctuations in the scale often have little or no relationship with the effort you put in over that same period of time, so don't be frustrated easily, especially over short term results.

If you're a frequent visitor to chat boards, the scale can also be an excruciating source of frustration. During the first few days or weeks of a fitness program, some people will lose an enormous amount of weight, simply due to water and digestive contents. Meanwhile, some people will actually gain weight even if their goal is fat loss, because they were somewhat dehydrated when they started the program. So don't compare your early results with others. And don't interpret every fluctuation in weight as a change in fat or muscle.

If you use slightly flawed estimates of weight combined with slightly flawed estimates of fat percentage, you may estimate that your muscle mass has surged or plunged by 10 pounds in just a week or two.

How the heck do you accurately measure your progress? The same way you measure any trend. Either you take the average of the past 7 days and track the average, or you measure from peak-to-peak or from trough-to-trough and ignore the temporary fluctuations in between.

I have two views on the scale. Either toss into into the trunk of your car for about 6 weeks until your progress is significant as a percentage of your body weight, or take two readings a day and write them down. Once at night, just after you're all watered up with your supplements, and once in the morning after you're watered down, so to speak.

You're interested in the 7-day average, the peaks, and the troughs. The troughs tell you something about your true weight, and the peaks tell you why you shouldn't take day-to-day fluctuations so seriously. If you're using skinfold calipers, you don't have to take readings daily, but keep the same idea in mind.

thank you for the advice everyone. i eat tons of salt and weigh at night, which i know is the worst time to weigh in. i guess i just need to chill out. but thank you so much for all the support and information.

That's the spirit

Hang in there and it is bound to go your way

OMG I am glad I found this post...I weighed in 2 mornings in a row with same nightie on, and on the second day i had gained 4lbs!!! I was shocked...I know I am loosing fat since I am constantly pulling my pants up now...but WOW I was still NOT happy about that......

Gonnalooseitagain- I so know what you mean. Yesturday I went on the scale it said I lost 2 lbs. after that I went on it 4 more times to make sure. The stupid thing gave me a different weight every time. The stupid thing said 141, 145, 156, then 160. Then I waited an hour went back on b/c I thought I might have tired it out and it went back to 141 lbs. I felt like

Well I dont weigh in again for a few days...and it better be better..lol I know I have a hard time staying off the scale each morning...but I am getting better, it is Thursday and I havnt been on it since Tuesday!!!!

My weight fluctuates by about 5 lbs at any given time. Right now, I am retaining water from eating my casserole for 3 days in a row and it being the week before my monthly visit from Aunt Flo. So alas, I will not being weighing in this week.