SO DISHEARTENED i tried so hard
 

Argh i could scream or cry or both.

This week i have tried so hard and even joined a gym.
I do weightwatchers and have tracked everything to a t and stayed within my points. And worked out 5times
This week Ive done two 30 mins tae bo dvds and had 3 sessions in the gym which consists on 40mins cardio and 30mins weights and i go to my weightwatchers meeting tonight and geuss what???????????? 0.5lb gain :mad: im so upset and angry. :?: bad times

It could very possible be that you have gained muscle from all the working out, which as you know weighs more than fat. Don't just go by what the scale says. How do your clothes feel? Rings any loser? Just keep doing what you're doing and you will definitely see progress!

Yeah my partner says the same think its just when you try sooo hard.
I hope i see progress soon i think if i see my shape change and the scales arnt moving i wont feel so bad :)

Dude..no worries..your up the scale from the change in exercise program..your body is retaining water...give it time...it will go down again..your body just needs to get used to the exercise...

You will see progress soon. Also, sore muscles hold water. If you've just started all that activity, and are only up .5 lbs, chances are you'll see a big whoosh down the road when you let go of that water weight. Focus on what you're doing, not what the scale says.

thanks everyone feel much better :)

youre really pretty!! good luck!

The scale isn't always our friend. And it DEFINITELY doesn't give the whole story.

You are doing so many healthy things for yourself. Exercising is an achievement in and of itself! Regardless of what the scale says!

You keep to plan, and you'll eventually see a change on the scale :yes: KEEP AT IT KEEP AT IT KEEP AT IT!

Remember the scale is just one tool and as you go along with this lifestyle change you will start to see your body's patterns. Most of us have them. Some people gain water weight from doing exercise/weight training, especially. Others don't. Some people hold weight during TTOM, others do not. Some people hold around ovulation, others do not and so on. What we do know, is that if you eat consistently 500 calories deficit, you will see weight loss. It just won't be a nice straight line - more like a roller coaster ride with dips and whooshes and flat parts.

You can only be disappointed when you have expectations that exceed the reality.

If you expect one week of work to pay off immediately on the scale, you will often be disappointed.

Say you go to work for someone and don't know how paydays work. You think you're going to get paid at the end of the day - only you don't. You work two more days, still no money. You're starting to get sick of this. Do you quit? Or do you ask your boss when you're going to get paid?

It's not the best example, because there is no "set" payment for your work with weight loss. It's more like opening your own business, and hoping that your work pays off, and constantly adjusting your work to get better and better results.

Say you open a shop selling cute handmade items you've made. You invest a lot of money and effort into the items you're going to sell and in opening this shop. You expect for the shop to pay for itself (get you your investment back) in the first week. Only you don't make any money the first week. After a month, you've only had five visitors and none of them bought anything. Now you get the light bill for the shop - you're further behind. Do you close up shop because your plan didn't work?

To judge whether your plan is working or not, you need to find out what is normal for your kind of business. Do you know what the normal results are for weight loss (I would guess not, I didn't).

I always was upset when I got on the scale and didn't see it move, or saw it move in the wrong direction - but only because I thought I was supposed to be (after all everyone else is).

I finally realized it was my expectations were wrong. I was wrong to get upset over the normal things (after all, if I felt like I was failing when I was succeeding, how was I going to get through the tough spots when I actually did make mistakes).

It started with my doctor basically telling me I was full of crap when I complained that I should be losing a lot more than the pitiful 1 lb a month I was losing (I'd lost a total of 30 or 40 pounds by then I believe). I said, "at my size I should be losing a lot more, like normal people."

And instead of saying "Damned right you should be losing more," (like all other doctors had told me in the past," he essentially said "bull poo where'd you get that dumb idea - Normal is giving up and gaining it all back. Just keeping the weight off puts you in the above normal category - you're at the head of this race, not the tail end.

Wow, I was at the head of the race just by staying in it, because "most people" give up.

Another thing I learned about "most people" is that most people don't go an entire month without a gain. In my TOPS (taking off pounds sensibly) group, we have a very diverse groups. A lot of people with a lot of weight to lose, a lot of people with very little to lose, and a few people at their goal weight or within a couple pounds of it (a person at goal weight is called a KOPS member, meaning keeping off pounds sensibly).

We have a monthly contest in which those who have not gained during any of the weekly weigh-ins and haven't missed a meeting (most people don't miss) split a $10 prize. Out of 25 members, there's only 1-3 people at the end of the month who haven't ever experienced a gain at weigh-in.

That means more than 90% of our members have at least one gain per month. And these aren't slackers. Our chapter has won awards for best losses on average per member (because every month they tally how many pounds lost, and how many pounds gained).

Also by averaging the weight loss per member, I can tell you that the average person loses far, far less than 1 lb per week.


So why are you so upset - because you're doing so much better than the average, or because you didn't know what the average truly was.

For me, it was that I didn't know that I was at the head of the pack. I thought I was trailing far, far behind (after all it took me 6 years to lose 91 lbs). And even so, I'm at the head of the pack, because most people give up and regain it all.

Just losing the 11 pounds you have, puts you at the head of the pack (and if you did it in in less than a year, there aren't that many folks in front of you), and you stay in the lead by staing in the race, not by losing every week - not by losing a lot every week (or losing at all in a week. Just a pound a month, puts you in the top 5%).

Know that you're succeeding, because if you think you're failing (even when you're doing better than 95% of folks) you're going to give up.

If I had known how rare success was. If I had known that even 1/4 lb a week was an achievement most people don't make and keep - I don't think I would have given up. Every time I gave up in the past, it was because I thought there was something wrong with me - that everyone else was doing so much better and having it so much easier. I was so dead wrong. Maybe if I knew that I would have felt like the success I was, instead of the failure I thought I was.

I'm a daily weigher, and my weight always fluctuates 1 to 2lbs depending on if I ate a little too much sodium the night before, or lifted weights (especially if I increase weight or do new moves--the muscles retain water to repair). I also tend to increase at different times in my cycle and also if I eat a more carb heavy diet the night before, regardless on if I eat the same calories.

I've currently been trying to drop out of the 190's for 4 months. Yep, 4 months. But I tell you, my body looks different and my clothes fit differently than 4 months ago, although the scale has only moved down 9 lbs.

Keep at it!!!

Sometimes I just want to take things said on 3FC and tattoo them onto my forearms. I'd run out of skin really fast with how many truthful things are quoted, but it doesn't take away the feeling!

That's because we've been brainwashed to believe things we know aren't true. It's how our culture "does" weight loss. We have to unlearn years and years of indoctrination.

Humans are social creatures. To some degree we follow the herd, even when we know the herd is heading towards a steep cliff. Even to save our life, it's very hard to be the black sheep and choose not to jump off the cliff along with everyone else.

Learning a "new" way to think is really difficult. Even knowing truth doesn't help until you believe it as well as know it.

I learned the facts of weight loss very early, but it took me 40 years before I started believing any of it, and acting in accordance with my beliefs.

I've known it was silly to get discouraged by the scale by the time I was 8 years old, but I got discouraged anyway because that's what I saw everyone else doing.

No matter who you are, "do as I say, not as I do," is a horrible way to teach anyone to do anything except doing one thing and saying another.

I agree with all of the above posters.

Patience and tracking are key. Don't give up. Continue to stick with it. YOu are going to have good days and bad days, and good weigh ins and not so good.


The key is hanging in there. Use your tracker/journal as a tool to help you. It's not just about tracking food and exercise, but also has a spot for thoughts.

There are so many variables to this journey, I encourage you to make a 6 month commitment, and use all the tools available, and then see where you are.

I am a WW member and I love the program. However I had to tweak it a bit so that it would work for me.

For instance, I'm up a bit, down a bit, (.5 or so a week) and then after a few weeks I'll lose 2 or 3 lbs.

Go figure!

Give it all a chance!

When the scale is being a jerk, I find it's really encouraging to remind myself that, even if the scale isn't showing it, I'm making much healthier choices in terms of food and exercise than I was at my highest weight. And in the long run that's far more important than the numbers on the scale. Also, a .5 weight gain is nothing to get too upset about because, as someone mentioned, that could be part of normal fluctuations during the day.
So just keep at it and eventually the scale will figure out that you're being serious!