When to listen to the scale?

bettieb1988

I started the week out at 153lbs which I was super excited about but weighed myself this morning and I'm back at 156. Could this just be water weight?

I've been very vigilant with my diet and consistent with my exercise. I'm doing up to an hour a day of cardio and strength training! I was just very disappointed to see the scale movin in the other direction.

ChristyB1117

Any kind of fluctuation in that time frame is almost always going to be water weight. Two to three weeks with out a loss, that's an indication there needs to be a modification, most likely to your calorie intake.

juggernaut1974

When to listen to the scale? You mean your scale talks to you??

J/K

Yeah, it's likely water weight or some other normal day-to -day fluctuation.

Increasing exercise tends to cause more water to be retained too.

Don't worry so much about day-to-day fluctuations - track the overall trend over the long term. If it's working, great. If not, THEN make adjustments.

KHaverstick

ceoverturf wrote: »

Don't worry so much about day-to-day fluctuations - track the overall trend over the long term. If it's working, great. If not, THEN make adjustments.

This is what I was going to say. If the trend over, say, a month (or longer) is going down, I'm not concerned if the scale fluctuates up or down by a few pounds day-to-day. I'd be concerned if I noticed an upward trend over time.

bettieb1988

Ok thank you all so much! How often do you suggest weighing myself and would it be better to take measurements instead?

tracymayo1

I am having the same issue, and am getting really discouraged. I admit over the holidays I was not as diligent as I should be. But, lately, I go down one day (usually Monday after my weekend of eating less, drinking less water and doing next to no activity).

Then when the work week starts, my weight is up and down between 2-3 pounds.

It is like this ALL the time. I cant get an idea on if I lost anything until after my TOM also. I weighed myself Jan 26 and was 176.8lbs. Logged this as it was a loss. Stayed there for 2 days. Then started up and down between 177-179lbs.

I go to the gym 3 days a week for 30 minute lunch workouts (this is week 5 of that)
I make sure I drink between 600-1200 ml of water during the week - more on workout days

This week is the PRE TOM - so I am up, and staying there, and will be up there until the day I am done or the day after. At that point, I will see if I am back to or lower than the 176.8 logged last time.

Until then I just see the scale telling me I gained. I almost feel like I could only weigh and log once a month because of this. I don't want to log the ups and downs for false posts on my wall.

Roxiegirl2008

It could be so many things. The day after a really long run I tend to weigh more due to water weight gain. That is typically gone in a few days. If my trainer changes up some of the workouts then I tend to retain water but again it is gone. Oh and don't get me started on that time of the month. I can gain about 5lbs during that time.

Stick with it and if you don't notice a change in the next few weeks adjust something in your calorie intake or goals.

Good luck! It can be very frustrating not to see the scale move or move in the other direction.

ruggedshutter

I like to take daily measurements but to each their own. You just have to determine how often you want to concern yourself with seeing the number on the scale. I like many data points so I'm not waiting a week between weigh-ins. For me, one set point a week isn't often enough for my OCD

juggernaut1974

bettieb1988 wrote: »

Ok thank you all so much! How often do you suggest weighing myself and would it be better to take measurements instead?

Doesn't really matter - weigh in as often or not as you want.

Just focus on long term trends, not weigh in to weigh in fluctuations.

ChristyB1117

How often to weigh in is personal preference. I like to weigh in one day every week, Mondays. Everyday would make me too neurotic and a month would cause me to lose focus. It's totally up to you.

bettieb1988

Roxiegirl2008 wrote: »

It could be so many things. The day after a really long run I tend to weigh more due to water weight gain. That is typically gone in a few days. If my trainer changes up some of the workouts then I tend to retain water but again it is gone. Oh and don't get me started on that time of the month. I can gain about 5lbs during that time.

Stick with it and if you don't notice a change in the next few weeks adjust something in your calorie intake or goals.

Good luck! It can be very frustrating not to see the scale move or move in the other direction.

I'm wondering if this might be what's going on! I just moved up quite a lot in the intensity of my work outs. So hopefully it has something to do with that. I think I'll check back in a couple weeks to see what's happening. I might go crazy if I weigh myself every day haha

elphie754

ceoverturf wrote: »

When to listen to the scale? You mean your scale talks to you??

J/K

Yeah, it's likely water weight or some other normal day-to -day fluctuation.

Increasing exercise tends to cause more water to be retained too.

Don't worry so much about day-to-day fluctuations - track the overall trend over the long term. If it's working, great. If not, THEN make adjustments.

Lol I was about to say the same.

Op- typically I wait a month. If after a month my weight hasn't shifted, I no longer contribute it to water weight and start to look at my intake/exercise output to see where I can make adjustments.

Roxiegirl2008

Oh and just another thought. Take progression pictures. That really helped me. Even now when I think UGH "I am bloated" I just look at the picture of where I was and where I am now. I took one each month about the same day give or take.

mom2ava07

Same happening to me now.

I started off last Friday at 155, and all week I've fluctuated up gradually to 156.4 and today (almost a week later) I'm at 155.4. I'm still up a little from the previous week, so essentially no loss this week.

There's always room for error but I've tracked everything daily and exercised the same, so I'm assuming it's just water. I've been over on my sodium many days.

It's probably water for you too if you haven't eaten anything way out of the ordinary, and the closer you get to goal or a normal weight range this will likely be common.

Amanda4change

I weigh every morning and log it in the happy scale app, I log it on MFP once a week. My scale hasn't moved in a week, however I'm down 1 1/2 inches on my waist and 3/4 of an inch on my hips. I figure the scale will catch up at some point.