Getting discouraged...

Moonlitriver17

I know this is ridiculous, but I get discouraged if I don't lose every day. I'm ahead of the game. Been tracking since July 13th and am down a little over 11 pounds. I am working with a nutritionist, and for me weighing daily works.
I have a lot to lose( 89 lbs to reach first goal) and wish I could get over the roller coaster emotions attached to the number I see.
Any advice?

tiptoethruthetulips

Set smaller goals to start with...100lb goal seems so large and a long time to achieve. Maybe set milestone goals at 20lbs each step.

Our body weight fluctuates on a daily basis, you are not going to see weight loss reflected in the scales every day.

Set yourself some other goals that are not centred around the scales. Take measurements every month. Reduction in blood pressure levels. Improved fitness. Improved walking times. Plenty of success measures not weight related to choose from.

shadowfax_c11

Seems to me like you are doing just fine. 11 pounds is a huge loss in so short a time. Actually unless you are very obese it might be too much too fast. Initial water wight losses can be big so don't be surprised to find that your loss slows down quite a lot over the next months. Don't let that stop you in your tracks. Any forward progress is better than no forward progress and vastly better than going backwards.

Pay attention to more than just the number on the scale. How do your clothes fit. Track measurements. How do you feel physically? Take progress pics. There are so many little changes that don't show up as numbers on a scale. The journey is long and a magic number is not going to result in happiness there is more to being happy with your body than that. You need to think about more than just the scale.

rosalindrowe56

Moonlitriver17 wrote: »

I know this is ridiculous, but I get discouraged if I don't lose every day. I'm ahead of the game. Been tracking since July 13th and am down a little over 11 pounds. I am working with a nutritionist, and for me weighing daily works.
I have a lot to lose( 89 lbs to reach first goal) and wish I could get over the roller coaster emotions attached to the number I see.
Any advice?

rosalindrowe56

I know what you mean about "scale check", I was stuck on that too. And let me tell you, when I hit a plateau for two and a half weeks and was doing everything right, it really messed with my mind. "BUT, I STAYED ON TRACK", I did how every tweet a few things, and the pounds started falling off again. If and when I hit another plateau, I will readjust again. I have 120 lbs. to lose, I have loss 16 lbs. so far, since June 27,2016. Good luck on your journey, and "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, AND NEVER GIVE UP". Also , when you hit a plateau, check other things, meaning measurements, right amounts of exercise, tracking everything you eat, etc. If you do the math correctly, sooner or later "THAT SCALE" will have to start to move again. Also make sure you don't go below 1255 calories per day, and if you do, exercise the other calories off. Add 8 oz. of grapefruit juice to each meal, and make sure you are eating enough protein too, and be very mindful of your carb count, other than the grapefruit juice. Good luck, God Bless, and hang in there, "YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS JOURNEY".

kristen6350

You aren't supposed to lose weight every day...weight loss it's linear.

TheLegendaryBrandonHarris

Recognize and accept that you will not see a loss every time you weigh in.
That's ok, though.

Something that works for me is breaking up the big goal into much smaller goals.
I want to lose 20 more pounds...but I'm not looking at 20 pounds...that'll be a while.
I am, however, looking at what I'm going to choose to do after work today and what I'm going to eat for supper.

Shana67

kristen6350 wrote: »

You aren't supposed to lose weight every day...weight loss it's linear.

This is silly. Weigh when you want - there are no "supposed to's". I weigh myself daily to keep focused and on track. I can judge what I've eaten/activity level by my weight each morning and make adjustments accordingly.

TavistockToad

kristen6350 wrote: »

You aren't supposed to lose weight every day...weight loss it's linear.

You could... if you had 200 pounds to lose...

Jessicac571

You say that weighing everyday works for you, but if you're getting disappointed or frustrated then maybe it doesn't work as well as you think. I struggle with the same thing. I weigh myself every morning and get frustrated if I'm still the same or a little over, even though I know it's just water weight.

Lizzy622

Maybe a visual would help. get 2 jars and either marbles or stones or pennies or something like that. Jar 1 is stay the same or lose the other is for gain. Couple of things are going on. You have a visual to see you have more Jar 1 days and by dropping the coin in Jar 2 you should also drop the negative feelings with it.

OhMsDiva

Of course you can do whatever you want to do, but what I had to learn is to not be slave to the scale. I would drive myself crazy if I weighed daily. I know this works for some people, but for me once (and every blue moon) maybe twice a week) is more than enough for me. What I found is that I would get so invested in what the scale said that it would ruin my mood for the entire week.
I do my best every week. I weigh myself every Monday. I log my weight and I dont think about the scale until the next Monday. If I feel I need to adjust what I eat, because I gained, I do so. If I know I ate too much for that week then I just get back on my plan. The scale is a great barometer (IMO) of your progress, but it is not the be all, end all of your progress or success. Good luck to you in whatever method you decide works for you

lorrpb

You need to adjust your mindset to reality or you will be discouraged for the rest of your life. It is not possible to lose each and every day. Weight loss doesn't work like that. Your body doesn't work like that. Fluctuations are normal. If you were to lose 1 pound per week, which can be fairly aggressive depending on how much you have to lose, and the loss were perfectly even every day --which is is NOT--it still is not possible for many scales to register 1/7 of that every day. For example, my scale registers 0.2 pounds at a time, that's 1/5 of a pound. So I were to lose 1/7 of a pound every day, I would see a loss on the scale only about every other day. Again, all of this is fiction because that's how the body works. For example, I might go 2-3 weeks with no loss on the scale even though I can SEE it on my body, then all of a sudden I register a few pounds lost in a couple of days.

Please read the sticky posts at the top of the forum, and other threads on here to learn how to develop a realistic understanding of this process. You will be much happier.

lthames0810

I weigh every day too and my weight is down then up then down again with no seeming logic. Rather than get disappointed by a weight increase on any given day, I look at the average of my daily weights at the end of each week. It's a better indication of the trend.

I changed to daily weighing from weekly because of this fluctuation. On one occasion I stuck to my plan for eating and exercising all week and was expecting a decent weigh in, but instead my weight hadn't changed at all from the previous week. So disappointed. It turned out that my weigh in day just happened to be one of those inexplicable up days and in reality I had lost weight as expected after all .

OdditiesAbound

I use an app called Libra (for Android, I think a similar iOS app is HappyScales, I'm pretty sure there's a website you can use called Trendweights) and weigh every day in the morning in as close to the same circumstances as I can. Roughly the same time, right when I wake up, before I drink, after I use the restroom, and then plug the new weight into MFP and Libra.

I'm a data nerd and I love charts, and Libra basically draws a trend line based on my data points. I used to get kind of bummed about the irregularity of my daily weigh ins, I knew weight loss wasn't linear but I fluctuate a LOT. Up half a lb, down a lb, back up 0.2 lbs, back up 0.6 lbs, then suddenly a 1.5 lb drop, etc. It was a little bit maddening.

I find it much easier to be able to look at the trendline and realize, yeah I went up a lb today but my TREND is still down, I'm still roughly at my 2 lbs a week rate, everything is fine, why am I freaking out about some water weight?

If you're the same way, I'd recommend trying one of these apps and see if it helps you remember to see the forest of weight loss, through the trees of daily weigh ins. Plus it helps me personally to view my daily weigh ins more as a data point for my chart and not something to obsess about/worry about (at least until that trend line flattens out or tilts back up)

kflanrye

A lot of great feedback here. I also weigh in everyday (supposedly there is a study that says people who weigh in daily loose at a higher percentage) but I look at the overall trends.it maybe different for you but for me I look at 3 lbs swing but as long as the trend line is consistently going down. Also Like you I lost 8 lbs within 3 1/2 weeks and since then lost only 4 more lbs and it's my 8th week. However my BMI is down 4percent, and my wast, arms and thighs are going down.

You're doing great! Good luck and add me if you want daily morale support.

JstTheWayIam

I lost 182lbs, for me it was like watching a ball bouncing down a flight of stairs, it's not going to be a strait drop.

MrsKila

Moonlitriver17 wrote: »

I know this is ridiculous, but I get discouraged if I don't lose every day. I'm ahead of the game. Been tracking since July 13th and am down a little over 11 pounds. I am working with a nutritionist, and for me weighing daily works.
I have a lot to lose( 89 lbs to reach first goal) and wish I could get over the roller coaster emotions attached to the number I see.
Any advice?

I have to say that I am right there with you at times. Not all the time but most of the time. I feel as if I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to do but then the scale doesn't move for one or two days and I'm like well maybe I need to just stop this because it's not working. I do have a suggestion for you this is not a suggestion that I know works all the way this is just something I am trying at the moment. I've read a lot of success stories and most of them have a good length of time incorporated into their successful Journey. Really it seems that people take between four and five months to lose about 30 through 50 pounds. So I'm sure they had to deal with something like this once or twice within their Journey also. I'm going to give you the advice that I think of it myself keep going, you can do it, just don't give up. I hope this helps the both of us.

oolou

I'd second the advice of using a trend graph of some sort (I use weightgrapher) to record your weight daily. While you may not lose daily, and may at times gain due to numerous reasons not actually related to fat, seeing a downward trend line can be very motivating.