My scale isn't reflecting my nutrition or fitness

Nzamora0728

Hi. I'm feeling extremely frustrated.

I'm the past weeks I've commited to gettin my 10,000 steps in. Eating right. Just las week went from 175 on Monday and Friday morning was at 172. I should be 130 tops.

Friday afternoon I had brunch and made sure I logged in all the food and the wine and stayed within my allotted calories. I walked extra and even went dancing to burn more calories and had water the rest of the night.

Yesterday I woke up at 172.2 lbs. ok. I gained .2 lbs. fair enough.

Yesterday I drank my 10 glasses of water, ate very healthy and low-salt. Stayed within my allotted calories on this app, and this morning woke up weighing 175. WTF!

How did I gain 3 lbs in one day when I've stayed within my calories and exercised?

I have PCOSbut that can't be the answer. Feeling extremely upset.

Any recos? Or suggestions?

TavistockToad

Just keep going... weight fluctuates...

rainbowbow

Sounds like water weight. Unless you somehow ate 10,000 calories over your maintenance level. This is especially the case when alcohol and exercise is involved.

I am confused though, what do you mean by "i should be 130 tops"?

daniip_la

Weight fluctuates due to water, food waste, etc. What you eat today may have no bearing on your weight tomorrow. The long-term trend is what matters.

Decapins

stop weighing yourself everyday, weigh yourself once a week

lemonychild

you need a solid 12 weeks with a consistent plan . this few day stuff is completely irrelevant

Arapacana1

Many women gain up to five pounds during ovulation or during their time of month. It's water weight and will come back off.

TavistockToad

rainbowbow wrote: »

Sounds like water weight. Unless you somehow ate 10,000 calories over your maintenance level. This is especially the case when alcohol and exercise is involved.

I am confused though, what do you mean by "i should be 130 tops"?

That she should weight 130lbs, presumably

SLLRunner

Nzamora0728 wrote: »

Hi. I'm feeling extremely frustrated.

I'm the past weeks I've commited to gettin my 10,000 steps in. Eating right. Just las week went from 175 on Monday and Friday morning was at 172. I should be 130 tops.

Friday afternoon I had brunch and made sure I logged in all the food and the wine and stayed within my allotted calories. I walked extra and even went dancing to burn more calories and had water the rest of the night.

Yesterday I woke up at 172.2 lbs. ok. I gained .2 lbs. fair enough.

Yesterday I drank my 10 glasses of water, ate very healthy and low-salt. Stayed within my allotted calories on this app, and this morning woke up weighing 175. WTF!

How did I gain 3 lbs in one day when I've stayed within my calories and exercised?

I have PCOSbut that can't be the answer. Feeling extremely upset.

Any recos? Or suggestions?

This sounds like natural weight fluctuations, which can be affected by a multitude of things.

You will only gain fat if you consistently eat 3,500 (which is equal to one pound) over your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. In this case, you would have eaten 10,500 over your TDEE to have gained 3 pounds of actual fat. While that can be done, I get from the tone of your posting that you did not do this.

Patience, my fellow weight manager....patience.

Carriehelene

That's not what she meant! Good grief. She was talking about her healthy weight, not what she should weigh after following the program for a couple of days. So easy on the sarcasm already. Sheesh.

OP, it's totally water weight, so don't stress it. In a day or so it will just disappear. Then you'll be like, holy crap, I lost 3 lbs in two days lol.

Shells918

Echoing the others, it can be frustratingly slow. I'm in the exact weight range, and I was 172, then went to 175, back to 172, this morning 173.5. But I ate Chinese food last night. I know I'm retaining water, and almost TOM, so I really need to be vigilant, and by the middle of the week I should be back on track.

rainbowbow

Carriehelene wrote: »

That's not what she meant! Good grief. She was talking about her healthy weight, not what she should weigh after following the program for a couple of days. So easy on the sarcasm already. Sheesh.

OP, it's totally water weight, so don't stress it. In a day or so it will just disappear. Then you'll be like, holy crap, I lost 3 lbs in two days lol.

this is why i asked. she titled this topic as if her weight isn't an accurate reflection of her current routine.

SLLRunner

Carriehelene wrote: »

That's not what she meant! Good grief. She was talking about her healthy weight, not what she should weigh after following the program for a couple of days. So easy on the sarcasm already. Sheesh.

OP, it's totally water weight, so don't stress it. In a day or so it will just disappear. Then you'll be like, holy crap, I lost 3 lbs in two days lol.

What? Her question:

How did I gain 3 lbs in one day when I've stayed within my calories and exercised?

What sarcasm are you referring to? I seriously don't see any.

WinoGelato

Carriehelene wrote: »

That's not what she meant! Good grief. She was talking about her healthy weight, not what she should weigh after following the program for a couple of days. So easy on the sarcasm already. Sheesh.

OP, it's totally water weight, so don't stress it. In a day or so it will just disappear. Then you'll be like, holy crap, I lost 3 lbs in two days lol.

I'm not seeing the sarcastic responses you're referring to?

OP posted a common topic for a newcomer. Makes big changes in diet and exercise and has tremendous motivation toward progressing to her ultimate goal (presumably less than 130 lbs if I read that correctly). She's frustrated that the scale hasn't reflected the same progress, which is again very common source of frustration.

OP sadly weight loss is not linear (there's even a great thread here about it which I can't link from my phone), and women especially can have pretty significant fluctuations due to water retention, hormones, etc. Common causes can also include, in addition to sodium intake, increased carb intake or increased exercise. As others have mentioned, these are usually temporary spikes and will be gone in a day or so. Many people use an app like Happy Scale or Trendweight which logs a weight every day so that over time, you can clearly see the downward progress and learn to ignore the temporary spikes as miscellaneous "noise" on the graph.

Carriehelene

Wow, I don't know what my brain interpreted in Travis's reply that came across as sarcastic??? That'll teach me to read and post 2 minutes after I wake up. I'm sincerely sorry Travis

WinoGelato

Carriehelene wrote: »

Wow, I don't know what my brain interpreted in Travis's reply that came across as sarcastic??? That'll teach me to read and post 2 minutes after I wake up. I'm sincerely sorry Travis

Im still confused. Did somebody named Travis post and maybe it was deleted?

SLLRunner

Carriehelene wrote: »

Wow, I don't know what my brain interpreted in Travis's reply that came across as sarcastic??? That'll teach me to read and post 2 minutes after I wake up. I'm sincerely sorry Travis

Huh? Now, I'm genuinely confused because I've been following this thread through and have not seen anyone named Travis posting.

Time for coffee?

elphie754

You don't mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you calculate how many calories you ate. All you say is that you are "eating right".

While these fluctuations are most likely water weight, I would also recommend buying a food scale and weighing everything. Exercise is good but if you are not in a calorie deficit, you won't lose weight.

rainbowbow

SLLRunner wrote: »

Carriehelene wrote: »

Wow, I don't know what my brain interpreted in Travis's reply that came across as sarcastic??? That'll teach me to read and post 2 minutes after I wake up. I'm sincerely sorry Travis

Huh? Now, I'm genuinely confused because I've been following this thread through and have not seen anyone named Travis posting.

Time for coffee?

she's talking about tavistocktoad

Carriehelene

Holy crap. I'm just gonna have to give up posting today lol. It's Tavistocktoad post I was referring to. And whom I was trying to apologize to. Still don't know what I read. Spent 16 hours yesterday making and canning tomato sauce until 2:00 am. Maybe I boiled my brain along with the sauce?

rainbowbow

Carriehelene wrote: »

Holy crap. I'm just gonna have to give up posting today lol. It's Tavistocktoad post I was referring to. And whom I was trying to apologize to. Still don't know what I read. Spent 16 hours yesterday making and canning tomato sauce until 2:00 am. Maybe I boiled my brain along with the sauce?

We all have those days!

Colorscheme

well, weight loss isn't linear. I stayed within my alloted calories this week and lost nothing from last week. Am I discouraged? heck no because I did do a lot of working out yesterday and I went over my sodium yesterday too. Give it more time. Like, several weeks.

fr33sia12

This is why I don't weigh myself daily, because I know weight fluctuates for different reasons and seeing the scales go up and down like that messes with my head. I only weigh myself maybe once a week or even a fortnight and the scales have consistently gone down.

SLLRunner

Carriehelene wrote: »

Holy crap. I'm just gonna have to give up posting today lol. It's Tavistocktoad post I was referring to. And whom I was trying to apologize to. Still don't know what I read. Spent 16 hours yesterday making and canning tomato sauce until 2:00 am. Maybe I boiled my brain along with the sauce?

Ohhhhhh.....that makes sense.

Samanthor

I use an app called Happy Scale, where I enter my weight every day. I've been doing it for several months now, and it allows me to see the trend of my weight: sometimes I'm a little above the trend, sometimes I'm a little below, but all in all I've lost 30 pounds since the end of May, so what happens on one particular day doesn't matter!

jgnatca

Exercise is to feel better. You will get greater cardiovascular capacity (no huffing up the stairs) and strength.

Nutrition is to feel better. You will have a glow to your skin, a sparkle in your eye, and loads of energy.

A calorie deficit takes weeks to show up, on the scale, especially for women. Make sure you are enjoying every bite you faithfully log in, because this is an endurance game.

ponycyndi

I've been there. Two steps forward, one step back. Or in this case, five pounds down, three pounds up.

RoxieDawn

Samanthor wrote: »

I use an app called Happy Scale, where I enter my weight every day. I've been doing it for several months now, and it allows me to see the trend of my weight: sometimes I'm a little above the trend, sometimes I'm a little below, but all in all I've lost 30 pounds since the end of May, so what happens on one particular day doesn't matter!

OP this^^^

I really think you might want to start trending your weight fluctuations using a really simple app. Happy Scale is good, perhaps Libra or Weightgrapher if you weigh everyday.

These fluctuations can be a bugger if you pay due diligence to the scale everyday. My scale has had the tendency to laugh at me daily and I stopped giving power to the scale. Hormones, sodium, exercise (increase volume or intensity), muscle recovery, carb intake, hydration or lack there of can all show on the scale in one form or another.

Stay within your deficit like you are and keep going.

frankiesgirlie

SLLRunner wrote: »

Carriehelene wrote: »

That's not what she meant! Good grief. She was talking about her healthy weight, not what she should weigh after following the program for a couple of days. So easy on the sarcasm already. Sheesh.

OP, it's totally water weight, so don't stress it. In a day or so it will just disappear. Then you'll be like, holy crap, I lost 3 lbs in two days lol.

What? Her question:

How did I gain 3 lbs in one day when I've stayed within my calories and exercised?

What sarcasm are you referring to? I seriously don't see any.

I've read EVERY post and didn't see a smidge of sarcasm...

mph323

Here's what works for me. Looking at daily weight fluctuations makes me crazy but I do need to keep track of my trends. I have an aria scale that connects with fitbit and automatically records my weight. I step on the scale daily but don't look at the number. Once a week or so I go into the fitbit app and look at the trend. That lets me see the daily fluctuations in the context of a weekly weigh-in. The trend chart lets see where I started and where I am now, which I find very motivating.

AnnPT77

Some folks have suggested weighing weekly instead of daily, and that can be the best route for folks who really have difficulty staying calm when faced with routine fluctuations (which I, too, believe is what you're seeing).

Personally, I prefer to weigh daily (same time of day - 1st thing in the morning before eating/drinking is best - wearing the same exact thing). Over time, I've gained a great deal of insight about what causes my daily weight fluctuations, to the point where I can usually predict their magnitude, and how long any increase will stick around.

Things that can make the scale be up a little (even without having gained actual body fat) may include:

• Starting a new workout routine (body holds onto water for muscle repair)
• Eating more carbs or salt than usual (even if it's a perfectly sensible level of carbs/salt)
• Time of month for women (anytime from ovulation through menses)
• Eating an especially large amount of high-volume/high-fiber food, if the residue is still in your digestive system.
• Drinking an quantity of water or other liquids, if that's still in your digestive system or bladder
• Injury, surgery, or inflammation (tends to hold water weight)
• Eating later in the day than usual on the previous day
• Getting an especially short night's sleep, then weighing in the AM (mainly because of the time factor and what it means for food/liquid in your system, although general, frequent lack of sleep can have a material effect on actual weight loss)

. . . and more.

And please, if you're concerned about water weight, don't assume you should drink less water: Instead, you should be sure to get enough, because getting enough actually is more likely to persuade your body it's OK to flush out excess water.