Anyone else addicted to the scale? How do you survive the 1 pound gain?

Puppybear1

I am in my first week and I can not wait to weigh in every morning! Then, today, up 1 and 1/2 pounds. Ugh! I know it's normal but it still sucks. What do you do to encourage yourself on days like this?

jprewitt1

Just keep doing it everyday and it will get easier. Log your weight, no matter the increase or decrease. Doing it everyday will help keep your mind focused on the bigger picture. Some days you will do great, others you will not. It's what you do in the day between that will matter most.

Ruatine

For me, the whole point of weighing every day is to see those water weight fluctuations and keep an accurate trendline of my weight loss. Daily weighing helps me correlate what I ate the day before with changes in how much water my body retains. At the point those fluctuations became difficult for me to see without feeling bad, I'd stop weighing every day and switch to once a week or less.

2011rocket3touring

Don't weigh yourself daily and don't fret over a 1lb gain. It could be dozens of reasons. I've had weeks where I gain a lb and the next week lose 2 (1lb a week is my goal). I week variation I literally don't give a hoot.

singingflutelady

I do understand. I am a former anorexic and weighing myself is the one behavior I can't stop. Mind you it isn't once a day but multiple times a day-every time I eat and every time I go to the bathroom. I know exactly how much I lose when I sleep etc. It's a science experiment for me.

wwkwag

I weigh myself daily so I can see the water fluctuations. My weight fluctuates up and down 5 pounds in a week!! I use a weight trend app called Libra. That helps to see my "trend". Weight is not linear so sometimes I can do great one week but it could take three weeks to show on the scale.

My suggestion would be that if you do get frustrated, only weigh once a week because the fluctuations are sometimes all over the place.

Good luck! And congrats on your first week!!

kommodevaran

There is no such thing as a one pound gain. Weight fluctuates more than that, and for no particualar reason.

Weigh yourself as often as you see practical.

Chadxx

Oh yeah, your weight is going to fluctuate but it is only water. Just get used to it and focus on the big picture and you will do fine.

For me, swings of several pounds are normal.

Helloitsdan

The average person can fluctuate up to 5lbs per day depending on hormones, activity, and nutrition. Maintaining weight is within 10lbs.
Let me ask you this, if you trained hard one day and we're completely wiped, then drank a glass of OJ resulting in some glycogen overcompensation within the muscle resulting in a 3lb fluctuation up, are you losing the weight battle?

RoxieDawn

Weight and move on...there is NO such thing as 1 pound FAT gain from one to another.. Its fluctionss that are normal and well within +/- weight fluctuation..

I have dealt with and over come scale stress syndrome an long time ago. It takes time.

Sued0nim

Trendline apps

Libra, happy scale or sites like weighographer or trendweight. Your weight will go up and down within a range. You don't have a scale weight you have a scale weight range of within 5 lbs

Puppybear1

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to check out Libra and happy scale

MiMi_5151

I weigh often. I have been steadily losing but, this morning, I was up a pound. I did not panic. I knew the plate of chicken mole enchiladas and 2 ice-cold mugs of Shiner Bock at a local Mexican restaurant the evening before was the culprit. I enjoyed that meal and knew that my temporary weight gain was due to water retention and a lot more sodium than I was used to consuming in one meal.

I only record my Monday morning weight/measurements so I can track my progress. But I like to take a peek every morning/afternoon/evening to see how my intake affects my weight at any given time.

janekana

This was the reason why I told myself that I wouldn't weigh myself on the scale everyday when I first started MFP. I didn't want to get discouraged if I saw a gain the next day even if it was just water fluctuation, so I settled to weighing myself once per week or once per two weeks because I just forget to check the scale since I don't check myself daily.

It has helped my confidence and motivation heaps. Two weeks ago I was still 65 kg, and then I weighed myself recently and saw that I was 63.6 kg. I was so surprised and thought it was just water fluctuations, that I weighed myself two days later to see if it was the same weight, and it was! I feel like I would have taken it differently if I saw only small losses/gains each day, I wouldn't notice the losses as much as I would have.

ronjsteele1

singingflutelady wrote: »

I do understand. I am a former anorexic and weighing myself is the one behavior I can't stop. Mind you it isn't once a day but multiple times a day-every time I eat and every time I go to the bathroom. I know exactly how much I lose when I sleep etc. It's a science experiment for me.

Yep. Right with you on this one.

tamaraworrall

I used to be whilst I was loosing weight and even after I still was though so many people told me to go by my clothes and how I looked and felt .
Eventually it clicked and I keep an eye on my weight once a week on the scales at the gym and that's it

RobynTheresa

I weigh myself everyday too, but I don't worry about small fluctuations. I weigh everyday to stay on track, because I find if I don't it is easy to slack off. Depends on the individual and what works for you. Weekly doesn't work for me because I could be on an up fluctuation day and would feel as if I was gaining weight, whereas with daily fluctuations, if I was down daily and up one day because I didn't drink enough the day before, I can "see" that and move on. But I know some people can't do daily because they become almost paranoid. What works for you is what counts.

I went to Florida for 2 weeks at the end of September, didn't weigh myself while I was away, drank and ate too much, no exercise and gained 5 kilos in 2 weeks. ( 1 kilo = 2.2 pounds). Has taken 4 weeks to lose 3 kilos! Two more to go. Grrrrr.

clicketykeys

Also remember that feelings happen. But what you DO about the feeling is your choice. You may feel discouraged, even though you know that you're on track. Okay, so... what do you do?

Because the days that are the most frustrating for me are the ones where everything seems to be going well, and I *still* feel discouraged or mopey. There's no reason that I can pinpoint; it just is what it is. I try to remember that this will pass just like everything does, and keep going.

Francl27

You trust the science and log properly so you know it can't be fat.

Ming1951

Yep I weigh everyday too, and my weight fluctuates up to 2 lbs up or down. For instance my scale showed me this morning that I lost 2 1/2 lbs since yesterday. But I've learned that from past weeks I will see 1 1/2 back up tomorrow. So I wait a few days before I log it to see if its real or not. I drank a lot of extra water yesterday so I'm sure is water loss. Waiting for tomorrow.

CattOfTheGarage

Some people find weighing daily makes you less worried by fluctuations. Others find it makes it worse and prefer to weigh weekly or even less often. Experiment. Ultimately what you're trying to do is detach emotionally from the number on the scale. You can only control your eating and activity, you can't control the number on the scale. You need to find another source of encouragement as the scale is a fickle friend and will let you down regularly.

AnvilHead

Puppybear1 wrote: »

I am in my first week and I can not wait to weigh in every morning! Then, today, up 1 and 1/2 pounds. Ugh! I know it's normal but it still sucks. What do you do to encourage yourself on days like this?

You come to the understanding that weight fluctuations are perfectly normal and will always happen, for a multitude of reasons completely unrelated to actual weight/fat loss.

You use a trend tracking app such as Happy Scale, Libra, Trendweight, etc. and look at your overall long term trend rather than day by day.

If it's too upsetting to see the fluctuations, weigh less often. Some people can handle it, others can't.

Eddie__Jones

I used to be.

I found other things to track progress like measurements, pictures, and lifting numbers.

The sooner you can focus on the process and not the result the better.

I weigh everyday but just for the data. The graph is a downward trend.

MelanieCN77

I weigh every day because I don't want to rely on how I "feel" like I am doing. It's very early to worry about the gain like that, I found that over time I had 4-5 day losing weight then a spike, over and over. When you zoom out though, the trend is downwards.

MelanieCN77

lol sorry that is so big!

aboverubies5

I weigh the same time weekly. Weight goes up and down depending on water gain//time of day etc. I weigh once a week first thing in the morning after I pee. Then I log it.