If weight fluctuates how do I know if I actually lost 3 pounds?

dniania

I weighed myself three times in three weeks I started at 271.9 then last Friday I was 266 then two days ago 267.8 I'm thinking my weight is just fluctuating and I haven't lost anything yet

MsAmandaNJ

If you didn't take measurements before, grab a tape measure and get your numbers...they'll be more accurate than what a scale tells you.

My weight fluctuates by about three pounds, it's a range. As long as you see a downward trend, then you're doing fine. Stick with it!

jemhh

Log each weight and plot the trend over time. Libra is one app that will do this for you. I believe Happy Scale is another.

GottaBurnEmAll

You'll get used to it. Start using a trending app (if you're an app person, I'm not) like Trendweight or Happy Scale. I use Weightgrapher.com. It will smooth out the fluctuations for you on a graph and you'll see the trends over time.

You're just starting, and you'll see.

Some things to keep in mind that make weight go up temporarily due to water:

Higher sodium meals
Extra carbohydrates
Higher intensity exercise
New exercise

Disruptions to sleep and stress can also impact the scale and hormonal swings do their number on it as well. I started losing weight after menopause, so I don't have experience with that enough to talk about it.

VivianRosser

I think everyones weight fluctuates during the course of the day I have made it a practice to weigh at 9am every day

lulalacroix

Yup my weight is all over the place too, although I weight at the same time every single day. Always is. I'm using the Libra app for Android. It tracks the trends so I can see that it is still a downward trend.

CafeRacer808

+1 for Happy Scale or Libra. Also, we don't have a "true weight", we have a weight range of +/- a few pounds. This is why when most people hit maintenance, they aim for either staying within a certain range or staying below a top end weight limit.

try2again

I think you're asking a version of the question, "How do I know my *true* weight?" There is no such thing- it's changing all the time. When it comes time for maintenance, you won't be maintaining an exact #, but a 3-5 lb range. You can rightfully claim you've lost 4 lbs (and great job, BTW!) and while sometimes water weight fluctuations can mask our loss, it shows up on the scale eventually.

kshama2001

I gain at ovulation and right before my TOM. Because of this (and because Lyle McDonald said to) I compare myself to last month, not last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6846ZTBu08k&index=4&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr

holly1283

This was just the site I needed to read today. I was in a real funk. I'm not new to the program but totally was inside my head. Thank you people for your encouraging words.

SCoil123

I use trendweight to track the trend over time. It helps. My weight can fluctuate 3-5lb in the same day.

brdlady2

Try weighting once a week, at the same time and day. I weigh every Tuesday as soon as my feet hit the floor. That's it. If I went by the scales weighing two and three times a day, I would go crazy!!!!!! Your weight fluctuates throughout the day and at a certain time of month or maybe how much salt you take in!

jennifer_417

You kind of don't, really. What you want to look for is the overall downward trend.

kkress92

This points towards the argument to weigh yourself every day. There WILL be fluctuations., but if you only weigh weekly, you won't know if the number on the scale is a "high" or a "low" or if you're making progress or not.
I'll also +1 for using a trending app (I like Happy Scale) It smooths out the fluctuations and wards off discouragement. Happy Losing

Unknown

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Orphia

I've been using Happy Scale on the iPhone for 21 months, weighing myself every morning, and the data is SO useful!

crackpotbaby

Here's an example of my daily fluctuation over a month.

I've been weighing every morning, first thing, after a wee (to get a feel for day to day variance).



As you can see, the fluctuations can be dramatic but the trend shows the gradual weight loss.

callsitlikeiseeit

weigh and log once a week. there may still be fluctuations, but its an overall trend you want (so do this consistently for a month) and see where you are. if the number has not consistently gone down in that time frame, get tighter on your food logging and weighing and reduce the number of exercise calories you are eating back.

Azdak

For starters, you need a to have standard conditions to get meaningful results. That usuallly means weighing first thing in am, after the bathroom, naked or wearing same clothing, and before you do anything else. You'll still have day to day swings, but trying to compare weighing at different times each day will drive you nuts.