What do you do when the scale reads that you gained weight?
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These are some of my monthly graphs of weight... I am losing on a downward trend which is great, but notice all the little up-ticks on the line? Those are where my weight increased temporarily. It happens, it's normal, it's usually retained water, waste in the digestive tract, or consumed meals in the stomach. Trust that you did not spontaneously gain 1-3lbs (or whatever it said you gained) of fat in the matter of a few days or overnight.
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I note the weight, think about what is going on. I would look at the trend over time rather than 1 weigh in.
Questions I would ask myself:
Did I eat a lot of sodium, carb heavy foods recently?
Did I stick to my calorie goal? Did I log everything as accurately as I could?
Did I exercise more than normal recently?
What time of the month is it?
Has it been several weeks since the scale changed or has it been going up steadily?
Have my measurements changed?
Did I use the toilet?
Is my scale wonky?
If you just started 1 day ago you need to be patient and cut out the judgement of yourself based on the scale reading. It takes time to change and see results.
You might want to use a weight trend app or site like trend weight, happy scale, weight grapher.
Do some reading:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10359984/women-menstrual-cycle-weight-and-fitness-matters/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10575000/water-weight-gain-stop-panicking#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p12 -
No, she means muscle weighs more than fat by volume. And, yes, that's because it is more dense. The "by volume" is implied. No one thinks one pound of one thing weighs more than one pound of another. That makes no sense. Why anyone would ever think that's what someone means by that sentence is beyond me.4 -
donnapal79 wrote: »
No, she means muscle weighs more than fat by volume. And, yes, that's because it is more dense. The "by volume" is implied. No one thinks one pound of one thing weighs more than one pound of another. That makes no sense. Why anyone would ever think that's what someone means by that sentence is beyond me.
Actually, you’d be surprised... between “muscle weighs more than fat ” and “a calorie is a calorie” I’m not sure which seemingly obvious and straightforward statement gets people more confused and worked up on these boards...
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When I was new to losing it would bug me but also because I weighed every day I was very quickly able to see the pattern in the overall loss. Even after only a few weeks I knew that an up on the scale, if I knew I had been eating properly, was just part of the pattern and it would rectify itself.
These days I know before I step on if it's going to be up or down or about the same. I have started doing a little mental check in before I step on, check out the visuals, quick thoughts over what I ate yesterday and such, so I can keep a better overall understanding of what goes on.4 -
I try to determine the cause. For example, I'm up 1.8 pounds because of water bloat even though i've only eaten at maintenance 1 day in the past month, and every other day was at 1350 or less. I just try an be patient and understand that weight loss isn't linear. It's frustrating to see, but I'm more calm about it if I know what it's from.2
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I regard it as a data point and move on.What do you do when the scale reads that you gained weight?
I weigh daily and enter my weight into a trending app. I understand that fluctuations are perfectly normal and I know that there are numerous causes for them, so it's not disturbing to me at all.
If I see an upward trend over time, that tells me I need to be more vigilant toward my calorie intake because I'm getting too loose with things and eating more than I think.3 -
Have a glass of water.0
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amandawhatup62 wrote: »Today was the first day that on my weight loss journey, the scale stated I gained weight... I feel totally discouraged. Granted, I haven’t been making the best of choices this past week... I know this next week I’ll see better results, but as of today, I feel horrible... how do you get back on track from feeling so bad?!? I literally feel disgusted with myself...
As everyone's already said -
Weight loss isn't linear. You will likely run into the same situation again in the future, don't get discouraged, this is generally normal. If you know you're not sticking to your plan like you know you should, try to anticipate what the weigh in is going to be; we know there's a cause to every effect. Take ownership, it's a part of the journey.
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donnapal79 wrote: »
No, she means muscle weighs more than fat by volume. And, yes, that's because it is more dense. The "by volume" is implied. No one thinks one pound of one thing weighs more than one pound of another. That makes no sense. Why anyone would ever think that's what someone means by that sentence is beyond me.
You would be absolutely shocked the amount that the implied 'by volume' doesn't actually happen here. We correct, double-check, and move on. Not only that, this context didn't make sense for it at all, especially with her thread. You don't put on that much muscle this quickly, either.
I wish. I'm technically in 'maintenance', but I'm working on my muscle mass. Likely slow gain of 2-5lbs muscle depending on how it goes.0 -
If this helps, have a look at my 2.5 years chart. See all the tiny bumps? Each of them was my weight temporarily going up. See the overall downward trend? That's my weight actually going down, despite all the tiny bumps. So, perfectly normal.
I've now been in maintenance for a year. This doesn't mean my weight is always exactly the same. It goes up and down within a narrow range (between 136 and 140 lbs). Again, this means that when I weigh myself, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down.
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I check my food diary to see if there is anything obvious I did wrong. If there isn't I accept it as a natural fluctuation. If there is, I learn from it. Up and down is normal, but logging to see an overall trend is the way to see progress in the long term.
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If it's one weigh in that is up, I don't worry about it if I see the overall trend starting to creep up, I get back to basics, which usually just means ensuring I am being accurate in my logging. The only time my trend tends to creep up is around a holiday.
Anyway, I am sure there are plenty of examples above anyway but I will go ahead and post the first 6 months of my weight loss and a handy infographic about water weight.
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I feel the same way. I worked out 5 days did over 10k steps ate super healthy stayed on my calorie intake with out going over! And I gained 2lbs. I do feel bloated but it’s so annoying. I won’t give up though.0
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Have a good little swear. Then regroup and get back to it.
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Normally give the scales a kick, swear that I'm giving up, it's just a waste of time...etc, etc...then log what I'm going to be eating that day and carry on as I always do lol.1
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If it happens for one week, I don't do anything, continue as normal.
If it happens for two weeks, I don't do anything, continue as normal.
If it happens for three weeks, I don't do anything, continue as normal.
If it happens for four weeks, then I start looking at what I am eating and adjust.4 -
Now I don't have the world's most expensive scale, but I have seen my weight as reported by the scale fluctuate by as much as 6lb in a SINGLE DAY depending on whether I weighed myself after waking up, after exercising, after eating, etc. I am about 150lb so 6lb of fluctuation means that my body weight as measured by the scale is fluctuating by as much as 4% during the day depending on what I just did.
So in other words, weight loss isn't linear.0 -
Part of succeeding is choosing over and over again not to quit, no matter how bad you feel or how many mistakes you make.3
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I think "That time of the month already?" and check my sanitary supplies.1
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I ask myself a question and answer it honestly: "Have you been eating more than typical lately, such as going out to dinner more often, having more wine, taking nibbles of the kids' food? Or have you skipped some workouts?" If the answer to that is YES, I remind myself that this sort of behavior will lead to scale creep. Which means even if the pound gained was "sodium" or "undigested food" or whatever, science says that this type of behavior will likely lead to the number on the scale increasing over time.
If the answer to my question is NO, I just go back to my regular behavior and shrug it off. It IS true that undigested food/sodium/whatever can cause the numbers to bloat up a bit, and this is a fact of life.
BTW, sometimes I willingly continue behavior that will make the scale creep up because I'm a human being. Sometimes I stress-eat, go on vacations or deprioritize dieting. when this happens, I do anticipate a small gain. I think being honest with myself makes it easier for me to handle gains when they happen because a weight gain isn't an indictment of character or morality, but simply what happens when you eat more food than you need to maintain. But, I'd be lying if I said these gains have no impact on my mood that morning...they are not fun, even if they are expected!2 -
Amanda, I know how you feel- "been there, done that". This is easier said than done, but don't let the scale get you down. The scale is not the be-all, end-all of weight loss. It's water weight, most likely. Do not beat yourself up over it. Just learn from the experience and move forward. Whatever you have gained will come right back off again so long as you don't give up. "Get fit don't quit!"1
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amandawhatup62 wrote: »Today was the first day that on my weight loss journey, the scale stated I gained weight... I feel totally discouraged. Granted, I haven’t been making the best of choices this past week... I know this next week I’ll see better results, but as of today, I feel horrible... how do you get back on track from feeling so bad?!? I literally feel disgusted with myself...
I understand that my body is a complex machine.
Recently, I did a 38.5 mile bike ride, ate three bananas, then a brat with no bun. I had a 2000 plus calorie deficit for that day.
Next day, I was 5 pounds heavier.
Why? I didn't eat 17500 calories worth of food.
But my body retained water to repair muscles.
Don't let ONE day fluctuations get you down. Look at the long term trend.
I probably lost a pound or two each day after that for the next three or four days. I certainly wasn't in a 3500-7000 calorie deficit each day.
My body was doing what it needed to do to repair muscles. When done with the water and other products, my body disposed of them.
Your body weight is more than just fat. It will rise and fall based on many factors. Fat gain or loss is merely one of those factors.0 -
amandawhatup62 wrote: »Today was the first day that on my weight loss journey, the scale stated I gained weight... I feel totally discouraged. Granted, I haven’t been making the best of choices this past week... I know this next week I’ll see better results, but as of today, I feel horrible... how do you get back on track from feeling so bad?!? I literally feel disgusted with myself...
I realize that it's normal and that body weight fluctuates naturally and it has zero effect on me because I watch trends, not weigh in to weigh in numbers.
You're going to need to get a handle on this, or maintenance is going to drive you bat *kitten* crazy because you're never going to weigh exactly XXX Lbs all of the time.1 -
When I'm done sobbing and gnashing my teeth, I run to my 2 best friends for sweet consolation: Ben and Jerry!0
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I only log "new lows," so I have built in the expectation that my scale WILL show higher numbers many days. If I don't have a "new low" after a few of weeks, I'm not surprised b/c I know I haven't been doing all that I need to do. In other words, I know before I get on a scale whether or not I can reasonably expect to show a "true" gain, or if is just fluctuation. If I am doing everything I need to do and not cutting corners, I will lose--it's that simple. Anything the scale says outside of that is just the noise of life--more salt this day, more inflammation from a hard workout that day, not enough water one day (which makes me retain what I do get), etc.
We know when we are not being honest with ourselves, so I don't worry when I have been honest and the scale doesn't move. It will move--in the right direction--sooner or later.
Good luck and hang in there.2
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