Had a gain and confused

size102b

I’ve lost a total of 54lbs - 26lbs since August the rest was on and off but kept 28lbs off when I stared in August

I still have 54 lbs to lose I’m female 49 and I walk 8 miles a day as I’m trying to build my fitness level up to join an exercise class I know I need to do weights as well.

Each week I lose 1-2 lbs which is good I eat quiet clean rarely drink alcohol and this week I had a meal out on Wednesday and all tracked and in budget and I gained 2.5 lbs
I didn’t eat much but it’s really disheartened me even though I know scales aren’t a liner and tape measure is my friend

Any ideas how to flush out this retained water as I know it’s not fat I didn’t eat much or maybe it’s my age perimenopause ?

chloerebecca0809

Always happens to me when ever I eat off plan. I’ve heard drinking water gets rid of water weight

size102b

Thankyou It’s a mindset killer for me I appreciate your nice reply 🌟

shadow2soul

It’s just from the extra sodium. Stay hydrated and it will go away on its own.

size102b

shadow2soul wrote: »

It’s just from the extra sodium. Stay hydrated and it will go away on its own.

Aww Thankyou will be glad when it does x

deannalfisher

body weight can and should fluctuate - you didn't do anything wrong and need to fix your mindset - i can easily swing 2-5lbs any given day of the week based on numerous factors (amount of sleep, sodium, have i traveled at all, hard workouts etc)

brenn24179

weight is crazy, you can gain from a meal or not lose for few weeks and then all of a sudden lose a bunch, just have to stick to it.

AnnPT77

Don't worry about it. Weight fluctuates, and most of the swing is either water weight or extra digestive system contents still in transit. (Weigh yourself. Drink 2 cups of water. Weigh again. Poof, you've gained a pound. So what? ).

Water weight fluctuations (can be 5 pounds or more) are part of how a normal, healthy body functions, and repairs/rejuvenates itself. You want it to happen; get comfortable with it.

Stay on track with healthy habits; hydrate adequately but not excessively; watch the scale patiently. It'll be fine.

If you know it's not fat, why worry about it?

kimny72

You don't flush it out, it's there for a reason. Let your body do what it's supposed to do.

You really do need to change that mindset. Weight fluctuates all the time, and once you reach goal weight it will still go up and down all the time. Your body has lots of stuff in it other than fat, that stuff fluctuates as a natural part of how your body works, and that will show on the scale.

Silentpadna

size102b wrote: »

Any ideas how to flush out this retained water as I know it’s not fat I didn’t eat much or maybe it’s my age perimenopause ?

You've done a great job so far of losing fat. What has happened here is a slight gain of weight, not fat. This "weight" is fluid. Your body retains, or releases fluid by design and virtually always for specific reasons.

Trying to game the system by "flushing it out" is more likely to hurt more than help. If your body needs it, it will retain it. When it doesn't, it won't. Let your body do what it's supposed to do and just recognize it.

SueSueDio

Like others have said, weight fluctuates All. The. Time.

Today, for example, I did something I never do - and that is weigh myself twice out of curiosity.

I woke up, used the bathroom, and weighed myself like always. My hubby had brought me a cup of tea, so I got a bowl of cereal and went back to bed to eat that and drink my tea. About an hour after the first weighing I got up, used the bathroom again and thought, "What the heck, let's just see how much tea and cereal weighs!"

Apparently it weighs one and a half pounds.

It was one cup of tea and one portion of cereal with milk - 30g of food and about 350ml of liquid. There is no way I ingested 1.5lbs of anything in that hour, but there you go!

This is why you have to learn to be okay with fluctuations in weight. Mine can shoot up 1-2lbs overnight just because I had a higher-sodium meal the day before. Women who are still having monthly cycles can see gains of 5-10lbs due to their hormones. If you're in perimenopause, your hormones are all over the place and may be messing with the scale in unpredictable ways. (And if you're not an everyday-weigher, you might notice even bigger fluctuations if you're not aware of how your daily choices affect you.)

Try not to worry. Keep doing what you've been doing, stay within your calorie goal (or at least under maintenance) most of the time, and you'll be fine!

phoebe112476

I have to remind myself of this often. It can be a tough balance for me because refusing to weigh myself and ignoring the problem led to where I was when I started this journey. But too much focus on weight causes a different set of issues. I usually lose 3 pounds a few days after gaining 2, it will happen soon for you.

Silentpadna

Nice chart. The saying always goes "Weight loss isn't linear". The corollary, of course, is that fat loss can very well be - if you are in a relatively consistent deficit. Since we know the process works if done correctly, the trend line can certainly be linear and a good representative of fat loss (when done over an appropriately long period of time).

When I look back at my loss, it was pretty close to linear. Daily fluctuations? Not even close. But when the process indicated I should be losing 1.5-2.0 pounds per week, that's exactly where I was. When I reduced the deficit to 1.0-1.5, again, that's exactly where I was. Keep in mind that those rates were measured over a minimum of 8 weeks. You still have to give enough time for the magnitude of the loss to be larger than the magnitude of the fluctuations.

Hardest part? Patience. Why? Because trusting the process when the scale lies to you is even harder. Just do the process.

Ddsb11

A trend weight app like Happy Scale has completely prevented me from self sabotage and negative thinking due to these absolutely normal fluctuations. Try it!

Unknown

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Tacklewasher

beacon8 wrote: »

I use happy scale too. It smooths out fluctuations really well.

If you don't do Apple stuff (Happy Scale is strictly Apple), then Libra is the android equivalent and for a web site there is trendweight.com. Just need to create a fitbit account.

kshama2001

Tacklewasher wrote: »

beacon8 wrote: »

I use happy scale too. It smooths out fluctuations really well.

If you don't do Apple stuff (Happy Scale is strictly Apple), then Libra is the android equivalent and for a web site there is trendweight.com. Just need to create a fitbit account.

Before I got a smart phone I used Excel.



@size102b I'm frankly shocked this is your first gain since August. I have temporary water weight gains twice per month - at ovulation at premenstrually. Now that you have only 54 pounds to lose you may see fluctuations more often. Do keep in mind that it is the overall downward trend that is important.

Dilvish

try weighing yourself several times during the day...you will be shocked at how much the scale can add or subtract within a matter of hours. Your one day "off track" is only human but unless you ate like a starving Lion it is unlikely that you gained 2.5 lbs overnight. The only explanation to that is water retention, likely due to the sodium content of the food on your night out.

Just remember to weigh yourself once a week rather than once a day because the scale is a guesstimate. Also note that you should weigh yourself at the same time every week, usually before breakfast.

I think we have all gone through this...when I started my weight loss journey I lost almost 10 lbs in 7 days (at roughly 900-1000 calories per day) and then freaked out when the following week I gained a pound of it back even though my diet and exercise remained the same from the previous week. it was water loss and retention...yup even men go through it....

Danp

Dilvish wrote: »

try weighing yourself several times during the day...you will be shocked at how much the scale can add or subtract within a matter of hours.

Absolutely.

I'll weight myself when I get home from work and can easily be 1lb-3lb lighter than I was when I weighed myself in the morning. Then I'll weight myself before going to bed and I'll easily be 3lb-4lb heavier than I was when I got home from work just a few hours earlier. Then, of course, those lb's will disappear overnight.

Weight is crazy