Weighing-in and alcohol

LeiLaura

Hi everyone, I'm nearly a week into my health kick and doing OK. Last night I had about 3 glasses of red wine. It was planned (well, two of them were!), so I allowed for it in my calories for the day, but I'm supposed to be weighing myself this morning - was looking forward to it even - and am now anxious in case the dehydration from the wine has caused water retention and thus will affect the scales today. I'm worried that I'll lose all my momentum if they haven't shifted. Like I said, it's the end of my first week, so the week I would ordinarily expect to lose the most water weight. I was relying on that for a boost, but now I don't know whether to wait till next week to weigh in, especially as I've seen some people comment that the extra pounds from drinking can take several days to come off... Help! Many thanks in advance.

Laura

missysippy930

Only a week may not show much.
If you have been at a calorie deficit, including the wine, you may show a loss, but it depends on other factors as well. Such as total amount you have to lose. Personally, I would weigh myself. Either way it could be an incentive to forge ahead.

88olds

Don’t you want to know? Weekly weigh ins are a good idea because working week to week is a good idea.

But this- its a 2 part process. Getting the scale moving with a downward trend over time. And living your life while you do it. Folks set weight loss up to be a departure from the reality of their lives, suffer through some weight loss, and then gain it back when they return to the real world. Sounds like drinking wine is part of living your life. Seeing how living matches with your weight loss plan is valuable information. Get on the scale and record the result. Then press ahead to next week.

Don’t concern yourself too much with motivation. It’s unreliable. Think in terms of building good habits, persistence and determination. You won’t last long in weight loss if you only want to do it when it feels good. Never quit.

LeiLaura

Thank you both so much, that's fantastic advice that I'm going to take! Here goes...

nkratcha

I try to weigh in daily and look at the average for the week. At first I felt disappointed by all of the fluctuations, especially when the scale went in the wrong direction, but that helped me realize my weight will go up and down for many different reasons. For me, once a week was hard since my weight fluctuates quite a bit from day to day and I found that if my weekly numbers didn't show progress I would feel like I was failing, so the weekly average was a better indicator of my progress. This doesn't work for everyone and I agree that it is more about persistence and taking it one day at a time. Don't let one day (or hour) derail all of the rest of your hard work...and it is hard work! Keep telling yourself "You've got this!"

KeelyM423

I like beer and the calories in beer is shocking. 8)

LeiLaura

Thanks, nkratcha! I like the idea of averaging out, it puts less pressure on each individual weigh-in, though I'm worried I'd be too obsessed... Will maybe play around and see what I end up with feeling the least stressful Though I did weigh myself in the end and had a loss of 2lb since Thursday! Woohoo!

cmriverside

Congrats on that first two pounds.

When I am in weight loss mode I weigh myself every day. It's a good habit, and it gives invaluable data points to match with real life events and intakes.

LeiLaura

Thanks! Yes, I'm seriously considering it

grimendale

I too weigh myself most to every day on Libra so that I can see the trend lines (plus it takes a lot of the pressure off from any individual weigh in).

lapesadilla

There's just so much that can affect a weigh-in, including alcohol, sodium, fiber, hormornes, sleep schedules, time of day, time of month, whether you've pooped lately... you can't keep them all under your thumb, so try not to worry too much. You gotta live your life and it's good that you made room for a little treat. Weigh ins are only really useful for the long-term trend they eventually reveal. I weigh in daily and track on Libra to visualize the trend, and don't stress the ups and downs because the real progress will make itself evident. You could also try weighing monthly instead, so that small fluctuations won't wash out the larger amount of loss.

You're doing good. Try not to worry about making the scale mad.

LeiLaura

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I'll keep on keeping on