Weight fluctuations

huggit

I have been doing my fitness pal for 2 weeks, I had lost 3 pounds and this morning I have put one back on, I have been exercise daily, and sticking to my calorie goal, including some of the exercise calories. I have entered in lightly active, and I want to lose a pound a week. Could this just be a normal weight fluctuation. I am trying to remain calm, because usually when I see a negative weight gain even a little, I give up totally.( Been trying to lose weight for years) Can someone give me a positive spin, so that I keep going. I really do want to lose weight this time.

Lietchi

Of course it's a normal weight fluctuation. You didn't eat 3500 calories over maintenance, did you?
Just look at the weight loss trend over several weeks (4 to 6 weeks for premenopausal women). You've lost 2 lbs in 2 weeks. Which is precisely what you were aiming for!
Your weight will fluctuate, due to more/less carbs, more/less salt, more/less food waste in your system, hormones,... So trust the process and don't panic, make adjustments only if the trend is upwards over a longer period of time

And read this, if you haven't already: https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

A lot of people here use a weight trend app such as Happy Scale to filter out the 'noise' of weight fluctuations.

thelastnightingale

How often have you been weighing? If you weigh daily, you can see the fluctuations more clearly.

You will weight more if:

- You weight yourself earlier than usual
- You're about to get, or have already got your period
- You haven't been to the toilet yet
- You ate something the day before that was high in salt
- You ate your last meal later than usual

Daily weighing isn't for everyone (you have to be sure it won't freak you out!) but it's what helped me understand my body's natural fluctuations. Period weight for example is pretty discouraging unless you've weighed yourself daily before and you know the weight gain is truly just temporary and will fall off as your period comes to an end.

In the past, my weight has fluctuated up to a couple of pounds heavier from some of the above examples. It's never been 'real' though. It only becomes real if you freak out and start eating because you give up - if you accept it's temporary and will sort itself out, it magically goes wooosh overnight one night and you're back where you should be.

huggit

Gone up a pound today ! Done nothing wrong. Teetering on the edge now 🥺

Lietchi

My weight is up over a pound today too. Probably because of my run yesterday, and a higher than usual carb intake.

The above comments still apply be patient and it can't hurt to check some things:
- Are you weighing everything you eat and drink? Making sure you are using correct database entries?
- you've chosen lightly active as your activity level, did you choose this based on your daily activity level excluding your exercise?

huggit

Hi thank you for responding. Really kind of you. Lightly active is because I do try to keep on my feet, cleaning, cooking etc why do you think I should reduce my activity? I do 30 minutes aerobic type exercise a day this is added on and I eat back half of this. I try to have a walk as well but don’t add this in.

Lietchi

huggit wrote: »

Hi thank you for responding. Really kind of you. Lightly active is because I do try to keep on my feet, cleaning, cooking etc why do you think I should reduce my activity? I do 30 minutes aerobic type exercise a day this is added on and I eat back half of this. I try to have a walk as well but don’t add this in.

I just asked because some people include their exercise in their MFP activity level and on top of that log it separately and eat back the calories (aka 'double counting') But that's not the case for you, so no problem.

MichelleMcKeeRN

I exercise regularly and don’t add back any calories. I set my weight loss to 1/2 pound loss per week and consider the exercise calories a bonus. I am 5’2 and have my calorie limit set to 1495.
Also, I gain weight right after I work out really hard. I don’t know why but it is consistently true. When the soreness is gone, the weight drops down too. In addition, I would suggest doing measurements since you workout. I lost a few pounds but a couple inches off my lower waist (bellybutton line). The scale doesn’t reflect how much smaller and firmer a few pounds of added muscle and a few pound loss of fat looks.

cwolfman13

huggit wrote: »

Gone up a pound today ! Done nothing wrong. Teetering on the edge now 🥺

Do you understand the math? It is mathematically impossible to gain 1 Lb of actual fat in a day unless you consume 3500 calories over your maintenance...you would definitely know and feel that if you did. Bodyweight isn't static...it fluctuates naturally. Your body is comprised of roughly 55-65% water and that is always going to fluctuate...guess what...water has mass and thus weight. You're also always going to have varying degrees of inherent waste in your system...that also has mass and thus weight. Weight management is about long term trends over time, not day to day variances.

Shortgirlrunning

If you weigh daily it’s really helpful to use an app like Happy Scale (Apple) or Libra (Android) to track it. Either app will give you a moving average for your weight and smooth out the fluctuations.

podperson1

As people have posted weight fluctuations are totally normal. I weigh every day as I find it useful to observe them, but if it's starting to demotivate you then maybe cut back to just weighing once a week? (I only record once a week) I have been doing this for almost 4 months now and my progress looks exactly like the diagram above but the overall curve is going down Stick with it x