Weight loss

happygirl4582

Hi everybody. This is the first time I've posted anything. I've been doing MyFitnessPal for a month now and my weight keeps going up and down. So far I have lost about 5 lbs. I measure all the foods I eat and stay away from sugary snacks and beverages. I drink about 40-60 ozs of water and have been more active. But I'm starting to feel frustrated cuz cuz of the yoyo affect. Has anybody else experienced this? And if so what did you do to start losing weight again? All advise is greatly appreciated.

spiriteagle99

Weight always goes up and down on a daily basis. It depends on how much waste you have in your system (some things take longer to digest), how much salt you've eaten (water retention), how much exercise you've done (a lot of exercise can cause you to retain water, which helps to heal the muscles), how much sleep you've gotten, etc.

You need to take the long view. You said you've lost 5 lbs. in a month, that's great. Keep it up and you will find yourself a lot lighter by the end of the year. You can track your weight over the next month and see if the trend is downward, despite intermittent spikes up and down.. If it stresses you out too much, then don't weigh yourself every day. There are several threads on this subject that will show you that you are not alone. It is perfectly normal, and yes, very frustrating, but still very common.

JBanx256

5 pounds in a month is pretty quick, averaging 1.25 lbs/week!

LOTS of things can cause scale fluctuations (I believe there is one thread in particular dedicated just to that, so a quick search may yield something of interest for you).

Just this week, I've gone from 143.2 (5/22) up to 149.6 (5/25) and then down to 145.4 (today, 5/27). But I don't panic or get upset because I know that scale weight is influenced by what I've eaten, including sodium and carbohydrates, but also my hydration status, my uhmmm "elimination" (read: BM's, or lack thereof), as well as my training/activity, etc.

I consider my weight trend to be of more value than daily scale weight (if you don't have a weight trending app, that may be helpful for you)

sijomial

That weight yo-yo effect is normal and will continue when you get to goal weight.
It's your trend over weeks that matters, the daily numbers just all add up to create that trend.

Well done on losing that 5lbs - not seeing a problem you need to fix apart from your expectations and impatience!

Maybe next time you get a disappointing number try to picture yourself three months in the future looking back to today and consider how unimportant that a single disappointing day was?

springlering62

That’s perfectly, absolutely, humblingly normal. In fact, this whole process is humbling- and confusing.

So glad you ASKED instead of giving up like so many do.

May I suggest starting at the beginning of this thread? I saved this one up for times I felt overwhelmed. There’s a lot more to this process than simply stepping on the scale!!!

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv#latest

happygirl4582

Thank you all for responding. I'm glad to know this all normal, and that it's not just me lol. I plan on continuing because I'm determined to reach my goal.

ahoy_m8

Sounds like you are doing everything right. There are weight trend apps (Happyscale, Libra) that can help you see a general downward trend through the normal fluctuation. Alternatively, taking a 7 day rolling average helps smooth out the peaks and valleys, too. I think it's important, in general, to look at data in context vs. isolated data points which may or may not tell you much depending on the context. Keep up the good work!

Kate48Walks

I have found that my weight fluctuates daily up and down also. I weigh each morning but I "officially" count my weight on Friday mornings. That is the day I mark my weight loss/gain for the week. You are doing well losing 5 pounds in a month. Keep it going!!

westrich20940

Gonna suggest that you weigh yourself far less often if the up/down thing is gonna bother you a lot. That's how it goes, no way to change it. It's not going to go down in a linear way.

Weigh less often and you're more likely to see the scale go down more consistently (*there may still be times where that doesn't happen though and that's OK).

sasharose1974

Just keep up the good work. You'll do fine. Just work through it. Like several have said before. Don't weigh every day or even every week. It xan be disappointing and discouraging. Maybe every 2 weeks or once a month is best. I have to weigh less often or I get depressed and give up cause I don't see " fast enough" results. So knowing that I've learned to not disappoint myself by weighing often. Just take it slow and easy. It'll pay off and stay off longer if you do it that way.best of luck.

mtaratoot

Welcome to the subtleties of fluctuations. Weight loss isn't linear. In the last couple weeks, I've had days where I "gain" five pounds in one day and days when I "lose" three pounds another day. Crazy, right?

Check out these charts for a graphical explanation.






What I like to do is weigh every day and log the number in a spreadsheet. Actually I have two. One of them provides a ten-day moving average, and the other uses a slightly more sophisticated model that gives more importance to today's weight than the weight ten days ago. It can help smooth out the fluctuations, and I think it gives a better picture of what's really going on. There are online tools that can do this for you, and somewhere I have a Google Sheet I can share that you can use for your own data. I think it even has graphing features built in. For a deeper explanation of how it works, check out The Hackers Diet - especially the pages on Signal & Noise.

history_grrrl

You’re doing great and sound right on target; congrats! It’s exactly as others say; fluctuations are totally normal. I just went through this; was excited to be at 174, then frustrated to be back above 176 a few days later, but now I’ve hit 173 and am reminded that this is the trend.

If you go to Home, you’ll see a Check-in link to record your scale readings, and then Reports lets you see graphs showing trends of various kinds for 7, 30, 90, 180, etc., days. It’s a great tool. I’m using a browser, not an app, so I don’t know what people see in the app.

clarkeje1

People usually recommend weighing once a week but I have been weighing every day and then comparing the average of each week so that I can get used to seeing fluctuation on the scale and still see the progress of the averages going down.