my weight went UP.... help!

silentKayak

Weigh every day, and use an excel chart like Vismal suggests or an app like HappyScale that will give you a 7-day moving average of your weight. That will even out the fluctuations. Once you've done that and set up a trendline, your predicted weight is generally a better estimate of your weight today than your measured weight. Weird but true.

Kalikel

You have a lot of weight to lose, so get used to scale fluctuations. Do not freak when it goes up. It will come back down. I know that when you first see it, you're like, "What?! Why?! From where?! I've done everything right! HOW CAN IT GO UP?!?!!"

It happens. If you eat a lot of sodium, if you're going to have your period, if you fly...any number of things can raise it.

This is going to happen over and over again. The little line on the graph will go up and down, peaks and valleys. Watch the overall trend and do not allow yourself to become too happy or sad over Today's Number.

I wish I knew how to post my line graph for you. But there are hills, valleys and a mountain.

It will go down.

Keep up the good work!!

DrJenO

This is why I love graphs! lol #nerdalert. Graphs and averages show you what is actually happening. When people say "the scale lies" they really mean "I don't look at enough data points for the scale results to be useful".

Is my geek showing?? :blushing:

I love numbers and graphs. It satisfies some kind of primal need.

Google Hacker's Diet. He has a (free) online tool that does something similar - you can also run reports over the prior month/quarter/year, whatever.

JudyCanton

Hey, I just started my journey to lose weight about a month and a half ago. I had this problem and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I lost 18 pounds in one month and 5 more pounds after without much exercise and it's been a life changer. I'm a little embarrassed to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I've been doing then I'd be happy to help in any way. Just shoot me an email at judycanton@gmail.com and I'll show you my before and after photos, and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I've tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day.

BeginningNoStop

nice workout plan..

Kari121869

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log. After 7 days, take an average. This number is slightly more meaningful then your daily weights but again, pay little attention to it. After a month start comparing the averages. This is much more significant and will show your actual progress. The advantage of averaging is if you happen to weigh in on a day where water retention is unusually high or low due to sodium or glycogen or any of the MILLION different things that cause fluctuations, you don't have to freak about the massive shift in weight. The averages will account for the high days and the lows days and give you an idea of what you really weigh. After a month goes by, your averages should go in the downward direction, if they do not then you need to either reduce calories, increase exercise, or both.

Yup. This is exactly what I do. Daily weights go into MFP and get averaged weekly in a google drive spreadsheet:






Notice a few points in there where I could have freaked out? Where my weight went up for no reason?

It's because weight loss is not linear. There are a ton of reasons for your weight to fluctuate day to day (water weight, digestion, etc). Anything less than a 5 - 10 lb shift is not significant (sorry, but its not). Meaning that in the statistical world, you wouldn't be able to find a statistically significant difference.

All that matters is the trend. You can not see a trend on the scale of days/weeks. It has to be months. Refer to my graphs as for why.

This is why I love graphs! lol #nerdalert. Graphs and averages show you what is actually happening. When people say "the scale lies" they really mean "I don't look at enough data points for the scale results to be useful".

I WOULD LOVE a copy of that spreadsheet to use at home!!!

VelveteenArabian

.2 pounds is within a reasonable margin of error based on a lot of stuff. I wouldn't worry about it.

Oscarinmiami

its just water weight...no big deal

_Zardoz_

I need some opinions here.. I believe this is my 35th or 36th day of straight logging on MFP and I've lost 20 lbs to date (woohoo). This morning, however, I gained .2lbs back - I know I know, not a huge deal but I haven't weighed in for 10 days. The only change from this weigh-in to the previous ones is that I started strength training 3 days a week, nothing crazy but I do 3 reps of 10 on all the weight machines in my gym. I know muscle weighs more than fat but it's been a week!!

Here are some other things because I know people will ask, hopefully I thought of everything My main thing is that I'm not weighing in for another 10 days and I want to fix whatever I'm doing wrong now so I don't "waste" 20 days.

Weight - 275
Height - 5'5"
29 year old female
Typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout - 45 minutes elliptical and 45 minutes strength training
Typical Tuesday, Thursday workout - 45 minute stationary bike and 45 minutes swimming
Saturday and Sunday - I take these days off but I still try to get my 10,000 steps in
Average calorie intake - 1600
I drink between 10-14 cups of water per day (I don't count milk towards that if I have cereal etc)
My diet is pretty good, I would say 70% of the time I'm good on the healthy food and 30% of the time I will have a piece of candy, some chips or mashed potatoes with dinner... nothing too major.

Am I not eating enough calories? I dunno... here's my fitbit report from last week, just can't believe I gained - I log EVERYTHING even when I don't eat what I'm supposed to.

I'm thinking you need to step back and get some perspective . You've lost 20 pounds and put on .2 pounds so you've put on a glass of water!! Your body naturally fluctuates (up to 5 pounds a day) get used to it otherwise you'll drive yourself insane

Continue what you're doing and calm down

nicsflyingcircus

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log. After 7 days, take an average. This number is slightly more meaningful then your daily weights but again, pay little attention to it. After a month start comparing the averages. This is much more significant and will show your actual progress. The advantage of averaging is if you happen to weigh in on a day where water retention is unusually high or low due to sodium or glycogen or any of the MILLION different things that cause fluctuations, you don't have to freak about the massive shift in weight. The averages will account for the high days and the lows days and give you an idea of what you really weigh. After a month goes by, your averages should go in the downward direction, if they do not then you need to either reduce calories, increase exercise, or both.

I
Yup. This is exactly what I do. Daily weights go into MFP and get averaged weekly in a google drive spreadsheet:




Notice a few points in there where I could have freaked out? Where my weight went up for no reason?

It's because weight loss is not linear. There are a ton of reasons for your weight to fluctuate day to day (water weight, digestion, etc). Anything less than a 5 - 10 lb shift is not significant (sorry, but its not). Meaning that in the statistical world, you wouldn't be able to find a statistically significant difference.

All that matters is the trend. You can not see a trend on the scale of days/weeks. It has to be months. Refer to my graphs as for why.

I need to figure out how to go this in google drive!!! I want a graph and I weigh daily but haven't always entered every days weight in MFP

_HeartsOnFire_

I need some opinions here.. I believe this is my 35th or 36th day of straight logging on MFP and I've lost 20 lbs to date (woohoo). This morning, however, I gained .2lbs back - I know I know, not a huge deal but I haven't weighed in for 10 days. The only change from this weigh-in to the previous ones is that I started strength training 3 days a week, nothing crazy but I do 3 reps of 10 on all the weight machines in my gym. I know muscle weighs more than fat but it's been a week!!

Here are some other things because I know people will ask, hopefully I thought of everything My main thing is that I'm not weighing in for another 10 days and I want to fix whatever I'm doing wrong now so I don't "waste" 20 days.

Weight - 275
Height - 5'5"
29 year old female
Typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout - 45 minutes elliptical and 45 minutes strength training
Typical Tuesday, Thursday workout - 45 minute stationary bike and 45 minutes swimming
Saturday and Sunday - I take these days off but I still try to get my 10,000 steps in
Average calorie intake - 1600
I drink between 10-14 cups of water per day (I don't count milk towards that if I have cereal etc)
My diet is pretty good, I would say 70% of the time I'm good on the healthy food and 30% of the time I will have a piece of candy, some chips or mashed potatoes with dinner... nothing too major.

Am I not eating enough calories? I dunno... here's my fitbit report from last week, just can't believe I gained - I log EVERYTHING even when I don't eat what I'm supposed to.

I'm thinking you need to step back and get some perspective . You've lost 20 pounds and put on .2 pounds so you've put on a glass of water!! Your body naturally fluctuates (up to 5 pounds a day) get used to it otherwise you'll drive yourself insane

Continue what you're doing and calm down

QFT

and maybe this blog will help…

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/the-path-of-success-631437