Scale isn't budging. What keeps you going?

melodyjosie

Been trying to lose some extra weight I gained this year but after every week I weigh in and nothing is lost. Argh, it really puts a damper on my spirit. How does everyone try to stay motivated if the weight isn't budging, I feel like giving in but I really don't want to

janiceclark08

Really whats the alternative, if you go back to where you were you probably would be gaining, atleast I know I would. Do you measure or have a scale? The month I got one I had a 9 pound loss, bigger than any other month.Just keep trying , maybe change up what you have been eating.

LumberJacck

This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but I weigh daily just for the knowledge that if I've been at the same weight for 5+ days I know that I've gone off plan and need to eat less, or evaluate why I'm not losing anymore. I accept though that daily weighing can cause a stressful obsession with numbers (something I don't get).

What keeps me going on? I'm not too far from goal weight, and I'd love to reach it by my birthday (late Feb). Also I'm watching the TV series Lost (121 episodes) in parallel with my weight loss, if I stop losing, I can't watch any episodes.

IconStillFree

Knowing I have a lot of motherf*ckers to prove wrong

Stripeness

For me the weight is at the tail end of things, as it were. YES, I get frustrated if the scale doesn't move for a bit, but I remind myself to look at the more important stuff:
logging - did I? Consistently & accurately? Are there any easy tweaks I can make to eat better, or have I improved my eating (celebrate!)
exercise - did I? Screw the calories, this is about overall health, including mental health. Did it happen? (yes? celebrate! No? okay, today I'll at least walk)
sleep - am I? Enough? (yes? celebrate! no? re-commit to my own care!)
relax - did I? (yes? celebrate! no? schedule meditation time :-D)

I'm not losing weight fast, but I am down 39 lbs (25 w/MFP), and even when I mess up the above things, even for months...I'm not regaining. I can also now easily hike 10+ miles. So even though the scale doesn't go my way sometimes...*shrugs* this too shall pass.

Also, just a quick note of YMMV - everyone is different! Where LumberJ doesn't see plateaus for more than 5 days? I and many others have gone *weeks* (weighing food, & being on-plan) with a plateau, and then had the infamous "whoosh" downward (still on plan). VERY individual!

NaomiJFoster

For me, it really doesn't bother me much.

It might not be going down, but it's also not going up.

For several years, it just went up and up and up.

I turned it around. It's gone down. Then nothing. Then down. Then nothing. Then down. Then nothing.

But it hasn't gone back up.

That makes me insanely happy.