I Actually Gained Weight.. How!?

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OpalFruitJam
OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Not to blow my own trumpet here but I feel I have been rather good this week considering it was Christmas and I had a lot of parties to go to with family.
I ate a small portion of Christmas dinner and ate half of everything on my plate at an expensive meal out yesterday. I have had no alcohol all week and haven't snacked on Christmas treats.

I have been to the gym 4 times this week.
I weighed myself today, exactly a week since I last weighed and I have out put on 2lb. Even if that is water weight that means I haven't lost anyything.

I am so disheartened. I may as well have enjoyed Christmas without having to count calories. I feel it has all gone to waste.
Sorry for the rant, I am just gutted.
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  • teetee1281
    teetee1281 Posts: 1,076 Member
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    I think that is why we are here, for the days that are rough or when we just need someone to express ourselves too! I'm sorry that you feel that you did not get to enjoy your Christmas meals and you still gained, but it might actually be water weight. If you weigh yourself weekly, wait until your next weigh in and you probably will have done a lot better than you expected.
  • OpalFruitJam
    OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
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    I weighed again, moving the scales to a different part of the kitchen. With this weigh-in, it stated I had lost 3lb. I am confused, what should I go with? The heavier reading r the lighter reading? :S Thanks! :)
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
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    Weigh a third time and go two out of three. Our scale plays that game too
  • Rosebud1956
    Rosebud1956 Posts: 56
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    Good idea Vicky. Lol! My scales does the same thing..
  • teetee1281
    teetee1281 Posts: 1,076 Member
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    If you keep moving your scale, use a weight to find out if it is balance or not. That will be the best way to know what weight is the most accurate.
  • linzismith
    linzismith Posts: 139 Member
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    also, i know it's hard, but i only weight myself once every three weeks, two at most. i can't handle the emotional disappointment of not seeing the results i want. i find that, the longer i wait, the more likely i am to see results each time i step on the scale, and that's really encouraging.

    if that's too hard, think about this: how old is your scale? it's one of those things we tend to hang on to for ten plus years. maybe as a Christmas present to yourself, buy a fancy new one that even (roughly) counts body fat percentage. that's what i did. seems like if so much of your self-contentment is riding on what this little machine says, you might as well get one you can trust.

    hope you had a wonderful christmas in spite of the disappointment at the end of the week.
  • Jessica68
    Jessica68 Posts: 2,419 Member
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    My NEW electronic scale does that too and it will change from one second to the next by up to 3 lbs.

    I tried to test to see if its balanced by using weights as suggested and it wouldnt weight. I used two 10pd dumbbells and then I added a 3pd to that and still nothing.

    Anyone got a GOOD scale they feel is fairly reliable? I'm considering buying a different one. The one I have is a Healthometer but it wasn't the more expensive one, this one was about $20.
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,728 Member
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    I have a Tanita, and I really like it. It is consistent time after time. I read a bunch of online reviews before I decided which one to get. This one also does body fat percentage, but that part is far from accurate, which is what the reviews also said, but they said the scale's accuracy in weighing was spot on.
  • cashmandue
    cashmandue Posts: 26 Member
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    I can understand the frustration with the scale. I agree, try to weigh yourself only once a week, in the same spot, at the same time of day, etc.
    I weighed myself Wednesday and I was way down. I weighed myself this morning and it was closer to what I would expect.
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    People's weights fluctuate by 2 lbs in the course of a day, and your 2 lbs is probably water weight. How much water did you drink over the holiday? I noticed a lot of the food we ate is high in sodium, so I really hunkered down & got to work on that water. I did gain, but I'm working on getting it back off through drinking water. A good goal is 3-4 quarts a day.
  • barbiecat
    barbiecat Posts: 16,980 Member
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    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: I weigh myself under identical circumstances first thing and last thing every day and record the weight on a chart I keep in the bathroom. I don't take any individual weight seriously but watch the trends. I never record a weight onMFP until I have been there and below for a week. I notice the changes that come from unusual eating (restaurants, friends' houses) and figure that there was too much sodium. I notice how my clothes fit. All of this together tells me what is going on. I am so excited today to be able to go back to my regular way of eating. Even though I did well over the several holiday events, it was nothing like the real way I eat.

    My new rule for this week "Do not be discouraged" :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
  • nebulas
    nebulas Posts: 49 Member
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    are you just starting to work out? Perhaps you gained quite a bit of muscle recently.
  • OpalFruitJam
    OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
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    are you just starting to work out? Perhaps you gained quite a bit of muscle recently.


    I have been to the gym around 4 times this week, but am not doing anything intense. Feel free to look at my exercise and food diarys :)

    I have no idea, I am just disappointed after a hard christmas slog!
  • OpalFruitJam
    OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
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    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: I weigh myself under identical circumstances first thing and last thing every day and record the weight on a chart I keep in the bathroom. I don't take any individual weight seriously but watch the trends. I never record a weight onMFP until I have been there and below for a week. I notice the changes that come from unusual eating (restaurants, friends' houses) and figure that there was too much sodium. I notice how my clothes fit. All of this together tells me what is going on. I am so excited today to be able to go back to my regular way of eating. Even though I did well over the several holiday events, it was nothing like the real way I eat.

    My new rule for this week "Do not be discouraged" :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

    Thankyou! I am unsure, I am hoping to see results by next week, maybe one week is a bit too optimistic? I am also excited about going back to eating well, I have had to eat the food put on for me by family members even though it is very rich and creamy!
    So I can finally go back to eating properly thank goodness!
    Thankyou for the encouragement :)
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    You can be up 5 pounds in water weight- so perhaps you actually lost 3 pounds. :tongue:
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    I think you're putting too much emphesis on the scale. I know from playing around with the scale my weight fluctaites as much a 7 lbs in a day.

    If you just started working out I doubt you gained muscle. What is most likely the case is the muscles that haven't been worked before are retaining water... What ever the reason, don't worry about it. Count your calories, and keep working out.
  • OpalFruitJam
    OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
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    Thanks for all the kind messages and support guys! I will stick at it and hopefully see some sort of result by next week (if I don't I might just go crrrrazy)

    :P
  • twilight1542
    twilight1542 Posts: 403
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    2 things.....1st...it could be water weight. I had a week where I ate out twice but stayed w/in calories both times. On Sunday I had 0lbs lost even though I'm set for 2lbs & had been consistently losing it :( The next week I was down 4 lbs :) Only possible explanation was water weight from eating more sodium than usual!

    2nd, inaccurate scale. I had an old analog scale that would change every time I stepped on it, varying up to 15lbs :/ So I read a bunch of reviews & ended up getting a Tanita scale with the bells a whistles ( body fat %, water % etc). It's very reliable. The biggest difference I've ever seen is .2lbs. But it is sensitive to location. It has to be on a hard level surface (hardwood, tile, etc good...carpet bad). If it's on an uneven or soft surface or you're standing off center (it has clearly marked spots for heel & ball of foot) it will give wacky readings :)
  • HonestOmnivore
    HonestOmnivore Posts: 1,356 Member
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    You look pretty small, but at my weight (200 plus) 2 lbs is easy to add with a little more salt in my diet. It seems like a lot of the foods this time of year are salty....:grumble:

    I track my weight every day in a spread sheet, and compute the five day average the next column over. It's the five day average that I use to determine my current weight . Of course I use the actual day's weight for my weigh ins and stuff but its the average weight that I use for my own tracking.

    You will gain good weigh from the exercise so watch your measurements more than your weight! Your close will start to fit differently and your face will change a little - that's how you'll know its really working!:smile:

    GOOD LUCK!
  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
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    Actually, you could still have lost some. Water weight can fluctuate as much as 3-4 pounds. So let's say you've gained 4 lb. of water and lost 2 pounds.... scale shows a gain of 2 but you've actually lost 2.

    Increasing your exercise can definitely cause you to gain water weight for the first week or two as well.

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