Kind Of Discouraged

Measure over a long period of time - it will average out. Be patient.

I would suggest weighing yourself only once a week. Pick a day and a time of day that works best for you (for example: I weight myself on Friday mornings when I get to the gym). As far as calories burned I use a Heart Rate Monitor but before that I just used the numbers from here and they aren't too far off from my HRM on most things. My starting stats were similar to yours (5'5" 158lbs) and I set my numbers at 1 pound a week loss and ate my exercise calories back. The hardest part is having patience but I promise over time you will start to see and feel the differences! Good luck!

Hey ISIS786,

If you are going to weigh daily do it at the same time each day.
Do not worry about a pound or two difference in a given day. You have to look at your progress over weeks/months.
Are you logging your food here? If so, maybe open it up so people can view it and provide feedback. If not, logging food is really helpful in getting a grip on what we are eating.

Glad you are here!

Your weight will fluctuate a lot from day to day, so best to only weigh once a week and check under "reports" section on MFP for a nice graph that shows whether you're losing weight over a longer period of time.

Hi

You need to weigh yourself at the same time of day - you will fluctuate 2lbs over the course of a day. I agree also try to only weigh once a week.

I am about 5'6 and started at 166 lbs. As of yesterday I weighed in at 165 and this morning I weighed 162.5. I'm looking to lose approx. 20-25 lbs. How can I accurately know if I'm actually losing weight with these big flucuations??!!

I don't think these are big fluctuations. My weight fluctuates like this every day. It's natural - you're lighter when you get up, after you've been for a poo, etc, and heavier after you've had a big meal, or when it's that time of the month. That is why I wait a while before updating my weight on here - I will weigh myself at the gym, and over a couple of weeks or so I will start to see a trend. For instance, if you're seeing 162 a lot more than you're seeing 165, then you can record your weight as 162 (or 163 to be on the conservative side). What I do is record my maximum weight over the two weeks. As you lose weight, your maximum weight will decrease.

Overall trends.

Some folks are good about weighing only once a week.
Me, I'm toooooo curious to wait that long.

If you are going to weigh more often, you've got think of it like tracking the stock market, you can't let the fluctuations bother you, but track and chart to keep an eye on overall trends.

As long as your overall trend is heading in the right direction you are doing okay.

When the number on the scale goes down, I won't enter it into MFP unless I've maintained it (or lower) for at least 3 days in a row.

Also I always take my "for the record weight" in the morning (pre breakfast, post-potty.)
But I do weigh at different times of the day to see what my natural range is my evening weight is about 3-5 more than my morning weight. So I try not to stress over a 3- 5 lb fluctuation.

I found it helpful when I first started out to weigh myself first thing in the morning, (and even in the evening sometimes before bed) and to write it down. I had never really examined my weight that closely, so it was interesting to see the fluctuations -- time of day, time of the month, before eating, after eating, after a "bad diet" day, etc. Some days my weight varies by as much as a couple of pounds. What I do, though, is only really pay close attention to the number once a week. That's my "official" weigh day, and when I update it here on the site. I personally like having it written down each morning so I can go back and look straight back at one week ago, four days ago, three weeks ago, etc. for any given day to make sure I am on the right track. But seriously, don't worry about little daily fluctuations.

For me, I (will start) to LOG my weigh ins only one day per week. I do get on the scale everyday though. Good luck, this site is an AWESOME resource!!

Hi Isis,

So, first off I would suggest the "4 - Hour Body, released last year. (Its a big book but you only need to select certain chapters) - I am sure amazon has quite a load of second hand ones at this point.

All healthy foods are not created equal, and some should not be eaten at all. If you want to go equally hardcore on diet google “ryan reynolds diet” and you’ll see what he did to turn into the super six pack he is. My body has reacted very well to this, but it is quite harsh in terms of protein shakes, some meals without “carbs” etc.

Diet is more important that working out for weight loss, trust me…most of us would never have the time to just workout to loose the lbs we need. Think 5 X 1 hours of really intense working out for 1 lbs.
I would suggest for feelings of feel being and curbing you diet exercise comes in a very strong second.

So measuring weight loss (and this is necessarily not the best measure of your success it just the easiest - see below).

A. If you are fixed on weight yourself everyday, and some people can’t help themselves…do it, but then average it out at the end of the week and compare averages. Just have a note pad and be consistent and, hey if you only do it 4 times, just divide by four, if you weight yourself 7 times, just divide by 7, it will all work out.

B. Weight yourself at the same time every day. Best time is in the morning just before you get into the shower…(A) it will be at its lowest as you will have lost water through metabolism and vapour inyour breathing through the night. The amount of water in your system is the biggest influencer of fluctuation…so I see morning as best (and not to be crude.. but after you more “pee” is best)

So measuring your workout and Calorie burn.

Great Support with apps on your smartphone or iPad.
“Edmundo" is free. It uses GPS tracking for things like running biking and walking. It uses you current weight as a factor in fat loss which you can update every week or two. Easy as pie to work.

Other recommendations to reaching your goal:
Lift weights, once you muscles create tone, they burn calories at a stand still and sleep, therefore increase you resting metabolism.
Your goal is to burn fat calories while you’re not in the gym or out running. Power yoga is a good substitute for this also. Its easy to download a video or get your ands on ad DVD for power yoga if you can’t get to a yoga centre. My preference is working out with Kettlebells… it’s a bit of a latest, but intense craze. But mix it up, just make sure your muscles or working and sore at least the first few times out.

Running is a great burner, but many folks have a hard time getting past the 5Km/3mile mark which really limits the calorie burn to less than 300 per effort. It can be discouraging.

My suggestion get a bike (a road bike if you can) if you don thane one. You’ll find hour long rides will burn 500-700 calories/hr if you are pushing yourself. Again you can carry your smart phone with Edmundo with you to measure and track calorie burn and then enter the total calorie burn into Myfitnesspal. You’ll also find you’ll soon be wanting to take off for 2-4 hour rides!

So look at other measures on hear (and you can add them). Waist, thighs, belly, but, arms in terms of inches, and measure those once a month or so. Inches lost is a better measure for your success than weight loss.

So my big five for you would be:

1. Learn about food, and make this an on going thing- most foods spike insulin and prompt fat storage (The 4 Hour BOdy will give you lots of background and recommendations, then some web research now and again will keep you up on things). Look for the Glycemic Index for things to stay away from. Insulin spikes are your enemy.

2. Lift weights as part of your routine (or power yoga). A full body weight workout 2X per week.

3. Minimum 5 X 1 hours a week of working out (gyms are great for hi intensity classes that kick you *kitten*)

4. Edmundo on your phone for runs, walks and biking as incentive to push for a certain amount of calories burned instead of “I’ll walk for 30 mins"

5. Get a bike, second had, and something hat will last…have you seen the abs, butts and legs on bikers? (and join a social biking club that will have you go longer distances in safely with all the upside of making friends and begin surrounded by like minded folks.


Last year I dropped from 178 lbs to 159 libs in 50 days. All I can say a good 70% was due to learning about food and following a simple (and yes boring) routine around food (with one cheat day)

This year, I am putting on some muscle, so inches is the new measure along with body fat. Weight loss is the poorest measure of progress. Muscle is far more dense than fat…so you could weigh the very same, and have changed your body shape drastically.

It can be done, and you can do it!
Let me know how it goes!

Peter (Toronto, ON.)







Weight lifting is difficult to do: If you don’t have delay between you can consider it Cardio X 1.5.