Obsessing over the scale

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lalalyn12
lalalyn12 Posts: 80 Member
Hello again all and thanks for your reply's to my recent post.

Now since I have started this weight journey, or any weight journey at that. I have been obsessing over the scale. Weighing myself everyday, and not seeing it go down since saturday. Now 2 saturdays ago, before I began the journey, I weighed a cool 364. This past saturday after starting this weightloss journey (I started thursday) I weighed myself on the scale and I was a cool 355.8...granted I did take a mini laxative prior that day. Now since then I weighed myself and I went up a pound or 2. Today, a week since I have been on this journey I am 357. So I am like was it water weight I lost (of course), and when will I start seeing true weightloss, or do my body fat loss needs to catch up, so expect to see that for awhile.

I do not want to get discouraged, and since being on this for a week. I do feel good in my body, I have been having energy to workout etc. So I am trying not to base anything off the scale.

If you were me, what would you do. Do the once a month weigh in. twice a week etc. Opinions, suggestions anyone. What is your take on the whole water weight loss vs fat loss.

Replies

  • zynx1234
    zynx1234 Posts: 73 Member
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    I am 5'2" and 245 so I am a big girl too. I have always dieted from WW to Atkins and nothing really worked cause I never stuck with it. Now I am getting older and I feel like if I don't make this change then I will die or get diabetes... ugh. So I am taking it slow. I have been at it 6 weeks with no weight loss but 2 pounds. And slow as it is it is ok cause I didn't put on this weight it took me 33 years to get here and I do feel amazing. I am a clean/paleo/primal type eater and this is something I wanna keep doing. I feel better and hopefully the weight will eventually come off. I don't excersize right now and I eat way more calories that you do. But my goal is healthy weight loss not just weight loss cause then it just comes back with force. I know that I spend all my time reading and researching about Low Carb eating and living to gain more information so that I can do it right.

    Just keep your head up.
  • Math_Geek
    Math_Geek Posts: 67 Member
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    When I first started the low carb way of eating I think it took me maybe 5 weeks just to figure out exactly what I was allowed to eat and how to get all my calories in.

    I prepare most of my food on the weekends so it's in the fridge ready for me to heat up because I work all week and don't have the time, especially since I want to be at the gym in the evenings.

    You hang in there, it definitely is a learning curve and takes some time to get used to. Even now if I have a bad week, I just shrug my shoulders and think next week is another week and start over. It's the best any of us can do.

    Stay strong!
  • TheVimFuego
    TheVimFuego Posts: 2,412 Member
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    I would not weigh at all.

    And I don't now, in fact.

    Just eat real food, enjoy it, stick to the plan and trust the process :)

    If you do weigh then it will tell you nothing about body composition (fat vs muscle) and just drive you crazy.
  • mstorvik
    mstorvik Posts: 356 Member
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    I weigh myself everyday if I remember BUT I only long it on MFP when I lose. My weight will fluctuate 5 lbs or so during the week.... but sure enough... every week or two I lose a lb. And if I had just weighed myself every week or two a loss would show. But I just have to see everyday because I'm nutso like that!

    Anyway, once my initial 8 lbs of water came off, weight loss went to about 1 lb a week which is PERFECT. Slow and steady!

    LowCarbNY is an amazing inspiration and wrote a great blog entry about losing weight on low carb! You gotta read it!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LowcarbNY

    Hang in there! Also, can I ask why the laxative? You weren't doing it to drop lbs were you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to... I was just curious!
  • maremare312
    maremare312 Posts: 1,143 Member
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    I just weigh once a week. More often makes me obsessive and unhappy. If I wasn't trying to figure out exactly how many carbs I need to eat to keep losing, I would probably try weighing less often. I lost 3-4 lbs a week for 3 weeks and then "only" lost 1 lb last week. I looked at it as the total for the month (12) and that just sounds better. I'm hoping for 8 in the next month, and am trying to keep in mind that that may be spread out over the weeks in various ways :)
  • rainlover711
    rainlover711 Posts: 74 Member
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    I weigh myself every morning, and log it once a week.
    I know I shouldn't do it daily, those flucuations can really mess with my head.
    So that being said, I would advise you to try to weigh yourself once a week...even though it's advice I can't follow.

    Remember, you are still down overall, so that's great!

    Also, I know that my weight is really weird...i'll be down, then go up a few pounds, then I'll go down even lower, then high again, then lower...it's like my body is totally messing with me. I started at 256, went to 248, now at 250, and if my regular pattern holds, i'll probably be 247 tomorrow. If not, it's ok, because I'm still down.

    It's a horrible thing to deal with, I wish you all the luck.
  • ZipperJJ
    ZipperJJ Posts: 209 Member
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    I weight every morning at the same time (before breakfast, after potty), wearing the same thing (nothing). If I forget to weigh right then, then I don't weigh in that day.

    I only log once a week on Mondays. If I'm down on Saturday or Sunday and still around that same weight Monday, that's what I'll use. If I'm up or not down, I won't log.

    I do absolutely go up and down. But I know that's how it goes so I don't let it discourage me. As someone else said it didn't take me a day to gain all this weight it won't take me a day to lose it!
  • lalalyn12
    lalalyn12 Posts: 80 Member
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    I weigh myself everyday if I remember BUT I only long it on MFP when I lose. My weight will fluctuate 5 lbs or so during the week.... but sure enough... every week or two I lose a lb. And if I had just weighed myself every week or two a loss would show. But I just have to see everyday because I'm nutso like that!

    Anyway, once my initial 8 lbs of water came off, weight loss went to about 1 lb a week which is PERFECT. Slow and steady!

    LowCarbNY is an amazing inspiration and wrote a great blog entry about losing weight on low carb! You gotta read it!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LowcarbNY

    Hang in there! Also, can I ask why the laxative? You weren't doing it to drop lbs were you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to... I was just curious!

    No I didnt take the laxative to drop pounds but to cleanse my system out...

    But thanks for the advice you guys, I am not going to worry about the scale I weighed myself this morning and overnight i gained 3 pounds lol, so I just tucked the scale away cause I can feel that I have started losing inches in my stomach, so I am good
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    There needs to be a disconnect here.
    You dont gain 3lbs over night.

    You dont gain 2lbs over night.


    You current weight is composed of the following: Bone,muscle, organ, skin, fat, blood, water, food consumed, fluids consumed. Every day you weigh in, it fluctuates all the time.

    It is not a gain of three pounds over night. You have to stop obsessing with the scale... in fact, I would highly suggest consider once per week, once every two weeks, or even better - once per month.

    Every day our bodies will fluctuate. Whether its food you eat, weather contributing to edema, for women - their menses, changes in prescription medication that cause internal changes, etc.

    You have to stop thinking you gained 3 lbs overnight - that would mean you would have had to consume 10,500 calories last night for dinner. Obviously you didnt eat that many calories last night, so therefore your assumption of gaining 3lbs overnight, is definitely not humanly possible..... You gain weight gradually - just like you lose weight gradually....

    For your own mental stability (and anyone for that matter), stop weighing your self daily - that is an unhealthy thing to do to yourself. Its not a viable tool to calculate weight loss - measuring tape is guaranteed to be a more accurate tool of measurement to determine weight loss. So is a brand new outfit, or an older outfit that has developed more room.

    Also - a side note about your 'cleanses' - please make sure your primary care physician or specialist are informed that you are doing that... they should never be done unless under their medical supervision...

    Good luck and chuck the scale!!!!!!!!!!
  • mstorvik
    mstorvik Posts: 356 Member
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    I will say I love weighing myself now... I am within the last 10 lbs of my goal and each time I see 150-anything I smile a big smile on the scale! Even if it went up from the day before!
  • Supermel
    Supermel Posts: 612 Member
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    Water water water! I find this diet plan to be salty and if i fall down on my water intake the scale will stall. Also watch the snacky stuff - and log log log. I'm starting with this today logging every bite as the scale isn't dropping as fast as other times i restarted the plan after a vacation hiatus. I am thinking the little bites of pickles, almonds, cheese and such are adding up to being too many carbs to lose. So going to plan out my days better and stay as clean as possible, reduce sweetners etc.

    Good luck and i would say weighing less often is good, but in the beginning it can be a good tool to guage how well you are doing on the plan and if your extra foods aside from main meals are adding up.

    Are you certain your scale is accurate?? are weighing in at the same time of day?
  • lalalyn12
    lalalyn12 Posts: 80 Member
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    Update, thanks for all your advice...Since started I weight 364, now I am 353.2....I still weight myself everyday and I upped my water intake from 8 cups to 12 cups or more. It seems like since I did that the scale started to move. I also cut out processed meets like pepperoni, and adding more veggies, and also I do not eat much fruit. I also been exercising 90 minutes a day...And I am actually in taking 100-130 carbs a day because I have been burning 1000-1500 calories through exercise a day..
  • xiamjackie
    xiamjackie Posts: 611 Member
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    I weigh myself once every 2-3 weeks. If you weigh yourself every day and you don't see any change in numbers, you will get so discouraged every single day. I try to go off of how my body actually feels, what I look like, how my clothes fit, etc. I think those things tell more than a simple number could.
  • mommakatwoman
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    I think the scale is an important tool. My trainer moved so I got off track after losing 120 pounds over three years. I gained 10 pounds in one month. I didn't look at the scale and I quit using my food diary on fitness pal. I did continue to exercise. If I had never forced myself to weigh I would not know the damage i was doing.

    I am back in step I refuse to go back to where I was..I will not go quietly into that dark abyss of fatique, fat and despair ...game on for the rest of my life...

    the scale is my friend...
  • danni_l
    danni_l Posts: 144 Member
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    I would not weigh at all.

    And I don't now, in fact.

    Just eat real food, enjoy it, stick to the plan and trust the process :)

    If you do weigh then it will tell you nothing about body composition (fat vs muscle) and just drive you crazy.

    Im the same I very rarely weigh myself. It can be pretty unreliable - especially if you do it very frequently. I just go by how my clothes fit and how my body looks.