Feeling a bit discouraged today, ugh.

Yes, here's some solid advice. The scale is going to go up and down no matter what you do. This happens for a variety of reasons:

1. Excess sodium is causing you to retain water.
2. Your monthly cycle is affecting your weight.
3. Your muscles are retaining fluid because you have been exercising.
4. You had some alcohol
5. Any other reason/variation/blip/etc that can cause the scale to jump.

This is normal and you can't stress about it. As long as you see a general downward trend in the scale, that's all that matters.

It can take a while to get your numbers and habits adjusted so you are actually losing weight.

No diary, so can't give specific advice, but some good ideas might be:

Add exercise.
Adjust protein higher, carbs lower.
Look at your numbers as weekly instead of daily. A splurge is no big deal if it's just a few hundred calories in a week, but if it's much more, then it can be significant.

I started keeping my measurements. They tell a different story than the scale. I also try to set fitness goals in addition to weight loss goals. Today I increased my resistance level on the bike. I started at 1 and I am now at 9. It may not seem like a lot but I will take any small victory!

Just look at the bigger picture and don't get caught up within a few weeks time. Just make all around good decisions.....have a few drinks and some 'unhealthy' food EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, but not too often. If you are all around making good choices and doing it in a way that you can maintain, you will lose. If you are on a gym/nutitional routine that you can't see yourself sticking to for a year, then switch it up. You really have to make lifestyle changes to see true, honest weight loss. Don't jump the gun so fast!!

Sometimes weight just fluctuates. I weighed 102.8 yesterday morning...this morning, 103.4. Why? I don't know. I don't drink, didn't splurge, and even under ate yesterday because I wasn't hungry. Sometimes things just happen. You just have to keep going. The numbers are only part the picture. Its a lifestyle change and you have to take it one day at a time. Just keep on making healthy choices and stick with it. Its a slow and steady process.

You simply CAN NOT let the number on a scale demotivate you!! You know that weight fluctuates with water retention and all that jazz. How can you possibly take away the good you have done with a number that is bound to go up and down through your body's natural processes.

Own the good you are doing to yourself, appreciate your body getting healthier along with your mind, do not hand over your emotions to a scale! Keep going the way you are, it sounds wonderful and the results will show!

They are numbers on a scale...don't let them define who you are. So you had a few drinks.....you had a nice time and enjoyed yourself. That is fine. Don't dwell on it. You are doing a great job and look at all the support you are getting. Best of luck and Happy 25th.

Today is my 25th day on MFP, and I've been doing really well with it. I've been very diligent about tracking my food, I've been drinking an obscene amount of water everyday, and I've been kicking some serious butt at the gym.

Every couple of weeks, I let myself have a bit of a splurge night, where I have a couple drinks and eat foods that aren't very good for me. I always track it, I hold myself accountable for it, and I work my *kitten* off at the gym the next day. I went to my sister's house on Tuesday night and had a few drinks, and it seems to have really derailed my weight loss.

On Tuesday morning, I was 212.7 lbs. Today, I am 216.1. Apart from that ONE night, I've been eating really well, drinking my water and tea, and burning lots of calories at Planet Fitness! I just feel like my body is punishing me for indulging for one night. It's completely discouraging to be working my *kitten* off to see no changes on the scale.

I'm tempted to say that I'm not going to splurge at ALL anymore, but I feel like I'll go insane and end up binging on the bad-for-me foods one day.

Does anyone have any advice or motivation? I'm feeling really down today.

We are all different but I found during the weight loss phase I had to sacrifice just a bit more, not splurge quite so much, have my treats but really limit them and as much as possible include the "treats" into my calorie budget rather than "extra". For example I I knew I wanted a cookie at starbucks I would eat a taco salad for lunch and leave out the carbs.or tortillas, then I would go have my cookie, I would log it, budget it in. Eating a some almond roca or other treat would blow me out for a couple of weeks on the scale so I learned after a couple of times that was not going to cut it. I could have small treats within budget, and if I really really really wanted to be successful I could not have everything I wanted every time I wanted it. It is a hard game and it takes tremendous dedication. You don't have to deprive yourself, but at the same time you just can't have everything you want right now if you are going to succeed. And the skill you learn doing this still comes into play for maintenance. It's not like you get there and get too do what you want all the time with food, you have slightly more of a calorie budget to play with but you enjoy your social eating and then you have to rein it in other times to keep things in balance. What you do now, the skills you learn now, none of it is wasted effort. You are honing your sword for future battles. You will always have to keep your blade sharp to keep your shape for the rest of your life.

Also you do not have to eat the same amount of calories every day. You can think of it as a weekly calorie budget. You can eat low some days and high some days. You can be flexible. You can find what is sustainable for you.

Being on a calorie deficit is hard. You can't do this journey on will power alone. You must set up your environment for success. Have a team around you in your real life, not just online. Get trigger foods out of the house. It will take some sacrifice and it's not easy. You might have to say no to some social events sometimes.

Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.


There is no mystery to weight loss, everyone thinks something is wrong, their metabolism is broken, they have low thyroid, they have menopause or whatever issue, they are as unique as a snowflake, whatever. I thought a lot of these things once too but once the doctor helped resolve the health issues for me I learned there is still no magic pill. Most people eat more than they need to and are not at good at estimating calories as they think they are. Most people have a lower BMR than they think they do. The only way to know for sure is to go to a lab and have it tested. It doesn't seem fair to have to eat less and feel a little hunger. It's hard to face the truth of it, very hard. It's not fun. It's drudgery at times. But if you learn to enjoy your smaller amounts of food (necessary to lose weight, since the reason we got fat in the first place was eating too much whether we knew it or not), and rejoice in your victories it can be done.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

To say eat more is wrong.

To say eat less is wrong.

To find the exact calories needed for YOU to be in a healthy sustainable calorie deficit is the right answer. Wait, if you need to adjust by 100 do it, wait, adjust, wait, adjust, wait. The tortoise wins this race.

All that matters is calories. A healthy balanced diet within a calorie budget for a deficit that is right for YOU is all that matters for weight loss. Don't make it complicated.

You want to eat as healthy as you can because it makes you feel better and perform better, and makes you healthier. There are a bunch of tricks and clean eating; reducing sugar (especially HFCS), fiber, white flour vs whole grain, low carb, low fat, on and on. All that matters is calories for weight loss. If you need to eat a certain way for health reasons or to feel better do it, but extensive good food and bad food lists will drive you insane at some point, it’s a constantly moving target. Just eat what you like, mostly healthy, mostly balanced, within a calorie budget.

Also people play mental accounting games with calories just like with finances. Make steps to make sure you are making accurate measurements. Packaged foods can have MORE than they say but not less (they get in trouble if less so they would rather error with MORE).

If you typically intake sodium at a certain rate your body adjusts, but if you make a sudden change then you will see a spike.

Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories.


For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.

When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.

Wishing you the best! -Bobbie

Yesterday at 6:22am I weighed 210.8lbs. Today at 6:29am I weighed 207.2lbs. Now some people might say that was all water weight. I disagree. I think that the difference is because in the last 24 hours my body decided to burn an extra 12,600 calories.

Again, some people may say that it was water. But last night I did spend an extra 90 minutes at work answering emails. So you easily see where the boost came in. Plus I was typing really, really fast. I like to call it the e90x workout. Don’t take the name its copyrighted!

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