Weight Fluctuations

alienrite
alienrite Posts: 314 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a committed to weighing myself daily for a variety of reasons and I have always been disturbed by MFP only posting my losses and never my gains. Just because I am curious, MFP has posted 158.7 lbs lost but never showed the 108.7 lbs gained (net 50 lbs loss). The truth is that I lose an average of 0.225 lbs per day (1.57 lbs per week) which is almost impossible to see for the noise of my water gains and losses which are as much as 5 lbs. I just thought this was an interesting fact and might be useful to anyone struggling to understand if there is something wrong when they have gains. Weight is a floating number and almost a phantom which can be confusing and trying to use the scale as your sole judge of your progress can be frustrating. Also, please don't judge your own progress based upon what you see MFP report for others because it's just the one side.

Replies

  • alaskaang
    alaskaang Posts: 493 Member
    This is why I keep a separate spreadsheet with a couple graphs in it. Overtime I can really see the trend and don't stress over the normal fluctuations. I also always delete the "... lost x pounds since last weigh in" off my page if it is not a true reduction.
  • NinjaJinja
    NinjaJinja Posts: 147 Member
    Yeah, this is a thorn in my side. I gained about 3 pounds almost immediately after starting so now my stupid progress thing says that I've lost 7 or 8 pounds when I've really lost over 10 now. (It wasn't a fluctuation.) I can see how that would be irritating if you had lost quite a bit, then gained it back and now the thing is totally off.
  • sc5351
    sc5351 Posts: 21 Member
    Thank you for posting this. It's a great reminder that the scale is not a solid reflection of our efforts. I might change to the daily method like you, but want to give it some more thought. Either way, thank you.
  • alienrite
    alienrite Posts: 314 Member
    Yeah, this is a thorn in my side. I gained about 3 pounds almost immediately after starting so now my stupid progress thing says that I've lost 7 or 8 pounds when I've really lost over 10 now. (It wasn't a fluctuation.) I can see how that would be irritating if you had lost quite a bit, then gained it back and now the thing is totally off.

    You can always reset your starting weight. My recommendation is not to look backwards as much as forward. You've done great in the time you have been here and should be proud.

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