The scales are telling me lies!! Aren't they??

Options
getfitcharles
getfitcharles Posts: 78
in Health and Weight Loss
I know this is stupid, but it's really scared me. For the past four days, I've been under my daily calories, eating healthy foods. Today, I ate healthily as usual, then ended up eating some cake. My diary says around 2400 for today, but it may be more. Not enough to cause me to gain 8 lbs though, especially with doing so well on the other days. My scale can't be broken - it's new and I only bought it two weeks ago. I'm just really scared that I'm going to keep gaining weight no matter what I do, and I feel out of control of it.

I've not workout out enough for it to be muscle. Even looking at progress pics between the other day and a month ago, my stomach looks flatter, though now I'm worrying that that's deceptive too and wishful thinking.

Replies

  • GracefulDancer4Christ
    GracefulDancer4Christ Posts: 419 Member
    Options
    the scale is a liar! try measuring and going by inches. it takes 3500 to gain a pound. it might be sodium intake, water rentention etc.
  • gregwhitley
    gregwhitley Posts: 26 Member
    Options
    If you ate a lot of carbs and sodium on your day over, you could easily be holding 5+ lb of water weight. At any rate, don't worry so much about day to day scale changes. Follow the trend, not the data points. It isn't worth the (inevitable) headache!
  • flitabout
    flitabout Posts: 200 Member
    Options
    I don't have an exact answer for why,but are you keeping your sodium intake in check. It generally is the culprit with over night weight gain drink lots of water to flush it out
  • getfitcharles
    getfitcharles Posts: 78
    Options
    Yeah I did think it could be water weight, but 8 lb of water seemed a bit excessive. I'll really have to start doing measurements to compare. I've not tracked them before, but I'm wearing a pair of trousers I know I couldn't fit into a month ago and they fit comfortably. Even though my liar of a scale tells me I'm at a higher weight right now than when I started.
  • knitwit0704
    knitwit0704 Posts: 376
    Options
    Yeah, the same thing happened to me, but it was after a big workout, so I'd think it might me water retention.
  • spicysweet3
    spicysweet3 Posts: 9
    Options
    I am also having a similar problem! The other day I was excited to see that I have dropped yet another pound. But....when I worked out (I did eat more than normal that day too - under 1300 calories though) I gained 3 pounds!! WTH?! I resumed the last two days with regular eating (my doc has me on a VLC diet - for the next several weeks/health related) and still working out, but now I am gaining every time I work out. If I skip a day due to my kids and busy schedule, I lose, but this is very frustrating and not sure where to go with it! Any suggestions?
  • spicysweet3
    spicysweet3 Posts: 9
    Options
    Oh...because of how low my sodium already is, I cannot cut anymore from my diet and with workouts being as intense, I already drink 64 - 80 oz of water
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Options
    Oh...because of how low my sodium already is, I cannot cut anymore from my diet and with workouts being as intense, I already drink 64 - 80 oz of water

    How often do you take a rest day? Your muscles will hold onto water until you let them repair. Just a thought.
  • Run4Me2Day
    Run4Me2Day Posts: 344 Member
    Options
    The scale isn't my friend...sounds like it might be the same for you. I have found that a few things....muscle weighs more then fat....you build muscle from the inside out.....And I moved my scale to a different part of the house.....I got totally discouraged when I used it....Now I use the tape measure as my measurement tool.....
  • getfitcharles
    getfitcharles Posts: 78
    Options
    Thing is though, it's scary because I know I've lost a lot of weight before so it seems illogical why I can't do it again now. I'm not building muscle. Even when I work out a lot, I find it incredibly difficult to build ANY muscle tone at all. It's not my natural body type, so I very highly doubt that's what it is, especially considering I've not been lifting weights.
  • spicysweet3
    spicysweet3 Posts: 9
    Options
    I rest one day a week, usually a weekday. I witch it up to keep my body confused.
  • GracefulDancer4Christ
    GracefulDancer4Christ Posts: 419 Member
    Options
    I do my rest days on the weekends.

Categories