how do you deal with weight fluctuations?

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  • ashandstuff
    ashandstuff Posts: 442 Member
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    Fluctuations are totally normal and can be for many reasons. I weigh myself every day out of habit, and the daily ups and downs don't bother me and rarely make "sense". I can be under goal the night before, plenty of water, no where near TOM, whatever, and still be up the next day - not a big deal. I know I didn't gain a pound or two of fat overnight. :tongue: If it bothers you, then don't weight daily, but once a week or twice a month, etc, and track the trend.

    Also a good idea to get your tape measure out and start tracking measurements, and take progress photos as well. You will often see progress there that doesn't show on the scale. Last year I went about six months with the few pounds up and down on the scale, but during that time I lost fat and inches, and dropped a full size. Had I just been relying on my scale I might have been upset, but I laughed at my scale and went out and bought new jeans. :bigsmile:

    ^this
  • rosemary98
    rosemary98 Posts: 632
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    I usually cry, smash the scale, then I eat a gallon of ice cream.

    I know you are trying to be funny and make light of my question, but that is exactly what some people do. well, perhaps not smash the scale, but get very upset and binge eat.

    Actually I have done exactly what I said before. I do binge eat, and it's why I'm back here after 2 years. I make light of it but my answer was very much on the line of truth.

    I have in the past as well...and the trigger has always been the scale or a perception that i over ate (even if i really didn't). I guess that is what makes the fluctuations difficult for me--they are a trigger for bingeing.
  • yamsteroo
    yamsteroo Posts: 480 Member
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    I just move the scale to a different part of the bathroom floor until it reads lower .....

    But seriously - it might be hard to do but don't take it so seriously. If you weigh in weekly and it's showing a gain on top of a gain each week then maybe you need to tighten up on your food intake but if you're weighing daily (or multiple times a day!) then those blips don't count for anything :)
  • fougamou
    fougamou Posts: 200 Member
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    I agree -- it is much easier to say "don't let them get to you" than to actually not let them get to you.

    Between the Happy Scale app and daily weighing, I have decreased my stress over the weight fluctuations. I consider the Happy Scale predicted weight to be my true weight so I only worry if that goes up. The daily weighing (knowing it is a datapoint in determining my actual weight and not my actual weight) is now useful in helping to understand what is causing the weight fluctuations ("Oh yeah, I had pizza yesterday, must be the sodium, better drink more water today")
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,065 Member
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    I just brush it off because even if the scale is up a pound or two I know my clothes are still fitting me the way I want.

    It's normal to go up and down by a few pounds. And being a female myself I know that at certain times of the month that is especially normal.

    Just keep on trucking....
  • JustAnotherGirlSuzanne
    JustAnotherGirlSuzanne Posts: 932 Member
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    I drink more water and eat smarter calories. I only get upset if it's up for a few days in a row. :)
  • kingtermite
    kingtermite Posts: 82 Member
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    I have said for a long time that when it comes to weight you can have false weight gain, but not false weight loss.

    Hormones, water weight and a plethora of other temporary issues can make your weight higher than it "really" is. However, the law of conservation of mass in Physics makes it impossible to have fake weight loss. If that weight isn't being registered, it's not "hidden", it's not there.

    So truly, take the daily fluctuations with a grain of salt (another thing that can cause it), and don't worry about it unless that gain persists for a week or so. Otherwise, chalk it up to a "false positive" and move along ignoring it.
  • MissStatement
    MissStatement Posts: 92 Member
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    Fluctuations are totally normal and can be for many reasons. I weigh myself every day out of habit, and the daily ups and downs don't bother me and rarely make "sense". I can be under goal the night before, plenty of water, no where near TOM, whatever, and still be up the next day - not a big deal. I know I didn't gain a pound or two of fat overnight. :tongue: If it bothers you, then don't weight daily, but once a week or twice a month, etc, and track the trend.

    Also a good idea to get your tape measure out and start tracking measurements, and take progress photos as well. You will often see progress there that doesn't show on the scale. Last year I went about six months with the few pounds up and down on the scale, but during that time I lost fat and inches, and dropped a full size. Had I just been relying on my scale I might have been upset, but I laughed at my scale and went out and bought new jeans. :bigsmile:

    QFT.

    There is a thread on here with a chart of a poster's daily weigh ins. It is very eye opening. Picture a stock chart - lots of little fluctuations, but a visible general trend. You could even plainly see when the poster had her TOM. There was no mistaking the overall downward trend though. If I can find the thread I will post it.
  • stetienne
    stetienne Posts: 560 Member
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    I take it in stride and know if I'm staying pretty true to my goals, the weight will come around to where I want it to be.
  • gracielynn1011
    gracielynn1011 Posts: 726 Member
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    Ignore it. Your weight will fluctuate up and down every day. I pick one day a week to log in, usually Sunday for me because I don't do heavy exercise the day before, so I'm not swollen or retaining water. If I'm up a little on that day, I review my habits for the week prior, it could be high sodium, too much junk, whatever. I don't stress about it unless it sticks around for the next weigh in.
  • LydiaShackelford
    LydiaShackelford Posts: 93 Member
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    I have a good cry

    This. HAHAHA
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    There's nothing to "deal" with...they're completely normal and largely out of your control. I've been maintaining for 5 months...I can swing a good 2-5 Lbs day to day depending. If I worried about that I'd drive myself crazy...probably need counseling or something. It's normal...just ignor it and look at the general trend of things. I track daily, so I plug it into another app with better graphs...it goes up and down and up and down and up and down...but if hit average, it will draw a line through my graph right at around 182ish.

    Just ignore it...stop obsessing about some arbitrary number...or put the friggin' scale away if you can't. Those little fluctuations don't change the way you look...don't change the way your clothes look, etc...just stop obsessing about some arbitrary number on the scale that is representative of so many things.
  • btwinkles
    btwinkles Posts: 54 Member
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    Fluctuations are totally normal and can be for many reasons. I weigh myself every day out of habit, and the daily ups and downs don't bother me and rarely make "sense". I can be under goal the night before, plenty of water, no where near TOM, whatever, and still be up the next day - not a big deal. I know I didn't gain a pound or two of fat overnight. :tongue: If it bothers you, then don't weight daily, but once a week or twice a month, etc, and track the trend.

    Also a good idea to get your tape measure out and start tracking measurements, and take progress photos as well. You will often see progress there that doesn't show on the scale. Last year I went about six months with the few pounds up and down on the scale, but during that time I lost fat and inches, and dropped a full size. Had I just been relying on my scale I might have been upset, but I laughed at my scale and went out and bought new jeans. :bigsmile:


    you laughed at your scale!!! I totally LOVE that!!!:laugh:
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Weight fluctuations often have nothing to do with diet or exercise. There is more involved in "weight" than just fat and muscle. Water is the biggest cause of fast weight gain/loss. Sometimes it's caused by eating too much sodium, sometimes by medications, sometimes by hormones, sometimes something else.

    If you can't ignore it, I'd suggest only weighing once a week or even every other week. No matter how strictly you stick to your plan, it's unrealistic to see a loss every single day.
  • MuseofSong
    MuseofSong Posts: 322 Member
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    Fluctuations are totally normal and can be for many reasons. I weigh myself every day out of habit, and the daily ups and downs don't bother me and rarely make "sense". I can be under goal the night before, plenty of water, no where near TOM, whatever, and still be up the next day - not a big deal. I know I didn't gain a pound or two of fat overnight. :tongue: If it bothers you, then don't weight daily, but once a week or twice a month, etc, and track the trend.

    Also a good idea to get your tape measure out and start tracking measurements, and take progress photos as well. You will often see progress there that doesn't show on the scale. Last year I went about six months with the few pounds up and down on the scale, but during that time I lost fat and inches, and dropped a full size. Had I just been relying on my scale I might have been upset, but I laughed at my scale and went out and bought new jeans. :bigsmile:

    Everything she said! I weigh every morning and check in with losses and gains because I want to see the trends. Sometimes it was due to high sodium, sometimes it's something as simple as TOM, and sometimes it's something annoying like constipation. Drink, drink, drink water (at least 2-3 glasses above your normal daily water intake) and most of the time it resolves the bloat from those three issues.

    I do like to whinge about it when it happens though. :) But, I can look at my calorie intake report and see that I did not eat 3500 extra calories per lb, so I know it's not fat, it's just my body being retentive. Hopefully you can do the same, if you're regularly tracking your food intake.
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1082957-what-it-looks-like-to-weigh-yourself-everyday-for-180-days
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    (1) Do not weigh daily

    (2) If you do weigh daily, keep track of your weight on an excel spreadsheet. Record your overall losses as an average every week, two weeks, or month. Then if you have ups and downs, you can look back and realize that they're normal but your overall losses are still right on target.
  • lmlmrn
    lmlmrn Posts: 785 Member
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    I have an app on my phone called Happy Scale. You input your weight daily and it gives you a "predicted" weight that evens out the crazy fluctuations. I don't know what the algorithm is but earlier this week my weight went up and the weight on Happy Scale went down. Today I suddenly lost and am now a fraction of a pound below. It seems fairly accurate.


    I understand about why you should not weigh daily. I understand about weight fluctuation. But I want to weigh daily.


    I am going to have to look for this app.....I understand the normal ups and downs and in my past have kept a spreadsheet but this seems so much easier. Thanks
  • mushroomsontoast
    mushroomsontoast Posts: 118 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1082957-what-it-looks-like-to-weigh-yourself-everyday-for-180-days

    Thanks for finding that rduhlir, was looking for it myself :smile:
  • candytag
    candytag Posts: 33 Member
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    I use the fit bit scale. It records every time I step on the scale you cannot ignore what the scale says it records it automatically on here. Its great it shows a graph and I can really see what is happening. Love it. Now if the two pounds I lost this last week comes back on I will cry for real.

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