1lb gain and I am spiralling out of control - AGAIN!

feefifoefum
feefifoefum Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Morning,

I have been losing weight since 6th Jan this year- up until last week 34lbs. This week - I have put on 1lb and I have gone down hill eating things to punish myself and "feed" my self doubt in my ability to lose the weight. Why oh why am I doing this to myself? Does anybody relate to where my head is at the moment? I have been so focused and now the first gain I am indulging the FAT DEMOM and letting him win.

Any help - please x
«1

Replies

  • butlersoft
    butlersoft Posts: 219 Member
    How often do you weigh in ??

    If you do it daily, you will see fluctuations. Remember - a 1lb GAIN means you have to have eaten 3,500 kcalories ABOVE MAINTENANCE. Chances are, you didn't do that and it's therefore a result of water / sodium...

    If you did have a "splurge" .... put it behind you and start again on the wagon today :-)

    ANd for the record ..... 34lbs .... WOW !!!! **GREAT** EFFORT !!!
  • rhonda6374
    rhonda6374 Posts: 38 Member
    34 pounds is great! I am personally impressed. Don't doubt yourself -- you obviously can do it. One week and one pound won't undo all your hard work. That being said, keep calm and get started back on the right track today. One day at a time.
  • butlersoft
    butlersoft Posts: 219 Member
    I weighed myself twice yesterday .... in the morning and in the evening. 4lbs difference between the two.

    Now I know I didn't eat 14,000 calories yesterday between weigh-ins. Its just water weight :-)
  • rmhmartin
    rmhmartin Posts: 46 Member
    Yes, this happens to me! I don't have any advice but just accept what has happened and move on from there. You know you don't want 1lb to turn into 2 or 3.... We are going to fluctuate once we hit our goals, too, and I think part of the process is learning to deal with things like this. Try to reel yourself in, remember why you're doing this, and move on. Hang in there & good luck!
  • Dgydad
    Dgydad Posts: 104 Member
    I'd second butlersoft's comment. I record my weight daily (p/o cardiac recovery program), and it's not uncommon to see it swing as much as three pounds over 2 days. You've chastised yourself and acknowledged you slip; now let it go and move forward again....
  • becksxxx70
    becksxxx70 Posts: 234 Member
    Fuctuations can drive you crazy but you have to recognise them for what they are!

    I log regularly on Libra which really demonstrates how much your weight changes within a week.
    For example yesterday I was 4lbs up from the weekend, today I'm 2lbs down from that. I know I haven't really gained or lost that weight and I'm not going to fall off the wagon because of it.
    You just need to focus on the long term and look at the trend.

    Even if you did overeat and gain 1lb, so what? It's not the end of the world........you can just get yourself back on track.
  • feefifoefum
    feefifoefum Posts: 10 Member
    Thanks all for your replies. I weigh weekly at class - ditched the scales back in Jan as I am a "Hopper". Must try to get my head back as I am happy to have lost the weight so far and I am doing this for the long term. Minds are so tricky to deal with. I cut back yesterday all day until evening- 9pm and then I went stupid and punished myself with the food. Now today I am trying again by eating breakfast and lunch and thinking of my future and drawing a line underneath my gain- hopefully x

    Thank you again x
  • megxmas95
    megxmas95 Posts: 26
    How often do you weigh in ??

    If you do it daily, you will see fluctuations. Remember - a 1lb GAIN means you have to have eaten 3,500 kcalories ABOVE MAINTENANCE. Chances are, you didn't do that and it's therefore a result of water / sodium...

    If you did have a "splurge" .... put it behind you and start again on the wagon today :-)

    THIS

    I weigh daily and get a little down heartened when I see a gain of a pound or two, and I think I need to remember that there's no way in hell I over ate by 3500 calories over maintenance (most of the gains I see are just after salty meals/having not used the toilet etc). It all balances out in the end, don't stress!
  • thesimsisters
    thesimsisters Posts: 73 Member
    Congrats on your 34 lb loss! That's great! I'm also impressed with the fact that during that time period this is your first "gain" that showed on your scale. My chart is up and down like a seesaw from logging my weigh-ins. I log in excel to create a chart which show's my downward trend. Example http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1196878-weight-is-not-consistant-loss-is-not-linear

    I'm also only weigh once a week, and yes even with weekly weigh-ins you can get the false fluctuations from water weight etc that daily weighers get. This can be hard on people who weigh everyday, but personally I think it's even harder on those who weigh only once a week. Because you have to wait another week before you weigh again. Plenty of time in that period to get down about it and discouraged. Especially if you know you did everything you could and stayed on target.

    But don't let it get to you too much, just know it's a fluctuation, say that to yourself and allow a few minutes for disappointment...then shrug and carry on. You'll see it come off next time probably in a Really Good weigh-in next week. I had two bad ones the past few weeks but this past Saturday was a Finally! moment when it came off. :)
  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
    This is a journey not a stop-gap. If 1 lb is all it takes to throw you off and make you punish yourself, then there are some serious issues at play here. Starving yourself followed by a binge is not a healthy and nice thing to do to yourself. I would suggest that perhaps therapy might be worthwhile if you can afford it as it sounds like you have some deep dark hatred of yourself going on. But if you can't afford it, I can suggest a few worksheets that I use with clients in my CBT practice that others have found helpful for those negative thoughts. You can do some 'self-therapy' at this website: http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/selfhelp.htm
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Freaking out over 1 pound is...... well...... ridiculous.

    Weight fluctuates all of the time, every day, especially for women. Water weight. You shouldn't freak out over a 5 pound fluctuation either, when you know you haven't been eating in excess of your maintenance regularly enough to cause that gain.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    This happens to me all the time. Its one step forward two steps back with my weigh loss. It will come off again just have patience and DON'T GIVE UP!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Freaking out over 1 pound is...... well...... ridiculous.

    Weight fluctuates all of the time, every day, especially for women. Water weight. You shouldn't freak out over a 5 pound fluctuation either, when you know you haven't been eating in excess of your maintenance regularly enough to cause that gain.

    I was thinking the same thing...just silly....1lb...16oz....cripes I eat apples that weight more than that.

    if I freaked over every pound I fluctuated and started to give up...well lets just say after the 4lb vacation gain I would have just been done....
  • _HeartsOnFire_
    _HeartsOnFire_ Posts: 5,304 Member
    Freaking out over 1 pound is...... well...... ridiculous.

    Weight fluctuates all of the time, every day, especially for women. Water weight. You shouldn't freak out over a 5 pound fluctuation either, when you know you haven't been eating in excess of your maintenance regularly enough to cause that gain.

    This...

    Your body can fluctuate 3-5 lbs a day. You lost 34 lbs but gaining 1 lb is enough to give up and eat whatever? Really? I'm not trying to be mean, I know weight loss is hard, I know it's a mental thing as well as physical, but freaking out over 1 lb is a little over the top.
  • mfp2014mfp
    mfp2014mfp Posts: 689 Member
    I used to have similar feelings about eating. I have found since I shifted my focus from weight loss to health gain, alot of the emotions surrounding food are just no longer there for me. Now if my weight fluctuates a little I dont freak out punish myself or give up because I know I have still been living a healthy life and that is what matters most, Im not going to this effort to be skinny and unhealthy, but rather healthy in body and in mind :flowerforyou:
  • looseseal
    looseseal Posts: 216 Member
    If you were driving along in your car and got a flat tire, would you slash the other three tires because you were angry that you got a flat tire or would you repair the flat tire and carry on?

    I've been up and down the same damn 20 lbs, never reaching my goal of a 35 lb loss. I get to a certain point, and for WHATEVER reason stop doing what has been working all along and sure enough, eventually, I'm right back were I am now. Yeah, 15 lbs to goal and I derp like a champion. omg, like WHAT don't I get???

    A couple of lbs up or down is par for the course, weight fluctuates. Which is why it's a good idea to log/track your food/cals and exercise so you can see the overall trend, rather than focusing on the individual fluctuations. Stick to what you know works, tweak it where it needs tweaking, stay off the scale for a month and go by how your clothes fit.

    Some quit due to slow progress never grasping the fact that slow progress is progress. <--- Oh, I think this was written specifically for me.

    Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. <---- that's me alright. ugh!
  • kjo9692
    kjo9692 Posts: 430 Member
    This is what pops to my head when I read spiraling out of control

    tumblr_lq2pdvjHMU1qht847.gif
  • kjo9692
    kjo9692 Posts: 430 Member
    On a more serious note, 34 pounds is great, and for you to not have any weight gain up to this point, I must say you are extremely lucky! I never get to enjoy new lows and consistently see the number drop on the scale, it just goes up and down all the time. I think a very important thing you can learn is that this happens to all of us, you are not the only one and I'm sure that 1 pound you gained is nothing other than water weight. So just keep at it, and move on. You can do this, you are halfway there and you've done great so far. You can't think that you can't do this when you've come so far. Best of luck OP.
  • toronto_j
    toronto_j Posts: 206 Member
    34 pounds is amazing! So don't let 1lb discourage you...I know it's hard but I did the same when I seemed to go up/plateau for a few weeks. I think because I had used an especially salty bottled sauce in my cooking, I was retaining water. When I did my monthly weigh-in at the gym, my weight loss was still continuing. It's really nothing to freak out about.
  • zanne54
    zanne54 Posts: 336 Member
    If you were driving along in your car and got a flat tire, would you slash the other three tires because you were angry that you got a flat tire or would you repair the flat tire and carry on?

    I love this! Really, something just "clicked". The next time I have a setback (and I will, because - LIFE), I'll remember this, and hopefully it will keep me from emotional eating or completely going off the rails.

    OP - I started on Jan 2, 2013 - so I've been on this journey well over a year now. There will be setbacks and missteps. Even if you've done everything "perfectly" - stayed in the green, ate balanced, got your exercise in, etc. sometimes you will gain weight. The most important advice I can give you is: patience. It could take a day, a week, or a month. Don't give up: it WILL get better.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Freaking out over 1 pound is...... well...... ridiculous.

    Weight fluctuates all of the time, every day, especially for women. Water weight. You shouldn't freak out over a 5 pound fluctuation either, when you know you haven't been eating in excess of your maintenance regularly enough to cause that gain.
    1000x this. Get used to seeing a gain. Happens ALL the time.
  • GibbsGirl13072
    GibbsGirl13072 Posts: 156 Member
    Congrats on losing 34 pounds! Try not to freak out over a pound. Easier said than done, I know! I weigh daily to keep myself in check, and I can fluctuate 3 or 4 pounds easy. I take an OTC water pill the evening before I weigh myself for my so called official weigh in of the week, just to kind of see where I'm at without the crazy fluctuations.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    I wouldn't call 1 lb spiraling out of control. Move on and keep going
  • bethcondon
    bethcondon Posts: 12 Member
    Some people recommend weighing once a week, but I like to weigh myself daily precisely because my weight fluctuates so much, then it allows me to see the long-term trends. There is definitely a monthly trend (arc) with a sudden jump up the week before my period, then a slow decrease again, with daily fluctuations between .5-1 lb. At first this made me so mad, but now I can see that the long-term trend is DOWN! Each minimum is lower than the previous month's minimum. You might want to try weighing yourself more often to get a sense of what your body does, so you can get it all in perspective. 34 lbs down though - you know what you're doing, so just keep at it! Best wishes.
  • Roaringgael
    Roaringgael Posts: 339 Member
    I gained approx. 1lb (I talk in kilos) in the week of my birthday.
    I didn't really over eat but at a lot of highly refined carbs - junk food.
    My calorie intake wasn't really that over but within several days I had lost it again.
    Don't fret its probably fluid.
    Get over it and move on.
    Thats in the past, think about today.
    Get back on track.
  • leesyc81
    leesyc81 Posts: 52 Member
    Christ, I gained 3lb from yesterday's Chinese plus 1lb from the Easter eggs n sausage sarnies the day before. If your spiraling out of control over 1lb then god knows what I am doing!! A pound is seriously nothing, my 4lb is nothing too...up the training and try to be good with controlling food intake and will be gone again in a few days or so! It's a marathon not a sprint and a lifestyle change not a diet, so yes we sometimes eat too much and of the wrong things occasionally, but then u carry on and think of it as a little blip. These little blips do slow down your progress, but I see it as boosting your metabolism ;-) that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! Get over it and move on. We can't be good all the time!
  • negator5543
    negator5543 Posts: 36
    I weighed myself this morning when I first woke up and everything was great...then I drank 2lbs of water( 1 liter) and sure enough I had gained 2 pounds!!! All my hard work ruined ????.

    I'm obviously being overly dramatic here to illustrate a point and not trying to pick on you.

    You have to realize that everything you put into your body has weight. I for example drink 2-3 liters of water per day, that's an extra 4-6 points the scale WILL read.

    It doesn't mean I've gotten fatter.

    Additionally all the food you eat in the course of the day also has weight, until you use it all up and dispose of the waste it's all there adding to the number on the scale.

    Why freak out over what could easily be explained as "I retained some water." For all you know you actually lost another 2lbs of fat that if were still there would have shown plus 3lbs on the scale instead of plus one.

    This is why your weight is largely useless, your percent body fat and the changes you see in the mirror are what really matter.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Have you used the progress graphs that MyFitnessPal creates for you? That way you can see trends to see real losses (and gains), vs noise.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    Freaking out over 1 pound is...... well...... ridiculous.

    Weight fluctuates all of the time, every day, especially for women. Water weight. You shouldn't freak out over a 5 pound fluctuation either, when you know you haven't been eating in excess of your maintenance regularly enough to cause that gain.

    I was thinking the same thing...just silly....1lb...16oz....cripes I eat apples that weight more than that.

    if I freaked over every pound I fluctuated and started to give up...well lets just say after the 4lb vacation gain I would have just been done....

    you should see how my friends "cry" over 2 oz jump on the scale every morning...

Categories