I know better than this...

jyt2573
jyt2573 Posts: 80
edited September 23 in Motivation and Support
So I fell into the evil scale trap. The scale said I gained 7 lbs. over Christmas, but I also know that I started a weight-training program during that time and that always adds pounds for a while. (The new muscle swells up with water.) For the last two weeks, I have been insanely strict (not eating quite all my calories) and bumping up the exercise to dramatic proportions. I was trying to "shock" my body into showing a number slightly lower than that 7 lb. mark, reasoning that some of that 7 lbs. was simply water weight and some more was new muscle.

I weighed today and was .9 of a pound up.

Contrary to all my cheerleading, positive thinking and "in it for the long haul" rationale, I spiraled into an immediate sharp and intense depression. I could barely speak. I felt as if I had been doing all the hard work and had been slapped in the face with a punishment. All the way to the gym this morning, I kept telling myself all the things I would be telling someone else in this position, but nothing worked. I'm not new to this. I have been actively working on losing weight for 16 months now and I think I can say that this morning has been my lowest moment. Ever.

So it was with zero enthusiasm I went for my monthly weigh-in and measurement with the gym nurse.

The scale did say I was still the same weight from November 22nd, but the tape measure said I had lost inches in my belly, hips and butt. 2.5 inches to be exact! I'm still trying to process this information. I went from a zero-sum game of "this will NEVER" work to "Hold on, you are more ahead of the game than you thought." 2.5 inches is a lot - especially when you are thinking that you are 50 times heavier than you should be and all this work has been for nothing.

This brings me to my very deep and thoughtful realization of the day. It doesn't matter how new or old you are to this. It doesn't matter how many articles you read, how many experts you consult or how 100% on the right track you think you are, we ALL get knocked down at some point. I was too cocky and thought I was immune. I was not and I went down hard.

So now, my day will restart with deep breaths, an appreciation for my journey so far and gratitude to have something pick me up at the exact moment I needed it. Thanks to all of you here on MFP for giving me a place to vent and I can't wait to get back to my positive, but less cocky, attitude.

Jennifer

Replies

  • joan41
    joan41 Posts: 170 Member
    Hey I needed to hear that!
  • bjmk19047
    bjmk19047 Posts: 123
    Great job, Jennifer!!! We all have moments/hours/days like that! Thanks for sharing!
  • ahbach2005
    ahbach2005 Posts: 119
    I'd say by your ticker you/ve done really well so far.

    Reshaping your body is good...more muscle means a larger fat burning machine.

    I imagine it feels pretty good to see positive results even when you're not expecting.

    Congratulations
  • jjeckels
    jjeckels Posts: 57
    Thanks for the post..I had that very same experience last week. Scale doesn't seem to want to budge, but inches are coming off!
    Keep up the great work, it's all worth it...even the times when were down.
  • mummum2
    mummum2 Posts: 415 Member
    :flowerforyou: That's why I believe in measuring and not the scale! but your weight lost is fan...fab...lous! you're doing great.
  • enmaku
    enmaku Posts: 24
    Sounds like a lot of folks just need some better tools than the bathroom scale...

    I'm an engineer, which is something that permeates every aspect of my life, so I have an instinctual need to put the number on the scale into more mathematically useful models, I'll share what I do and hopefully it'll help some of the scale addicts.

    There's nothing wrong, up to a certain point, with gathering more data, but if you don't fully understand what you're looking at it can be rather depressing day-to-day. See, your weight fluctuates all day every day within a certain range (for most people +/- 2 lbs or so) based on undigested food, water retention, bowel movements, urination, sweat, respiration, and any number of other sources. Since you're likely losing no more than 2 lbs per week on a reasonable diet this means that your body can seemingly undo or double your efforts as shown on the scale with little way to tell the difference. Certainly measuring yourself and going weeks between weigh-ins can help see through the noise but gathering less data is usually not the answer.

    Enter the moving average. When we engineers have a system that has both strong trends AND a lot of noise we often use moving averages to find the trends. In the case of weight it's pretty simple, you weigh daily, then ignore the number on the scale entirely except to plug it into a spreadsheet. After you have at least 10 days of weigh-ins you calculate their average, which is very close to your true weight around day 5. The next day you weigh again and calculate the average of points 2 thru 11 as your true weight for day 6, then points 3 thru 12 for day 7 and so on.

    The trick is recognizing that you won't be able to see the signal through the noise for at least 10 days. Over the course of a month you'll plot a nice little trend line that shows your actual progress. Over the course of a year or two the actual effects of holiday splurging and such can be directly observed.

    If that seems like a bit too much math for you to deal with every day well, I agree. There's an awesome online tool for it though (https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet/) created by one of the makers of AutoCAD. He also wrote a pretty decent book explaining dieting to engineers... Yeah you have to explain things differently to us a lot :P
  • jyt2573
    jyt2573 Posts: 80
    I instantly feel better reading everyone's comments here. I KNEW this was the place to vent. Thanks so much all!

    Enmaku, I love your post. I haven't been as technical as you posted, but I have been weighing in on my Wii which plots all weight loss on a chart. I can totally see the trends of dots down with occasional rises. This helps me focus of the big picture (usually.) :)

    I'm off to research a spa day. I need something non-food related as a positive influence and have been saving this treat for just the right time. I think today is it!
  • GrandmaPaige
    GrandmaPaige Posts: 10
    A 78 pound loss! Awesome job! And those diminished inches speak volumes!

    Keep on Truckin Girl!!

    Paige
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