8 weeks to lose 4lbs, but gained 2.5 lbs in 1 week?!

I feel your pain, I gained 3 pounds after last weekend and it took me all week to get it off plus lost 1 additional pound. It wasn't the food for me but the darned beers I had Friday and Saturday. Two nights out with my son and his fiance did me in. No more beer for me I will stick with ice water. It takes too much to get the water weight back off. Good luck to you and keep an eye on your sodium and it will come back off.

There tends to be a lot of salt in food you eat when you eat out. That could be what's caused the weight gain. If you're having to tighten your belt then obviously you're losing inches and I'd trust that more than the scales to be honest. My scales tell me I'm one weight when they're in one spot on the bathroom floor, move them a couple of inches and they'll tell me another weight so I don't have much faith in scales lol.

I agree with other commenters - try to watch your salt, and drink more water. You'll do just fine!!! : )

So after 8 weeks of intensely watching my diet and trying to exercise 4-5 days a week, I lost 4 lbs. That corresponds to losing 0.5 lbs/week, which I'm fine with because it means my weight loss was steady and hopefully long-lasting. Plus I'm only 5'2" with a starting weight of 157 lbs, so I know I can't lose that much at once. Then this morning on week 9, I get on the scale and I had gained back 2.5 lbs! In one week! I'm really really REALLY hoping this is just water weight.

This is extremely discouraging and this is the point where I usually give up when I start to gain again. I stick to my diet during the week (always eating back my exercise calories) with some splurging during the weekend. I have been going to a spinning class 2x/week, softball with my company 1x/week, and I try to do either kickboxing via Netflix or ride my bike depending upon the weather. This isn't my TOM, but we have eaten out more this week than normal (pizza, Steak Out, and Subway) even though I have stayed within my calories.

Please give me some hope that this is only temporary! I can't believe it took me 8 weeks to lose 4 lbs and one week to gain 2.5 lbs! I haven't measured inches, but I know I've lost some because I'm synching up my belt more. I wanted to throw my scale out of the window this morning!

SODIUM! This will cause an overnight weight gain. I've seen a 4lb increase overnight. Try not to worry about the scale numbers too much. Fluctuation is normal and water balance issues can disguise true weight loss.
And make sure you are eating enough calories to fuel your exercise - eat those exercise calories back. This is very, very important when you don't have a lot to lose. And incorporate some strength/resistance training and/or weight lifting into your routine. This will help preserve your muscle mass while still burning off body fat. (At healthier weights our body has a tendency to protect our fat reserves and dig into our lean muscle mass for fuel - also happens with calories restrictions).

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html (I love this site. And a lot of exercise can be considered 'overexertion')

The law of unintended consequences
Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.