Please read - please help - at wits end

Are those workouts more hardcore than usual? Muscles retain fluid for repairs, so if you were working out harder than normal or are sore, fluid retention is likely.

I know the feeling.

Sometimes I eat really well and exercise and do everything right and then a week later, the scale says I GAINED a pound. Then I'll weigh myself a few days later and the scale says I lost 3 pounds. Then when I weigh myself every day, I sometimes stay the same weight for 5 days in a row and then the 6th day I lose a pound and the 7th I gain back 2 and on the 8th I lose 1 more and then for the next few days I stay at that same weight and so on. Like, WTH??

It can be SO frustrating to see the scale numbers fluctuating like crazy or not going down, but hang in there.

It takes time, sometimes a lot of time to see results.

I like instant gratification so this weight loss thing is hard for me. But what I've learned is that if you keep at it and don't quit, you will start to lose the weight if you're eating at a healthy deficit. It will happen. You can do this

Well, lesson learned, right? I took several days off last month for a camping trip and I still haven't managed to get below the weight I was the day we left! I learned I need to log everything, even if I have other things going on. And stick with it. One week with eating right and exercising without results? So what? Keep going. You have to. It will all work out in the end if you're being honest and accurate with your logging, and you stick to a deficit.

I'm a daily weigher but I only really look at the difference between my first weigh in of the month, and the last weigh in of the month. Like others have said-weight loss is not always linear and things like tom, stress, exercise, sodium/water retention etc can skew the results of the scale. I had several times during my active weight loss phase where I didn't lose or even had a bounce, when things 'should' have been going in the opposite direction, only to have a large whoosh several days later where I dropped like 3-4 pounds at once.

Sounds like you're doing a great job-keep at it and you will be successful

Pretty much just going to echo what the others have said, and weigh yourself less if you need to. Work out to feel better and be more fit - try to stop seeing it as an ends to a means to losing weight, because that's a really good way to make you utterly hate it. Take your measurements this week, and start doing it every 2-3 weeks. Do not weigh yourself more than every 2 weeks. Weight loss is EXTREMELY fickle, and I've found that I have gone down with the measuring tape during a week the scale was not moving. Putting that sort of importance on the scale is incredibly defeating and can end up making you go "What's the point?"

Then I remember that this is something I'm doing for better health and a long-term end result, and something I fully intend on doing for the rest of my life. The scale doesn't tell me when I hit fitness milestones or when I'm able to learn how to stop eating when I'm full. I was letting the scale dictate my mood on some days and letting it briefly make me wonder if it's all worth it - which is exactly when I decided I needed to definitely only weigh at most, every 2 weeks.

If you do everything right, the weight WILL come off. You do not need to starve yourself, you do not need to exercise 15 hours a week. If you are not someone who can objectively see daily, or even weekly fluctuations without doubting your entire effort, weigh yourself less. "Only" once a week is not only once a week if the result is going to be the only thing you gauge your weight loss on, because sometimes it may not move at all that week. Do it less, and focus on the victories you do you make.

your profile says you've lost 32lbs? why are you beating yourself up over one week? you've done so well and come so far, one week will not matter. stop being concerned about a number on a scale.

Francl27 wrote: »

I typically lose my TOM weight the week after it's over.

This-it takes a couple days AFTER things wrap up, for the bounce to go away for me.

Hello, I think enough people have already hit the main points, don’t watch the scale, don’t stress, give it more time, take measurements and weigh in less often, eat right and measure your foods. All are on point and great advice and I concur 100%, so I would offer you one last piece of advice that is not what you may expect and which will seem odd maybe and even minor up front and even crazy.
I would suggest changing your user name perhaps, it’s just you taking a little poke at yourself but it is just a form of self-deprivation, and if you are already being hard on yourself you don’t need that hanging over your head. Give yourself an uplifting name like Phoenix_Rising or something like that which will serve to lift you up and give you a more positive outlook.
Be positive, stay positive and positive things will happen.
Good luck.
V/r,
DW.