How to catch weight gain early..............?

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Tanie98
Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
in Motivation and Support
I have been maintaining for 6 months now and I stopped counting. I exercise regularly and I eat when I am hungry. However,I weigh myself regularly and pay attention to how my clothes fit.I bought allot of fitting new clothes so I would hate to gain it back and not fit into my new clothes ;)

So for people who gained the weight back, do they not catch it early before it becomes 20 or more lbs?How to catch weight gain early before it becomes noticeable were other people can tell

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  • DigitalDiana
    DigitalDiana Posts: 157 Member
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    Add a date to your calendar to measure using measuring tape... do this 1x per month.
  • CatHunterFit
    CatHunterFit Posts: 194 Member
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    If you weigh yourself regularly you'll know when you are gaining? I don't understand your question. Are you asking how to get it back under control? If so, you go back to basics. You count calories, and track everything.
  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    edited May 2015
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    CatHunterFit wrote: »
    If you weigh yourself regularly you'll know when you are gaining? I don't understand your question. Are you asking how to get it back under control? If so, you go back to basics. You count calories, and track everything.

    No I am asking how to catch weight gain early before its too late.I am not planning to start counting unless I start gaining again

  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
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    Tanie98 wrote: »
    CatHunterFit wrote: »
    If you weigh yourself regularly you'll know when you are gaining? I don't understand your question. Are you asking how to get it back under control? If so, you go back to basics. You count calories, and track everything.

    No I am asking how to catch weight gain early before its too late.I am not planning to start counting unless I start gaining again

    Maybe the reason we are confused by your question is that you seem to be assuming that even if you are weighing yourself "regularly" you will not catch weight gain. Especially 'before it is too late."

    Meanwhile, the rest of us are assuming, oh you're weighing yourself. You will see the scale and see "Oh, my weight has increased. I CAUGHT IT. Now I can do something about it."

    Define how "regularly" you are weighing yourself.

    Define what "too late" means for you. After you have gained 20 pounds over your current weight? 50 pounds? 5 pounds? 1 pound?
  • DaveAkeman
    DaveAkeman Posts: 296 Member
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    I think I may be able to relate to your question a bit. A while back I lost 20 pounds. I was happy with myself, and stepped on the scale every day to revel in my new weight. After a few weeks, I stepped on the scale every other day. Then I got busy and it was a week. Or two. I think it started creeping up, and I finally stopped weighing . . . maybe out of fear.

    Next time I stepped on the scale, almost a year later, I was up 30 pounds.

    I'm not to maintenance yet, but I think the trick may be to not stop stepping on the scale. That's just my guess, though.
  • earth_echo
    earth_echo Posts: 133 Member
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    What I did/do is purchase a pair of tight-ish, UNstretchy, well-fitting pants. I bought them at a Salvation Army store and so they were dirt-cheap. I didn't care at all about what they looked like. It was all about the fit. This particular pair of pants aren't pants I ever wear, but use instead to gauge any changes to my body. So far, it's worked really well. I don't stress about weight fluctuations nor do I count calories. I tried on these pants this past spring and to my surprise they were looser than they were in the fall. I get on the scale, however, and I'm 5 pounds heavier (I was shocked!). I guess all the shoveling I did gave me some muscle! Had I stressed over calories (restricted them to maintenance) and scale weight, I probably wouldn't have gained any muscle.
  • Taiser
    Taiser Posts: 81 Member
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    I found that keeping track of my calories on this site, even after having reached my goal weight works well, but sometimes even gaining a pound or two I notice that some of my pants are just a hair tighter than they should be so that's always a good indicator as well!!! :p
  • North44
    North44 Posts: 359 Member
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    I stopped logging with the intention of weighing myself every week. Then I stopped weighing myself. The weight crept back on but I catch myself before I gain all of my original 25 pounds lost. I've done this several times since 2010. This time I need to continue to log and weigh- I only have 10, maybe 15 to lose.
  • 365andstillalive
    365andstillalive Posts: 663 Member
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    I get where you're coming from. I lost 40 lbs, then put 20 back on. Quite honestly, I got complacent. I'd jump on the scale once every week or two and I'd be up a pound and I'd tell myself "just a little water weight" or 'it's only one pound" but I never really did anything about it. A little over a year later, and I started trying to lose weight again.

    It kind of sneaks up on you in a sense, 20 lbs over the course of the year is only around 1.5lbs per month. So I didn't really notice significant body changes, and by the time I did, I didn't feel like doing anything about it.

    I've done a few rounds of that, unfortunately. I think the big difference for me this time around is that I'll actually be reaching my goal weight, rather than stopping 20-40 lbs before my goal and then backsliding.

    I think if you're not going to count calories then making a point of recording your weight and measurements once a month for the next year or two may not be a bad idea? It would be okay to fluctuate (up or down) a little in that time, but if there was a continual upwards trend, you would know.

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