To early to weigh myself?

Hey all, I'm only 4 days in and not sure if it's ok to weigh myself today, I guess I'm kinda scared that I'm going to see no change or that I've increased in weight....which will no doubt knock my confidence :(

Replies

  • MonsoonStorm
    MonsoonStorm Posts: 371 Member
    it's been 4 days... if you see no change (or even a gain) it will be absolutely irrelevant.

    If you are that hung up on scale numbers perhaps you would be better off weighing every day so that you can see the trends and see how hydration, salt and hormones affect your weight on a daily basis without freaking out over a pound or two.

    I've been steadily losing at a slow rate, but I can quite easily pick data points over a 2-3 week period which would show me steadily gaining if I just had those particular points to look at.
  • Seigla
    Seigla Posts: 172 Member
    it's been 4 days... if you see no change (or even a gain) it will be absolutely irrelevant.

    If you are that hung up on scale numbers perhaps you would be better off weighing every day so that you can see the trends and see how hydration, salt and hormones affect your weight on a daily basis without freaking out over a pound or two.

    I've been steadily losing at a slow rate, but I can quite easily pick data points over a 2-3 week period which would show me steadily gaining if I just had those particular points to look at.

    I agree! Embrace the fluctuations and make yourself a pretty zig-zag shaped graph! Weight loss is a cyclic process, not a linear one.
  • Ms_Jojo
    Ms_Jojo Posts: 44 Member
    Thank you for the advice :)
  • MonsoonStorm
    MonsoonStorm Posts: 371 Member
    Yep, and try to make note of things on the graph...

    That big portion of chips you had the night before, any salt-heavy food, important cycle days, any day you did a lot more exercise than usual (glycogen fluctuations in muscles can cause fluctuations in weight too). Even things like alcohol which will leave you dehydrated in excess (thus making you think you've lost weight when you haven't).

    Eventually you'll learn to look at the scale and go "ok, well that's probably because of x, no worries!", you'll also learn to not get overly optimistic when you suddenly see a 2lb drop ;)
  • MonsoonStorm
    MonsoonStorm Posts: 371 Member
    Here's an example with a very squiggly badly drawn line:

    13o8govz8jbq.jpg

    You can see that the overall trend is down, but let's say I decided to weigh myself on those days where the blue dots are... as you can see from my terribly drawn line, that would give me an upward trend.

    Imo the more data the better
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Another example of how scale weight fluctuates ,,,over 3 months of eating at maintenance,,,the black dots are scale weights ..they fluctuate madly ...the causes being water weight through things like change-up in exercise and associated DOMS water weight, extra sodium in diet, ovulation / period, a big meal etc ...you really need to keep a long term view in weight management

    4840qaa800ou.jpg
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    ooh nice answers with graphs and stuff. Just what they said about fluctuations.

    Id just add some points I see time and again OP.

    1. Dont become a slave to the scale but start to look and understand different measures, such as the tape measure or peformance measures from your exercise. The posters have talked about fluctuations, how they can mislead you. Look at things longer term so you get a much better picture of things.
    2. Learn some patience or you will go and make yourself stress about small things, get worried or even quit. Completely avoidable and not neded.
    3. Start being realistic about your weight loss and how fast you might you will lose. You need to be creating an accurate deficit of 3500 cals for every lb you want to lose. It also means if you suddenly gain, that you will more than likely be looking at a temporary fluctuation, unless you know you have been consuming abive maintenance at the rate of 3500, per lb.
    4. Its important that you start believeing what other people will show from people who have lost as well as the success forums; namely that if you follow eating at a consistent accurate deficit you will lose over time. Keep doing the right things and it will work, so dont worry, even if it goes the wrong way for whatever reason. Keep going.