Help! Does your weight fluctuate as your losing weight
Shellymarie604
Posts: 51 Member
Hey everyone. I jumped on the scale today and my weight has gone up even though sticking within guidelines. Anyone else weight fluctuate while losing weight here. I am hoping it is just a bit of water weight.
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Of course it does. Losing weight is not a linear process. I can see the scale jump around multiple times a day! But overall, my progress is a downward trend. Don't let yourself get hung up on the number that shows. Our bodies are wonderful at holding onto water and all sorts of fun things that'll make the numbers jump around.0
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Yup! Especially among us women. Very common and nothing to worry about.
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Yes! I only lose weight once a month, but gratifyingly it comes all at once. Try watching trend lines instead like www.weightgrapher.com0
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Fat loss is slow and steady, water weight is all over the place
Weighing daily can help many people who freak out over seemingly sudden jumps from week to week. 0 -
Yes I barely weigh myself because of it. My weight can fluctuate up to 7lbs between morning and night on the same day. I stick with my calories as much as possible, weigh everything with a food scale and weigh around every 2 weeks or so.0
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I'm with jgnatca. I can eat and exercise perfectly all month but I will watch the scale go up a pound or two before my period and then about four will come off the week after. It sucks, but it's just water.0
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Just frustrating to see as it is a lot of hard work. Since I started it has been a downward trend and now has gone up again. I haven't worked out the last couple days but am sticking with or staying under my calorie goal. Just want to see the 1 to 2 pounds lose per week.
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DrusiliaDD wrote: »Yes I barely weigh myself because of it. My weight can fluctuate up to 7lbs between morning and night on the same day. I stick with my calories as much as possible, weigh everything with a food scale and weigh around every 2 weeks or so.
You aren't supposed to weigh more often than ONCE daily though
What you have been eating and drinking weighs something, and if you weigh yourself AND the undigested food you have eaten that day, of course the scale will show a higher reading than in the morning 
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Yes. Earlier this week, I gained a pound. I had been going over calories by a couple hundred for a few days so I though it was a combo eating too much and water weight since I should have been eating near maintenance. Yesterday I gained another pound for no apparent reason. I am annoyed, but using this as motivation to tighten up my eating and get back to more consistent exercise. Otherwise I just hope it is mostly water weight and will come off in the next week or so.0
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Shellymarie604 wrote: »Just frustrating to see as it is a lot of hard work. Since I started it has been a downward trend and now has gone up again. I haven't worked out the last couple days but am sticking with or staying under my calorie goal. Just want to see the 1 to 2 pounds lose per week.
If you are doing everything correctly, you are losing. You may not be losing as fast as in the beginning, though, because a lighter body uses less fuel (calories), and 1-2 pounds per week may be too much to expect now.0 -
My calories are set to lose 2 pounds a week. I have 60 pounds to lose and my weight is considered obese for my height so shouldn't be a problem. I can understand if last 10 or 20 pounds those come off slower but I am quite overweight. Current weight is 194 at 5'6".0
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It's frustrating to watch those numbers dance up and down on the scale!
Do this: check your weight when you first wake up. Check it again after breakfast. Before lunch, and after. Check it when you get home from a day out. After dinner. Before bed.
You'll see wide fluctuation throughout the day. For me, as many as 4-6 lbs. If i track day-by-day, i can see numbers showing me gaining weight, even though i'm eating well within my goals.
So... the trick is understanding that my goal isn't accurately "weight loss" as it is "fat loss", and when i step on the scale, i'm measuring weight, not just fat.
To track fat loss, look at two things:
Firstly, watch your weight over time. If you're eating within the caloric goals required for you to lose weight, you'll see the line trend downward. Log weight weekly. Watch trends over the course of a month to six weeks.
Secondly, look for non-scale victories (NSV) - pay attention to how your clothes fit. pay attention to energy levels. pay attention to how people respond to you. pay attention to how your relationships with food change. As you loose weight gradually, it will be easy to overlook the incremental change, which becomes disheartening. But then, out of nowhere, you'll realize those tight pants are a little too loose! Or a friend will mention that you look healthy and ask what you've been doing. Those little moments... enjoy them!0 -
Most definitely! I try to weigh myself in the morning after I've gone to the washroom. Some times I'll weigh myself after work, and find that it's 2 to 3 pounds more than earlier that day. Then the next morning, it's right back down.0
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What I found helped was really upping my water intake. The recommendation is your body weight in ounces divided by 2, so for you that would be about 12 cups. Also, this is not supposed to including water during or immediately after workouts. Upping my water made a huge difference in scale fluctuations from day to day. I do still notice some, but much less than before. Also, I find that weighing in first thing in the morning seems to show less fluctuations.0
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It's frustrating to watch those numbers dance up and down on the scale!
Do this: check your weight when you first wake up. Check it again after breakfast. Before lunch, and after. Check it when you get home from a day out. After dinner. Before bed.
You'll see wide fluctuation throughout the day. For me, as many as 4-6 lbs. If i track day-by-day, i can see numbers showing me gaining weight, even though i'm eating well within my goals.
So... the trick is understanding that my goal isn't accurately "weight loss" as it is "fat loss", and when i step on the scale, i'm measuring weight, not just fat.
I think this is really helpful. Scale weight reflects how dehydrated you are or how much food happens to still be in your stomach at the time etc. Fat loss happens over time, not always day to day.Yes! I only lose weight once a month, but gratifyingly it comes all at once. Try watching trend lines instead like www.weightgrapher.com
Second this recommendation. I weigh every morning in the same clothes right after getting up and after any necessary morning you-know-what. Tools like the one above or TrendWeight or HappyScale will all take your daily weight and average it out for you over time. Even when I am losing weight and the overall trend is down, my day to day even in the same conditions can vary by as much as 2 lbs.0 -
It sure does. I use a +/- 5 pound window as normal.0
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Our bodies are 40-60% water and very good at holding onto fluids even though our diet and exercise are good.
Overall trends are what important.
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I see a jump up every time that lovely tom comes around, otherwise pretty steady downwards unless I've hit a bad few days or high sodium days...0
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I weight myself every morning only in the nude after I have gone the washroom. I don't weight myself any other time. Going to try cutting back on salt and see if that helps.0
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Shellymarie604 wrote: »Hey everyone. I jumped on the scale today and my weight has gone up even though sticking within guidelines. Anyone else weight fluctuate while losing weight here. I am hoping it is just a bit of water weight.
At first mine would fluctuate as much as 2-4 lbs from day to day and week to week. Drove me crazy! Now I will see a good loss and then it will stay at one weight or fluctuate 1-2 lbs from day to day. I hate it but I know I'm at least getting somewhere since I'm losing and not steadily gaining at least.
When I have high sodium days or not enough water in my day and too much diet soda I can really tell a difference in how I feel and the scales won't budge any.0 -
Pms and bloat get me. I had someone compliment me on my loss and she said I swear you get skinnier everyday, so proud of myself I hopped on the scale and I had gained A LOT. It took a little over a week before I was through the bloat stage and then my weight dropped....I did not log weight until my hormones quit being mean to me. And my pride was knocked down a peg or two. ( still pretty proud of me though)0
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Yes. I use the happy scale app, that helps me to care less about day to day fluctuations.0
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I will have to check that out vegasleo0
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I would try only weighing once a week for the time being. I think it will help you not stress so much about the ups and downs. But there will still be weeks that you do everything right and still see a gain. Other times there are questionable/higher calorie weeks and you'll see a loss. It doesn't always make sense, and you won't lose weight every week. Like others said, as long as the overall trend is downward don't worry about it. 0
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Yes you will fluctuate all the time up and down. My suggestion is to weigh every day at the same time, log it, then track a seven day average of your weight. It really flattens out the peaks and valleys and gives you your trend over time.0
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I have water weight gain at ovulation, premenstrually, after very high sodium meals, and when I start a new exercise regimen. Weighing every day and charting it helps me not freak out about these normal fluctuations.
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"perkymommy wrote: »Shellymarie604 wrote: »Hey everyone. I jumped on the scale today and my weight has gone up even though sticking within guidelines. Anyone else weight fluctuate while losing weight here. I am hoping it is just a bit of water weight.
"At first mine would fluctuate as much as 2-4 lbs from day to day and week to week. Drove me crazy! Now I will see a good loss and then it will stay at one weight or fluctuate 1-2 lbs from day to day. I hate it but I know I'm at least getting somewhere since I'm losing and not steadily gaining at least. "
And this recommendation:
"Secondly, look for non-scale victories (NSV) - pay attention to how your clothes fit. pay attention to energy levels. pay attention to how people respond to you. pay attention to how your relationships with food change. As you loose weight gradually, it will be easy to overlook the incremental change, which becomes disheartening. But then, out of nowhere, you'll realize those tight pants are a little too loose! Or a friend will mention that you look healthy and ask what you've been doing. Those little moments... enjoy them!
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Exactly!!! I even gained some weight back and hit a wall of not losing for a whole month.... But I didn't give up!!! Then, The scale started changing again and am closer to my goal now 0
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Yup. Here's another set of points (Red line is the trend; endpoints of vertical bars above/below the trend represent weights). And I'm menopausal, so I don't even have the hormonal fluctuation going on.
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Your weight will fluctuate whether you are gaining, losing or maintaining! As long as you are a living, breathing, drinking, eating, moving & eliminating creature you are a range of weights that reflect your last meal, your recent sleep, your current hormones, the amount of sodium & fiber you've been getting, etc. I like to collect each mornings first fasted & empty weight as a way of measuring fat loss but I wouldn't expect to still weigh that after lunch. And I rarely get up expecting to see the same number on the scale.
Most weeks for me go something like this:
Sunday... Last week's middle weight; disappointing! Damn you beer :-(
Monday...back down to last weeks low... Relief!
Tuesday... New low weight... Love love love!
Wednesday... Monday's weight. Oh, you again.
Thursday... Back to new low. Not so exciting the second time around, huh?
Friday... 6 oz above new low. Bugger!
Saturday... 3 oz below yesterday... But look! my weekly average weight is down 12 oz...Go me! ~happy bathroom dance~
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