disappointed in scale number

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Polaretapink
Polaretapink Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been in a deficit for a week and today I decided to weigh myself and to my surprise , the scale went UP 2 pounds ! I feel like really discouraged right now and am thinking about ditching the scale and using a measuring tape! any thoughts ?

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,564 Member
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    Be patient. Weight loss isn’t linear. Did you begin exercising at the same time?
  • debtay123
    debtay123 Posts: 1,327 Member
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    yeah- if it has only been for a week- be patient- their will always be fluctuations in your weight- give it more time
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
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    Weight fluctuations are totally normal and can be caused by a lot of different things. Water retention (due to too much salt the previous day, that time of the month, a tough workout, etc.) or simply waste in your body (digesting food and liquids).

    Measuring tapes can be helpful, for sure. Especially if you find yourself obsessing over scale numbers.

    I personally weigh myself every day and log that weight in a weight trending app (Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS). It takes all those little fluctuations and smooths them out. So you can see how you're doing as the weeks go by.
  • LunaKip
    LunaKip Posts: 2 Member
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    Salt is a big one for me. A lot of take-out and canned foods do this to me, even if I'm under my calories. Also, hormones. That one is a pain. The good news is that weight from those things isn't fat, it's mostly water, so it should flush out of your system soon!
  • 2snakeswoman
    2snakeswoman Posts: 655 Member
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    Oooh, I'll have to look for that app, toxikon. I have lost 4-6 pounds my first week back on MFP.

    I've got to say though, scales lie. They do. It could be a number of things, like toxikon says. Or it could be black magic. One morning I got up, peed, and weighed. Later I impressed myself with a #2 and decided to see how much that monster weighed, so stepped on the scales again. Everything was exactly the same - I hadn't dressed or swallowed anything, and the result on the scales was exactly the same too. WHAT?! That isn't even possible. Witchcraft!
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,217 Member
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    toxikon wrote: »
    I personally weigh myself every day and log that weight in a weight trending app (Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS).

    This^

    Haven't tried the apps but a spreadsheet does me just fine. It may also help the psychological relationship with the scale by making it a daily habit that's just data-collection and not an event-based barometer of progress.

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    You want to look for a downward trend over time. Changes day-to-day or even week-to-week don't show the big picture. Keep a calorie deficit over time and you'll lose weight over time. Here's a 3 month time span where I was at or below my calorie goal every day:

    jy0v3rllbofz.jpg
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    One week isn't long enough to judge anything. Don't get discouraged. Keep up the work and you'll see the results.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,010 Member
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    If you're a female with a menstrual cycle I suggest you compare yourself to last month rather than last week. Weighing daily taught me that I, like many women, gain when I ovulate as well as premenstrually.

    And, as others have said, if you recently started exercising you could be retaining water from that.

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