Why am I gaining weight?
kimberley1975mfp
Posts: 36 Member
Ok so here’s the deal. I woke up and weighed myself Wednesday morning and I was 162. By bedtime I had started my period and weighed 167. That was an unusual jump for me even given the situation. But I figured I’d wait until it was over to weigh myself again. It ended yesterday and today I woke and weighed myself and I was 168. I’m horrified and I’ve stuck to my 1200 calories through it all and increased exercise. So explain to me how this happened or what could be wrong? What do I do??? Very discouraged because I’ve worked hard to get from 222lbs to this. 6lbs is a lot of hard work that I worked hard to get off.
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Replies
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Too short a period of time and small sampling weight. Stick to your plan. I'm sure somebody will mention TOM. Let this be a motivator to keep pressing on.5
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I need to wait a full week for the post-menstrual weight loss to occur.
Also, if you weight yourself at night, you're going to be sad, so stick to first thing in the AM.11 -
I recognize weight fluctuations and I know mine because sadly I’m addicted to my scale so I weigh myself about 4 times a day so I can note the usual fluctuations but this is not one I’ve ever experienced before. It’s stressful13
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Period + Increased exercise = water retention. Give it more time. You've lost 55lbs so probably know by now it's not linear and you will fluctuate. If you are accurately logging, don't panic7
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kimberley1975mfp wrote: »I recognize weight fluctuations and I know mine because sadly I’m addicted to my scale so I weigh myself about 4 times a day so I can note the usual fluctuations but this is not one I’ve ever experienced before. It’s stressful
As you know, weight is a range rather than just one number. There's nothing you can do about that. The trend over time is what matters. A weight trending app (such as Libra for Android) can smooth out the variations and may help you feel better about it.10 -
My vote's on extra water weight due to TOM and extra exercise. Some months it takes longer for mine to flush out than others.6
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Water weight, that's all7
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Don't be hard on yourself weight goes up and down.5
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Unless you ate 21000 calories over your daily goal that day, it's water weight.
Breathe. The bloat will pass.6 -
If you're used to weighing yourself four times a day then chances are you might have *worse* data about water weight fluctuations, not better. Everyone's weight changes over the course of the day based on how much you've eaten or drank, if you've been sweating for one reason or another, and how recently you've used the restroom. If you only weigh once a day you'll still have ups and downs, but at least you're likely to quiet some of those fluctuations if you only weigh once under the same conditions.
If I had to guess, I'd say it sounds like the increased exercise plus TOM is probably the culprit, with stress not doing you any favors either.7 -
Yeah I do have some excessive stress in my life right now. Never thought that could affect weight I guess. Thanks2
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kimberley1975mfp wrote: »Ok so here’s the deal. I woke up and weighed myself Wednesday morning and I was 162. By bedtime I had started my period and weighed 167. That was an unusual jump for me even given the situation. But I figured I’d wait until it was over to weigh myself again. It ended yesterday and today I woke and weighed myself and I was 168. I’m horrified and I’ve stuck to my 1200 calories through it all and increased exercise. So explain to me how this happened or what could be wrong? What do I do??? Very discouraged because I’ve worked hard to get from 222lbs to this. 6lbs is a lot of hard work that I worked hard to get off.
My period ended on Tuesday and the water weight from it just came off yesterday. Give your body a little time to catch up!2 -
You’re never gonna be in a good place mentally whilst you’re weighing yourself four times a day. That’s just not a healthy thing to do and sounds like it’s bordering on obsession. If I were you I’d look towards fixing that issue first.4
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Its perfectly normal to see a spike on the scales for SEVERAL days after TOM. I can see it stay higher for up to 10 days.
And I'm not sure why you would weigh yourself at night as well as in the morning, the food you have eaten during the day and which is still being digested will affect the scales. Stick with one time to weigh in.1 -
kimberley1975mfp wrote: »I recognize weight fluctuations and I know mine because sadly I’m addicted to my scale so I weigh myself about 4 times a day so I can note the usual fluctuations but this is not one I’ve ever experienced before. It’s stressful
You need to stop this crazy weighing obsession Once a day is MORE than enough.4 -
kimberley1975mfp wrote: »I recognize weight fluctuations and I know mine because sadly I’m addicted to my scale so I weigh myself about 4 times a day so I can note the usual fluctuations but this is not one I’ve ever experienced before. It’s stressful
These fluctuations you're talking about are due to food and water in your stomach (from your daily intake). The fluctuations we are talking about are due to exess water in the tissues. It takes days and weeks to go away. And everyone experiences this. So do you.3 -
As everyone else said, water weight related to TOM.
If you cannot wean yourself from the 4x per day weighing, at least start tracking in an app that shows you the trends (Trend Weight, Libra, Happy Weight) so you can see that you're still losing weight (but it may not be completely linear).
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kimberley1975mfp wrote: »Yeah I do have some excessive stress in my life right now. Never thought that could affect weight I guess. Thanks
Stress affects your weight because your body has hormones that regulate metabolism. Life stress, exercise stress, and even the stress of eating in a deficit affect this. If you've been eating at a deficit for a long time, you might want to check out the diet and refeed thread that's active now. I'll link it in a minute....
Here's your link.3 -
Weigh yourself only once during the morning after using the restroom. Good luck!!2
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Start using trendweight.com or a similar app. It's been a sanity saver for me. It will only count 1 measurement per day though, but that's good to wean you off obsessive weighing.
6 pounds you've "put on" in one day is a 21000 cal surplus in fat, so I think it's pretty obvious it's "something else".2 -
One month my scale might jump 3 pounds during and after my period. The next month it might jump 8. It's not always going to be the same fluctuations. Other factors could be at play that makes judging fluctuations very different from month to month. Salty foods, muscle soreness and a whole bunch of other stuff can cause fluctuations3
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Thanks for all the tips and insight. Intellectually I know weighing myself constantly is ridiculous I truly do but when you’ve been big your whole life and this is the first time I’ve been able to lose weight (and it’s all because of this app) the thought of letting my weight get out of control again is not something I can ever have happened to me again. I want to weigh once a day but I find myself doing it chronically. I will try to stop that. I’ve been using this app for so long and weighing myself and never seen a spike that bad at TOM that it was concerning and to weight the same everyday as the first day of TOM a week later is incredibly frustrating. Maybe just a bad month. I’ll try not to freak out and give it some more time0
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kimberley1975mfp wrote: »Thanks for all the tips and insight. Intellectually I know weighing myself constantly is ridiculous I truly do but when you’ve been big your whole life and this is the first time I’ve been able to lose weight (and it’s all because of this app) the thought of letting my weight get out of control again is not something I can ever have happened to me again. I want to weigh once a day but I find myself doing it chronically. I will try to stop that. I’ve been using this app for so long and weighing myself and never seen a spike that bad at TOM that it was concerning and to weight the same everyday as the first day of TOM a week later is incredibly frustrating. Maybe just a bad month. I’ll try not to freak out and give it some more time
It might be frustrating now but expect this happen again, multiple times over the course of your life. It's important to deal with how you feel about this now so it doesn't affect you so much in the future.
If you've been eating in a deficit, then there's really nothing to worry about.3 -
kimberley1975mfp wrote: »Thanks for all the tips and insight. Intellectually I know weighing myself constantly is ridiculous I truly do but when you’ve been big your whole life and this is the first time I’ve been able to lose weight (and it’s all because of this app) the thought of letting my weight get out of control again is not something I can ever have happened to me again. I want to weigh once a day but I find myself doing it chronically. I will try to stop that. I’ve been using this app for so long and weighing myself and never seen a spike that bad at TOM that it was concerning and to weight the same everyday as the first day of TOM a week later is incredibly frustrating. Maybe just a bad month. I’ll try not to freak out and give it some more time
Remember too that once you get to your goal weight, you'll still fluctuate, just like you are now. So you simply have to get used to that - especially if you weigh yourself often.2 -
In a 5week period, I lost 2 lbs but 10 inches. I go by how my clothes fit and how I feel.
I also weigh myself every 2 weeks. Don't even own a scale.2 -
First, learn what the scale is measuring, what that number represents.
Only then get back to weighing on a regular basis.
If you're still emotionally tied to the scale, consider a weight trend app like Libra, Happy Scale, etc. Then focus on your trend weight not your actual scale weight.3 -
kimberley1975mfp wrote: »Thanks for all the tips and insight. Intellectually I know weighing myself constantly is ridiculous I truly do but when you’ve been big your whole life and this is the first time I’ve been able to lose weight (and it’s all because of this app) the thought of letting my weight get out of control again is not something I can ever have happened to me again. I want to weigh once a day but I find myself doing it chronically. I will try to stop that. I’ve been using this app for so long and weighing myself and never seen a spike that bad at TOM that it was concerning and to weight the same everyday as the first day of TOM a week later is incredibly frustrating. Maybe just a bad month. I’ll try not to freak out and give it some more time
Clearly, you're watching your calories. Compare that to the weight you think you gained. If the result is "impossible" in blinking multicolored lights, it isn't fat. Breeeeathe. Wait. Everything's gonna be fine.
Granny sez.5
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