Gained weight not lost it

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DeborahKilpatrick
DeborahKilpatrick Posts: 80 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi, I've been using MFP for the first time in a while and have about a stone and a half to lose... I set my goal to 0.5 lb a week but didn't manage to lose anything at all. I hadn't weighed myself for just over a week before today and was horrified to see I've actually gained 5lb!!! It's the time of the month which probably accounts for most of it but I've now set my goal to lose 1.5lb a week as I think my previous goal left no room for error in terms of measuring etc. Feel rubbish and fat though, I have no confidence any more.

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  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Read this article, Deborah.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
  • mantawayne
    mantawayne Posts: 1 Member
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    If you are like me and just starting, you should just analyze the data for now and focus on just maintaining.
    Nothing that is worth doing is easy.
  • DeborahKilpatrick
    DeborahKilpatrick Posts: 80 Member
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    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Read this article, Deborah.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    Just read it - great article! Even when I tell myself all these things - it's sodium, water retention etc - it still feels so bad!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I generally don't recommend that people do 1/2 Lb per week unless they're pretty experienced and are also ok without really seeing much change on the scale for a month or more.

    1/2 Lb per week for one doesn't leave a lot of room for error...this is where experience would come into play and knowing how precise you can be with your logging. Secondly, 1/2 Lb per week is going to easily be masked by natural weight fluctuations. I typically fluctuate 2-3 Lbs day to day...I've done the 1/2 Lb per week thing and it can take me a good 6 weeks or more to actually start seeing a downward trend.

  • DeborahKilpatrick
    DeborahKilpatrick Posts: 80 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I generally don't recommend that people do 1/2 Lb per week unless they're pretty experienced and are also ok without really seeing much change on the scale for a month or more.

    1/2 Lb per week for one doesn't leave a lot of room for error...this is where experience would come into play and knowing how precise you can be with your logging. Secondly, 1/2 Lb per week is going to easily be masked by natural weight fluctuations. I typically fluctuate 2-3 Lbs day to day...I've done the 1/2 Lb per week thing and it can take me a good 6 weeks or more to actually start seeing a downward trend.

    That's good to hear, I thought it would give me a nice slow and steady weight loss but I don't think I'm experienced enough at tracking to give myself such a narrow margin for error yet. I did fine on the lower calories for a 1.5lb loss per week yesterday and at least with that, if I really do get too hungry I can have something extra without raising the calories too high.
  • DeborahKilpatrick
    DeborahKilpatrick Posts: 80 Member
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    Weighed myself again this morning and I was 3.5lb lighter, it's still a gain of 1lb on my start weight but at least not as bad as I thought! It must have been water retention. I'm getting on fine with less calories, having reset my goal-it seems that hunger doesn't have much to do with it for me, whatever the goal is i will always eat right up to the limit and more so this way I still have less. Don't know if that makes sense!

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