does anyone count losing water weight a success in losing weight?

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  • flatcoatedR
    flatcoatedR Posts: 173 Member
    I keep it pretty simple, if my scale says it's a loss I count as a loss. I don't care if its water, fat, or the last meal I ate. A loss is a loss. We have no idea how much is water and how much is fat. Just celebrate that it's a loss and go forward.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,282 Member
    I'm not sure how you could not count it.

    What I do is weight myself weekly and record whatever the scale says.

    However I realise fluctuations are normal so what I am looking at really is maintaining that approximate weight over time (in maintenance or losing an average or a lb per week or whatever my goal was, over time)
  • corrarjo
    corrarjo Posts: 1,157 Member
    When my feet and ankles swell up I'm pretty sure I'm gaining water weight. :#
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    edited February 2019
    No, because water weight ebbs and flows, it naturally comes goes up and down. Counting water weight as weight loss means that when that water weight increases you're counting that as weight gain. It's kinda like building a sandcastle at low tide. What's gonna happen when that tide eventually comes back in?

    Besides, no one here is truly trying to lose weight. We're trying to lose fat (and get fitter.)

    Let me illustrate with my 2 magic pills analogy.

    The green pill will add large amounts of fat to your body and your proportions will balloon out so you'll look huge! This pill will also destroy your strength and fitness so that even standing up out of a chair is difficult or going from one room of the house to the next will leave you breathless and worn out. BUT the pill also turns the fat in your body lighter than air so consequently you'll be at your ideal dream weight when you step on the scales.

    I also have a yellow pill. This pill will strip all the extra fat from your body so that you look lean with the body you've always dreamed of. It will also make it so you're in the best shape of your life with strength and stamina for days. BUT in giving you this fitness it causes your muscles to grow very dense so when you step on the scales it reads twice as much as you've ever weighed before.

    So which pill are you going to take. The one that makes you huge, weak and unfit but you weigh very little? Or the one that makes you lean, strong, fit but makes the scales blow out?

    I know which one I'd choose.

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