Coping with not losing weight every day
82EC
Posts: 123 Member
So when I started my weight loss journey I was losing weight every day - just a little bit every morning. That loss gave me the motivation I needed to do the diet and exercise tasks needed to keep losing for the next day. Now I am much closer to goal, I am not losing every day, most days I stay the same and some days I even gain. It is really frustrating so I just want to know how you cope with doing everything right and still not losing, and how you keep motivating yourself to keep on going?
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Replies
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Maybe daily weighing is not for you. It is not normal or to be expected to lose every day. If it is going to be problematic, weighing weekly or even monthly may be a better option.20
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If you feel compelled to weigh daily, hold those numbers (maybe write them down somewhere) and then at the end of the week, average them out. That will give you a more realistic idea of what you're losing. Also try keeping track your measurements. That can help keep you going when the numbers aren't budging.
And as MikePTY said, it is not normal or expected to lose everyday. There is so much that goes into daily fluctuations. Even the placement of your scale just scooting over one inch can change the numbers on it.
You'll end up rage quitting if you don't relax a bit about the daily weigh in.12 -
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fitnessdiva_ wrote: »It sounds like you’re starving yourself, if you were eating enough you wouldn’t care about losing weight everyday. Don’t punish yourself for weightloss. Also, understand that you aren’t actually “gaining” it’s just water retention/fluctuation. Your weight will always settle back to what it’s supposed to be as long as you’re on track with calories. I also suggest for you to stop weighing yourself everyday, it works for some people but it doesn’t sound like you’re one of them.
You need to make this into a sustainable lifestyle, so you can maintain your weight WHEN you get to your goal. Try to enjoy and trust the process.
That is quite the sweeping statement with no information in the OP to justify it.
OP - I use a weight trending app to help me see the loss through the stalls and fluctuations.21 -
use a tracking app such as Libra (android) or Happy Scale (iOS) if you're going to be weighing daily. Look at the trend, not the daily weight because fluctuations (you can read about that in the link someone posted above).8
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mind over matter. losing daily just isn't realistic. it isn't. so keep telling yourself that is NOT gonna happen. daily.
use a weight trending app.
I'm at 0.5lbs and just got over a 6-7 week old period of my weight going up and then staying stable. i trusted the process. Because waht was the alternative? giving up? what would that solve? how would giving up get me to my goal?
Also, i ensure i eat food i enjoy daily and weekly. I work in cravings. I am not white knuckling it cuz this is gonna be awhile. i've been at it over a year now. i don't even lose weekly at this point.10 -
I keep a spreadsheet that tracks my daily calories and weigh in and averages over time. The math gives me comfort. I calculate a weekly non-excercise maintenace calorie level and I estimate my exercise calories so I have a sense of how that is moving over time. If I am accurate and diligent in logging then I knw the increase on the scale cannot be a real increase and must be water/bloating etc.4
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So when I started my weight loss journey I was losing weight every day - just a little bit every morning. That loss gave me the motivation I needed to do the diet and exercise tasks needed to keep losing for the next day. Now I am much closer to goal, I am not losing every day, most days I stay the same and some days I even gain. It is really frustrating so I just want to know how you cope with doing everything right and still not losing, and how you keep motivating yourself to keep on going?
You're not supposed to lose weight every day. Ideally you want to see your weight go down weekly. How much closer to goal are you? A weight trending app is a good idea to see whether you're gaining, maintaining or losing over a longer period of time (4-6 weeks is usually a good block of time) and then you can make adjustments if necessary. If you have a small amount of weight left, you're going to have to make sure you're being super accurate with your food tracking.6 -
Daily weighing is simply a matter of data collection to identify and track trends. There has never been the expectation that I would lose every day, so there is nothing to “cope” with.4
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This makes no sense to me. Why would caring about losing weight every day be automatically indicative of someone starving themselves? I personally can get pretty unhappy about not losing every day and I'm definitely not starving myself. I reread the OP's post a few times and I'm not seeing anything relating to under eating.fitnessdiva_ wrote: »It sounds like you’re starving yourself, if you were eating enough you wouldn’t care about losing weight everyday. Don’t punish yourself for weightloss. Also, understand that you aren’t actually “gaining” it’s just water retention/fluctuation. Your weight will always settle back to what it’s supposed to be as long as you’re on track with calories. I also suggest for you to stop weighing yourself everyday, it works for some people but it doesn’t sound like you’re one of them.
You need to make this into a sustainable lifestyle, so you can maintain your weight WHEN you get to your goal. Try to enjoy and trust the process.
OP - I have a handful of ways I deal with this when it comes up for me (I'm currently in the middle of this). In no particular order:
1. If I've consistently been really unhappy with the numbers on the scale I simply won't weigh myself. It's not worth the frustration.
2. If it seems like my numbers aren't actually moving down over the course of a number of weeks I'll tighten up my logging/eating. I don't log especially tightly because that tends to cause more emotional stress than it's worth for me and I lost over 60 lbs doing what I'm doing now.
3. I will weigh myself but not look at the number or only briefly glance at it - this only really works for me because my scale is connected to WIFI and the numbers get uploaded
4. I remember that weight loss is full of ups and downs and that's while it's frustrating, it's totally normal
5. Remember that weight fluctuates from day to day
6. Recognize that my goal is actually totally realistic, my timeline is very realistic, and that I will get there if I keep doing what I'm doing17 -
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Typical bathroom scales have an randomness factor of up to +/- 0.5 kg. If you have been losing weight every day, my first thought is what is the make and model of your scales?3
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Be realistic.4
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quiksylver296 wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »
This is a GREAT article. The other thing I’ve read about is your fat cells pulling in water as fat is removed to try and maintain homeostasis. Eventually the water will flush out of the fat cells, but it makes the scale stay the same. Some people measure instead of weigh. That may help you get through the rough patches, although measurements usually go down even slower than the scale (think monthly not daily or even weekly). It’s actually a better guide to fitness than weight though.3 -
fitnessdiva_ wrote: »
This makes no sense to me. Why would caring about losing weight every day be automatically indicative of someone starving themselves? I personally can get pretty unhappy about not losing every day and I'm definitely not starving myself. I reread the OP's post a few times and I'm not seeing anything relating to under eating.fitnessdiva_ wrote: »It sounds like you’re starving yourself, if you were eating enough you wouldn’t care about losing weight everyday. Don’t punish yourself for weightloss. Also, understand that you aren’t actually “gaining” it’s just water retention/fluctuation. Your weight will always settle back to what it’s supposed to be as long as you’re on track with calories. I also suggest for you to stop weighing yourself everyday, it works for some people but it doesn’t sound like you’re one of them.
You need to make this into a sustainable lifestyle, so you can maintain your weight WHEN you get to your goal. Try to enjoy and trust the process.
OP - I have a handful of ways I deal with this when it comes up for me (I'm currently in the middle of this). In no particular order:
1. If I've consistently been really unhappy with the numbers on the scale I simply won't weigh myself. It's not worth the frustration.
2. If it seems like my numbers aren't actually moving down over the course of a number of weeks I'll tighten up my logging/eating. I don't log especially tightly because that tends to cause more emotional stress than it's worth for me and I lost over 60 lbs doing what I'm doing now.
3. I will weigh myself but not look at the number or only briefly glance at it - this only really works for me because my scale is connected to WIFI and the numbers get uploaded
4. I remember that weight loss is full of ups and downs and that's while it's frustrating, it's totally normal
5. Remember that weight fluctuates from day to day
6. Recognize that my goal is actually totally realistic, my timeline is very realistic, and that I will get there if I keep doing what I'm doing
Because you’re expecting immediate results due to under eating. Anyone with a basic understanding of weight loss would know that daily weight loss is not sustainable nor attainable unless severely obese or due to extreme calorie restriction. The extreme calorie restriction is also unsustainable for most people unless they are seeing immediate results = daily weight loss. Must I explain further or do you get it now ?
It seems like you're reading more into the OP's post (and potentially mine) than what was actually there. Being unhappy about the fact that weight fluctuates doesn't mean that those same people people then go about undereating. Additionally, being misinformed about weight loss (and I can assure, many people are) doesn't mean that someone is under eating even if they are managing to lose weight.
It sounds like the OP was losing miniscule amounts of weight every day (not especially unusual) and then that daily small loss stopped because they got closer to their goal weight. That isn't indicative of undereating.14 -
Sounds like this is not a sustainable plan for you. Your choices are to change or quit. If what I am reading is true you are being unkind to yourself and you believe a scale number will keep you on track. I doubt it would work for months and months even if it continued to present linear losses. Unless you are extremely obese your rate of loss should not be more than .29 pounds per day. That would not be enough to sustain me if I was miserable.
You don't have to love what you need to do to lose weight but you can't hate it.
I am not miserable and I am 17 months into this thing. I like what I am doing most days. I see no reason why I can't do this for years to come both for weight loss and maintenance. Weight loss is a bonus prize being happy is my daily goal.5 -
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For me the journey became the goal. I weigh in every day for accountability knowing the scale will fluctuate. I have daily fitness and nutritional goals that support my weight loss goals. I focus on those daily goals instead of the scale. If I choose my goals wisely, weight loss happens over time eventually bit by bit. I feel like this will help me with maintenance after I finish losing weight.6
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Life's full of little fluctuations that everyone needs to cope with.
How do you cope with not having sunny weather every day
How do you cope with not getting an easy commute to work every day
It's unrealistic to think there won't be clouds, it's unrealistic to think there won't be traffic and it's unrealistic to expect to lose weight every day.10 -
You cope with it by looking at your weight trend over time. You cope with it because at maintenance your weight does not keep going down: it just fluctuates, hopefully in a narrow band. So the new low cannot be your motivation. You have to start liking the process and lifestyle you're following on their own and for themselves regardless of whether the scale is a bit down or a bit up. and trust that the process will eventually get you to where you want to be.11
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fitnessdiva_ wrote: »
This makes no sense to me. Why would caring about losing weight every day be automatically indicative of someone starving themselves? I personally can get pretty unhappy about not losing every day and I'm definitely not starving myself. I reread the OP's post a few times and I'm not seeing anything relating to under eating.fitnessdiva_ wrote: »It sounds like you’re starving yourself, if you were eating enough you wouldn’t care about losing weight everyday. Don’t punish yourself for weightloss. Also, understand that you aren’t actually “gaining” it’s just water retention/fluctuation. Your weight will always settle back to what it’s supposed to be as long as you’re on track with calories. I also suggest for you to stop weighing yourself everyday, it works for some people but it doesn’t sound like you’re one of them.
You need to make this into a sustainable lifestyle, so you can maintain your weight WHEN you get to your goal. Try to enjoy and trust the process.
OP - I have a handful of ways I deal with this when it comes up for me (I'm currently in the middle of this). In no particular order:
1. If I've consistently been really unhappy with the numbers on the scale I simply won't weigh myself. It's not worth the frustration.
2. If it seems like my numbers aren't actually moving down over the course of a number of weeks I'll tighten up my logging/eating. I don't log especially tightly because that tends to cause more emotional stress than it's worth for me and I lost over 60 lbs doing what I'm doing now.
3. I will weigh myself but not look at the number or only briefly glance at it - this only really works for me because my scale is connected to WIFI and the numbers get uploaded
4. I remember that weight loss is full of ups and downs and that's while it's frustrating, it's totally normal
5. Remember that weight fluctuates from day to day
6. Recognize that my goal is actually totally realistic, my timeline is very realistic, and that I will get there if I keep doing what I'm doing
Because you’re expecting immediate results due to under eating. Anyone with a basic understanding of weight loss would know that daily weight loss is not sustainable nor attainable unless severely obese or due to extreme calorie restriction. The extreme calorie restriction is also unsustainable for most people unless they are seeing immediate results = daily weight loss. Must I explain further or do you get it now ?
Just to clarify I was severely obese when I was losing a bit every day - it did not mean I was under eating then and it does not mean that now. I am no longer severely obese which is why I am no longer losing a bit every day, so that is why I am asking this question about how to cope with the slower losses.
My advice stays more or less the same though. What can you do to make today feel normal and happy-ish so you don't need a scale number to motivate you?2 -
Trending weight apps help and if not, then perhaps its best to weigh in only once a week/month.2
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If you feel compelled to weigh daily, hold those numbers (maybe write them down somewhere) and then at the end of the week, average them out. That will give you a more realistic idea of what you're losing. Also try keeping track your measurements. That can help keep you going when the numbers aren't budging.
And as MikePTY said, it is not normal or expected to lose everyday. There is so much that goes into daily fluctuations. Even the placement of your scale just scooting over one inch can change the numbers on it.
You'll end up rage quitting if you don't relax a bit about the daily weigh in.
I do this method, weighing daily then updating MFP on Saturday with my average for week. If you are close to goal, you are reaching the point where you should be maintaining soon. So anytime the scale doesn't trend upwards is a win, even if it stays the same. There comes a point where there is no more weight to lose, not if you want to stay healthy. Maybe take this time to start trying to re-train your brain to accept small fluctuations as a win, and how to value big picture trend over daily check-in.2 -
I used to chart in Excel and after I got an iphone, Happy Scale.0
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Losing weight every day? Just not gonna happen throughout your weight loss journey. I weigh today what I did on June 17, after bouncing around both a pound higher and lower for the weeks in between. If you can’t handle the fluctuations, daily weighing is not for you.3
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I weigh myself daily, log it in an app, and move on with my day. As long as my overall trend is downward (or maintaining, depending on where I am), then I don't worry about it a bit.4
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I lost 0.1 today - yeah!!1
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