SO frustrating!
mehreen_xo
Posts: 78 Member
I think I’m becoming slightly too obsessed with the number on the scale and it’s demotivating me majorly 
today on my weigh in I am the same weight as I was last week despite eating in a deficit (weigh and measure everything accurately) and staying active. I did step on the scale mid week and I was one pound lighter but it’s so annoying that it’s now gone up again. I understand it’s probably water weight but then I feel like it takes me quite some time to work the water weight off again, and so this now becomes my weight. This has happened previously too my weight is so stubborn.. anyone else find this ??
today on my weigh in I am the same weight as I was last week despite eating in a deficit (weigh and measure everything accurately) and staying active. I did step on the scale mid week and I was one pound lighter but it’s so annoying that it’s now gone up again. I understand it’s probably water weight but then I feel like it takes me quite some time to work the water weight off again, and so this now becomes my weight. This has happened previously too my weight is so stubborn.. anyone else find this ?? 0
Replies
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I only weigh myself once a month / ever few weeks now. I'm down to the last 10 lbs that I want to lose and I expect it to be slow so I don't stress about the scales not moving. As many people will suggest, use a tracking tool and monitor your weight over a longer period - you'll probably see an overall downward trend.1
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Same here. I’m down to the last 10, and I’m used to weighing in every morning. Nowadays its a total up-down up up, a little down trend that tends to confuse and discourage me even though it shouldn’t. Ive also had to cut my rate of loss to a .5 lb so I was expecting a minor uptick, maybe even what may seem like a stall. Still, it’s sort of stings when you’ve grown used to finding evidence on the scale. So.... finding that it’s probably best I continue on with everything I’m doing but without weighing in every morning. I think it’ll help me enjoy this part of the journey and focus on other goals as well. Good luck, don’t give up.4
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I would suggest using a weight trending app like TrendWeight or Happy Scale--that way you can see that sometimes, even if your weight stays the same from day-to-day or week-to-week, at least the trend is in the right direction.
Statistics for the win!9 -
Since the day-to-day weight fluctuations are stressing you out, either use a weight trending app like Mitch ^^ suggested, or stop weighing yourself every day. Also understand that as a women, your weight will fluctuate all over the place depending on where you are in your cycle. It's just water and has *nothing* to do with actual body fat loss or gain.7
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This sounds like a battle with your mind over anything physical. You should be assessing your weight trend over a period of weeks & months rather than week to week. Don't give yourself such a hard time (easier said than done) as weight loss isn't linear.5
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Here is a novel approach I learned from a friend. Just track new lows! Weigh as often as you like, but only enter the new low weights. The other weights don't matter because they are just water, etc fluctuations. Exceptions would be any time you ate above maintenance (vacation, holidays) or a new scale.
This probably doesn't work for maintenance, but it is liberating during weight loss.14 -
Here is a novel approach I learned from a friend. Just track new lows! Weigh as often as you like, but only enter the new low weights. The other weights don't matter because they are just water, etc fluctuations. Exceptions would be any time you ate above maintenance (vacation, holidays) or a new scale.
This probably doesn't work for maintenance, but it is liberating during weight loss.
I weigh every day and log in in Happy Scale, but I only log in MFP once per month, at the lowest part of the month, which is a week after my period starts.
@mehreen_xo I gain at ovulation and right before my TOM. Because of this (and because Lyle McDonald said to) I compare myself to last month, not last week.6 -
Here is a novel approach I learned from a friend. Just track new lows! Weigh as often as you like, but only enter the new low weights. The other weights don't matter because they are just water, etc fluctuations. Exceptions would be any time you ate above maintenance (vacation, holidays) or a new scale.
This probably doesn't work for maintenance, but it is liberating during weight loss.
This is exactly what I started doing 2 months ago. I only enter new lows, however, since I do belong to a challenge group I do enter an uptick in weight but only if it happens on my Monday weigh-in day. Love doing this, less focus on the daily ups and downs, keeps me out of my head and getting down on myself.4 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »Since the day-to-day weight fluctuations are stressing you out, either use a weight trending app like Mitch ^^ suggested, or stop weighing yourself every day. Also understand that as a women, your weight will fluctuate all over the place depending on where you are in your cycle. It's just water and has *nothing* to do with actual body fat loss or gain.
This^ if you only weigh once a week and you have a normal upward fluctuation, you're out of luck. Weighing daily and trending takes out the short term fluctuations and show you an overall trend. That's what matters. Not the individual data points.3 -
I can understand your frustration! I have enough data by this point (almost 2 years worth) to show that my weight has the following trend:
-Woosh down - woohoo! (I'll use a 3 pound woosh for this example)
-Steady in that general range (+/->1 pound) okay....
-Up about 2 pounds - blah
-Slowly creeping back down to the woosh-weight over a couple/few weeks
-Will maintain around the woosh weight again for 1-3 weeks (some of that may be my own discipline)
-Woosh again!
Rinse and repeat.
Mind you, I am in the last 15-20 (at most) to lose, and I'm not trying to lose it quickly as I want my fitness and strength to take priority - but I really would like to see it gone, too. The above pattern has been consistently repeated for me, and while it's discouraging sometimes, on the flip side, knowing this helps me realize I really just need to trust the process and things will come down.....3 -
Weighing often definitely does make you obsessive and frustrated when the scale starts bouncing all over the place.
You should start taking your measurements too. Maybe monthly or even every other week.
Try on something that was too tight before and see how it fits now.
It is nice seeing the scale move down, but it definitely does not tell the whole story. Just keep reminding yourself that.2 -
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Here is a novel approach I learned from a friend. Just track new lows! Weigh as often as you like, but only enter the new low weights. The other weights don't matter because they are just water, etc fluctuations. Exceptions would be any time you ate above maintenance (vacation, holidays) or a new scale.
This probably doesn't work for maintenance, but it is liberating during weight loss.
This x 1,000.
The problem with telling scale-obsessed people to use the scale less often is that, for many, the daily scale regimen is what keeps them plugged into the diet in the first place (and by "them" I'm including "me"). My morning weigh in is what gives me the discipline to not eat at night, and to stay actively engaged with my weight loss. But yes, the fluctuations can be stressful. Only recording weight when you're at a new low is an elegant solution to this thorny problem. Very liberating!! You just ignore the "in between" days and wait for your new low so you can bang it into MFP (or other tool of your choice). Suddenly the random up-days will seem as trivial as they actually are.10 -
Weighing often definitely does make you obsessive and frustrated when the scale starts bouncing all over the place.
You should start taking your measurements too. Maybe monthly or even every other week.
Try on something that was too tight before and see how it fits now.
It is nice seeing the scale move down, but it definitely does not tell the whole story. Just keep reminding yourself that.
It's only obsessive and frustrating to some people, and generally only if they don't understand why it happens in the first place.6 -
If you're logging your weights on a persistent basis, you can go look up your work out directly before and look for a pattern. I like to try to PREDICT what I'll weigh on a given day - it's like gambling with myself.
I KNOW that after I do olympic lifts at the gym, I will have 3 pounds extra for the rest day in between, because my muscles need the extra water to produce glycogen so that I'm ready for my next set of lifts. That extra 3 pounds is usually gone in a day or two.
I KNOW that if "that time of the month" is coming, I'm going to be up 3-5 lbs for a week.
I know that if I'm up 25# over-night that my dog is putting her foot on the scale again, trying to see what I'm doing. :P
Do you think it would help you to understand the WHY of your body's different behaviors? It's not for everyone, but I kind of enjoy it.3 -
Weight is made up of more than just fat, this other stuff fluctuates which can mask fat loss.
This graph shows how even if (F) fat loss is going down (W) water and (S) stuff like waste in your system can cause the scale to move up and down.
When you're weighing weekly you can sometimes get 'unlucky' and hit the high points and low points at the wrong time which again, can hide progress.
These graphs show the same results tracked weekly and daily. Both graphs show this person weighed '150' on the 1st, 8th, 15th & 22nd, but the additional data points on the daily chart reaveals the overall downward progress being made.
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If you can’t detach emotionally from the scale then step on it less often. We know water weight fluctuates but it is easy to still let water weight mess w our minds.
Personally I weigh daily but I ignore the numbers until I get a new “low”. And from daily weigh ins I know I will lose big for 2 weeks then hold for 1 and gain for 1 week before the cycle repeats. So I know there is always a dip coming soon assuming I trust the science.1 -
It helps me to remind myself that my goal is to lose fat - not weight. Over time, with consistently, I am losing fat even though the scale can be up and down based on my intestinal contexts, menstrual cycle, water weight, scale fluctuation, etc.0
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