oh no! my first gain since starting MFP.

I try not to look at my week-to-week progress (I know, it's hard). I look at my overall progress from the beginning. You're doing great! Keep it up!!:flowerforyou:

It can be frustrating, I know. You have to look at your overall progress and use your gains to figure out what may have gone "wrong" that week. Generally speaking, if you're eating right and exercising any gain you see will be from water weight. One night out with a couple of drinks or a restaurant meal can make you retain a surprising amount of water. Drinking less water than your body needs will also make you retain water. But sometimes it's just water retention caused by your hormones. I know that a lot of women see a gain of 1-5 pounds during their period. It can be unsettling to a gain like that but it will go away sometime during the week after your period is over.

Don't let the scale dominate your life! Use it as a tool nothing else. Keep doing the right things and it will show you progress.
Weight varies and floats for a large number of reasons.

I had a big loss two weeks ago, and then this week went up a little. It's amazing what that scale can do to my ego. I've been feeling really down all day, even though I'm proud of what I've accomplished over the last 6 weeks. How do you guys getting over little gains? Does anyone have any words of advice for raising spirits after a gain?

I had my first gain this morning after three months of successful losing. I did experience a rather large 1.8 lb. loss last week and figure that "gaining" a half of pound this week isn't a huge deal in the overall scheme of things; however, this was the difference between 129.7 last week and 130.3 this week. I know either way you look at it I was as 1-3-0 both weigh-ins, but dammit I was so excited I hit the 120s. My goal is 125 so I realize things are bound to slow down.