Today I've been in a constant state of hunger. Actual, physical, stomach rumbling hunger. It's totally crazy. I have no idea why. I thought it may have been mental so I went to the farmers market and spent far too many calories on a crepe made by this amazing Dutch guy. Best crepes ever, with nutella. (This was after my usual breakfast of porridge). Thought I might have just needed a treat, and I figured I could walk off some of the calories later. But got home and was still hungry! Went for the whole volume eating thing and ate vegetables galore for lunch. Seriously, a whole wok full. Plus two eggs for protein and some lentils thrown in there as well.
It's dinner time now and I'm ready to eat my arm. I'm actually going to have a sirloin steak and a baked potato. Today is an eat-at-maintenance day or I'll eat something high calorie and not nutritious just to fill the hole. What is going on?! (I don't expect an answer. I'm just baffled.)

That happens to me as well. Not sure why we have these ultra-hangry days. Very frustrating when you have eaten good nutritious food all day in generous portions but the body just isn’t satisfied.

I"m grumbling about stupid water weight gain, and how hard it is to get it to go away! And that I never seem to know what's going to trigger it. I routinely get over 120 oz of fluid - coffee, unsweetened tea, water - in a day, not counting the 1 can of soda I tend to drink most days, or what I get from food sources. My sodium levels and potassium levels are centered in the normal range according to my last bloodwork. Everything is functioning normally, so its not kidney trouble. I wear constriction stockings at a fairly strong compression level to help with lower extremity swelling. Yet I seem to find myself dealing with water weight on a routine basis, and it takes for ever to get it to go away!

Case in point: I've really tightened up my logging in the last 3-4 weeks - I've cut out all half-cut teas going strictly unsweet or using non-calorie sweeteners. I've cut down on the fast food. I'm weighing everything - including any condiments I use. I've tried to get my activity levels up for the last 2 weeks, but am only eating back around 1/3 of the calories. I did very well this weekend, actually staying under goal when before, I'd be over by a couple hundred calories. I had to guesstimate my mom's chicken and dumplings, but used Cracker Barrel numbers and made sure to get a nice, long walk in that day to hopefully compensate. And even if I shorted myself on actual calories, it wouldn't have been anywhere near the 1,000 calorie deficit I set for myself. And yet my weight popped up 4 lbs between Thursday and Sunday morning from 264 to 268! Yesterday was back down to 266, but this morning was back up to 268 again.

It just messes so badly with my head, because water will hangs on for me for a while, which also makes it really hard to gauge what to do with exercise calories. My jiu-jitsu class lasts 90 minutes, but I'm not moving constantly that time period, and I'm a beginner and am going really slow. We do warm ups the first 3 to 5 minutes. So I'm only counting 10 minutes of that 90 minute period. When I use my elliptical at home, I'm only counting 10 minutes out of 30, and I'm using the 2.5mph walk as my entry since I've got a simple, cheap elliptical that I don't think has near the same resistance as a higher priced machine that I think the actual elliptical entry is based on. When I go on a walk, I use the 2.5 mph setting even though I'm probably moving more like 2.75 mph, and I only count back 1/3 to 1/2 of those calories. My goal is based on being sedentary.

Since I've only recently really begun to try to up my activity levels, I'm still trying to figure out how many calories of those to eat back, but this stupid water weight gain is messing it up because I can't see what my actual loss rate is per week. I weighed in at 264.4 on Thursday, my weigh in day for the week. The way things are going, with this being Tuesday and I'm still holding onto water, I'll likely have to record a 266 reading, which will register as a gain for the week, even though I know I've been really vigilant in sticking to my calorie goals!

It's just so frustrating!

@mperh518 I do the same as you - weigh in the morning after the restroom before eating breakfast, and unclothed, and 5 out of 7 days, its at close to the same time each day. Weekends I can sleep in a little later, so weighing on those days is usually done about 2 or 3 hours later than on weekdays.

This is about week 3, I think, since I started upping my activity, and I expected water weight gain 3 weeks ago. I've been able to do 45 minutes on my elliptical at setting 3 without having my legs ache afterwards like was happening when I first started upping my activity. But I am very sore after the Jiu-Jitsu, which was last night, though when I get up the day after, the soreness is gone.

I don't usually sweat seeing a single day spike from one day to the next, especially after the weekend if I've eaten more than my calorie limit, but when I see a couple days in a row trending high, I start to get frustrated. Saturday morning I weighed in at 264; Sunday at 268; Monday at 266, and Tuesday at 268. Thursdays are my weigh days because I know that I'm consistently highest during the week on Mondays and lowest on Fridays.

I've seen the increase after activity before, though usually, I'll see the scale pop up 2 lbs or so. I just hate how long it takes for me to shed this extra weight and how it makes it so difficult to track because it really messes with my trend week to week. This week is a perfect example: last week, I weighed in 264.4 lbs on Thursday morning. Since then, I have consistently stayed under my calorie goal and have consistently upped my activity, getting in at least 5,000 steps a day and many days even more than that, with part of those steps due to intentional 30-45 minutes of exercise. I'm only eating intentional exercise calories, and only 1/3 of that. So I know that reality says I should be on track to lose that 2 lbs a week, maybe more depending on the actual calorie burn from the exercise, not to mention the increase in daily activity because while I'm still keeping my setting at sedentary, I'm working toward trying to get into the lightly active category - right now, I'm somewhere in between, and with there being about a 250 calorie difference between sedentary and lightly active, I may be getting at least 100 of those calories in.

So I should see a 2 lb loss at least when I weigh in on Thursday. However, if I'm sitting at 268 lbs on Tuesday, the likelihood is that I'm going to be seeing that same 264 from last week when I step on the scale on Thursday, so it looks like I haven't lost anything. And the frustrating thing is, I don't get wooshes - the water weight clings to me, and comes off slowly like water going down in a clogged sink drain!

This is what I mean about the ratcheting I've been seeing - one week, I'll be down 2 lbs; the next week, up 1 lb; the enxt week down another 2 lbs; the next week up that same 2 lbs. Since I'm weighing and tracking weekly, it kills my trend line, and I have to really look long term to see a true loss trend. It gets kind of disheartening at times!

And the stupid water weight also messes with my body measurements, making them in turn look static as well.

@maiomaio71 - I find that eating a sweet treat (mmm, nutella crepe!) makes me want more sugar, more carbs. You did a great job of handling the hunger by eating veggies and lots of protein. For me, more carbs leads to more carbs.

Today I had a dental appointment for a regular cleaning...we live about an hour and a half from our dentist office but I have gone to the same place for 47 years....I don’t mind the drive because it’s over the beautiful Skyway Bridge and we always have lunch with our son while we are there....today John felt pretty good so he decided to take me and get the oil changed in the car while he was waiting on me....so he dropped me off and I went inside....I asked how much my check up and cleaning was and the new girl at the desk told me almost $300 !....I said I thought I would pass as I thought the price was extremely high for an established patient...( 2 dentists have retired while I have visited this office and today was another new one but they had all of my volumes of records )...I told the dental assistant goodbye as she had been seeing me about 40 of the years I have been going there....I go outside and my husband is GONE!...he didn’t think I was coming outside so he went to get oil changed....no shade, and no where to sit...I finally walked a half block away and sat at a bus stop bench lol...I sat there 45 minutes plotting his punishment lol....he finally comes back to get me, rolls down the window and shouts, “ Do you need a ride, Lady ? “....Such a funny guy he is NOT....and now I have to find a new dentist!

I hear you, Yooly! This group allegedly has 969 members, and yet no more than a dozen are active on the forum. And only one of the leaders is still active (our lovely @conniewilkins56 ).

So many people just disappear overnight - have they thrown in the towel? fallen under a bus? been abducted by aliens?

Last time I lost all my weight through usuing MFP (2012/13) I wasn't active in the community at all, but this time around I made a vow to get the most I could out of the support on offer. It's meant I've got involved, engaged, interested in the lives of people I'll never meet, but with whom I feel a strong connection. When one of them disappears it leaves a void....

On aol I used to say when friends disappeared, they “ poofed”…. Gosh I loved the first aol chat rooms back then!….I think people either go off their program and gain weight or they get bored or give up!….maybe there is a place where they all are!

Dear Lord why is it 83F(28C) and so humid today? Santa is sweating up a storm and the elves are fainting. People out shopping in shorts and sandals. It’s just wrong 🥵

It is only 45F where I am today and we have a very cold wind too. No shorts and sandals that I've seen today.

I don't mind the cold or the heat but I don't like the temps going back and forth. Next week we are supposed to be 76F again and then back down. Mother Nature needs to pick one!! LOL

Mercifully a cold front- relative for our Canadian friends- comes through tonight. So only 60F for the high tomorrow with a light freeze Saturday night. 🥳 Woohoo! It will be short lived but might get to don a sweater or jacket for a change.
Like Connie, I grew up in the north. So not a fan of southern weather - winter or summer. Just seems abnormal somehow.

Had a weekend staffer at a place I worked who was on a similar shift mainly reading a Harlequin or doing her online shopping. It was always a surprise when there was a call or walk in! She continued on weekends till they moved further away. Used it as her quiet time away from the kids 😂

I wanna grumble that my son's car keeps overheating and we can't figure out why. He has already replaced the thermostat, water pump, and radiator fan in the last month but today it started to overheat again. He has to borrow my truck or carpool with me until we can get his car fixed. That's not a problem but he's not sure what else to do now. No money for a mechanic to tell us what they think plus my son wants to figure it out on his own because he's studying to be a mechanic. (Proud mom: He's 17, just graduated high school and already has a job lined up to learn on the job plus his college classes.)

I'm sort of wondering too! Best of luck. Overheats can make people cry