Weight loss

happygirl4582
happygirl4582 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everybody. This is the first time I've posted anything. I've been doing MyFitnessPal for a month now and my weight keeps going up and down. So far I have lost about 5 lbs. I measure all the foods I eat and stay away from sugary snacks and beverages. I drink about 40-60 ozs of water and have been more active. But I'm starting to feel frustrated cuz cuz of the yoyo affect. Has anybody else experienced this? And if so what did you do to start losing weight again? All advise is greatly appreciated.
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Replies

  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    5 pounds in a month is pretty quick, averaging 1.25 lbs/week!

    LOTS of things can cause scale fluctuations (I believe there is one thread in particular dedicated just to that, so a quick search may yield something of interest for you).

    Just this week, I've gone from 143.2 (5/22) up to 149.6 (5/25) and then down to 145.4 (today, 5/27). But I don't panic or get upset because I know that scale weight is influenced by what I've eaten, including sodium and carbohydrates, but also my hydration status, my uhmmm "elimination" (read: BM's, or lack thereof), as well as my training/activity, etc.

    I consider my weight trend to be of more value than daily scale weight (if you don't have a weight trending app, that may be helpful for you)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    That weight yo-yo effect is normal and will continue when you get to goal weight.
    It's your trend over weeks that matters, the daily numbers just all add up to create that trend.

    Well done on losing that 5lbs - not seeing a problem you need to fix apart from your expectations and impatience!

    Maybe next time you get a disappointing number try to picture yourself three months in the future looking back to today and consider how unimportant that a single disappointing day was?
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,457 Member
    That’s perfectly, absolutely, humblingly normal. In fact, this whole process is humbling- and confusing.

    So glad you ASKED instead of giving up like so many do.

    May I suggest starting at the beginning of this thread? I saved this one up for times I felt overwhelmed. There’s a lot more to this process than simply stepping on the scale!!!

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv#latest
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    Sounds like you are doing everything right. There are weight trend apps (Happyscale, Libra) that can help you see a general downward trend through the normal fluctuation. Alternatively, taking a 7 day rolling average helps smooth out the peaks and valleys, too. I think it's important, in general, to look at data in context vs. isolated data points which may or may not tell you much depending on the context. Keep up the good work!
  • Kate48Walks
    Kate48Walks Posts: 6 Member
    edited May 2022
    I have found that my weight fluctuates daily up and down also. I weigh each morning but I "officially" count my weight on Friday mornings. That is the day I mark my weight loss/gain for the week. You are doing well losing 5 pounds in a month. Keep it going!!
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    edited May 2022
    Gonna suggest that you weigh yourself far less often if the up/down thing is gonna bother you a lot. That's how it goes, no way to change it. It's not going to go down in a linear way.

    Weigh less often and you're more likely to see the scale go down more consistently (*there may still be times where that doesn't happen though and that's OK).
  • sasharose1974
    sasharose1974 Posts: 1 Member
    Just keep up the good work. You'll do fine. Just work through it. Like several have said before. Don't weigh every day or even every week. It xan be disappointing and discouraging. Maybe every 2 weeks or once a month is best. I have to weigh less often or I get depressed and give up cause I don't see " fast enough" results. So knowing that I've learned to not disappoint myself by weighing often. Just take it slow and easy. It'll pay off and stay off longer if you do it that way.best of luck.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    Welcome to the subtleties of fluctuations. Weight loss isn't linear. In the last couple weeks, I've had days where I "gain" five pounds in one day and days when I "lose" three pounds another day. Crazy, right?

    Check out these charts for a graphical explanation.

    fluctuations.jpg

    2igli4dkurdt.png


    What I like to do is weigh every day and log the number in a spreadsheet. Actually I have two. One of them provides a ten-day moving average, and the other uses a slightly more sophisticated model that gives more importance to today's weight than the weight ten days ago. It can help smooth out the fluctuations, and I think it gives a better picture of what's really going on. There are online tools that can do this for you, and somewhere I have a Google Sheet I can share that you can use for your own data. I think it even has graphing features built in. For a deeper explanation of how it works, check out The Hackers Diet - especially the pages on Signal & Noise.

  • history_grrrl
    history_grrrl Posts: 216 Member
    You’re doing great and sound right on target; congrats! It’s exactly as others say; fluctuations are totally normal. I just went through this; was excited to be at 174, then frustrated to be back above 176 a few days later, but now I’ve hit 173 and am reminded that this is the trend.

    If you go to Home, you’ll see a Check-in link to record your scale readings, and then Reports lets you see graphs showing trends of various kinds for 7, 30, 90, 180, etc., days. It’s a great tool. I’m using a browser, not an app, so I don’t know what people see in the app.
  • clarkeje1
    clarkeje1 Posts: 1,641 Member
    People usually recommend weighing once a week but I have been weighing every day and then comparing the average of each week so that I can get used to seeing fluctuation on the scale and still see the progress of the averages going down.

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