Losing confidence

I am going through the EXACT same thing. I lost 2.5 pounds early on, now on week two I have put on 4 pounds! I don't know why this is happening. Let's stick it out a couple more weeks. Maybe our bodies just need a bit more time to realize we are serious.

I feel the same way BUT, I tell myself this...even IF I don't lose another pound, I am eating much healthier and exercising, so even IF I never get into that size 8, at least my body is healthy and I am adding years to my life.

That said, I really do think I will continue losing weight at some point, but I think your body does a checks & balances sort of thing. It loses weight, then chills, then loses weight, then chills. I tell myself that my body is just making sure I'm for real with this eating healthy thing! :laugh:

If you rely on the scale to give you motivation/confidence on this journey, you aren't going to get too far. Too many variables factor into scale weight...especially if you are weighing in more than once a week...and even that is unpredictable to an extent. I know this is hard to accept, but scale weight is not the end all, be all of this journey. I can only tell you that if you are persistent and commit to the journey, the scale will ultimately comply and you will achieve whatever goals you want (but not as quickly as you'd like).

I recommend that for motivation/confidence, you rely instead on the deep, dark, pulled from the inner guts of you, brutal truth(s) as to why you are on you are on this journey. Write down all of the things you hate about being overweight. If you dig deep enough and are honest enough with yourself...then either you have enough reason to stay on the journey or you are really okay with your current lifestyle. and, hey, if you are okay with your current lifestyle, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I'm here to help encourage folks who hate being overweight enough that they want to make a change.

Now, once you have those things written down...and assuming they are enough motivation to stay on your journey...the next thing I want you to do is to start appreciating the little victories this journey has to offer (victories that are not always reflected on the scale). I recently suggested to my pals that they make a chart and check it off daily to show all of the little victories that pile up. For example, your chart could have the following items:

ate healthy breakfast instead of pop tarts (or unhealthy breakfast of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy snack instead of Ho-Hos (or unhealthy snack of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy lunch instead of Crapdonalds

ate healthy afternoon snack instead of cookies

ate healthy dinner instead of fried chicken wings

avoided nighttime munchies because I wasn't really hungry

exercised according to my plan

drank X cups of water today

logged all of my food and drinks today

ate within 50 calories + or - of my calorie goal


.... I promise you that if you persist, and make achieve these small victories most days, you will achieve bigger victories on your journey. When will you achieve those bigger victories? No one can tell you that. But if you think of this as a journey to good health that lasts your lifetime...who cares how quickly you achieve your goals (you certainly didn't destroy your health in a few short weeks or months)....if its a journey and you are achieving the small victories, then know the big ones will come.

keep going - you are so early in the process. try weighing yourself once a week and measure inches the day after your last day of your period each month. If you keep exercising even a little and stay within your calorie count, you WILL lose weight! eat fresh UNprocessed foods and cut sugary drinks. We are all rooting for you!

If you rely on the scale to give you motivation/confidence on this journey, you aren't going to get too far. Too many variables factor into scale weight...especially if you are weighing in more than once a week...and even that is unpredictable to an extent. I know this is hard to accept, but scale weight is not the end all, be all of this journey. I can only tell you that if you are persistent and commit to the journey, the scale will ultimately comply and you will achieve whatever goals you want (but not as quickly as you'd like).

I recommend that for motivation/confidence, you rely instead on the deep, dark, pulled from the inner guts of you, brutal truth(s) as to why you are on you are on this journey. Write down all of the things you hate about being overweight. If you dig deep enough and are honest enough with yourself...then either you have enough reason to stay on the journey or you are really okay with your current lifestyle. and, hey, if you are okay with your current lifestyle, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I'm here to help encourage folks who hate being overweight enough that they want to make a change.

Now, once you have those things written down...and assuming they are enough motivation to stay on your journey...the next thing I want you to do is to start appreciating the little victories this journey has to offer (victories that are not always reflected on the scale). I recently suggested to my pals that they make a chart and check it off daily to show all of the little victories that pile up. For example, your chart could have the following items:

ate healthy breakfast instead of pop tarts (or unhealthy breakfast of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy snack instead of Ho-Hos (or unhealthy snack of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy lunch instead of Crapdonalds

ate healthy afternoon snack instead of cookies

ate healthy dinner instead of fried chicken wings

avoided nighttime munchies because I wasn't really hungry

exercised according to my plan

drank X cups of water today

logged all of my food and drinks today

ate within 50 calories + or - of my calorie goal


.... I promise you that if you persist, and make achieve these small victories most days, you will achieve bigger victories on your journey. When will you achieve those bigger victories? No one can tell you that. But if you think of this as a journey to good health that lasts your lifetime...who cares how quickly you achieve your goals (you certainly didn't destroy your health in a few short weeks or months)....if its a journey and you are achieving the small victories, then know the big ones will come.

I think we all need to step back and remember this. I know I do.

You are 2 pounds down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats what I read in your post! Look at the positives. This works if you keep to it and be honest with it and yourself. vacation are super hard so when ya get back , weigh in and that is you new starting point. Do salads when out and very little dressings. Remember portion control, and self control. I was below my goal, then gained + lbs, but going back at it! You a runner? Cardio is awesome!

Thank you! I really felt encouraged from what you wrote. The scale is not my friend and I do my best to not weigh; it just gets so frustrating.

I agree with all of the above posts! We must remember that this is a lifestyle change when we find ourselves becoming discouraged and that it will take time to reach our ultimate goal. As long as you are doing what you are supposed to, it (the scale) has to eventually give in. If I was you I would follow your own gut feeling that you should only weigh yourself once a week and within that week I would put the scale out of your view, maybe somewhere you do not have to look daily. Good luck on your journey! We are all in this together and if you need more encouragement, please feel free to add me!! :-)

If you want to weigh in daily that's fine but occasionally you are going to see increases. It's usually water weight, especially if you saw a two pound gain in one day. Try not to be discouraged, this is a journey not a sprint.

Just to clarify the concept of "its just water weight". When I read this, I suspect some folks think "okay, I'll just cut out the water...problem solved". That would be the wrong solution. Drinking more water actually helps your body get rid of unwanted water weight. Anyway, "its just water weight" can be the function of one or more of these wonderful things: (a) extra sodium...salt holds onto water in your body; (b) recent exercise...muscles need/use water to recover so they don't let go of excess water until the recovery cycle is completed (this is why my weigh-in day follows a rest/recovery day); (c) for women, TOM issues (things that I'm certainly not smart enough to say anything more about...but I've seen this raised enough times on MFP to list it as a cause of your body holding onto extra water; and (d) probably a handful of other causes.