Getting used to weighing myself this much

I've been at PT for about a month (love it!) but had a disheartening weigh in this morning--after a very good, controlled set of days, gained half a pound. How do you more experienced PT-ers handle the weigh ins? How often do you weigh yourself? What are "normal" fluctuations? How do you keep yourself from getting discouraged by the small ups and downs?

Fri. May 23, 9:01am

It's just a number - granted it's a target number, but it's only one aspect of my results. How I look and how my clothes fit are the other aspects. In addition to eating better, I also work out and can tell I'm gaining muscle - now a pound of muscle takes up much less room than a pound of fat, so even if the weight loss is slow, I'm still losing sizes. Don't let that number control your emotional state - just record it in your log and move on (I keep a spreadsheet). If it starts to become a trend though, you may need to analyze what you're doing and make some adjustments.

Friday, May 23, 2008, 9:48 AM

Thanks for this comment (OP here). I have been working out for twenty years so unfortunately can't blame conversion of fat to muscle as the issue. I'm wondering--olives in the salad...whole fat cottage cheese instead of no fat...(just mistakes of shopping). Could these be the culprit?

Friday, May 23, 2008, 10:13 AM

If you haven't weighed in several days, you may have just ate something salty or you may be at a different point in your cycle, and thus be holding onto water weight.

I weigh myself daily; this helps me to see the fluctuation day-to-day, and pinpoint better where it's coming from. Then I look at the overall trend, week-to-week or month-to-month, and see that the trend is downward, even if daily, there are fluctuations.

Friday, May 23, 2008, 12:11 PM

You can eat a sushi dinner 2 days before your weigh in and you can go up 2 pounds. It can be that time a month, you have salt into your system, you didn't sleep enough and it can all have an impact on your weigh in. You have to look at the trend. Keep track of the weekly number but get on the scale a couple of days later to see if the number changed. Look at the monthly loss total and make sure it's trending downwards. I know that the number can be frustrating after you've had a number of days that you've been controlled. It will happen, keep reminding yourself this is a life-long committment that you've made. The scale will go up a little but most of the time, it will go down. You will get there.

Friday, May 23, 2008, 12:16 PM

half a pound?? That's just a glass of water! Don't weigh yourself every day if you are the type to get disheartened by insignificant fluctuations. Weigh yourself once a week or once every two weeks to get real data on directionality.

I recently started weighing myself every day (at the same time) to see what my normal variation is. It's about 2 pounds. 120 one day, 122 the next, 120 the day after that.... 8 pounds right before my period (Eight!!) that go away instantaneously 2 days after it starts....

Friday, May 23, 2008, 12:59 PM

OP here. All this this is helping, and making me feel better. Thanks, I appreciate this.

Friday, May 23, 2008, 2:10 PM

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