Feeling discouraged on my weekly weigh in

[Lemonthyme]

I hate it when I have a gain.

I weigh daily but only record weekly on a graph on my laptop. This week I'm not surprised but I gained. 1.5lbs and a 2lbs increase from yesterday. So I know it cannot realistically be fat. And I know that weight loss is like this. The data is spotty it will go up and down even if the overall trend is in the right direction.

But all of that rational mind doesn't work when you feel like crap because all your hard work feels wasted.

Just venting. I know the advice, I know I'd tell others "it doesn't matter, no doubt you'll lose next week" but still discouraged.

This used to really get to me, it made me so down I would lose control of the weight loss attempts and put it all back on and then some. Since using MJ I have lost 8 stone and I no longer worry about the fluctuating because I k oh it’s absolutely normal and if I’m a couple of pounds up but keep going with the healthy eating it will disappear as quickly as it arrived. I tend to hold on to weight a few days before my period but by the time it starts it has gone already. I have also noticed MSG and heavily salted foods make me retain water for a day, sometimes 2. So if I have a Chinese takeaway I know those scales won’t move to about 3 days. I k ow you know it’s normal but I also know how bad I used to take it, but focus on what you have achieved so far, becsue it isn’t a straight line to goal, but you can definitely get there. That 1.5 pound could be gone by tomorrow

I’ve stopped weighing daily due to this. It’s disheartening to see the scales fluctuate so much on a day to day basis. Try weighing weekly instead. Tomorrow is my second weekly weigh in. I know it sounds silly but I feel better for stopping the daily weigh in’s, I think it was making me anxious.

I used to do the Paul McKenna "I can make you thin" which worked until I was perimenopausal. He advocates only weighing fortnightly if at all. Problem I found though is while daily fluctuations are a thing, I wouldn't see the long term trend till I'd actually gained. I ended up gaining 2 stone without noticing that way. So I stick with daily weighing because it fluctuates so I can see the long term trend on a graph (I use an app but then record one weekly weight on excel which is the only weight that "counts". That has gone up by 1.5lbs this week. I would be much less bothered if it was, say a 2lb daily gain but a 0.5lb weekly loss but both were up). I've tried the alternative of not weighing and it doesn't work for me at all.

So it's not "stopping doing it" I need, it's stopping my mentally spinning out about it when it happens.

I can 100% relate to this. I weigh daily and record weekly too.

I find that I am so spurred in by any tiny loss but so disheartened by a gain. Like you, I know rationally that it is normal, weight loss is not linear etc but it doesn't make it any easier!

I don't know what to say, other than "keep going" because when I look at the bigger picture and see how far I've come, I'm glad those gain days didn't lead me to give up.

You've got this! 💪

I’d advise to continue weighing daily to desensitise yourself to the number. Treat it as useful data. Then just take your lowest each week. Recording “new lows” is really helpful.
I use a free app called Happy Scale. It chucks out all manner of interesting stats and nifty charts so you can see direction of travel which is the important thing.

That's a really interesting idea but as I do one 24 hour fast a week that low is likely to be as much of an aberration, if not more so as the increase is on just a bad luck / water retention / phase of the moon kind of day. It might be interesting to track both though. Hmm. Food for thought if you excuse the pun (no food for me today till 6:30pm).

Anyway. GOOD news is much as suspected I was down 2.5lbs today. So over two days I went up (and I could actually see it on my body it was bonkers) and down more than I went up.

But if you weighed every day, and noted the new lows even when fasting every week, the “aberration” weight will be lower each week due to the daily deficit on all the other days so you’d still see the downward trend each week.
It’s so hard though isn’t it.

Good point. I might start tracking that because if nothing else it might make me feel more positive about the fluctuations.

Wow. Just did that @Malasana as I have all the data. SUPER interesting. My once per week measurements were showing a very different story from the lowest measurement. The lowest has consistently gone down or maintained every week since I started the 24 hour fast. No gains at all. Before then the most I was losing was a quarter of a lb. Most weeks I was flat. One week gain.

This is really painting a picture that the 24 hour fasting is working. Huh... Thanks for that.

No worries.
I lost a lot of weight a few years ago with the help of an online qualified nutritionist and he was a stickler for daily weighing to gather data and reporting on the lowest weight each week to properly see the trend.
If you’re interested he’s Munronutrition on Instagram and he puts out a ton of really helpful free content. He also has a podcast called The Munro Method. Loads of helpful info.

Do you realise that a 24h fast depletes glycogen and leads to water loss?
Which will be regained.
When it comes to fat, a 24h fast is just a way to lower your calorie intake over the week.
If fasting for 24h comes easily to you, why not. Over time, it might shift the scale a bit. You can obtain the same results, with cutting on a daily basis if fasting is a struggle.

You do realise I didn't ask?

The recent coverage of intermittent fasting was based on a paper that lumped results from several studies including 5/2 (which is dieting 2 days a week not 7), time restricted eating (i.e. things like 16/8) and actual fasting.

So are you surprised the results were a bit muddy? I'm not.

The reason that I'm doing it is I went back to a lot of the literature and, seeing as I'm about 0.2% off prediabetic despite eating virtually no refined carbs, exercising 5-7 days a week and being tee total, I thought it would be worth giving 24 hour fasting a go as there is some evidence that it may reverse insulin resistance. I am well aware that the weight loss initially is likely to be water and glycogen. That's why I typed "as I do one 24 hour fast a week that low is likely to be as much of an aberration, if not more so". I am aware.

I have no idea if you're my age or not, I'm late 40s but if you're not, I assure you that things that worked in my 20s and 30s do not work now. Be assured I've done a lot of reading about all this. As I explained quite clearly on this, I know that weight fluctuates day to day but it doesn't mean I react rationally to that.

I am older than you, way older. I must have missed where you said you were pre-diabetic.
A fasting study in people with a metabolic disease such as diabetes or pre-diabetes might not apply to someone who doesn’t have glucose regulation issues. A bit like paracetamol. It will lower temperature if you have a fever but
will not lower it if normal.
Prolonged carb restriction can lead to
insulin resistance and diabetes, especially when substituting carbs with meat.

It is harder to lose weight as we get older. It might mean we need to eat less or eat différent. If what you are doing isn’t really working despite all your efforts, change. If you are doing low carb, do low fat or vice versa, always within food intake restriction.
it is likely the answer to your weight struggles
will be found in the vegetable section of your local supermarket instead of some podcast or other internet trend.
Try a week in which vegetables dominate every meal including breakfast, allocating yourself very little oil or dressing. Green beans, tomatoes and cucumber, carrots and parsley, fennel
and oranges, with some chicken breast, poached cod, tuna. Cut all snacks. Nobody above the age of 14 needs snacks. Use lemon, fresh herbs, mustard, spices for flavour. Your username is spot on.

You go to the gym, you don’t drink. Great. This
leaves out the diet part. Play around until you find what works for you right now.

There are so many assumptions you've made there that you are completely unaware of.

"Prolonged carb restriction can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, especially when substituting carbs with meat."

Nowhere in what I've said have I stated I'm "restricting carbs". What I wrote was "despite eating virtually no refined carbs". There is no healthy diet in the world which states it's essential to eat white bread, chocolate, white rice and cakes. Those are the kinds of things which are now absent (almost totally) from my diet. I still eat oats, pulses and some wholegrain rice and pasta.

At no point do I state I'm "substituting with meat". Which is a ridiculous assumption to jump to and is betraying the kind of diet you believe I have with zero evidence.

"If what you are doing isn’t really working despite all your efforts, change."

I have. That's why I introduced 1 x 24 hour per week. And I have had one day of weight increase which caused a psychological reaction in me it doesn't mean it isn't working. Weight fluctuates daily, that's what it does. I was referring to the completely unreasonable mental response on my part despite knowing this is absolutely normal and not a sign it's not working.

"it is likely the answer to your weight struggles will be found in the vegetable section of your local supermarket instead of some podcast or other internet trend."

Wow. You've made this statement while at no point asking me if I eat a lot of vegetables. I do. They regularly make up more than half of my plate. And how rude to word it like that "will be found in the vegetable section of your local supermarket" like I'm a stranger to that area rather than fresh fruits and vegetables regularly comprising half of my shop.

I see alarming levels of this kind of assumption being jumped to by medical practitioners. That if I'm not losing weight it must be I'm not following advice. I was recently sent the "eatwell guide" by the NHS despite the fact I track all meals and can evidence just how many vegetables I eat which is actually beyond their guidance. Yesterday was a fasting day so I only had dinner but on Monday I had cucumber, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, cabbage and asparagus from the vegetable aisle. (I also had mango and honeydew melon from the fruit aisle). Not that you asked.

I work in the food industry. I go back to the original papers as I've already explained, I do not rely on podcasts. I do not rely on influencers.

"You go to the gym, you don’t drink. Great. This leaves out the diet part. Play around until you find what works for you right now."

What is amazing about your response is your complete lack of self awareness and focusing on the physical not the psychological. Again a trait I often see in medical workers. Please read this again as you obviously missed it the first time. You do realise I didn't ask? I was not posting this for support with my diet. And NHS advice on diet (the eatwell guide etc) has very poor basis in science. Bless your heart and naivety in heading down the "eat less and move more" route but really I have no interest in it.

I have no idea if you are or were a medical practitioner but I will point out this. The largest age group who are buying GLP1s in the UK not on an NHS prescription are those in the age group 45-55 and female. That is not because their concerns are being heard by their GPs and it's certainly not because the kind of "one size fits all" advice shared by GPs is working for them. Weight loss is also a behavioural issue which is hilarious that medical professionals get completely wrong. They assume if they "tell" patients what to do that will change their behaviour rather than support them make the structural, social and psychological changes needed to support change in their life.

So as I've said before. Please stop sending me unsolicited advice on what to eat or when. I have not requested it and in doing so you are betraying your beliefs and biases about me. Which are for the most part, very wrong.

Even if you were a GP, it's entirely possible I know as much if not more than you about nutrition and I certainly know more about the psychological aspects of behaviour change.

I will make this abundantly clear.

I AM NOT ASKING FOR ADVICE ON WHAT OR WHEN TO EAT ON THIS THREAD.

Are you clear?

I’m also fasting and weighing myself most days.

I often see weight fluctuations from day to day, but the main thing I’m looking at is my average weight for the week. That way the weight fluctuations within the week are evened out if you see what I mean.
So it makes it easier for me to not place too much emphasis on the daily fluctuations and to see the overall trend.

Although I do also like a pp’s suggestion of tracking the lowest weight for the week.

Thanks Jane and I'm certainly still losing. It's funny I couldn't tell you now what my weekly weight was. Let me check... Wowzers. My weight this morning is 3.5lb down on Monday.

It's a mental battle for me most days anyway as I have a severe anxiety disorder which I've worked on for decades but it's interesting my spiralling on this only lasted so long.

You say you're not surprised so you must have had a few extra calories. So that gain is extremely minimal. I'd barely register it as a gain.

I can put on half a kilo from morning til evening in one day!

Honestly I think maybe just weigh yourself twice weekly. Always after a BM when waking. Daily weighing is probably fuelling anxiety.

My view, is that you either weigh daily and track it on a predictive tracker (weight grapher is one of them) so it gives a prdiction of what it would be in a month etc (it can only do this after a few weeks at least of entries) and then you get used to knowing that there are ups and downs that the trajectory is whatever it is

OR

You weigh monthly, and take it what it is.

Personally I can get on the scales one day and its one measurement and get on the next day and it shows 7lb heavier, then it will disappear

Imagine if I didnt weigh daily and didnt know it goes like that. I would see that 7lb 'gain' and be crushed.

As I put on another post, I was at some client sites and had to eat absolute crap for two days. Either that or have nothing (I wish I'd gone for nothing).

As I've explained, I don't like weighing myself less often as I've had previous weight gain doing this. So thanks but no.

I've already explained I weigh daily and put it in an app.

Probably just bloating then

And to the other poster who puts on half a kilo morning till night, well thats 1lb and of course you do, its the food you eat and the processing of it

Also I did around 6 hours of unexpected exercise yesterday, no doubt tht will show itself in the next few days where my body increases the water retention around my joints. Poor joints

Yes I know Im talking about a predictive app.

As an example I was away for 6 days last week, drank half a bottle of wine every day, had a fair bit of bread type stuff ( toasties, eggs on toast etc ) very nice meal every night , quite a bit of Vietnamese/indonesian /thai ( was in Amsterdam and The Hague) - not so much water in day, more coffees and ginger tea - had put on 2 kilos, came back straight to my normal diet and was down 2 kilos in 6 days- I def think booze and salty food and carbs will stick it on quickly if you’ve been eating like a saint previously , but I seem to lose it very quickly too once I stop it .

You havent 'stuck on' or 'lost' anything

Its water retention and bloating. No one puts on or loses 2kg in 6 days. Its just a natural fluctuation of the scales