I need some help.

[Ovahk]

Alright, so I've been hitting the gym pretty hard for about a month and a half now, and I'm starting to see results. When I started January 24th I want to say I weighed 254, and yesterday I was at 241.

Now here is the problem, I go in today and I weigh in at 247...and I've done nothing really different except going to work out 2 hours later than usual. This happened to me last month as well, I was at 251 and then the next day I was at 258...the good news with that was that I dropped down to 246 the next week.

Now, I work out about 3-4 times a week, do at least 30 minutes of cardio on all days and do weights for at least an hour. I'm wondering if it's normal to seemingly gain 5 pounds from one day to the other without any real change to your routine? As a matter of fact I probably did more cardio these last 3 days than since when I started.

I'm just a bit alarmed and looking for assurance that it is normal. Like I said, I have not pigged out or anything like that, and I've drinken about the same amount of water as usual. I'm hoping it's just a hike in weight like last time which was then followed by a huge drop. Thanks.

[Super30's]

Re: I need some help.

I just had the same experience you had - it really sucks. I feel like my good karma is being tested and I am sooo scared that I have failed myself. I just posted a thread " Gaining?". (Also waiting for some feelback)

I want to beleive that it is only our bodies catching up with us - and I am glad I read you post and that you did drop a lot of weight the next week. From reading your post I think that in you case (and hopefully in mine too) it is due to us putting a lot into our exercising. I know that exercise works wonders, so I think our bodies are just adjusting - atleast I hope so.

It still feels awefull seeing any gain on the scale, really testing my good spirit (which I really need to motivate myself) I hope & pry that you will see an awesome loss next week - maybe we should just try to ignor the scale for the next 7 days and see what it says then?

[Ovahk]

Re: I need some help.

Excuse the term, but I am a scale whore, and even seeing a slight drop motivates me to work my butt off, but yesterday I was out of it because of the gain. Once it drops back down to normal however I might ease off the scale a bit.

[ValidRouge]

Re: I need some help.

Totally normal. It takes roughly 3500 EXCESS calories to make 1 pound of fat. So, you'd literally have to eat 17,500 calories ON TOP of the calories you burned that day which for vigorous exercisers could be 2500 calories or more....

We KNOW you didn't do that, right?

So, the only other thing it could be is water. If you changed your workout or had a particularly hard weight workout, your body will send water to those muscles as a defense mechanism. You just ATTACKED it with that workout and now it thinks it must protect itself by surrounding the muscles with water. In a day or two, it will release the water and you'll get a big loss on the scale. TOTALLY normal.

I'm a scale whore too, but I always keep that little math equation in my mind when I have big gains or losses.

[Elizellen]

Re: I need some help.

Now here is the problem, I go in today and I weigh in at 247...and I've done nothing really different except going to work out 2 hours later than usual.

My weight can vary by 8-10 pounds during one day - maybe you always weigh heavier at that time of day?

[Ovahk]

Re: I need some help.

I weighed in today and ended at 242..not bad.

[Scooterjam]

Re: I need some help.

You guys and these scales.....haha

I need a bullhorn 'Step away from the scale, hands up, take one step back, now another......slowly pick up the scale and hand it to me.....'

Scooter takes out sledgehammer and destroys scale.

haha.

You're stressing too much on the scale, yes watch it, but don't live by it. My sister is the absolute same way, she gains so much as .4 grams, she's freaking out, calling me on the phone that shes gained. Unless you are doing what Joy says (the 17,500 calories......yikes!) it's water, you're exercising, your body is getting used to all the new things, we didn't gain all of our weight overnight, it took time, give your body time to adjust to this way of life.

Scooter steps down off his soapbox.

Just trying to help!

[sallyseachange]

Re: I need some help.

The scale can be a MONSTER! The tape measure is your friend!

[LuckyD]

Re: I need some help.

The scale messes with my mind big time. I try to avoid it. I just weighed in for my weight loss challenge at my gym and it said I lost a pound and a half for 2 weeks. I almost started crying. But here is the thing, I have been working out with weights a lot so I am sure I built some muscle in there. My clothes fit better and like I lost more than that. And everyone keeps telling me I look thinner. So I got myself all bummed out for nothing really. Just try not to stress out too much on what the scale says. Go by how you feel.

[Elizellen]

Re: I need some help.

you are so right LuckyD - if you are building muscle the scales will diappoint you every time!
Take a look at RichT's Me me me post in the Main forum - he put on pounds but his body fat % has gone down several numbers!