Weight Going Up

I'm so frustrated. I have been staying under my calorie goal, and exercising and I was up a little yesterday and one more pound today! Could this all be water weight? Or is there something wrong with my metabolism? It's so irritating when I'm doing everything right! I don't know how to do any better. Please tell me this is just nothing, and my weight will go down!

Relax!! :)

If you weighted yourself several times a day, you'd see how much it changes! I've tried, and it oscillates almost two pounds when I exercise, scary! ;)

So calm down. You know you're doing right? Then trust yourself. A healthy diet will never put weight on you and you'll keep lean and healthy longtime.

Now some mabyes to help:

1. Maybe you're close to your period.
2. Maybe you retained a little water-you eated more salty?-
3. Maybe you have been exercising? -muscle is heavier than fat!-

Relax. Eat carefully and well, exercise, DON'T EVER PANIC please, just believe in yourself, wait some days and we'll see. Take care and have a smiling day!!!!!!

Original Post by poliminia:

Relax!! :)

If you weighted yourself several times a day, you'd see how much it changes! I've tried, and it oscillates almost two pounds when I exercise, scary! ;)

So calm down. You know you're doing right? Then trust yourself. A healthy diet will never put weight on you and you'll keep lean and healthy longtime.

Now some mabyes to help:

1. Maybe you're close to your period.
2. Maybe you retained a little water-you eated more salty?-
3. Maybe you have been exercising? -muscle is heavier than fat!-

Relax. Eat carefully and well, exercise, DON'T EVER PANIC please, just believe in yourself, wait some days and we'll see. Take care and have a smiling day!!!!!!

 muscle isn't heavier than fat, but your muscles do retain some water to heal so it's most likely water

Absolutely, don't weigh yourself more than once a week if you don't want to see ups as well as downs.   Bodyweight varies so much every day based on a lot of factors, mostly to do with hydration levels.  Make sure you're getting a good variety of foods, eating healthily, eating regularly, drinking plenty of fluids and you should find that in 1 week's time you're back where you were or slightly lighter.

If your weight doesn't change for more than 2 or 3 weeks it can be an idea to give the metabolism a leg up by consuming your full 'maintenance' calories for a day.  Sometimes your body can adapt to manage on fewer calories and a deliberate shot of extra food can be what it needs.....

Don't panic... keep smiling.  Stay off the scales :-)

I use to be the same way.  I'd get so frustrated because I feel like I'm not seeing the results on the scale.  I've learned that you shouldn't obsess with body weight and start paying attention to body composition.  How much body fat do you have compared to muscle?  Just watching your weight on the scale isn't very helpful.

I agree with girlfighting27.  10 lbs of fat and 10 lbs of muscle is still 10lbs.  However, a woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.

I'm definitely trying to shed the pounds first so I've been doing more cardio than lifting weight.  I'm no expert but maybe if you vary your workout to try and burn the fat then maybe that will help reduce your weight as well.

I hope that makes sense.  Instead of getting on the scale all the time, try finding something in your closet that you haven't been able to get in to and try it on.  You'd be surprised!

Thanks everyone! I just started running recently, and I'm pretty sore--so I'm thinking it's water. I just wasn't sure if water retention could weigh that much! It still is frustrating to see the numbers go up instead of down though. I do like weighing daily (generally) though. It encourages me when I see that I am making progress. 

I just got a digital scale (I used to have a dial scale) and I'm not used to seeing minor fluctuations. I'll get used to it. I just needed a little assurance. Thank you guys so much!

Since you just recently started running, it's not surprising to see a little weight gain.  If you want to reduce water retention stay away from salty foods and soda (even diet soda!)  You should make sure you drink 2 liters of water a day, this will reduce hunger AND reduce water retention.  I can't really tell from your pic, but it looks like you are not hugely overweight, so if you are like me and trying to lose 10-20 lbs, I would highly recommend getting a body fat composition meter.  This uses an electric pulse to measure your body fat.  Even if you are not losing lbs, you can watch your body fat go down and that will be extremely encouraging.  Here's a good one... http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HBF-306C-Fat-Loss -Monitor/dp/B000FYZMYK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF 8&s=hpc&qid=1221072834&sr=8-1

Also, unfortunately just staying under your calorie goal is not good enough, especially if you are not obese.  It really matters what you eat.  It's important to eat protein with every meal and tons of fruits and veggies rather than pasta, etc.  I don't presume to know what you eat, maybe you already do this, but when I first started, I just stayed under a certain calorie amount and lost no weight.  I found that it really matters what I eat and more importantly that I eat enough!  If you do not eat to your calorie max on a consistent basis, you will not lose weight.  It's frustrating but your metabolism will absolutely slow down.  So you think, hey, I didn't even eat all my calories today, good for me...and you're body is thinking, uh oh, food shortage I need to stock up on fat! (this comes from our ancestors who lived through seasons of famine)

Anyway, stick with it, and good luck!