Okay, in the last month and a half or so I have been working really hard to lose weight. I have been closely monitoring myself, journaling everything that I eat, making sure it is around 1500 cals a day, and have been doing great so far. I've lost about 22lbs just doing this, and have been averaging losing about 2lbs. a week (after the initial huge 10lb loss when I first started--probably water). Anyway, yesterday I weighed myself and I was 184, today, at the exact same time, without eating anything first, I weight myself, and I am now 188--WHAT THE HELL????? How did I gain 4lbs in ONE DAY??? I know this is a physical impossibility, knowing that I would have had to have like, 15,000 calories yesterday for this to be possible. I have not even so much as cheated once since I've started this lifestyle change, not once! I have kept to my 1500 cals a day since I've started...but regardless, the scale is telling me that I have gained 4lbs in 24 hrs. I am not close to getting my period either, it's been about 17 days since my last period....how did this happen...I do not understand at all. I am just ready to cry...

Well thanks for listening to my rant anyway.

Salt. Or retained water from exercise. Or ovulation weight. Or any of a dozen other things.

Just wait it out. You know it's not a "real" weight gain because you've been on plan. It'll drop again.

Thanks, Kara! I'm pretty sure I'm ovulating right now, but I can't stop obsessing about it...ugh! But yes, I've stuck to my plan, I haven't cheated at all, and like I said I weight 4lbs. less yesterday.

Thanks again!

I agree with Kara.

Try logging your food through FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal (or similar) and see what your sodium level was for the day when the jump happened. Was it above 2400mg?

I get huge jumps any time my sodium level is high.

Last year I needed emergency surgery. I had 3 days with a "nil by mouth" sign and nothing to eat or drink. I had a saline drip. I gained 8.5 pounds in 3 days. I told them that I would gain as I gain every time I have salt.

That's why I don't like to weigh myself every day, I'm sure it's not really weight gain as far as getting fatter, it's probably water or something like that, but that can drive you nuts, calm down, I'm sure it's not real weight gain, it's impossible like you said.

I have become majorly salt sensitive in the last couple of years. I think I may have written about it in my diary a week ago or so, but a few Sundays ago (Sunday being my free day), I ate fries and movie theater popcorn. I gained 8 lbs on Monday morning.

Monday and Tuesday I drank enough water to float a battleship.

By Wednesday I had lost all of it and another 3/4 lb besides.

This is why I only weigh myself after I take a reeeeeally healthy poop. I lose like 3 lbs everytime I snip a turd.

I gain 3-5 lbs. every day and lose it every night. It's food, water, everything that you put in during the day, and at night it disappears and you're back at your "true"/accurate/baseline weight. It's the baseline that you want to watch, not everything that happened during the day. If I didn't keep this in mind I would freak right out every other day.

The funny thing is I suppose that it is the same reason that I like to weigh myself every day.

I know that if I do start drifting up I can keep a check on it before anything gets out of hand. I found that by weighing every day I could identify certain foods that always seem to give me a daily weight gain - whatever the calories (never pinned down the reason) and other foods that always seem to give me a weight loss - whatever the calories (never pinned down the reason for that either). If a food gives you a daily loss every say 15 out of 16 times you eat it - it does encourage you to eat it more often. Similarly if you see a gain every time - it encourages you to axe it from the food plan. I have a salmon meal that I do that has an amazing daily loss record - and I still eat it the night before I get accountably weighed at my slimming clubs and I long had it the night before any challenge weighings. I axed hard cheese from my food plan after seeing that I gained every time - even if it was an individually wrapped cheese slice that I knew that I could not be weighing generously...

Weighing every day also helped me to identify that I get a gain around my period which lasts longer than the average woman appears to experience. It tends to take me 12 days to get back to my pre-TOM low. I have seen this across many months. I also saw that I burnt fat during that time as I tended to get weight losses over and above the fabled 1% during the other weeks - and my weight loss over the month evened itself out. It meant that I was able to cope much better with seeing that gain on the scales. It has got so that it is a little reminder that maybe I should be prepared for the arrival of TOM... I see the gain and check the calendar...

Weighing every day helped me identify when I was prescribed pain killers which contained sodium. We so rarely anticipate issues like that from prescription medication. We may track the sodium in our food - but that is sometimes not the only thing that we ingest.

Naturally things like toilet activity play a part too - and I have known myself track that too.

We all experience day to day fluctuations and fluctuations through the day - but I find it much easier to cope with a gain if I can give myself a decent explanation for why it has happened. For me it is better than simply not knowing what is happening. All the best authorities say that we should not weigh every day - and it certainly would not suit everyone - but it is certainly best for me.

Yeah ... what Omega said.

One thing I've noticed is that if I weigh every day, I get a much clearer picture of where I am with my weight. I can see exactly how what I eat and what I do affects me and it's made it easier for me NOT to panic when I see sudden fluctuations.

Obviously everyone is different and for people who get totally freaked out by the scale, weighing daily probably isn't a good thing. But if you really want to know what's going on with your body ... for me, I find it's an interesting exercise.

I ALWAYS gain ovulation weight, in addition to period weight. So twice a month I can count a stretch of 2-3 days where the weight goes up for no other reason. But it always comes back down again, and if it doesn't I know I'm off-track

this is kinda like when i used to work at a restaurant, when people look at their tips. People get happy/sad about when they look at their good/bad tips.

I never looked at my tips and knew by the end of the day they all add up to a big amount.

Same thing with weighing yourself, it should be accumulated over a period of time. Some days are going to be bad, sometimes its something with your body. Overall when you put the effort in after a while you will lose (gain if you are aiming for that) towards your goal

That's a good way to put it! That's how I like to think of it, not in how much I lose per day but in how much over a period of time. That works best for me.

Sometimes the forces of the universe are beyond your control. Feel better.