So I have been woking out for about three weeks now and I started @ 223 the first week i went down to 218 i was so excited but the i went back up to 220 the next week so now we are at almost the end of this week and i am back to 218 I do want a permenent weightloss so I'm not trying to lose everything at once but is this normal I have changed my diet drastically (for me anyways) breakfast 1 cup oatmeal, snack a fruit, lunch chicken salad and 1/4 cup of popcorn and for dinner I have chicken I exercise 30min in the mornning on the treadmill and I have an hour lunch so i walk for 30min then eat and when I get home 6-7pm I walk another .77mi on treadmill I want to get past the 5lbs any suggestions?

1. Keep track of your calories -use a program like FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal - weigh and measure what you put in your mouth -and be consistant.
2. Don't weigh yourself every day - your weight will fluctuate and that's normal... so don't obsess over it.
3. take measurements and use those as a more accurate determiner of how you're doing.
4. Read the stickied threads in the exercise forum...

how often do you think I sould weigh in?

depends on yourself - but if you can stick with your good habits, I'd go with every 3 days... and measure every 2 weeks or so...

you also might want to start yourself a diary here -it can keep all your questions in one place, and give youo something to look backon as you progress...

Youll get there. Water retention will fluctuate your weight drastically. Even one meal with excess glucose (sugar) will be stored as glycogen.

Glycogen is mainly comprised of water. It sometimes takes a good exercise day to burn off your glycogen stores. If you weigh yourself before this, you can be holding a few extra pounds.

So some tips:

#1: Weigh yourself at the same time of the day.
#2: Weigh yourself during the same time of the week, particularly if you follow a workout schedule.

To get an accurate measure of your weight without too many effects of water retention, weigh yourself every week at the end of a very hard cardio session. Your glycogen stores should be burned off and youll have a more fair idea of where you are really at.

Michael