The Myth of the Big Weight Loss (or Gain)

Last week's weigh-in was a real eye-opener. Boom! Up 4.6 pounds. I've been on Weight Watchers for years now, so I know that even at my worst I only can gain 2-3 pounds in a week. That particular week was bad, but not that bad.

This week's trip to the scales revealed a startling but happy revelation - I was down 5 pounds! The results were happy, but equally suspicious. I know that I actually ate food this week, and even at my best I've only lost a few pounds in 7 days, so what gives?

Your weight fluctuates. That seems pretty logical. But most people, until they start accurately measuring their weight, have no idea how these fluctuations translate onto the scale. Here's what I think really happened. I gained about 2 pounds last week. I got mad at myself for gaining, so I turned on the jets and lost a little more than 2 pounds this week.

The night before my big gain I went to a party at a friend's house and overate by a good bit. It's this kind of binge that causes my weight to swell temporarily. After years and years of watching (literally) my weight, I know my body and how it responds to food. I still kept charging, not letting myself make excuses.

So the moral of the story is this: when hitting a huge gain, take into account that you may be experiencing a temporary high. Dig in, concentrate, and do your best to focus on the program. As my leader Janice said when I stepped on the scale, "Use this to focus on getting back on the program." DON'T get depressed and make a bad episode worse. DON'T overreact and starve yourself. And by all means, DON'T tell yourself it must have been last night's cheeseburger and keep on eating. That big gain may have masked smaller, but still significant gain over the previous weight loss period.

Know your body and learn how to interpret the scales.