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Down Home Dietitian - Healthy doesn't have to be hard.
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nonscale victories
Food How Your Body Works Wellness Tips

Why Your Weight Seems to Go Up and Down No Matter What You Do

avoiding weight gain

 

 

I hear this from clients all the time: “It doesn’t matter what I do! My weight goes up and down and up and down. I’ll lose a few pounds and then I’ll gain two back and I just want to give up.”

Ahhh the scale…a mean mistress. It’s a rare person who has not noticed that, whether trying to lose weight or not, his or her number on the scale tends to fluctuate. This is true for just about everyone for a variety of reasons.

 



 

If you’ve been tracking my goal-getting journey, you know that one of my goals was to get back to my normal body weight by losing 7 lbs. If you haven’t been following along, well…now you know. So the first 4-5 came off in the first month or so. After that, things slowed to a screeching halt and began climbing…1 pound, 2 pounds, 3 pounds. I was sticking with my nutrition and workout goals for the most part, but it was still climbing.

How could this be, you ask? It’s actually very common. Read on and I’ll run you through a few reasons that your weight is not the “end all, be all”…or even necessarily a good way to measure your overall progress. It’s part of the equation, and it is certainly linked to health outcomes, but it does not warrant or deserve the intense focus we tend to put on it. Here are 7 reasons your weight may fluctuate that have nothing to do with eating too much or not exercising enough:

  1. Time of the day – Believe it or not our weight changes, sometimes pretty significantly, throughout the day. During the day we retain some of the water we consume, so we tend to weigh the most at the end of the day and the least first thing in the morning after we’ve used the bathroom. I have a pretty small frame and depending on the day I’ve clocked as high as a 4-5 pound difference from morning to evening.

  2. Hydration – Along the same lines as #1, the amount of water we drink during the day can affect our weights. On a day where we are sweating heavily or not drinking enough fluids, we will weigh less than a day where we are adequately hydrated.
  3. Bathroom/food status – Gross but true. If you haven’t had a bowel movement in 1-2 days, your bowels may contain at least a couple of pounds (sometimes more!) of fecal material. Your bladder can hold anywhere from .5 to 1.5 lbs of urine as well.
  4. Menstruation – Sorry ladies, but it can’t be helped. Most women retain at least an extra pound or two of fluid during menstruation.
  5. Fluid retention/swelling – This can be caused by many different things, but in healthy people it is most commonly due to high sodium intakes. Have you ever noticed that your pants don’t fit quite right or your fingers look like sausages the day after the Superbowl party? Sodium and water are friends, so when we eat a lot of sodium, our body hangs on to extra water for a day or two.

  6. Stress – In general, stress tends to make our bodies want to gain fat. Stress management is a very key component of overall health.
  7. Muscle/fat – Most of us have heard the adage, “Muscle weighs more than fat.” It’s true, and it’s also true that if you start a new exercise program you will be gaining some muscle as you lose fat so progress can be tricky to track. Be careful with this one though, because you usually won’t be gaining enough muscle to really affect your weight for the first month or two of a new exercise program.

For these reasons, I try to encourage (and beg and plead) clients to focus on their overall health and fitness, their habits, and how they feel, as well as assessments like weight, circumference, or body fat to assess their overall progress. Given the things listed above, going up a pound or a few every so often is normal and should be expected. Don’t let it stress you out or discourage you! If you feel like you’re likely to quit on improving your health if the scale goes up, I have a strong recommendation for you – don’t get on the scale!

 



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Down Home Dietitian

Diet culture is determined to tell you that you have to be miserable to be healthy.

That couldn’t be more wrong.

Subscribe to learn how to go from a frustrated, restricted dieter to a happy, relaxed relationship with food and fitness. Healthy doesn’t have to be hard!

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beckiparsons.rd.ep

I am OVER confusing advice, disgusting diets, and boring exercise.
Healthy doesn't have to be hard!
➢ Registered Dietitian
➢ Exercise Physiologist

Functional Dietitian | Exercise Physiologist | Speaker
Trauma is a common root that needs special support Trauma is a common root that needs special support.

In the documentary, both Tracey and Joelle mentioned how abuse related to their journeys with obesity. Trauma can lead to weight struggles in several ways:

- dysregulated cortisol
- food cravings
- emotional/stress eating
- undeveloped coping behaviors
- psychological desire to gain weight or remain heavy for a feeling of safety from sexual abusers

When this is a piece of someone’s puzzle, it needs to be addressed to help them understand the neurochemistry that patterns their habits, and provide them with tools to address and change those patterns.

It’s a rare person who can dig their way out of food and weight struggles without addressing these root causes - it’s not common knowledge!

#weightloss #fitness #registereddietitian #dietitian #fatloss #biggestloser #fitfortv #netflix #netflixdocumentary #nutrition #nutritionists
Focusing primarily on speed of weight lost is almo Focusing primarily on speed of weight lost is almost never healthy.

Instead, find other indicators of progress:
👚 clothes fit
💪 visible muscle
🏃‍♀️ workout performance and recovery
💡 energy and mental clarity
💤 sleep quality
😊 skin clarity
☺️ mental health

All together, they will be able to give you a far more accurate picture of whether or not you are making strides with your health or not.

Being married to numbers on the scale is a direct path to discouragement when it inevitably fluctuates.

#weightloss #fitness #registereddietitian #fatloss #dietitian #loseweight #fitfortv #netflixdocumentary #bariatrics #biggestloser
Different people need different approaches. Some Different people need different approaches.

Some people LOVE to sweat hard and feel the burn.
Some people NEED to have fun working out or they won’t stick with it.
Some people THRIVE on repetition and routine that minimizes decision making.
Some people MUST have flexibility or they will feel hemmed in.

As a practitioner, you have to get to know your client well enough to make recommendations that are a good fit for them. I often joke with my clients that they are eating healthy changes and I am their matchmaker. It’s my job to get to know them well enough to introduce them to really good potential partners. We may not always get it right the first time (and hey, bad dates are always a bummer), but I learn how to tailor things to them even more through the process.

#registereddietitian #dietitian #weightloss #fitness #fitfortv #biggestloser #netflix #netflixdocumentary
Skinny does not equal healthy. Healthy does not eq Skinny does not equal healthy. Healthy does not equal skinny.

Your habits are FAR more closely-tied indicators to actual health outcomes (likelihood of getting sick or dying) than your weight.

Here’s one study on that: https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/25/1/9.full.pdf
Here’s another: https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m2031.full.pdf 

Now, typically if someone has a healthy lifestyle are they likely to lose weight? That depends on a lot of factors, but in many cases yes. That’s why we do find some connection between weight and health outcomes, but that’s confounded by a lot of factors.

Also, the method and rate of weight loss can impact just how healthy that weight loss is.

Here’s the article on how the contestants’ metabolisms were affected: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4989512/

#fitfortv #weightloss #biggestloser #jillianmichaels #bobharper #dietitian #fitness #healthynotskinny #netflixdocumentary
Thank you SO much to every single person who submi Thank you SO much to every single person who submitted a vote for me - I am so grateful for your support. ❤️

This means so much to me, and I am honored!

P.S. @evergreen_familychiro won Best Chiropractor too, so you can now see the best Chiro and best RD in one place! 😉
It’s not as simple as “eat less, move more.” It’s not as simple as “eat less, move more.” 

Heck, it’s not even as simple as weight loss = fat loss.

Anyone who has ever tried to lose more than 5 lbs knows that.

1. Your weight doesn’t tell you if you’ve gained or lost fat, it tells you the sum total mass of your skin, bones, organs, digestive goodies, muscle, fat, and water.

2. Hormones, stress, and fluid can fluctuate your weight much more prominently than fat loss or gain.

3. Your metabolism (the number of calories you burn) is not a fixed target. Your thyroid, adrenal system, eating patterns, movement patterns and more are constantly compensating, adjusting, and adapting. Just “eat less and move more” oversimplifies what can be a very complex concept. About half of my weight loss clients lose weight when we add calories, because of these adaptations.

4. Functional disruptions can freak your body out and make it resistant to fat loss. Gut dysbiosis/malabsorption, PCOS, and stressed-out adrenal systems are issues I see often. If you don’t address the functional root, you can deficit all you want and you may or may not see significant change.

So don’t bet everything on “eat less and move more.” It’s a good place to start for many, but if it isn’t working, dive deeper and find out why not. Want some support for your fat loss journey? DM me to get scheduled - it’s covered by most major health insurances!

#weightloss #dietitian #fitness #loseweight #bariatric #functionalnutrition
Lots of exciting things available in this partners Lots of exciting things available in this partnership! DM with questions or to get booked!

#chiropracticcare #nutritionandfitness #holisticwellness #weightlosssupport
Nutrition counseling is covered by most major insu Nutrition counseling is covered by most major insurances! DM me for an insurance verification or if you're ready to get scheduled!
Thank you so much for the nomination! You can vote Thank you so much for the nomination! You can vote daily through 5/9 by visiting votesouthsound.com and selecting Health & Beauty > Nutritionist/Dietitian > Becki Parsons Nutrition & Fitness. I am so grateful for your support!
So why wouldn't you start? Insurance coverage for So why wouldn't you start?

Insurance coverage for nutrition therapy is way better than you may even know. As a preventive health benefit, there are rarely even co-pays, and only occasionally limits on how many visits.

Get all the support you need, on the health insurance you already pay for! DM me to get started. ❤️

#nutritioncoaching #fatloss #weightloss #bariatrichealthcare #loseweight
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