help! I've been at this 3 weeks, and I weigh myself every morning. Twice now, I have had overnight dramatic gains. This past Monday I woke up and had gained THREE pounds over night, which I then lost this past week, plus one more pound. Then this morning I had gained another pound overnight! It's very discouraging. What's going on?

Hi emf!

Since it's virtually impossible to gain 3 lbs. of fat overnight, what you're most likely seeing is fluctuations in water retention. Eating foods high in sodium or even having your hormones changing a bit can trigger water retention as could a particularly strenuous workout as your muscles retain water afterwards while they repair and build.
Weight loss is also rarely in a steady downward line; ups and downs along the way are perfectly normal and to be expected. As long as the overall picture is showing a decrease, try not to stress about it.

Weigh a 32 ounce bottle of water on your scale.
Water is weight. As you heard above, no one can gain 3 pounds of fat in ONE day! Water is a funny thing, it just moves around. Our bodies are funny with it too. Sometimes we hold it..others we don't. When you LOSE 2 pounds overnight, do you honestly think its all fat loss. Of course not! This takes a long time. We have to be patient despite the darn rollercoaster ride of ups and downs (darn it!)

Thanks for the good words - sometimes it helps just to be reminded to be calm and patient! I think the sodium thing might be the answer, since I currently don't really exercise at all (except to chase after my 2 year old!) but I'll be starting this week, so it's good to know about the water-retention thing.

Also, I've been reading some other posts and am a little alarmed at the "hidden carbs", especially in the Atkins bars. I've been going through one or two Mocha Crunch bars a day this week, so that could be it too. Guess I need to cut them out.

Thanks again!

A lot of people report having problems losing weight when eating those low carb bars. My advice would be to cut them out for a while and see what happens. I keep a couple around in case I'm stuck somewhere with nothing to eat that's even close to legal except for those and they have kept me on track more than once.

You may also just be seeing fluctuations on your scale that have nothing to do with your actual weight. Most scales other than the balance beam type they have in doctors offices vary by a pound or two depending upon how you step on them.