I've read somewhere that you actually tend to gain some weight first when you change your dieting habits and then start losing weight - do you think that's true?

Not that I know of. For me, I start losing weight almost immediately when I change to a lower calorie diet. It's normally several weeks down the line that the diet stops having the same effect that it initially did for me, where I'm hitting that plateau.

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Deux hommes font une promenade amicale. L'un des deux porte un parapluie à son bras.
Il se met à pleuvoir. L'homme n'ouvre pas son parapluie et l'autre lui demande pourquoi.
- Parce que ça ne servirait à rien, lui répond son ami. Il est plein de trous.
- Alors, pourquoi l'as-tu pris?
- Parce que je ne pensais pas qu'il pleuvrait.

Well, your body is going to try to get itself back to its original state when you diet, so I suppose it's possible...I've never experienced that, personally.

If you're exercising, you may be gaining muscle which weighs more than fat but other than that, I've never heard of this.

I guess maybe you could also put on water weight (shouldn't be more than a couple of pounds) if you've started taking in more water?

I've never thought it's true. When my mum did Weight Watchers it was the first week where she lost soooo much, and then it gradually got smaller and smaller amounts per week until it was only like 1lb less every two weeks or so.

I put on weight like a week before I diet because I think "hey I'm going to diet next week so now I will eat ten pies"