This app was mentioned in 845 comments, with an average of 3.72 upvotes
You've definitely got the right idea! I weigh myself most mornings, and I've seen fluctuations in my weight of up to 5 lbs from day to day, and sometimes they seem completely random.
It may help to use an app for weight tracking which gives you a moving average and can help you see the long term trends. Happy Scale (iOS) and Libra (Android) are good ones.
Libra weight tracking - 19,202 installs. It allows you to keep a moving weighted average of your weight, so it smooths out daily fluctuations. It's based on the ideas behind the Hacker Diet (which was written by the guy that started AutoCAD).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Try this app
It's free, very comprehensive analysis and even has a projected end date for you. Saves the trouble of keying into excel.
For people not in the apple ecosystem you can use Libra for android or Trendweight on the web. Both are similar and excellent, although trend weight requires syncing with another service (usually a WiFi scale but you can setup a free Fitbit account and manually add your weights for syncing there). Definitely recommend using some kind of trending app since it smooths out daily readings and you don't have to worry about a bad weekly weigh in due to random fluctuations.
My "decision weight" is not any one daily weigh-in. Those are almost meaningless because of how volatile water is. I use a weight-smoothing app to see where I'm trending.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Once I've decided the trend is too high in my 10 pound maintenance range, I'm going to be on -500 for weeks. I don't come off of it until I'm low in my range. When I start, I don't stop until I lose 5-7 pounds on that trendline. It won't be a day or two. It's going to be weeks.
7700 Calories means that you did burn about two pounds of fat last week, but "burning fat" is a misnomer because to release the energy from fat, the body hydrolyzes the triglyceride out of the cell. Hydro- means water -- burning fat takes water.
That water isn't instantly gone, it hangs around for hours or days - there's no clear schedule or process but it eventually works its way out.
Because fluctuations happen daily, we reserve the word "plateau" for effects that span weeks, not days.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I recommend using an app like Libra ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra ) ; it does all the smoothing work for you. Just weigh yourself every day and punch it into the app
Great job! The big victory here is "I've been logging consistently for an entire month now" -- YOU DID THAT. The result is great too: 3.4 kg gone!! But the logging and your smart rational reactions to the data is what caused that. Bravo!
Daily deltas (stayed the same, up, down from yesterday) are pretty meaningless due to water. Look at the trend though.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You can't gain fat on a deficit. If your calorie goal provides a deficit to your TDEE, then this is certainly water/waste/etc..
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I weigh daily and log it in Libra. It does the averaging that you spoke about it's a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (if you have iPhone).
Using one of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Yeah I learned this from overweight friends who got discouraged when they sometimes "wouldn't lose anything" over a week despite a 500 calorie deficit, or would weigh themselves on back to back days and gain, like, two pounds even though they ate 1400 calories.
You can automate this by getting an app like Libra -- you put in your weight every day and don't worry about the number, and then you watch the trend line. Once you're a couple weeks in the trend line shows where you're headed and you won't worry about daily fluctuations (water, poop, gains/loss goblins, I don't know, I'm not an expert), weighing errors, or whatever.
Libra, if you're on Android.
I find the smooth trendline of the moving average extremely valuable. It rids you of the day-to-day consternation of minor fluctuations and shows you if you're really on the right path. Without it, a couple days without my weight going down and I start to feel discouraged. With it, I see that my trend is still downward, and my individual weigh-ins are still below the trendline, pulling it down further.
By the way, I don't know about HappyScale, but with both Libra and trendweight.com, you can get a Withings scale (for as little as 30 bucks on ebay) and have your weigh-ins automatically added.
You can't sprint away 74 pounds any more than you can sprint a marathon. In fact losing too fast could cause serious health issues. And pushing yourself too hard is what will cause you to stray from the road.
I recommend setting a goal date based on 1-2 lb/wk. Then measure your progress with an app like Happy Scale or Libra. You will see steady progress and it will tell you if you're on track to hit your goal, in which case you can relax!
Congrats on starting.
I also agree with everyone chanting "food scale" -- and keeping a tight intake log. With that, then you'll know you're not doing something wrong and it's just water. When the Calories are solid, then any plateau, spike, or unusually slow losses are just caused by water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Are you tracking using a weight-smoothing app? Your situation, where you have to move the scale daily, might be a good reason to use one.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
This way, you ignore the daily weigh in number except to enter it into the app... for your progress, you pay more attention to the trend.
I currently weigh daily because I was getting emotional at the scale and I wanted to desensitize myself to that. Weighing daily helped me see that the fluctuations were not the trends and to calm down about them.
Before that, I weighed daily but only recorded the new lowest weights.
> I fear day-to-day fluctuations would be too easy to read into
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water or your own optimism or pessimism.
Weight fluctuations are hard to get over mentally, but completely natural, especially if you deal with a cycle. Personally, I found Happy Scale (or Libra for Android) to be super helpful in smoothing out those fluctuations and keep me focused on the big picture and overall trend
It’s not basic to calculate, but there are apps such as HappyScale which take your measurements and create the smoothed curves and trend lines for you automatically. It’s free unless you want to sync across devices.
Libra looks like a good android alternative.
I weigh daily. Beyond putting the data in Libra, I ignore the actual number. I'm looking only at the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You should not trust it. It's true that a change -- especially one too big to be fat loss -- is likely more water than anything else.
Same for a sudden high number.
Trends count. Datapoints don't very much, except to contribute to the trends.
Track it, though. Just like any other data. Use it to see the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I've never seen such a setting ... I didn't know it sent reminders for weight updates.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You can use the time-averaged weight from these apps to keep MFP updated.
Whichever one you'll take most consistently. Your fat loss trend is a delta between similar weigh ins.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
This is normal and doesn't mean anything concerning your fat loss. It's about water fluctuation. Your fat loss trend will be governed by your 1300/day. But water will make it plateau, rise, and fall. The trend is the key. The fluctuations don't matter.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I’m eating generally the same number of calories still.
Then it's not new fat. If you're eating fat-burning calories (deficit of 500 or more), then you can't gain or maintain fat. We don't gain muscle that fast, so it only can be water.
We are about 65% water, give or take 10% and that give or take fluctuates a lot. Aside from the monthly female cycle, water also responds to sodium and potassium, inflammation due to injury or illness or just working out hard, sweat, hydration -- a lot of things.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I guess I’ll have to work up the courage to face my actual weight.
One thing that helps is to focus on the trend rather than the weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water. The trend is smoother and isn't affected too badly by one up-day.
You definitely are burning fat at 1200, but exercise, sodium, hormones, and other factors cause water to make it very hard to see progress on the scale except as a trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Weigh daily, using the home scale, on a solid surface, after waking, after using the toilet, before getting dressed. It's a great and easy habit to keep.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
By the time you get to the gym. You've drank and maybe ate something. You're also not naked. Your level of hydration is volatile. The doctor's office is even more suspect, because the conditions are just not the same from one visit to the other.
Did your doctor set the goal weight? Is that intended for "in the office" weight? If so, then your home GW might need to be about 3 pounds lighter than your doctor's GW.
Others already identified why MFP is bad at weight predictions: it's basing the 5-week estimate on only today's weight and calories, ignoring past trends.
If you want more accurate predictions, try the Libra app for Android, or Happy Scale for iOS. They create weight trends based on past weigh-ins alone, not calories.
get an app like Libra weight daily at the same time and it will calculate your average weight for past 7 days and your trend. It stops a lot of "Shit I gain 5kg moments"
Water variation -- hydration varies ... maybe you slept with your mouth open and exhaled a lot of water vapor. Could also be a difference in waste or sodium.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see your weight-loss trends better with less of the influence of the poor resolution in that old analog scale.
Don't forget that hydration means there can be dehydration -- a spurious high weight suggests that some of our weigh ins will be spurious low weights.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I think a pound a week is pretty healthy, depending on the starting weight. And as long as it's accurate. I make sure to weigh in at the same time every morning to try and avoid fluctuations from poops and whatnot. I've had friends that got stuck celebrating losing the same 10 lbs, because they'd weigh in during the afternoon once, then again when they remembered the following week in the morning.
They think they're seeing these massive weight fluctuations ("I lost ten pounds this week! My diet of cayenne flakes and yak yogurt is really working!" Two weeks later they're up two pounds because they celebrated with a few cheat days...) then they give up until the next fad diet comes along.
I always recommend libra to manage it all. Keeps ya honest, you know? A computer coldly saying "a few more Taco Bell binges and you're back to overweight".
I weigh daily, and track it in a weight-smoothing app like Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
I took my tape measurements every two weeks while losing.
> I’m gonna put up a calendar on the wall right where the scale is to track my weight. I think that will help keep me motivated if I get it into my routine.
Use a weight-trending app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
It's a great tool for tracking your weight and seeing the trendlines.
I weigh daily, and I try to weigh myself after my first meal. I'm also using Libra, which graphs your weight and shows a trend line. So even if you weigh high one day, you can still be assured that your weight is still trending down.
> How often do you log your weight into your tracker?
Daily ... I log mine in Libra, a weight smoothing app. Libra (for Android) or, if you have an iPhone, you can use Happy Scale.
> > Should I weigh first thing in the morning before eating/drinking?
...and after using the toilet and before dressing, yes.
I agree with your decision to get a better scale. Before you do, try it on concrete. If you still get the variations, then it's the scale. If you don't, then its the softness of your bathroom floor.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water, minor scale errors (not major like yours), and so on.
Your weight actually isn't dropping? Are you weighing every day and using a smoothing app like Happy Scale or Libra?
> Can I have someone just reassure me that weightloss doesn't happen overnight and it requires consistency and commitment?
Weight loss doesn't happen overnight and it requires consistency and commitment :)
You won't get fat overnight. Weigh yourself daily and use an app like Happy Scale or Libra. You will see if the trend starts to creep upwards; in that case you can adjust your calorie target downwards.
It's probably nothing. Your TDEE does decrease as you lose weight, but 12 pounds is not nearly enough to drop more than 1000 kcal/day. Due to water weight and other factors, day-to-day weight will fluctuate by a few pounds. If you were at the low end of the fluctuation last week and the high end this week, that would easily hide a week's worth of progress.
I recommend daily weighing using the Happy Scale or Libra app. I find it is so comforting to have a nice smooth trend that continues every day.
It took more than three weeks for me to see weight loss results from starting a gym routine.
I'd say stop counting exercise calories, and raise the food target if you have to but then lower it over time. Also start tracking all your food and beverage intake. It's not hard to go over 1400 calories on a "reasonable" dinner. My other recommendation (if you aren't already doing it) is daily weighing with a smoothing app like Happy Scale or Libra. You may have to accept a slow rate of weight loss and this will help you see that slow but steady progress without the day-to-day noise.
The bottom line though is that you're a short person and already at a healthy weight so you'll have to push yourself hard to lose those last 10 pounds. Good luck :)
Then you know if you're burning fat. You can't gain fat on a deficit, so anything that says different on the scale is just water. You can ignore the scale for the most part, because the calories tell the clearer fat-burning story. (We just need the scale to check in from time to time, to keep our TDEE and deficit right.)
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
As you have stated, our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Libra and Happy Scale do the same thing but don't require a $100 scale.
I have a Tuesday evening date with a group scale for accountability, too. It's not the best but it's not bad.
The best way to weigh is on a scale (I think you use plural scales in the UK) on a solid floor, after waking, after using the toilet, before dressing and before eating/drinking anything that day. That's the most consistent way. I do it daily and track it for a graph.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes. But we are interested in the fat changes and need to filter the noise of the water.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Great victories!
Don't worry about the little daily ups and downs -- Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Hey I'd recommend you <strong><em>Happy Scale</em></strong> for iOS or <strong><em>Libra</em></strong> for Android and then record your weight everyday in the morning after you wake up and go to the toilet. I know is frustrating but you have to continue! You can do it!
It's pretty common that mental health meds mess with weight-loss efforts. Sometimes it's because it you just feel better, and so you eat more and relax more (less active). Sometimes it's because the amount of calories your body burns per day is affected for some other reason.
> I'm worried that's not enough.
That's an emotion, it's not data. It's the reason to get data. Make a chart of your weight across time on a bathroom scale. Weigh in the morning, after waking, after using the toilet but before getting dressed. This is when we are at our most consistent state of hydration and other ancillary weight (clothing, food/drink, waste).
Use a weight-charting app like Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Always let your doctor know your concerns, but also provide data. If the data shows you are gaining weight over several weeks, they might change your meds. There are often several treatment choices and the good data will help provide input into the decision.
Per the sidebar:
One area MFP falls down hard is weight predictions. This is because the MFP "you'll weight this much in 5-weeks" estimate is only based on your weight today and net calories today.
Better options for weight monitoring (gain, loss, or maintenance) are the Libra Weight Manager for Android or Happy Scale for iOS. These apps ignore food and exercise and only use weight trends.
TL;DR: MFP's weight projections are complete fiction based on garbage data. Use another app for tracking weight trends.
> If you want your true weight, weigh your self once a week at the same time.
/u/emmaj99, is using Happy Scale, which is a superior method.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I use Libra Weight Manager for Android. It keeps a 7 day rolling average to smooth out your weight. If you weigh more one day the average line still goes down since there's a downward trend.
The poles are the weigh-ins and the line is the average. Think of the poles as pulling the average towards them.
> Should I weight myself everyday? And if so, should I log all the weight into my tracking app?
I do. Doing this helped me get over the emotions over seeing volatile scale readings due to water retention and other inconsistencies.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see your fat-loss trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I mean you can do it everyday (and I do), but use a logging app like Libra that then takes that data and turns it into a nice chart so you can actually see what's important - the overall trend line!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_GB
Are you tracking your cheat days?
> Am I losing inches? No
This suggests that you're maintaining.
However, you just started lifting a month ago and weight-lifting plateaus last 3-5 weeks. I'd keep going. You really have no other options since 1200 is the minimum -- really, that's got to work. It can't not work.
Other than that cheat day (which you might be logging -- if not, then track it), you sound confident in your logging, so let's trust the deficit.
Advice: two more weeks, track that cheat meal, waist measurement every 2 weeks
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
There's https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra which is similar.
Doesn't have milestones, but has the important feature of trend over time (so those one or two days of fluctuations get smoothed out)
I am using happy scale for that. It evens out all the weird spikes :) It's sadly iOS only. But I think the app for android is Libra.
The scale fluctuates daily, but trust in CICO! If you keep a calorie deficit, you will lose weight!
You can look into an app called Libra. It takes your daily weigh ins and creates a trend based off them rather than just raw numbers.
I use its Android cousin called Libra which is also free (small ad at the bottom).
I recently set mine to do a 30 day moving average instead of the default 7 day. I eat restaurant meals 5 days a week and the water fluctuations were just all over the place!
I use Libra for weight tracking and I have over 450 logged days spanning over 2 and a half years in it. I'd love to get this data into Google Fit but it's just not feasible to do by hand. Does anybody know any weight tracking app that will sync with Google Fit and have support for importing data ? Libra supports exporting so all I need is an app that supports importing and syncing with Google Fit.
Use an app like Happy Scale [Apple] or Libra [Android] to track your weight as a moving average. That way you'll see general trends instead of day-to-day fluctuations.
I am still a fucking ignorant when it comes to food. MyFitnessPal made it easier because all I have to do now is to enter info about what I'm eating and everything else is automatic. I also use Libra which stabilize your weight with a trend instead of having a single point in time. If one day, you're 3lbs heavier, it won't change your trend that much.
I just look at pictures of fish.
Here's a picture of a dude holding a 40 kg fish for you. Cripes! That's a big fish you lost there Z.
ETA: You should put that data into Libra .
> Pick one day a week and weigh yourself that morning, after you pee but before you eat.
That can still lead to disappointment, though. Normal weight loss per week is still easily overshadowed by natural variance. I'd recommend
1. Understanding that variance is a thing and
2. Using a weight tracking app that calculates trends from daily weigh ins, like happy scale (iOS) or Libra (Android)
Calorie trackers, etc. seem too complicated to me and I never managed to stay with them, but I use Libra on my Android Phone to track my weight. It's good, as it shows the weight trend, not only the current weight. There are probably other and maybe even better apps like that, but definitely have something like that.
This might be old news to some, but it was new to me. Found an app [for android] that is a weight trend tracker :) Libra. Seeing people with their Withings scales or Fitbit using TrendWeight looked cool, but I didn't want to make the $ investment into a new device. This is an app which uses the same formula calculations from 'The Hackers Diet' by John Walker, so the app will be equal to these other devices.
If you have an android phone, the Libra app is amazing for taking your daily weigh-ins and then giving you a trendline that takes out the dips and spikes so that you can really see what your weight is doing.
I've been using it for a while and find it really helpful.
I've used MFP for 6 years and recently switched to the LoseIt! App. I really am enjoying it. It's important with any app that crowdsources its database that you sanity check it and not accept any entry that is too good to be true.
> What is the best free weighing app that works out average?
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
You can use this app to keep a record of your daily weight. Then, you will notice that there would be a drastic reduction of weight in first few days (for me, it is like 2-3 kg). That is mostly the water weight. After that, the weight reduction rate will be slowed down and that is mostly the actually fat burning.
Libra on Android. I highly recommend it especially paired with a Withings scale. I don't have to do anything to track my weight except step on the scale.
Libra Weight Manager This or even the basic / free version of My Fitness Pal if you can deal with the repeated "offers" to go premium. It's more geared to diet tracking and exercise but has weight tracking as a function.
Water. You're drinking water. That's a good thing, keep doing it.
By the way: your best bet for understanding your weight loss is to use hackers diet - weigh yourself daily, but average it across a 5 day window. That will remove the noise from your measurements. It's a long read, so I use this app (Libra) instead. It really only does one thing, but it does it really well.
I weigh myself (most days) just after my morning pee.
Log it in a phone app called Libra, and it calculates the running average (You can change how many plot points it takes average from).
This app can also export the files, which to me was helpful when I got a new phone.
There's a great (free and ad-free) app for android which shows you your weight trend based on your weigh-ins. It definitely helps with the "oh crap, I weigh more today" blues! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
Edit: I noticed the play store says it contains ads, but I've never seen any. Maybe I'm lucky. The IAP is a donation button.
Drink or do not drink -- it doesn't matter because the trend will show what's happening in the fat loss. The data points will be noisy if you're inconsistent, but it won't fool the trend.
'There's an app for that.'
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I really like what you've made. It's clean, simple, and really snappy. However, I wish I could bulk import past data.
I realize that's not a trivial ask because I imagine not every service out there allows for data export or makes accessing user data easy, and asking someone to make a .csv would be beyond what most users would want to do. However, for someone like me who has been tracking on other things it would be nice to be able to basically 'pick up where I left off' when starting with your service.
I personally use Libra to track body weight and body fat on my phone and MFP to track calories, both of which I then throw into the TDEE 3.0 sheet I found here on reddit.
Having used Libra for a long time, I have daily weight entries going back to June 2017 and daily weight and bodyfat entries going back to February 2018. While I don't want to import all that data due to not having daily calorie intake totals for chunks of time during that span, it would be nice to import the last 8ish weeks or so because I've recently begun strictly tracking calories again.
Definitely not a pressing feature to add probably, but it's maybe something to think about in the future.
Moi j'utilisais Libra pour visualiser ça. Si la courbe de tendance descendait, objectif atteint, même si un jour je pesais plus que la veille. C'était assez motivant.
Libra (Android) is an app similar to Happy Scale but for Android. It gives you a smoothed average and a prediction to when you'll reach your goal, your BMI, and it estimates what's your current calorie deficit/surplus based on your recent weight progress.
Simple Workout Log (Android, iOS under development) for lifting workouts. It's straightforward, easy to use I'd say. You can make custom routines and superset exercises, I like that. You can also access by desktop but it doesn't have as many functionalities as on mobile.
I use Libra so I don't cross off weight. Instead, the scale reading go into a chart, and looking at downwards line in the graph makes me happy.
I have Libra app. My balance does not auto connect to apps, so I weigh and log in my weight, like 2-3 times a day, if I feel like. But morning is the one I actually give importance to.
This app creates a plot (trend) for you, based on how much you weigh now and how much you aim for, giving a healthy number of weeks/months etc to reach it. You can see how much you are off the trend as it is shown as error thingies on the plot. For someone who is lazy with things like this, this works really well.
> I watched a video [...] Is that true? If so, when should I weigh myself? I read [...] Is that true?
Yes. And yes.
The wiki has Excel spreadshit to track the averages and calculate TDEE. I also installed Libra on my phone and looks pretty good.
> I feel like my diet would be 100 times easier if I used some salt with my meals. Would that do me a lot of harm?
Nope. Sodium is way overblown if you're not like 50, you can balance it with potassium, and any retained water will be eventually released.
> I looked at the workouts in the side bar and most of those are saying that the full-body workouts are better for beginners. Also the workouts have like 3 exercises a day tops which amounts to barely 30 minutes of exercise I think.
Believe me, they will take more than 30' if you lift heavy. You also have to throw in some accessory lifts.
> ..and that they are probably harder than splits.
That's the point.
> He recommended me [...] What is your opinion in this case?
I did that kind of splits with that kind of rep schemes. Never worked for me. Never have I ever been as strong as when I started with compound lifts.
Your friend has muscles and wants to target them to make them look good.
But you're weak. And you want to be strong. The exercise that is more similar to going to IKEA and having to load a SÖFA in your trunk, is not the triceps cable pulldown, is the deadlift. You pick up heavy stuff with all your body, you'll be able to do the same in everyday life.
I wouldn't necessarily blame the scale. A body at maintenance takes in and expels, on average, more than 10 pounds per day, mostly as water. Fluctuations of several pounds between successive days are common.
If you're weighing every day, use an app like Happy Scale or Libra to smooth out the fluctuations.
May I borrow/steal your text there for my water-volatility macro? It's very good.
(my current macro):
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
My weightloss had no plateaus in the first third. The final third was just a stair-step chart of one-right-after-another plateaus. Just keep at it with a deficit and the weight loss will continue, but the plateaus are just a thing now where they weren't before.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Good pledge.
Don't worry about the random weigh-ins nor the water fluctuations. We only lose 2-4½ ounces per day at 500-1000 Calorie deficits -- any result that is different on the scale is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
In particular, I find that my weight can easily fluctuate a range of 5 lbs even when eating decently. I personally find myself most motivated with the lowest weight I can see on the scale in a week or so. Weighing in daily just helps see that. The reassurance that the fluctuations are normal and always temporary helps reassure me when my weight is higher than I expected.
I recently started using an app called Libra that averages weight measurements in a period of time to better keep track of trends and not give outliers too much influence. I expect that given more time, I'll get a nice smooth curve out of it.
Try
or
They help you calculate the median and show wether or not you're still going down even when you have some ups and downs.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Do you use anything to track the trend in your weight? I used an app called Libra for a while and it helped me a lot. It displays a statistical trend in your weight and helps you get outside of the mindset that our weight at any single moment is a good representation of our progress. If you get really serious about food tracking it can even help you identify your average TDEE.
Seriously, it helped me a lot because it's so easy to feel despair when you know you're doing everything right but the scale doesn't reflect it. :)
Dehydration is the likely reason... or overhydration before the previous weigh-in. No one datapoint is meaningful. It's the trends that tell the story.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Weighing = every morning, after waking, before dressing, after using the toilet.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android). If you have an iPhone, you can use Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Measurements = every other Saturday when losing
This is what I use on my android phone, but there are several similar. It let's you set a goal, calculates when will you reach it and tells you how much have you lost on the last (n) week(s).
Do not do like the Wii fit did, as they ranted every day that you increased a bit, and if you set your objective to increase it wouldn't mind if you lost weight.
Nice work!! Yep, losing weight fairly quickly early on is pretty common. This will likely continue for a while but eventually, as you get closer to your goal weight, your rate of weight loss will slow down.
Don't worry about a sword hanging over your head! It isn't there! As long as you continue to eat at a deficit the weight will come off. Now, you may have days/weeks that the scale stays the same or even goes up but this is completely normal and to be expected. This can be attributed to everything from retaining water due to some salty food, increase in exercise, to inconsistencies bathroom-use.
If the scale goes up for 3–4+ weeks in a row—then you'll need to re-evaluate what you're doing.
Many on this sub recommend tracking your weight using Happy Scale (iOS) or Libra (Android). These apps plot a trend line to give you an idea of the direction your weight is going despite the fluctuations.
For everyone who (wants to) weight daily happy scale is amazing for showing trends. Or libra for android. It really helps me with fluctuations / water weight.
I'm also a same time every day weigher. I do not have a smart scale but I track every morning in Libra and don't pay one bit of attention to the actual number, just the trend.
This helps keep me from dwelling on numbers but also giving me data points to actually see my progress.
Another cool tool, on Android at least, is Libra. You enter your weight into it and it tracks your trends and tries to predict based on your trends. Also, if you feed it your goal it will try to predict when you'll hit it.
I look at it pretty frequently to keep motivated and see where I am and where I will be at certain dates/events and such.
It's pretty rad!
Here's the mistake that most people make: they don't start until everything is perfect.
You're already WAY past them.
So don't call it quits. You are ready for some adjustments, though.
You are not this 180°-turn eater. You are not this 180°-change exerciser. That's just not who you are. It's not only a pace you can't maintain, it's a style you can't maintain. THAT IS TOTALLY FINE.
You said you want to be 120 less, so let's look at someone who is that...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 28 | |
HEIGHT | 61" or 5'1" | 155 cm |
WEIGHT | 110 lb | 50 kg |
BMI | 20.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1166 Cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1457 Cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 1632 Cal/kcal |
... and let's take a look at today ...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 27 | |
HEIGHT | 61" or 5'1" | 155 cm |
WEIGHT | 230 lb | 104 kg |
BMI | 43.5 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1716 Cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2144 Cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 2401 Cal/kcal |
Okay, so here's some numbers
Your calorie range today 2144-2401
Your calorie range at goal 1457-1632
Difference ... about 735 calories.
That's a really useful number because it tells you that a 180° isn't what's needed. What you need to do is live a GW 110 life and you'll lose weight ... about 1.5 pounds a week right now ... living that life. You can eat 1457-1632 and every day that you do that will be a day in the "habit bank" of "how to live at GW 110" and, in learning how to do that, you'll be losing weight as a side-effect.
You need about a 90° turn on your food.
So -- don't give up, just change tactics a bit.
> So I ended up giving up all the junk food I used to eat
This is pretty easy to do 13 out of 14 days. however, Valentines Day, Easter, Birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, and so on. We can't ban these foods completely, but we can cut them way back. Treats are only special if they're rare. We can work on this and make them more rare.
Don't expect that zero is going to work. Our brains have little rebellious kids inside and they don't like zero. They're good kids, but they don't like zero.
> I went from no exercise to doing it every morning for an hour and a half by the park at my house because I have to work early in the morning. So I do my workout before I go in to work. But this entire thing is emotionally draining for me.
That's a pretty huge commitment. The Heart Association suggestions 150 minutes per week (75 if it's running or jogging), so why not make that a goal? You're allowed to do more, but you should make your goals what you can do in a hell week, not what you can possibly do at the very best of all good weeks.
> I haven’t weighed myself yet because it hasn’t been a week.
I weigh daily. I log it in a smoothing app so that I can get the trend without too many problems with fluctuations.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water and other non-fat issues.
> But I don’t know how long I can keep pushing myself for.
GW 110 is going to be GW forever. You will be doing this forever. It's not temporary. However, it's great. It has to be YOUR LIFE, so it must include your favorite things to eat and your favorite things to do at a pace that you can do.
Don't start at perfect and then see that you can't maintain it. Instead, start at 1 MPH and build upward ... 5 MPH ... 10 MPH. Start with something you can do, and then build upon that.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I had several weight-loss attempts in my life... and still managed to weigh 330℔ at one point... and my average adult weight was probably 275 or so. And even though those seemingly failed attempts to lose weight didn't result in me reaching a goal, I realize that without them, I probably would have seen 400.
You traveled and ate and drank ... you might have been up 4 or 5 pounds ... and you were only up 8 ounces, the weight of two sticks of butter. Instead of being up 80 oz., you were up 8 oz..
When we eat on the road, we're eating food that is higher in sodium than we'd prepare at home. That causes water retention to establish a pH balance. When we're sick, our body responds with inflammation which is also retained water of a different kind. Strep itself is an inflammatory disease and leads to other inflammatory diseases. There's no way to actually know if your gain on the scale is due to one thing or another.
If you ate to your points goal, and didn't overeat free foods, then you should have burned body fat to make up the calorie difference needed to run your body's basic functions and to do your activities through the week. There isn't any getting around that: the warm-blooded body doesn't run on reduced calories alone, it has to burn body fat to make up the difference. The body burns calories at predictable rates.
But what's less predictable and much more volatile is how much water the body holds from day to day. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You had a good week. I hope you feel better (less ill). I also hope you feel better (less demotivated). Eating right causes fat burning. You performed well at that last week. Don't fret the week-to-week scale: it's fickle due to water. Keep doing what you did, be persistent and patient, and your weight-loss trend will emerge.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I'm doing this out of self-love. My body is just my body and my fat is my body's reserve battery of energy.
It's our job to take care of our body and, believe it or not, I've been trying and doing pretty poorly at it for decades. Only recently have I found my one thing (tracking every day) that ties it all together. So I've been doing that for over 1500 days now and the result is that I've lost the weight finally, and kept it off so far. I'm the lightest I've been since the 1970s.
> I don’t want this. I want to be small now!
Yes but you also said
> I know this is unhealthy.
and
> How to develop patience with weight loss?
So you have a battle inside you between your "I want it now!" emotional feelings and your "I know this is unhealthy" rational mind.
I compare this to a household with a calm, intelligent parent and a willful, emotional child. The parent loves the child. The child has joy and sorrow and wants and needs. The parent raises the child, lets the child have joyful moments, and not only nourishes the child intelligently but also occasionally gives indulgences to the child when it's appropriate. The parent doesn't let the child take over the household, though. The parent stays in charge. When the child has a stormy fit, the parent stays calm and reassures the child that everything is going to be alright, that there is a plan, and that we will follow the plan.
This is how to handle your emotions. Be kind, be firm, be repetitive. Children forget. Children want instantly. Children have no space between impulse and reward. Be the parent of your emotions -- repeat, remember, stay to your good plan. Life does have it's joys and your weight-loss and forever weight-maintenance effort must have some too: it is appropriate to have a treat now and then.
I'm okay with a Calorie goal of 1300 for you, but not less than 1200 (your pre-exercise TDEE is around 2250). You should always keep your daily average above 1200 now and in the future.
> I’ve been on the scale everyday, sometimes twice a day just to check the numbers. I feel like a higher number might devastate me.
We don't lose weight due to the scale. You can get on it 10 times a day and you won't lose any faster than getting on it 10 times a month. We lose weight because of
So stick to your good plan and focus on those two things instead of the scale. The scale is less important than your good logging/tracking and the number of days in a row that you have been tracking. Be focused on what does cause weight loss: Calories and Calendar. They don't have to be perfect, but they do have to be pretty good. Use good tools for this -- treat your goal like a target. Log your weight in a smoothing app.
YOUR CALORIES ARE A TARGET:
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
Now that you've seen a target, make one for yourself based on your 1300 goal. It's not a LIMIT, it's a TARGET. Using pen and paper, make one based on 1300 and you'll do well without going overboard.
USE A WEIGHT SMOOTHING APP:
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Rule #1: You cannot gain fat on a deficit. If you're at a deficit, then any higher weight on the scale can only be water weight.
Starting or increasing a weight-lifting routine can cause your weight to plateau or increase. Don't worry, it's okay, you are probably still losing fat at a good rate! Inflammation caused by weightlifting temporarily slows your weight loss but not your fat loss.
When we start or intensify lifting, we're creating micro-sized tears in our muscles. Muscles swell (water) and become inflamed (water) during a muscle-repair process that takes several days. This additional water added offsets our fat loss. BF% still going down but Water% going up can cause the weight-losers total scale weight to slow, stall, or even temporarily go higher.
Keep lifting. The water weight from lifting can take 3-5 weeks to calm down. After that, the added water weight still happens at smaller amounts because the lifter's muscles become accustomed to the workloads and the amount of inflammation is reduced. By then the weight-losers fat loss has outpaced the water weight remaining and the scale graph is back to its normal downward slope.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
PS: 183 is my maintenance goal, +3 or -7 lbs. You should do something similar -- make a maintenance range around your weight. It'll make it mentally easier to tolerate a few pounds up or down.
Congrats on losing nearly 50 pounds at 5'1" and keeping it off for 3½ years! That's epic!!
How big is your deficit? You need 12 days at a 300 deficit to lose a pound, and you might not see it until even longer because water gets in the way.
I am just over 3 years maintaining and my weight creeps up, too. It takes a very long time to lose weight compared to our memory of when we were very overweight and losing the pounds was faster. Losing a pound feels glacial right now, and because of how much water fluctuates, it often feels like we're moving backwards when we gain (water) even while being on a deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Remember: You cannot gain fat while on a deficit. There is no way to gain fat on a deficit. Anything you see on the scale to the contrary, therefore, is water. Don't feel dejected at the scale with its water problem, feel energized at the deficit performance which is the only way we burn fat.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I am persuaded that the following is true:
And if that is all true, then the best exercise routine that you can settle on is the one that you'll keep doing 3-5 years after the weightloss is complete and you're just maintaining your physical conditioning and your lighter lifestyle. You're doing it because you enjoy it, it makes you feel good, and it keeps you looking healthy.
This means that there is no best exercise for losing weight because exercise is not for losing weight. That is short-term temporary thinking, and it's the wrong tool for the job.
> how can I track my weight effectively? Right now i use a basic digital scale
Fat loss is a function of calories. If you have a good calorie log, then you know if you're burning fat because it's a matter of the deficit. Any news to the contrary reported by a scale is water caused by a number of things, including weightlifting inflammation.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on -12!
Start logging your weight daily in a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). You'll thank yourself later for doing this because, right now, you're in the first phase where almost all weigh-ins are lower weigh ins.
Without doing anything wrong, this changes. It's because of water volatility due to a number of factors (hourly, daily, and sometimes monthly). Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. It's the trends telling the clearer story of fat loss.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
WOW! Sorry about those mental struggles!
I also was getting anxious about the scales so I turned my focus to my calorie logs because the scales can be a real butt!! You can do well on your calorie day and still weigh more the next day! Putting my focus on my calories also helped me put my focus on TIME. There is no merit in fast weight loss, only in safe-effective-healthy weight loss. Someone with a 500 Calorie deficit only burns 2¼ ounces of fat each day, but that same someone can gain or lose 2 pounds of water each day due to water volatility. You can't judge your fatloss progress while standing on the scale -- you must use a chart and look at the trend over TIME.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I mentioned TIME. There are two levers in getting "positive control" over your weight. They are CALORIES and TIME. Especially when you get near your goal weight, TIME becomes a very large factor because the fat-loss increments are smaller and water weight continues to fluctuate in larger amounts, making progress difficult to see and slower.
> my obsession to lose weight/be in control
Losing weight isn't your only goal. Being healthy is too. You've already been bitten by a consequence so make sure your calories are always, always, always over 1200 (avg) no matter what. Don't let your emotional willful impulses override your rational safely plan: /r/1200isplenty exists to remind us that we can lose weight safely at that number. It's not "1200isoptional" -- eat 1200 like it's your job. But remember TIME means that a 1100 day can be countered by a 1300 day -- that's fine too. Don't let 800-1000 days happen -- and don't feel good about them. There's no way to paint "success" on that.
I'm a guy and 1500 is my safety limit. If I'm averaging less than 1500, then I'm failing at my job to lose weight safely.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye.
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
If my average is above my safety limit, I'm good with that.
I hope that helps. Remember TIME is a big factor in control. We have plenty of it, too. There is no merit in fast weight loss. We value safe and effective weight loss that teaches us how to keep it off.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Please don't delete this post because you're definitely not the only one that feels this way, and you're expression of it can help others who aren't as brave as you to express it.
So -- your problem is mostly emotional, but I want to start with the rational and data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Knowing, then, that changes we see from day to day on the scale are water changes mostly, and fat changes only a little and not perceptible in the day-to-day weigh ins, you can help get used to this idea as time goes on.
> My boyfriend is very encouraging to me. He tries his best to keep me motivated and is constantly telling me I'm beautiful and how proud he is. I love him so much, but I have an impossible time taking this to heart. I don't think once throughout this process /I/ have said to myself "I'm proud of you".
Say it, but say it this way about something right or helpful (to yourself) that you have done.
For example, "I'm grateful that I have kept good track of the food I've eaten over the past three and a half weeks. It has helped me see my situation more clearly."
or
"I'm proud of myself for going back to the gym on Friday night and finished the sets that I didn't finish when I had to leave early to be at an appointment on time."
or
"I appreciate that I buy sugar-free Popsicles so that I have something pretty safe that I can gnaw on when I get the urge to eat between meals."
These are little, itty-bitty things but saying them to myself means I'm not saying, "I hate myself" or "I'm worthless at the gym" or "I dress like a slob" or "I'm not trying hard enough."
In other words, if the room is filled with light, there is no space for darkness. Pride isn't just the absence of shame, pride makes shame virtually impossible.
Self-love isn't a feeling, it's a verb. Verbs are action words. It's not about how we feel that is loving, it's what we do that is loving. Right? And if you doubt that, look up and see what you said about your boyfriend. He's not just loving you emotionally, he's telling you specific things. That's your model.
Say and do nice, true things for yourself. The emotions will get a clue and follow. Be your own encourager. Be your own coach. Be your own cheerleader.
Don't focus on the setbacks. Of course, there are going to be setbacks. Any complicated journey is going to have wrong turns. It's fine. As you would forgive your boyfriend if he took a wrong exit on the highway -- you wouldn't freak out and boot him to the curb -- forgive yourself when the boo boo happens. Our aim is to do well, but we also accept some human error is going to make the final score something less than 100%. It's okay.
You've successfully lost 90 pounds, but you are punishing yourself over a struggle to lose the next 1 pound. That isn't meritless -- we need to figure out and overcome our challenges, but we also need to realize that trying and failing is how we learn to succeed. If this was easy, nobody would be too heavy. So be the happy warrior, knowing that the fight is a fight but we are fighters and we will win because we will persist. If knocked down, we will keep getting up.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
You did not necessarily do anything wrong this week. Weightloss is not linear because our body is not mostly fat, it's mostly water.
You can eat light and burn 3 pounds 'by-the-numbers' with excellent tracking, prove that you should be 3 pounds lighter. But the scale shows you 1 pound heavier -- because water is a bigger body component than fat and it is more unpredictable as it responds to electrolytes, hormones, muscle strains, illnesses, hydration, and waste disposal cycles.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I got on the WW Scale today and I am up .2lb. I am so frustrated and sad because I thought I did so well, and I have nothing to show for it
You have seven days of repeated good behaviors, the very beginnings of new habits that will not only help you lose the weight but keep it off once its gone.
You have presumably ate in right amounts for fat burning which will show up on the scale over time.
> I don't want to go backwards in my progress.
This is a very long journey, and we have several fall and winter holidays ahead. "Perfect" is simply not available if we're going to live our lives. However, "pretty good" is quite doable and is quite effective. Aim for perfect at the start of each day, accept pretty good at the end of each day, and the results will come.
> tips for how to deal with these feelings.
Emotions are a part of us. Accept them. The other part is our intelligence. Run your program with the intelligence.
Emotions are the spices of our lives, our intelligence should be the substance of our actions. We love our inner child, who still sees joy in the world and cries at movies. But we never give the child the car keys -- it's the calm and intelligent parent who drives the car and runs the household. We love the child, but the child is the passenger. The intelligence is the driver.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> My question is, how do you focus on cico without becoming obsessive over your weight?
Become obsessive over the streak. Success here is not in the lowest number each day - daring yourself to find that lowest number without quitting is a losing game. It's like that game where you put a single bullet in a revolver and spin the chamber ... chances are 5/6 you won't die.
Our best tools here are keeping going over long periods of time. That means that our calorie goal is not a limit, it's a target. If 1620 is our goal, then 1420 is 200 off, and so is 1820. Try to get 1520-1720 and call that greatness. Try to get a week's streak and call that greatness.
Finish line? That's not in sight. The next milestone for me is 3 years maintaining the weight loss. The current challenge for me is not everything because it's (insert December excuses here).
> a competition to weigh less the next day
The scale is a poor gauge for progress because of water volatility. The exception is when we start, because we lose water due to decreased intake of sodium and carbs, but when that levels out, the volatility is back.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water. The trends are better ways to see progress after we're into weight loss.
But our calorie logs and our consistent deficit is the best way to look at future progress. The scale -- that's last week's effort finally showing up this week. The logs -- that's this week's effort that will show up next week. So the logs, not the scale, is the measurement to value most.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Don't be bummed. If you're adult or adult-sized, or bigger, you can't possibly maintain bodyfat on 1200. However, the scale doesn't go steadily down because of the volatility in how much water our bodies carry.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Causes: Sodium, carbs, female monthly cycle, muscle strain, inconsistent weighing conditions, weak floor under the scale. Water is the most frequent cause.
Your dailies are a weight-loss goal -- if you eat only your dailies, you cannot gain fat because you have taken in insufficient calories to do so. You can gain water, but not fat. If you do overeat a lot of 'free' foods, you might be a 100 or 200 calories over, but you'd have to be more than 3500 over to gain a pound of fat. You definitely haven't been 10500 over to gain 3 pounds of fat, so this is just water.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, activity, etc. etc. <em>The Hacker's Diet</em> has a nice diagram from some NASA research — they concluded that a body at maintenance weight takes in and expels 13.5 pounds per day, most of it water! Most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
When you remove 250 Calories from your intake, it typically means removing about 600 mg of salt and 125 Calories of Carbs from your intake. Both carbs and salt promote water retention for different reasons, and since that intake is reduced during your diet, that constant level of water retention is reduced. You weigh a lot less in a few days, even though you've only burned a couple of ounces of fat in that time.
When you finish your diet and re-add those calories, you are also re-adding back the sodium and Carbs you removed. More water is retained. You weigh a lot more due to this additional water amount added since your last weigh-in, even though at maintenance you're not adding back any fat.
> I hate gaining weight and even gaining 1 pound makes me upset. [...] What should I do?
Stop getting upset at things that are normal.
Drinking a large glass of water will make you gain a pound. Is that upsetting? Go try it. Weigh. Drink a large glass of water. Weigh again. You're up a pound.
Do you drive a car? Do you judge how fast you are going by looking at your fuel gauge? No, because it's the wrong meter. If you want to know how much fat you are burning each day, look at your calorie log, not your scale. Because you are a good tracker, you know that you lose fat on a deficit. So why get upset if then the scale is higher? It's only water -- zero calorie water. It doesn't affect your fat burning one little bit. Water fluctuates a lot and isn't in our control. Fat gain/loss is predictable and under our control.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 20 | |
HEIGHT | 60" or 5'0" | 152 cm |
WEIGHT | 118.3 lb | 54 kg |
BMI | 23.2 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1226 cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active (Sedentary) TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1532 cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 1716 cal/kcal | |
Active TDEE (BMR*1.6) | 1961 cal/kcal | |
Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.8) | 2206 cal/kcal |
It looks like your phone's calculator is suggesting that your activity is 1.45-1.46 of BMR which is some activity, not completely sedentary.
TDEE is your BMR times an activity level, if you're very active, it theoretically can be twice your BMR but most of us are somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5. When we relax between activities, we really relax which tends to compensate for expenditure increases during bursts of activity.
If you estimate your maintenance calories wrong by 100, it will take 77 days to know because you will gain/lose an unexpected kg (7700 kcal in a kg) so this is not too critical to dial in exactly. It's a good number for starting and then, over long periods of time, observe what your weight does using a weight-trend app.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by hundreds of grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get thrown off by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I weigh myself daily, which works out to 6 days a week because some mornings don't start as predictably as I'd like: wake up, pee, weigh, get dressed.
> I've found that if the number on the scale goes up even just a little, I'm disappointed
Sure -- but let's talk about that. Is weighing yourself making you lose weight? Gain weight? No, of course it isn't. So doing it or not doing it has no effect. Changing whether you do it -- also has no effect. So what's with the emotion?
Are you happy when the scale is lower? Are you sad when it is higher? Why? Getting on the scale didn't make it lower or higher!
The effort is in your dietary effort -- your weight loss program -- whatever you're doing to burn more than you intake. That's where the accomplishment is. The scale is a result, not a cause. By the time you read the result on the scale, it is day-old news. The effort that went into that was a few days ago.
The only reason we weigh is to check whether our efforts are working -- and for that, it could be daily, or weekly, or only recording the new lowest weights, or using an app like Happy Scale or Libra.
Most of what we gain or lose in 24 hours is going to be water. We only lose 2-5 oz. of fat per day, but the scale can be a few pounds different day after day. That's because our levels of hydration and water retention is so much more volatile than our fat burning.
So, I say, talk yourself down from reacting emotionally (happy or sad) to the scale. Put your intelligent and emotional investment into your effort where it counts. Every day you meet your calorie goal, or Weight Watcher points, or carb count in Keto, or whatever counts for you -- make that the exclamation point for your effort.
^M53 ^5'11^^/179cm ^SW:298lb^^/135kg ^CW:181lb^^/82kg ^Maint ^-100lb ^for ^15^mo. ^Goal:5^yr. ^[recap] ^MFP+Walks+TOPS
Your 1300 is a weight-loss goal and, if it's a 500-calorie deficit, 1500 would still not cause fat gain. It still would cause fat burning so none of this would be fat gain.
There are about 3500 Calories in a pound of fat, and 200 Calories has an effect of 200/3500 Calories or 2/35ths of a pound (less than an ounce). Basically, you lost fat a little slower yesterday by about an ounce, but still a loss of some fat. And if your exercise was sufficient, some of that was offset.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 26 | |
HEIGHT | 65" or 5'5" | 165 cm |
WEIGHT | 231.4 lb | 105 kg |
BMI | 38.6 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1790 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2241 cal/kcal |
It's a hard and fast rule: You cannot gain fat on a deficit.
Your inactive TDEE is 2241 and your intake average is 1600 so you're on a deficit for certain.
Anything the scale says to the contrary, therefore, is not fat. It must be water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by the weight of that water! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I have spent many days, weeks, and years thinking about something said or done by others (who have spent fewer than 10 seconds thinking of me). It truly is a waste of time and it is misery-making.
There's an apt metaphor about allowing someone to live in your head, rent-free. I agree that it describes the situation but it doesn't explain how to evict the freeloader.
One thing that I have been doing in the past few years is imagining the instigator as a little white lap dog. This dog isn't particularly a mean dog, or a smart dog, it's just a little white dog. Maybe it even has a cute haircut from a groomer.
Now when I come walking down the street, this little white dog comes yap-yap-yapping into its yard towards the chain-link fence as it sees me approach. I knew it would come, because it comes every day. Yet, every time, it yips and yaps at me like I was a dangerous stranger worthy of neighborhood alarm!
I continue to approach the house. I don't change my stride nor walk to the other side of the street. I pay it no attention at all and it simply doesn't bother me. The yapping dog is just acting according to its nature, responding to me simply because I exist yet knowing nothing at all about me.
As I continue down the street, it yip-yaps a few more times and then returns to its porch, as if it accomplished something. I continue on my walk and and focus on how nice things look in July now that everything has bloomed for the summer.
People who feel a need to inflict their pain on us do not know us. They're no better or different than that little dog, barking at us simply because we breathe the same air. We can even see that little white dog in our mind as we think of them, and we can picture that dog returning to its porch smugly satisfied that it has accomplished something. These nasty people are that little white dog -- they're beautiful in their own mind, and yip-yapping toward others is the job that their nature has given them. It's not about you, it's about your being an "other."
They are the weak ones. They are the limited ones. They are not acting wisely, they're just reacting, helplessly.
> I was a bit down and my mood really changed, topped off by the fact that I weighed myself today and I weighed 153.7kg, after weighing 153.4kg 5 days prior. It's the first time I've not seen weight loss and I don't get it, I've still been eating at a deficit and doing walking, although I skipped a day of walking between these weighing dates. Is it normal to suddenly not lose weight?
Yes. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I ate about 1700 calories more than my TDEE yesterday -- annual lobstah dinner and it's a bacchanal. I'm up over 5 lbs... but only ate the calories to be up 0.5 lb. Everything else of that -- 4.5 lbs. -- is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I like the saying "the obstacle is the way" -- if weighing yourself is irrationally bumming you out, then weigh every day so you can see how ridiculous the scale behaves. It's up 2 pounds after a great day. It's down 3 after a horrible day. Only by experiencing its volatility and randomness will you appreciate that it's only useful for trends, and no single measurement means anything. The fact that no single measurement has meaning also means that last Friday's measurement is not useful for comparison, and neither is today's measurement. They more data you have, the better the trend data you can get but you have to subtract the noise from water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
PS: Even though my post totally contracts /u/supaflyrobby and /u/zxxxmorganxxxz -- they're also right. There is more than one right way to get to most destinations. While losing weight, though, once every 4 weeks so that you can recalculate your calories is useful. Using clothing sizes is also useful but remember that smaller bodies have smaller calorie requirements so you have to reduce slightly your goal as you make progress. Keep it up above the 1200/1500 minimums. There's a lot of great information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6ynmvo/eli5_why_is_the_1200_calorie_limit_universal/
We don't look at a rain gauge to see if it's going to rain. We look at it to see how much rain has fallen in the past. The rain gauge is a lagging indicator of the weather. Radar and wind direction helps us to know what's coming.
Likewise, your points log and your weekly record help you know what to expect out of your weight-loss efforts in the future. These are the leading indicators of your effort.
Fat loss happens in a energy-extraction called hydrolyzation. Hydro, meaning water, floods the adipose cells pushing the triglyceride out of them to be converted into energy to help us power our day when we have eaten lightly. That water can stick around for a few days, meaning that we won't see the weight loss until a few days after we've burned the fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
> I'd be so confident in the next days weigh in cause I would think I accurately budgetted my calories, but then end up weighing the same, if not more.
It doesn't work like that.
Fat burning is a water process, and that water doesn't leave right away. When the body needs to access the stored energy (our bodyfat), it floods the cell with water. That water does hydrolyze the cell and release the triglyceride, but it doesn't leave right away. It could be a few more days.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I also realized how easy it is for extra calories to sneak up in my meals. I live with my grandma and she usually cooks and while I do my best tracking, some things like spices and sauces are impossible to include unless I stood by her while she made it.
Have grandma help you with logging, so she knows to give you a heads-up. Spices are usually not worth logging. Sauces are, though.
> So for breakfast I eat 300 cals and for dinner I eat 900 cals. How many calories should I shave off from my daily restriction to ensure I don't overestimate my meals?
Zero. We have a deficit between 500-1000 and so we'll lose weight no matter what.
But it's also zero because it's okay if you inadvertently err here and there as long as you're in the neighborhood. Let's say you do your best but can't be perfect, so your errors for a week are
-200 +100 +150 +25 -75 -75 +100
Notice that some days you're off by over 100 calories!! But sum it up... The total is -25 for a week ... not even 4 calories per day!
This is called the Law of Large Numbers and it works for us. Do make honest estimates, and then don't worry about putting in a hedge for errors because the errors will sum out to nearly zero because of the LLN.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
This is normal up front because it's not merely just fat loss, it's mostly water loss on top of the fat loss.
You have set your calories to lose 2 pounds of fat in the week, and if you're a good logger/estimator, then that's predictably what happened. The science is pretty good here.
But you also reduced about 1000 calories, about 50% of those were carbs, and probably you're now eating only 60% of the sodium that you used to eat. For all three of these reasons -- reduced volume, reduced sodium, reduced carbs -- you will have less water retention by the end of the week. That shows up as a big loss on the scale.
This went on for three weeks with me, and then the water weight was more stable and more of what I saw on the scale were just the fat losses.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I hope this helps. CONGRATS on a great first week!
^^♂516 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Your metabolic rate can slow down during weight loss, but it will never slow to the point where it causes you to maintain or gain fat; in this sense, "starvation mode" is a myth.
People concerned with starvation mode are concerned that by lowering their calorie intake drastically their body will retain fat to compensate. This idea was popularised due to the Minnesota Starvation Experiment in which subjects were given 50% of their daily calorie intake for months. The result being that they lost fat until they had nearly zero fat left to lose and their bodies simply could not get the calories anywhere else. Concisely put: starvation mode happens when your fat is nearly entirely gone and your lean tissues are, quite literally, wasting away.
When you have a simple caloric deficit, your body will almost entirely make up for it with fat stores. There is a small metabolic adaptation that happens due to the lowering weight of your body and changes in leptin, thyroid, insulin and nervous system output. That metabolic rate tends to reduce more with more excessive caloric deficits (and this is true whether the effect is from eating less or exercising more) and people vary in how hard or fast their metabolism slows down. Women's bodies tend to slow slightly more. However, never is the slowing of the metabolic rate sufficient to completely offset the caloric deficit that initiates it. Further and further deepening of the calorie deficit simply yields only smaller incremental returns, but never stops or even slows fat loss.
When the calories are right for weight-loss, then the only reasons we plateau are related to water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
When you hit your plateau, just keep working at it. They're normal, they don't stop fat-burning, and sooner or later the scale catches up with the calorie math.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I'm another canceled gastric-bypass candidate. I was just waiting for a surgery date when I put it on hold, then canceled it, due to success with CICO and tracking.
> The first week I lost 4 lbs with a 1000 calorie deficit.
1000 Calorie deficit will give you two pounds of fat loss, so the other two pounds was just a water difference. Water goes up and down. You probably were already down in water due to the Optifast so this is just a fluctuation of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Here are my stats. Starting weight on opti 285. Starting weight on CICO 275. I'm 271.8 now. Age 40 year old female, 5"6 height. Eating 1,321 calories a day. I walk for 20/30 minutes a day.
Hmmm, seems pretty low, let's run the numbers...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 40 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 271.8 lb | 123 kg |
BMI | 43.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1920 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2403 Cal/kcal |
Okay, not as low as I feared. Keep going. You're definitely burning the fat. I like 1400 as a goal for you right now. Treat it as a bullseye, not a limit.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
So ... I'm going to stop here because this is already a lot. But follow me if you can because I did what you're doing. I was getting the Roux en Y Gastric Bypass and lost the weight with CICO instead -- no surgery. I've committed to a lifetime of taking care of myself, just like we would have had to do if we had the surgery. I'm going to do my best.
> I'm really disappointed, bc I have never cheated and use a food scale for everything.
Excellent. This works. Keep doing it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Good thing to post about ... and a lot to unpack.
I weigh daily. I've weighed myself about 1300-1400 times in the past 4 years. And I'm neither obsessed nor worried about it.
Let's try to resist using words that weaken our own power. Instead of obsessed, maybe use preoccupied. Instead of unhealthy behavior, maybe it's just a waste of time.
When we declare something has power over us, we give ourselves a free pass to avoid trying to have power over it.
I'd like you to weigh yourself hourly, and put it on graph paper. I want you to see that your weight changes maybe 5-10 pounds every day. Why? Because -- when we're losing fat as fast as safely possible -- we take in an average of about 13¼ pounds of food, liquid, and gasses daily and we output about 13½ pounds of waste/liquid/gasses. But the number you're looking for during all of that inputting of food/liquid/gas and outputting of waste/liquid/gas is the ¼ pound. A scale is a too-blunt measurement device to discern what is what. Weigh 10 times, chart it out, and you'll see. You'll honestly never eek out the fat loss in those readings.
So, thinking it through, you can free yourself of this worry and the glee/disappointment over the scale. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. The trend won't be exact either, but it's much better.
So, if the scale sucks, what works? A good calorie log. The scale trend is a "lagging indicator" and the calorie log is a "leading indicator." Keep good track and your calorie log can tell you how much fat you're going to lose and indicate whether you're on track or not.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Daily weigher here. I agree with you.
Salt doesn't bind with water, exactly. Glycogen does, however. Read up on that. Like salt and water, glycogen is not the enemy. I lost all my weight without worrying about controlling it. CICO rules.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You're eating uncontrolled on the weekend and weighing in on Monday. If you have a deficit (and you likely do have one), any progress that you're making is going to be masked by the water from a weekend cheat day.
If you're going to keep doing that, make your weigh in on the morning of the cheat day -- after waking, before dressing, after using the toilet. That's likely going to be your most consistent weight check.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
A freezer-case microwave meal is likely high in sodium. That's okay for weight loss long-term, just know that it messes short-term with the scale.
> I don't use a kitchen scale.
I use mine daily and have been for 3½ years. I encourage you to get one. They're about $10-15 delivered. Mine has really been useful and it will help you remove any doubt from your measurements.
> I've gone up from 186lbs to 189lbs
So, if that was 3 pounds of fat gain, that means you would have eaten 10,500 EXTRA Calories this week. You didn't, so it's not fat. It's just water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I'm not familiar with the book but I am familiar with two things you bring up...
Going from 145 to 144 in a week is perfect. That's what I would expect doing what you're doing. It's a perfectly right rate for weight loss.
Going from 145 to 144 in two weeks is a little slow, but water could be affecting it. You also had that not-great weekend which could have added some water.
Let's talk about water...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
And now let's talk about today's binge and why it matters and why it doesn't -- most important, what to do now...
You WILL fall off the wagon (as it were). Not really, because the whole wagon thing is a misunderstanding. We don't 'derail' either, there are no rails. It got those names because it feels so bad. But that name and those images are putting focus in the wrong place.
We're not depending on a wagon or a rail, where falling or crashing would be a disaster.
We're more comparable to being on a roadtrip, where a wrong turn is just a wrong turn. We don't crash the car and light it afire and live there. We just make some corrective turns and keep going.
Calories count, and logging/tracking is a very important skill to usefully see calories to guide our way; but what we're really working on here are repeating habits and adjusting our expectations around food. The good habits make the calorie thing easier and more sustainable.
When we go 6 days and screw up on day 7, it doesn't erase 6 days of repeating good behaviors that we're trying to make into habits. We might have a calorie setback, but those 6/7 days are in the habit bank. We've had 6 days of seeing right-sized meals. And if we keep tracking through the wrong-turn, we'll learn something and do better during the next wrong turn (because that will happen too). Next time we 'fail' -- we'll 'fail better.'
Life is not placid -- there are storms ahead. We won't handle them perfectly, but we don't have to. We just have to weather the storms and keep going.
That's your plan: keep going.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Most of the scale changes you're seeing right now is water. Although mostly water, there is some fat loss and the water loss is a strong signal that the carbs and sodium levels in your dietary intake have been reduced -- an early tell-tale sign that your effort to change your intake levels is working.
Set your expectations on about 1% of body weight for fat loss, after the excess water is gone. For someone 90kg, that's 900g per week, but water will obscure a smooth trajectory, but the trajectory will still be downward even though the weigh-ins will be volatile.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a big glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 400-500g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on -30! Way to go!!
Lose It! uses a different activity assumption than most other apps and calculators.
Most apps and calculators ask about how active you are throughout the week, giving 3 to 5 choices ranging from sedentary to hyperactive. Lose It! doesn't ask.
Most apps take your BMR and multiplies it by a number based on the answer to the activity question ... 1.2 or 1.25 for Sedentary, 1.8 to 2.5 for the highest activities. Lose It! instead multiplies the BMR by a 1.45 activity factor for all of its users.
> My weight loss has never been consistent
Weight loss is always inconsistent after the first few weeks. Don't worry about it. The calories are what burn the fat but fat is not our body's biggest component.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I'm a 20 year old female, 5'6" and weigh around 243lbs, which puts my sedentary TDEE at 2267 and the Lose It app has me eating 1743 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week but this is only a 500 calorie deficit?
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 20 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 243 lb | 110 kg |
BMI | 39.2 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1889 Cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2361 Cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 2644 Cal/kcal | |
Active TDEE (BMR*1.6) | 3022 Cal/kcal | |
Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.8) | 3400 Cal/kcal |
That chart looks like the above explanation. You came up with 2267 which is your BMR 1889 * 1.2 activity = 2267 TDEE.
Lose It! would do 1889 * 1.45 activity = ~2739 TDEE, subtract 1000 daily deficit and ~1743 is your Lose It! goal (some ~rounding errors).
If you are Sedentary, that would suggest that 1361 Calories would be a fine daily goal (eat between 1250-1450 daily), plus a little more if you do any lengthy or vigorous exercise that day. Optional if it's not lengthy or vigorous.
Either way, your TDEE is likely in the range of 2267-2739 so 1361-1743 would provide for safe and effective weight loss. We don't push fast weight loss here -- there's no merit in losing fast; only in losing it safely and keeping it off effectively.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Weighing every day is fine, and I do that myself. However what I don't do is expect my daily weight to match whether I had a light day or a heavy day eating over the past 24 hours. Humans are mostly water, not mostly bodyfat, so most of the changes we see on the scale from one day to the next is the difference in our water weight. To get a sense of what our bodyfat losses are, we have to look over several days, perhaps 2-3 weeks.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I’ve been eating healthy and just started count calories where I’m on an app where I’m not supposed to eat over 1,497 calories
That sounds right. I ran the numbers and you should lose at a rate of about a pound a week of bodyfat with your stats. Give it 5-10 weeks to see if that rate or some other rate develops, and then adjust as needed.
You -know- what we're going to say, so let's not disappoint you.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> My latest recorded weight was 158. I wake up this morning and it's 154. Actually, 153.6. [...] So can I believe the 153.6?
You can believe it was about that this morning. But who knows how dehydrated you were at 153.6, or how overhydrated you were at 158? The data points do not matter at all, except to establish the trend. The trend shows the fat loss because water -- although noisy -- is a relative constant, muscle is a relative constant, and bone is certainly pretty constant.
As for the challenge rules -- the weight on weigh-in day does matter but, remember, unless it's the last check-in then it's going to be old news next week. Don't cheer if it's unusually low or fret if it's weirdly high -- it's not going to matter in a week.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Don't panic. You didn't gain 4 pounds of fat in a week. C'mon, that would be like overeating by 14000 Calories (your usual maintenance plus 2000 per day). Did you REALLY do that? No.
So if it's not all added fat, then at least some of that must be water. How much do you suppose you overate? If it was 350 per day, you'd gain 0.1 pounds of fat per day and be 0.7 pounds heavier in a week.
Salt and carbs really cause water to spike, as do several other situations. Water is very volatile. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The notion of tracking my whole life was too much for me to handle. I commit to 52 weeks at a time. This summer, I will complete my fifth year of logging. Chances are, I will do some kind of experiment with not tracking this year. One of my friends is tracking behind ... he writes down his food on paper and logs it in the next day. This way, he's practicing eating more intuitively in the moment but verifying his practice within 24 hours.
Some people have done well dropping the app even during weight loss and some, like me, seem to need the accounting for a while to learn and lock in the new habits.
> I swear I was less stressed 90 lbs heavier and enjoying whatever food I wanted
I was 50 and gained type 2 diabetes and survived a cancer (likely related to my obesity) that almost killed me. When stuff like that happens, you fear your food AND you still don't have control over your food. Believe me: this is better.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> When does food manifest itself on the body as weight? I know water is sort of immediate- you drink 1L and you're 1kg heavier. BUT what about food?
With food, also immediately. You're at your very heaviest right after something passes into your lips.
After that, it's breaking down. If you ate/drank nothing else, your weight would decline.
Even dry food like graham crackers (3% water) or saltines (5%) has zero-calorie water. Toasted bread is 31% water even before you put the butter or jelly on it. That water eventually passes one way (sweat evaporation), or another (moist exhale, waste).
Liquid is a major part of our digestion process. When we eat a dry food, we also usually drink something with it.
With exception to shelf-stable manufactured foods, most of the food we consume is pretty wet. A grilled porterhouse steak is 60% zero-calorie water when served. Natural starches, vegetables and fruits have even a higher water content.
So a lot of our food and nearly all of our liquids are zero-calorie water. This is water that adds to the scale but doesn't add to our fat deposits. This is why we're absolutely heaviest right when the food/drink passes into our mouth and off the fork.
> I have seen that my weight is steadily decreasing even if have met my TDEE 7 days in a row BUT the next week, when I am maintaining my 500 cal/day deficit, the scale refuses to budge. WHAAAT IS HAPPENNINNGGAH?
We are mostly water, too. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Some of that coffee goes to hydrate the skin (night sweats are real) and body (exhale of moist air) so even with the elimination, your intake > elimination.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I've heard it suggested to weigh myself at the same time each day, preferably in the morning, as our weight can fluctuate throughout the day.
Yep. Always use that normal routine pre-coffee weight for the best consistency, and even it is subject to various levels of hydration, inflammation, etc..
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
The sugar will cause some water volatility -- this is not fat gain and it's also not the lack of fat loss. It just means the number on the scale will be a little bouncy from weigh-in to weigh-in. Your trend will still be whatever your calories say. Calories determine fat gains/loss, not sugar grams.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
For those on android, Libra does the same
You didn't gain 10 pounds of fat unless you ate about 40000 Calories in those two days (you didn't).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Worrying about regaining was a big deal for me, too. Really, only time and trials have proven to my emotions that our successes are not as fragile as I feared.
That 10 pounds will disappear in a few days. Carbs and sodium cause water retention. A lot of food without any bowel movements is waste that has not yet been eliminated from your body (and bodyweight).
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I can't predict your future because what you're doing is just random and unsustainable. Do random things, get random results. We aren't what we randomly do. We are what we usually do.
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Men should eat 1500+ minimum, women 1200+, growing teens more than that. These are minimum limits during weight loss.
Tracking your food is how to add some structure and data around your effort; then results can be predicted and you can keep yourself safe.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
You didn't gain any fat eating less than 1600 Calories and being a teen who is 190℔. The numbers do not work out that this can be fat. You had to burn fat in order to live with your stats.
If it isn't fat, then the only thing that it can be is offsetting water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
PS: Teens should eat at least 1600 per day. Not less.
Use trends -- trends made up of several weigh ins -- because most of what the scale change indicates is water, not fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Is it really possible to gain 6lbs in one day?
Yes
> Could it be because i checked the scale after a workout?
Yes
The scale weighs the water you drank.
The scale weighs the clothes you're wearing.
The scale weighs heavier if you need to use the toilet and haven't yet.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The proper way to weigh-in is consistently once per day, consistently, and at no other time or manner same scale
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
We are not here to fight water. Water didn't make you overweight, and water is how your body burns fat. Water is necessary to all of your body's processes. We will consume, on average, about 9-10 pounds of water every day
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Weigh as often as you want, but focus on that trend line and ignore the scale reading. As a practical matter, we don't need to weigh all that often because weighing ourself doesn't matter as long we know how many calories is our goal.
What causes fat loss over time is a deficit between the calories in, which must be moderately less than calories out.
> I don't have many more pounds to lose before I'm done
I'm not done. You're going to be done? Have you no plans to keep this off?
Maintain is a verb. When you reach goal weight, then you move from Phase I to Phase II but the effort continues. You will eat right, stay active, and weigh yourself. None of that changes. You do get more calories.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> but it jumps from 210, 211.2, 211.4, 212 etc. which is extremely frustrating
That's a 2 pound range and you're 210+ so that's 99.1% accurate (0.9% error range). That's fine for a bathroom scale and good enough for a weight-loss effort. Just take the very first reading and log it. It'll be a mere memory tomorrow when you take your new reading.
That error bar is a range of uncertainty that all measuring devices have. Data scientists would call that uncertainty 'noise' in the data. They might null out the noise and suss out the presumed truth using trend averages.
Another source of noise in a fat loss effort is water volatility. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water or the noise from scale/weighing inaccuracies.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on your week!
I weigh daily, but I'm aware that the scale fluctuates a lot due to water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the weight-loss trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Thanks.
This means that water is responsible for your plateau. When the calories are right, it's always water because your body cannot run on a deficit without burning fat to make up the difference. You are having fat loss, every day you eat 1500 you are burning fat to make up the difference (the deficit). But water hides it from the scale.
Starting or increasing a resistance routine can cause your weight to plateau or increase. Don't worry, it's okay, you are probably still losing fat at a good rate! Inflammation caused by resistance training temporarily slows your weight loss but not your fat loss.
When we start or intensify resistance training, we're creating micro-sized tears in our muscles. Muscles swell (water) and become inflamed (water) during a muscle-repair process that takes several days. This additional water added offsets our fat loss. BF% still going down but Water% going up can cause the weight-losers total scale weight to slow, stall, or even temporarily go higher.
Keep exercising. The water weight from resistance training can take 3-5 weeks to calm down. After that, the added water weight still happens at smaller amounts because the muscles become accustomed to the workloads and the amount of inflammation is reduced. By then the weight-losers fat loss has outpaced the water weight remaining and the scale graph is back to its normal downward slope.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I hope that helps.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Libra (for Android) will do this just fine.
> Is she eating too much of a deficit?
If her TDEE is 2000, then 1200 is -800 and it's fine. It's as aggressive as it can be. If it's too harsh, 1400-1500 is a fine Calorie goal. She should not eat less than 1200 (due to nutrition and other reasons).
> Sometimes one meal a week for a cheat doesn't help the urges so would it hurt having a day off instead of a meal as long as she eats the calorific deficit or eats to maintain as it's only one day out of 7?
Yes it would hurt more to take a whole day off ... and that idea exposes a problem with her plan: this is a temporary diet and she's not fixing her real diet. She's wanting one day a week to do her real diet.
Instead, let's fix her real diet.
Those urges? Make sure those foods are in her real diet all week long. She is allowed to eat anything. Nothing is banned. By having no rules outside of tracking, there is no need for any cheat meals or days. The tracking is to help her figure out manage her favorite foods within her healthy goals -- just like she is doing with pizza, she can also do with ice cream or whatever else it is that drives her urges.
> started to plateau
Plateaus are normal and, if the calories are right, then just keep going. The calorie deficit burns a predictable amount of fat each day and each week, so when the scales disagree, it's due to offsetting water. Time will break the plateau, and no other actions are needed.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
PS: Show her /r/loseit -- we're a very supportive community and we tend to work better directly than through friends and partners.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on a great month of weightloss!
> Granted the last two days I have been more lax on what I’ve eaten, with some carbs sprinkled into my 2000 calorie a day limit(pasta, bagels).
Carbs and sodium from prepared foods (bagels and sauce for the pasta?) mean an increase in water retention. Water is not what we're fighting here, but it shows up on the scale for a few extra days.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You are eating 2000-2100 Calories and burning about 3200-3300 per day (or more), for a deficit of (at least) 1200 per day. This is the key data. You can't judge your effort from the top of the scale. You have to use the trend charts and you have to use the calorie data.
Every day you burn 1200 calories more than you eat, you are getting that energy from your bodyfat. This is not a question, it is happening. At this rate, you are burning about one pound every three days. So why don't we see that on the scale right away?
Burning fat is a water process. The energy in fat cells is triglyceride. It is hydrolized out of the fat cell (hydro=water). It's a water process ... and that water doesn't leave the body right away. So even though you've released and converted the energy, the water involved in doing so can stick around for a few days.
Add to that the water from sodium retention, back sprains, weightlifting, illnesses, potassium deficiency, constipation, overhydration -- a number of things cause water to be higher one day vs. another. So we need to be able to cut through it by looking at trends and calories.
Suggestion: Start using a weight-smoothing app. Trust your calories and make sure your logging/tracking is tight and trustworthy. Keep going.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
It takes me two days after a high-carb high-sodium meal to lose the water. It takes my spouse 4-5 days.
Stop using cheat meals. Just program that meal into your plan. You're not cheating -- you're counting it. You know how it works into your caloric week and you know the expected result. So where is the cheat?
Cheat meals make no sense at all. This isn't a game, it's a biological process that follows fairly well understood processes and there is no cheating it.
> It's just stressful getting to Fridays and thinking that its impossible to make my goal and having to remind myself that I'll somehow lose 2 pounds in just a few days.
As you get closer to your goal, it'll become more and more troublesome to judge your progress from the top of the scale. Water volatility remains high and not always predictable, and plateaus come more frequently.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
But along with the trend, judge your program based on three things:
> I know the obvious answer is to stop stuffing my face once a week but I love it and I'm doing really well on my diet
We are what we repeatedly do. --Aristotle
One thing that helped me was to enjoy the foods I love in reasonable adult portions. Quantity ≠ Quality. There's nothing in two that isn't in one. There's nothing in a large that isn't in a small.
One way that I helped myself learn this was to give myself true permission to order small adult sizes and to order just one of something that I'd normally order two of. If, after eating, I was still hungry for more, I could order another one, another small -- the self-granted permission was genuine -- no guilt. This was an experiment and it's okay if I spent a little extra money by skipping the upsizing on size or a "Value Meal."
It really worked well for me. Give it a try!
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
And a number of Android apps do the same, including Libra which I've seen a number of people here recommend.
My weight graph looks like a downward staircase. Imgur
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Today's true accurate rate doesn't matter, because it's changed by your very next drink of water or bite of a fruit. And even that doesn't matter because we're changing our weight all day long, all week long.
What we need to know is our weight-loss trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Never eat less than 1200. It's not a weight-loss reason, it's a sustainability reason.
The only reason you didn't lose weight this week is because of water. Your calories are fine for weight loss (the 1200 thing is for health and stress and function -- fat doesn't care about that but those things are important anyway).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Some weeks -- sometimes multiple weeks -- are like that. But you can't beat CALORIES IN < CALORIES OUT forever. Fat burning happens any time CALORIES IN < CALORIES OUT and even though water may cloud that and keep the scale from seeing it, the weight loss trend will emerge over the long term.
Gym is not required. Exercise is not a big deal to weight loss. It is important to our health, but not for weight loss. The walking is fine, more than 150 minutes per week is recommended.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I weigh daily.
Any time the scale moves contrary to CICO, you can assume it's water or waste.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
No one weigh in is 100% reference-worthy. Your 2.5 lb. drop that should have been 1.5 could be because last week's weigh-in was overhydrated and this one is normal. Or, last week's was normal and this week's is underhydrated. Or a some of both.
Weigh-ins are our best latest information, but it's sketchy information. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> after the gym today, I decided to weigh myself
Mid-day weights aren't comparable to anything, and 48 hours of stellar discipline can't be reflected on the scale.
Fat burning is a water process -- triglyceride is hydrolized from the cell, and the water involved doesn't leave right away. That doesn't mean you didn't burn that fat and won't soon see those losses on the scale, but it does mean you won't see them immediately.
At 176, you probably can lose 1 pound a week. That's about two or three ounces a day -- but, you will gain and lose water each day, depending on what's going on with your diet, your workouts, your strain, your hormones, and your waste elimination.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
When you do weigh yourself... do it in the morning, after waking, before dressing, after using the toilet. These weigh-ins are the most consistent that you can get and -- even then -- the variation day to day is still too wide to be useful all by itself. You have to average it into a trend.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> and carefully doing this for the past two and a half weeks, while running at least 5km daily; much to my consternation, after weighing myself today, I weighed exactly the same
Not long enough -- you've burned fat which is a water-involved process, and at your current weight (not too heavy), the water volatility is higher than the fat losses. Time will reveal the trend, but not 2½ weeks.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Yes, absolutely normal.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by the water weight! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[Maintaining&nbsp;3¾y], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> Where are the other 13 coming from??
I'm up about 5-6 pounds in the last 3 days. It wouldn't surprise me if 1 of those was fat but the rest is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Good post, /u/plutofanatic131!
Another thing to remember that the body's response to illness and injury (including surgery) is inflammation. Inflammation is tissue infused with water -- used to immobilize and control tissue while it heals. That water weighs on the scale and doesn't respond at all to CICO (and that's good). However, it does hide what's happening in the fat-burning department.
Our calorie logs are the best indicator of what's going on with fat burning. The scale is secondary in quality to the well-kept calorie log complete and accurate in its measurements and entries. Keep it well and you won't be thrown by some water on the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Yeah, hi! I'm glad that someone helped you to stop eating 400 and get closer to 1200 ... a good weight-loss number for someone 50 kgs.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 28 | |
HEIGHT | 62.5 in | 159 cm |
WEIGHT | 110.4 lb | 50 kg |
BMI | 19.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1194 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1495 cal/kcal |
You're at a real good weight right now, and 1500-1600 was just right to maintain it without adding a lot of exercise. So you're about where you should be in calories ... 1500-1600 since you're not completely inactive.
I've been maintaining for years and 0.3 kg is nothing -- it's water. To gain 0.3 kg in fat, you would have had to eaten 2310 kcal over the 1500 you ate that day -- so 3810 in a day. You ate 1500 and if you were inactive, you might have gained a few grams, not 300 grams.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
That will help you eat at maintenance and see the trends and don't worry about the daily jumps up or down because that's just water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
iOS link: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/happy-scale/id532430574?mt=8
Not on Android but alternative: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_GB
> last night i went to a big buffet type of dinner and ate a lot, but most if it was vegetables and carbs (noodles). i also had a lot of sugar during day (i guess i cheated), it was all vegan and i did go over on calories, but definitely not enough to make me gain 2 pounds in a day.
Most of our food is water, and vegetables especially. The water is part of the makeup of the food. (Water is most of us, too.)
Add to that the fact that prepared food is generally high in sodium which causes us to retain that water for a few days...
> > i’m currently experiencing a little bit of constant stress bc of something going on in my life, could that contribute to weight gain?
... and stress brings on the hormone cortisol, also assocated with water retention.
Give it 3 days from that meal for the scale to mean something. Get more sleep -- don't undersleep. It'll help with cortisol.
Also, see if you can get a few servings from this list:
These fruits:
These vegetables:
These foods are higher in potassium which can help lower water retention after higher-sodium eating. They do have calories, though, so just work them in to your normal eating.
And, since I suspect water is behind this, let's get you charting your weight in a smoothing app. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I'd like you to always eat above 1600. You're a young woman who is finishing your development into adulthood. You have higher nutritional needs than a woman in her 30s.
If you want to eat below 1600, stay above 1200 AND get your doctor's okay first. At your goal weight of 125, your TDEE is 1753 so there's never a need to eat below 1200 and you can lose all the weight you need to eating above 1600. Eating under 1000 is just adding stress and inflexibility (it's very difficult to eat in a restaurant and keep that day under 1000). It's not what's causing you to gain water weight right now, but it is necessary to eat enough at age 17 and to eat enough so that you can do this for a long time as it takes a long time to lose weight.
Does this make sense?
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Gym routine: 30-45 minute weight training every day
That's why.
> it can’t be water retention right?
It's always water retention. We don't gain muscle that fast and we burn fat at predictable rates, so the only thing left that varies is water.
If you weren't a weight-lifter, you'd probably have a smoother trendline -- but don't quit lifting. It's just part of that. You inflame your muscles, they get stiff/sore/swole (that's water retention and it's fine and healthy). It does not harm your fat loss at all, it just hides it from the scale due to the offsetting weight of the water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
It's an adorid app called Libra
You're fine. You should track your progress using a weighted-average trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Is that 7000 over 7 days, as in 1000 a day? If so, that's too few!
There are general minimums that are 1200 for females and 1500 for males. These are Calorie minimums for adults (teens should eat more).
These general minimums are recommended for most people who are losing weight without the guidance and monitoring of a physician or registered dietitian. They are the current minimums of MyFitnessPal which sources them to the National Institutes of Health. These minimums are too low for adolescents.
By not observing the minimums, you may become ill suddenly or over time. Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
There's a lot of additional discussion/information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here:
> Surely I can't have reached a plateau so early on?
Absolutely you can -- everyone can. I sprained my back moving my mailbox (lifting a cement ball) and gained 5 lbs that week, despite being on a deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I feel so defeated.
The scale doesn't cause fat loss. You can weigh yourself 10 times a day and it won't help one bit. Your calorie deficit is what does it and -- if anything -- it's probably too big. A too-big deficit won't hurt fat loss, it'll hurt your health but it won't hurt fat loss.
A body under stress has a water response -- it's how the body tries to protect itself. But water provides no calories so the fat burning continues, the onset of water just hides it from the scale.
You'll have a better experience if you
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You are down from 225 to 212-ish ... 12½ pounds lost in 3 weeks. That's awesome!! How are you losing your weight?
You've lost weight fast, so it's okay that it doesn't go straight down. 2 pounds a week is typical (you've lost double that), and you'll see more weight losses in your second month that are not as fast as your first month. Your first month always has a little extra water weight losses in it.
Weighing daily isn't destructive behavior, it's just behavior.
If you weigh yourself 10 times a day or once every 10 days, you'll still lose weight at the same rate.
I weigh daily. Up and down -- it's volatile because of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I did when I started losing really fast, but I thought through it and now I just weigh once daily -- after waking, after using the toilet but before dressing. I log it in Libra.
My weight loss was with calorie counting -- not with weighing. If I weighed 10 times a day or once every 10 weeks, my weight loss would be the same either way. Weighing does not cause weight loss.
The scale tells you about everything -- your fat, your muscle, your water, your waste, the food in your system, your clothes, everything. The amount of fat lost in one day is as much as 4½ ounces with 1000 calorie deficit. If you've got that, then any reading to the contrary on the scale is going to be something other than fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I track daily in MyFitnessPal and a fitness app, but months ago I started using Libra for Android to keep track of my weigh-ins. My weight is all over the place due to water, exercise, hydration and Libra helps cut through the noise of the water by weighted-averaging and trend-predicting and give me a better indication of the trend.
If the randomness of the morning weigh-ins makes you crazy, a weighted-average app like Libra can help calm it down. (A different app for the iPhone called Happy Scale has a similar function.)
The app is free and is supported by a small banner ad at the bottom.
Enjoy!
^M53 ^5'10½"^^/179cm ^SW:298lb^^/135kg ^Maintaining ^~185lb^^/83kg ^for ^14^mo. ^Goal:18^mo. ^[recap] ^with ^MyFitnessPal+Walking/Hiking+TOPS
That's totally normal. My weight moves up and down by several pounds between days, and I'm maintaining.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Downvoted for your impolite responses.
I have read your entire post, every word, and all of your edits and comments to this point.
You cannot gain any fat averaging 1440-1700 or so a day. Your TDEE is over 2000 Calories. You cannot gain any fat at all, zero, eating less than your TDEE.
> And no, this isn't a case of weight fluxuating.
Yes it is.
> When weight fluxuates there is still supposed to be net decrease.
No, you are incorrect.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You are female and you have a monthly cycle. That said, we all fluctuate water much more than fat.
The most we vary from fat loss is 2oz-4oz, depending on our deficit, yet if you weigh every day, you'll see much greater variation than that. We humans eat 40 ounces of food a day, on the average (we eat less than that on a diet, probably more like 30 ounces, but still the fat part of the composition only changes 2-4 ounces). The rest of any scale delta is non-fat (water, waste, et cetera).
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Weight management is primarily food management.
Exercise is important for health and fitness. It should not be considered optional. It's not at all key to weight loss, however.
Exercise is great for fitness/health and we all should keep doing it... IF YOU'RE NOT EXERCISING, START. IF YOU ARE EXERCISING, DON'T QUIT. It's awesome! But, weight loss is nearly entirely about making adjustments to intake calories ...
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
> It seems that if i exercise i will lose weight but when i exercise it makes me hungry so i eat more and thirsty which i would think would gain the water weight right back.
... and most of the change we see between days on the scale is water. We only burn about 2 oz. to 4 oz. (50-100g) worth of calories per day on a good strong weight-loss diet. The rest of what we see on the scale readout will be water volatility between the days.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Hitting the scale every day, but only once, is how I overcame my emotions about the scale. It was hard for about a week, still hard but better the second week, and finally much easier into week 3. I learned how water weight changes is really what moves the scale, fatloss trends are slow and predictable to calories. Water weight is not totally random, but it is volatile and really what drives the upsetting emotions.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Are you close to your limits for the Army?
I don't see a lot of healthy lifestyle habits in your plan, but if you're trying to make weight restrictions for the Army, that could explain what I'm seeing here.
In the end, we want to have a healthy and satisfying lifestyle -- eating our foods, eating with and as our friends and family do who are of a reasonable weight and healthy, following our social and desired traditions.
But, if passing a weight restriction for the Army next week is the goal, maybe I'd continue with what you're doing for now and once that is over, take the next several months working to get sustainable habits and away from the powders and undereating.
You are undereating. Nobody who does 15-20 miles/week running should be on less than 1200.
You are also stressing, which brings on water retention and that's volatile. I will presume because your weight is 120's-130's that you are female, and water weight fluctuations is a normal part of being female.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> does trash food in occasion really make such a difference?
Don't cast hateful rhetoric on your food. You wouldn't eat it if it was trash.
Your weight in the 140kgs means that you can eat a lot and still lose weight. You should start keeping track, as when you get to the 100-90-80 kg ranges, you will not have such a high weight-loss probability eating without tracking.
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
It's a great way to add some organization around what you're already successfully doing, so that you can get to your goal.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
When the calories are truly right, then water is the only reason that the scale tells a different story than the calories.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Ok, so in the last 2 weeks I had 3 days were I ate at around 2000-2300 calories, so I accept that I’m not at my normal deficit because of it, but they weren’t huge binges or anything like that. I got sushi with my boyfriend one day, and wonton soup with him on another, and I had some S’mores at a get together. They were cheat meals, not cheat days. I’m feeling really defeated and frustrated right now
Did you actually track this or are you mentally kinda-sorta loosey-goosey tracking?
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 26 | |
HEIGHT | 68" or 5'8" | 173 cm |
WEIGHT | 145 lb | 66 kg |
BMI | 22 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1446 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1811 Cal/kcal |
> Recently, after a great week of very strict 1100-1200 I'll get to 143lbs but I can't seem to maintain it and it will instantly jump to 146lbs if I even look at donut.
So this sentence is the crux of your problem
1150 minus 1811 = -661
-660 x 7 days = -4627
-4627 / 3500 Calories in a pound = -1.322 pounds eventually (but not immediately lost) ... so maybe 1 lost from fat and 1 from water if you went from 145 to 143 in a week. To lose 2 pounds a week from fat, you'd have to be -7000, not -4627, and water from fatburning would have to be instantly gone (which doesn't happen).
Fat burning is a water process. The energy is hydrolyzed from the adipose cell -- the cell responds to hormones and water is there before, during, and after the energy is extracted. It doesn't leave immediately.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You can't look back on Sunday's scale weight and evaluate your CICO week based on it. You can evaluate your water week, sometimes -- because a sudden jump in carbs and/or sodium usually also means a sudden jump in water (due to glycogen and PH balance), as does a sudden strain/sprain of muscle usually also means a sudden jump in water (due to inflammation), as does a sudden hormone shift due to stress or female cycle. Water is very noisy to our scale data.
Calories tell the fatloss story. We should chart our calories and the weight changes that they predict on a graph and compare them against the trends that Libra/Happy Scale provides. I haven't done this but if I was losing instead of maintaining right now, I would.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on your major weight loss so far!
Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
For this reason, you should keep it at TDEE minus 1000.
> I have been listening to my body for the most part and I haven't physically felt ill.
It takes about four days of not eating for the first nutrient deficiencies to start getting serious -- and several days to a few weeks for critical problems to develop. Similar delays with gallstones. A problem is that having a problem is usually both sudden and too late.
> The next day I didn't lose weight and got a little discouraged.
At first our water losses and fat losses both go in the same direction -- both down. We lose weight fast because both water and fat have weight.
But once the excess water is mostly gone, then it goes up and down, sometimes complimenting a fat loss, sometimes offsetting one.
If you're at a caloric deficit, you've burned fat to make up the difference and run your body. We don't even need a scale to tell us that, and if our logging is right, we don't even need a scale to tell us how much.
But water is the wildcard. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I just want to make sure I'm not hurting myself by eating only 1200 calories.
You are, but it's not too late as nothing has happened yet so fix it now.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 21 | |
HEIGHT | 68" or 5'8" | 173 cm |
WEIGHT | 345 lb | 156 kg |
BMI | 52.5 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2544 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 3186 Cal/kcal |
Go for 2100-2200 per day right now. TDEE minus 1000 and when your weight approaches normal, keep it above 1500 (don't go lower than 1500 even if TDEE minus 1000 is lower). But for today, 2100-2200 is your target. Not 1200 -- it would never be right for a guy (barring medical support, nutritional panels, active monitoring, etc.).
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Yo-yo dieting (weight cycling) is quite a bit larger than that, and spans months and years.
What you have is just a fluctuation. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I used to feel like you, but I took the opposite approach. I decided to weigh myself daily and step through that fear.
Don't cave in to your emotions (fear of the scale and tape), cave in to your rational and intelligent knowledge (scales and tapes don't cause fat loss, CICO deficit does).
You can weigh yourself 10 times or once every 10 months and your weight is not decided by that at all. It's decided by your CICO deficit over time.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
We've had successful people here with the advice: it's okay to be a little bit hungry.
I'd use your weight-loss trend as a gauge. If you're losing faster than 1% a week, then slow down. If you weigh 200 pounds, then 2 pounds a week is 1%.
Also you'll have to tolerate water's influence on the scale. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> I have been tracking it very well and even if I was eating at TDEE and little over even there is no way I could have gained 6 pounds in 2 days!
That says it all right there.
You didn't gain that in fat. You didn't gain that in muscle. You didn't gain that in bone. So, what's left?
Waste, water, blood volume, inflammation -- nothing that we're fighting in the hard effort. Nothing to worry about.
> does that mean another 6 pound gain?
Probably not. IV's usually have a good does of saline (salt, sodium) in them. If you're overhydrated now, you'll just stay overhydrated which means little additional gain on the scale.
All this noise in the data is masking your fat-loss effort. There's no way around it, unfortunately, but there are tools to make it a bit better.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I feel so utterly defeated right now.
Your logging/tracking tells the fat-loss story, not the scale. The body runs on calories -- a predictable number each day (TDEE). If you eat to a deficit to the TDEE, your body burns from its caloric storage -- your fat cells. This is a water process. The energy in fat cells is hydrolized from them. Hydro is the root word, meaning water. That water doesn't instantly leave once it has freed the energy (triglyceride) from the cell. It takes a few days. It takes a few days after burning some fat to see the result on a scale -- during which time, other things have happened that also reflect on the scale.
SO -- main lesson here -- don't focus on the scale, focus on your calorie log. That tells your fat-burning past, present, and future. Keep it up very well, this totally works.
The scale weighs everything -- water, waste, fat, bone, muscle, organs, etc. etc. etc.
To estimate fat burning, caloric deficit. Keep an accurate log. Don't overestimate food or underestimate exercise "just to be safe" -- that's called error and it puts you in doubt when questions come up. Just make your best estimates -- 50% chance that it's high and 50% chance that it's low and you'll have an accurate sum.
I hope your headache breaks!
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on your success!!
> The past 2 days I've eaten about 900 calories but gained a pound.
...of temporary water...
You cannot, CAN NOT, No Way, zip chance of gaining fat on 900 calories. Won't happen. Keep edging upwards to get your calories up to a safer healthy range.
Do you do any activity? 1200 may be enough, but normally we suggest that you ask your doctor to be sure. You're a young male (muscles and testosterone) and 1500 is the general guide for males, but you are admittedly on the shorter end of the male population.
> Is there anything I should do in this transition period to not retain water?
Water is fine. Don't fight it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
At worst, drinking a lot of water will cause no change. You'll just pee out the excess.
If your pee is clear or very light pale, you're well hydrated. More water won't help.
Don't fight plateaus or water. Just keep going. Water is not fat, we're here to fight fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
It's very normal.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 28 | |
HEIGHT | 69" or 5'9" | 175 cm |
WEIGHT | 208.6 lb | 95 kg |
BMI | 30.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1741 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2179 Cal/kcal |
2179 - 750 (for 1½ ℔ per week) = 1429
1450 is a good goal for you.
> I've lost about 4 lbs since I started two weeks ago by doing the following
We lose fat in those first two weeks, but we also lose water. This often creates a larger weight loss than we can predict.
Don't judge your program based on your weekly averages until after the first 3 weeks. By then, the water losses have settled down and what you're seeing in the trend is fat loss.
I say trend because daily weigh-ins are still skewed by water differences that are larger than the fat differences. We have to look at trends and not individual data points. Usually, you can eyeball that, but if you cannnot, then there's an app for that.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I also notice that I have been feeling tired a lot
Then 1300 isn't for you. Stick with 1450.
> what kind of snacks do people use for energy?
Whole fruits -- a medium-sized apple, a tangerine, a big handful of raspberries -- these will give you an immediate pick-me-up without making you feel like you're crashing later. No juices, no dried fruits. Almost any whole fruit except for grapes (too low in fiber) but you can have grapes if you have them with something else that provides fiber, like in a fruit salad.
Snacks to avoid if you're already tired -- higher in protein or fat. These will help your energy later but won't do anything right away. So, get your protein and fats in your meals and snack on higher-fiber carbs (fiber grams > 10% of carbohydrate grams) for an energy boost.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
iOS only. I believe the recommended app on Android is Libra
> I read that gaining muscle whilst losing fat is very rare so its unlikely?
I've read that too, and it makes -some- sense that it is harder to gain muscle, but why would it be impossible? If the protein is high enough and the nutrients are there, muscle repair happens. Muscle repair necessarily leaves a little extra behind which is how muscles are built.
That said, you didn't gain much muscle in a month, but you -did- likely create -- and still have -- muscle inflammation: it's a stage of muscle repair and building. It creates that "swole" feeling and the mild-to-moderate ache 24-72 hours after a good lifting session. We can even feel it again when we start our next workout; it's as if our muscles are saying, "hey, we're still hurtin' after last time!"
You correctly assert that you are not putting on fat. I ran your numbers and there is 0% chance that you're putting on any fat eating 2000 kcal at your CW.
> I just feel really down because I'm working so hard and feel like I'm getting nowhere.
It's a slow descent. In a good week of fat loss -- and all other things being equal (they never are) -- you're going to go from 19 stone 7 to 19 stone 6 -- one lousy pound after a perfect week. Another way to look at it, though, is that you've been doing this for a month and you've lost 7 pounds in 4 weeks! That's fast at a 500 kcal deficit and it makes sense that your weight-loss pauses here and there (due to water).
You're also 22F and your water fluctuates on a monthly cycle as well as for dietary reasons and the muscle stuff we've already discussed.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Because you're female especially (the monthly cycle), but even men have this problem.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
No because body fat scales suck at those measurements. They're not good at their job.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Since your calories were so volatile, I wouldn't call this a whoosh. This is just water retention that is leaving.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Even with this, you'll see the volatility, but if you focus on the line and not the dots, it'll be less anxiety-producing.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I weigh daily and the daily ups and downs really used to bug me a lot. I learned that it's mostly water and found a way to look at it differently.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
> Is it possible to even lose that amount of weight in that time frame?
Yes -- because water is weight too. You also lost some fat but most of that loss up front is water and less of it is fat. At the end of a week doing that, you'll probably lose 2.5 or 3 pounds of fat and maybe be 10 pounds lighter on the scale ... 7 to 7.5 pounds of water. Eventually you stop losing water but keep losing fat if you keep eating like that.
Later, when you start eating more food to maintain your weight, your water weight will jump back up again because you will eat more carbs and sodium.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Two missions, two solutions
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Use that to lose the pounds. Use 191 as a starting weight and keep track of your weights in a tracking app. It'll average your weights together and give you a useful number to use to gauge your progress. Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
> I don’t eat much junk or drink pop at all but I do eat very large plates of food! It’s like I don’t even think about it. I just fill my plate and stuff my face.. it’s like I literally don’t remember I’m on a diet.
Keeping track of your food in MyFitnessPal will cure you of this.
> Whenever I go to the gym I kinda of feel lost. Like I start lifting weights but I’m unsure of what to do, how long I should be doing the exercises or anything like that.
Go in with a plan. Go out having done your plan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/programs#wiki_resistance_training
Do one of those or mix-and-match to your liking based on the equipment that they have.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Don't fight water weight, it's your body doing it's natural thing to maintain acid balance. But since we're uninterested in water, it helps to have a way to "see through" the fluctuations and figure out what's happening in the fat-loss department.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Stay hydrated, use sodium in moderation, eat high-potassium foods in moderation, and ignore the water beyond that.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Meal prep this week puts me at 1200-1300 calories depending on snacks. But I stepped on the scale this morning and it's still. going. UP. I'm back up to 224 and not only is it annoying, it's incredibly discouraging. Mathematically it doesn't make sense.
So, the overriding rule here is you cannot gain fat on a deficit. There is a zero-percent possibility that the scale increase you're reading is a fat increase. The only other possibilities are water and waste, because bone or muscle doesn't change that fast. Weightlifting again after a break can cause inflammation which is water retention to immobilize and heal the muscle (that swole feel is the first sign of a 3-5 week process).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You will be way up -- mostly from water. Do it. It's fine. Life happens.
If you're tracking, log what you think you consumed. Do that too. Don't feel guilty. It's your log, not your judge. Use it to inform you both how much it was, and also to see that it probably wasn't as much as you fear. (Our Fears > The Reality [usually])
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You're doing fine...
> I am eating like 1200 calories a day following their points closely. I am 5'7 210.
You are burning fat. Don't worry about that. When your calories are right and tight, and the scale disagrees, any difference is just water weight. The reason doesn't matter because water fluctuates for so many reasons: pH imbalance, hormones, heat/cool, stress, illness, soreness, cycling, and so on.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I like the ww program itself but im not gonna pay $20 a month for something that doesnt work for me.
Keep doing it. It will work for you.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
The first third of my weight loss was really smooth, the middle third had a plateau hear and there, and the final third was nothing but plateaus -- looked like stair steps on the chart.
Because you're confident of your calories, and because 1200-1300 and even 1700 is lower than your TDEE with your fairly active job -- this is just a plateau. Plateaus are about offsetting water ... sometimes due to muscle strain, hormones, being female, too much sodium, too little potassium, stress, ill sleeping patterns. You can't gain fat or even maintain fat at 1200-1300 Calories. So this is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I'm getting super discouraged and feeling like I'll never reach my goal weight of 125 lbs.
Even on your sedentary days, a female age 20 of your height and 125 ℔ burns 1600-1700 calories . You can keep the same calorie level all the way to goal. It's just going to take time, and the last pounds are the slowest. It's fine -- GW is forever. :-)
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
CI<CO for fat loss, but not necessarily weight loss tracking perfectly because we are mostly water. More than fat or muscle put together, we are mostly water. Could be hormonal, could be waste, could be anything...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I weigh myself, then weigh myself again with my heaviest kitchen item (a cast iron Dutch oven that is about 12 pounds) then weigh myself again.
That's to overcome false consistency readings ... excellent.
> I always weigh myself in the morning before breakfast and after my morning ritual. Is this a good method to get an accurate weigh in?
Yes. Now let me add that even with everything you are doing, there will be some volatility due to differences in hydration, waste that is not eliminated, errors, temperature, etc.. It's fine. No weigh in is solid science or gospel because even the previous one we're comparing it to could have anomalies.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes. Secondarily are those errors and other anomalies.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water. Trends are what tells the weight-loss story.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
The average we lose at these weights is 2 to 2.5 pounds a week, and we need to give it a few weeks to be sure what's going on.
You're eating a lot of fast food, which means carbs+sodium, which means a lot of water fluctuation. This isn't fat, but it clouds the picture by throwing in a lot of doubt when it comes to the scale. You lost 2 pounds of fat that week (about 4 oz. per day), but you're up 4 lbs of water since yesterday, EEEK!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> Is it really possible I'm just underestimating how much I'm eating to a point where I go from a 1500 calorie deficit to GAINING weight?
Don't have 1500 deficits. And yes, underestimating is issue #1. You're a nurse, so be scientific and complete about it. Look at it as an exercise in good records-keeping. A digital kitchen scale is pretty-much required equipment since you're serious about doing this.
TIP: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6kmxin/how_to_be_better_at_visually_estimating/
Be complete... foods, drinks, cooking oils, condiments, snacks, bites, ~~smells~~ (okay, not smells).
Two of our best tools are time and perseverance. Give this plenty of both.
> I'm about to just give up and accept I'm going to gain all the weight back.
Nah, stick with it. We'll help you figure it out. This stuff works. CICO isn't broken, and you aren't either. ;-)
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on 2 months! That's great!!
The gist of your post is that you've been at 165 for over a week and wonder why you're not successful.
You can relax. You can't maintain your body fat on 1262 calories a day -- so any news to the contrary from a scale is just water/waste/error/etc..
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Congrats on buying a scale -- but let's get a food scale too.
You're only 165 lbs. and dealing with calories gets a little more precise now. Plus a digital kitchen food scale will help you reduce the dishes from all of those cup measurements. They're about $10-15 online now... Best money that I've spent in this effort!
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
Congrats on your first week!
> Weighed myself this morning and I haven't made a dent.
That happens sometimes, and if you're sure that you're eating at a dietary deficit, then you can be equally sure that any gain or zero-change reading on the scale is about water. You cannot gain or keep your bodyfat on a deficit.
However, bodyfat changes over time predictably (related to the deficit) but water in the body is up and down erratically and moves in wide swings.
> am I doing something wrong ?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Check it out to be sure.
Double-check if your logs are complete and accurate: you're weighing your foods, including all the drinks and snacks and condiments/oils used.
Weigh every day after waking, before dressing or coffee, so that your body is in the most consistent state that you can make it. Most importantly, make a chart so that you can figure out your trend and so that you can ignore the daily datapoints (because of how water behaves).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> When we strength train, the micro tears we create in our muscles, cause our bodies to flood the area with fluid as a healing process. This can show up on the scale. (You’ll feel DOMS -delayed muscle onset soreness). This maybe the weight increase.
/u/alpal41,
This (the above) is the most likely cause in my estimation.
1550 at your weight is good for moderately slow fat loss, so fluctuations are going to show up. This is fine, but expect your weight loss to be wave-y and plateau-y but the trend across the weeks will be downward.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The way NOT to lose weight is to eat at maintenance. You don't break a plateau eating at maintenance.
> I’m eating around 2900 calories a day now with no issues. How long do I do this for?
Do it for zero days.
Instead, go back to 1700-2000 and make sure your counting is accurate and complete and just wait it out. You're still burning fat if your intake calories are below your TDEE, it's just that it is hidden by some temporary water. It is not a problem, it's just how the human body works.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Libra. I've been using it for years. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
It could be the scales.
Scale manufacturers are sensitive to reviews. A common complaint is that the scale weights are not consistent: the reviewer gets on, it says X; gets on it again immediately, it's X+1; and again and it's X-0.5. The scale gets a bad review.
So the programmer gets a note from marketing saying "this sucks, fix it" and the programmer writes a routine that says something like "if the new reading is X plus or minus 2, just display X again and ignore the difference."
You can test this by weighing yourself first with a bottle of liquid (e.g. heavy laundry detergent bottle) and ignoring the readout. Get off the scale, let it reset. Now weigh yourself normally. The "with liquid" readout will have defeated the above program routine. You now have a new readout that isn't being affected by a false-consistency routine.
All scales have a certain accuracy and precision to them; which is also to say that they have a certain inaccuracy and imprecision, too. Add to that, our bodies have water fluctuations which is not fat and is independent and even contrary sometimes of our fat loss efforts.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water, or the weirdness of scale consistency routines, inaccuracies, and imprecision.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
Part of your 9kg gain could be water due to the increase in carbs and sodium from your binges. Keep good track of food intake and daily weigh-ins, but focus on the general trends (moving averages) of both.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> the extra exercise could also be a contributing factor to my inclination to binge eating and my muscle development.
Yes on the muscle development and some offsetting weight-gain caused by muscle inflammation. Actual formed muscle is pretty dense and small, but the process involves swelling that lasts a few weeks when you just start.
I actually do better with food when I've worked out. My own food sprees (not big enough to be binges but enough to be annoying) are usually emotional. That voice inside my head gets loud and I think I eat to soothe.
I'm working through a book called End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food by Jennifer Taitz and Debra L. Safer ... it is helping but it's a process.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Water or waste from what you ate and haven't eliminated in the toilet.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Fat loss that shows up on the scale reliably takes a long time, and gets hidden by water.
1200 a day will get it done, just keep doing it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I've been weighing daily for five years.
When your diet is in good control for weight loss, then anything you see to the contrary on the scale is simply not additional fat. There are only two moving parts: fat and non-fat. Water is the biggest factor.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I find that weighing myself daily, and tracking with a weighted moving average, is immensely helpful. It gives a clearer picture of how you're progressing without getting bogged down in the little daily ups and downs (and plateaus).
You can read all about it here (Hacker's Diet). That whole book is actually a great CICO primer and resource, and it's free.
Apps for tracking with weighted moving average:
Libra (Android)
HappyScale (ios)
TrendWeight (online)
Wow, great job!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our normal-weight bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
As you get lower and lower in weight, more of your body is water and this volatility will appear more and more often.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
No worries.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by that glass of water's weight! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[Maintaining&nbsp;3¾y], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Human normal-weight bodies are not mostly composed of fat. They are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount of water we carry varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes. It's only different when we're obese to the percentage of water we carry, the amount of water is still quite high and that's not different high obesity or normal weight.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. The water-caused plateaus and blips will not have such an effect.
The effect of our water on our weight chart becomes more and more evident as we get lower in weights. As we get closer to normal weight, the volatility of water shows up all the more: more frequent plateaus.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[Maintaining&nbsp;3¾y], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> Can you lose weight if you eat a calorie deficit of 600 calories five days out of the week but eat enough calories to maintain the remaining two days? Or would you need a deficit every day in order to see the scale move?
600 x 5 days = 3000 calories
3000 / 3500 calories in a pound = 0.85 pounds of fat burned
You may or may not see that on the scale because water is more volatile than fat. If, on day 7, you ate a salty meal, your weight would be higher even if you gained no fat.
Seeing the scale move is and is not the goal. Burning fat is the goal. Over a lot of time, this will show up on the scale as a weight-loss trend because our water, even though it's volatile, moves a lot but in a range.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Fat loss is predictable with your CICO performance. Any time that your accurate scale disagrees with your accurate calorie log, it's a difference of water: water in your waste, in your tissues, in your blood volume, in your digestive system, in your skin, muscles, everywhere. Become a good logger/tracker and you can really focus on your calorie log to see the trend and pretty much ignore the scale. It will, eventually, follow.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
You keep going, but use this time to make sure your logging/tracking is accurate and complete. If it is, then plateaus are simply about water and they're temporary.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
PS: Eat 1500+ ... don't undereat. It's not a race. Health matters.
You should eat 1200+ on the daily average ... treat that as your target ...
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
So your bullseye should be 1150-1250 and if you're hitting well under or well over, then adjust. Your 600-700 is something to improve ... double it and you're doing pretty good. Yes, you should do it even if you're feeling full. You need to train your body to eat right, not undereat and not overeat.
> I don't feel weak or at like I am at a lack right now. I feel more energized. More restful.
It's not about how you feel, it's about your nutrients.
Calories are the energy that powers the body's motors (muscles and muscular organs, like the heart). The body stores excess calories in bodyfat. When we have a caloric deficit, the body takes from this bodyfat to fill in the missing calories. Undereating doesn't affect this negatively. It affects nutrients.
Nutrients are the enzymes, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins that enable the organs to work and the various systems to work together: endocrine, immune, integumentary (hair, skin, nails), digestive, renal, nervous systems, etc.. Unlike calories and bodyfat, the body does not store many nutrients long term. We get most of our nutrients from the foods that we are presently eating. If we undereat these, we get malnutrition and things break down in a few weeks.
> I am worried since 6lbs lost in a week is more than the recommended 2lbs of weight loss per week
This could still happen when you eat 1200+ ... it's fine in the earliest weeks. We want to you aim to lose 1-2 pounds a week of body fat, but there will be some -4 weeks and some +2 weeks because of water. Eat right and, after your first few weeks, your long-term trends will settle in to match your eating. In the short-term, it's more volatile.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I'm glad that your life is settling down now, and glad that you're here.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Most of us on a moderate deficit are losing 1 to 2 pounds per week. If that's one pound per week, then it's 0.1 to 0.2 per day. If it's two pounds per week, it's 0.2 to 0.3 per day. (A device's 0.1 display resolution means it can't get any finer than that.)
If we know our calorie deficit, we can predict our fat loss. However, the scale almost never agrees because of, primarily, water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> I continued sticking to my standard 1200 calories a day, went back to the gym, smug about the fact that I was still on my goal for 7lbs before Xmas. > > Imagine the disappointment when I weighed myself yesterday, with a 0.6lb gain. Today brought a 1.2lb gain. Almost 2lbs following three days of my normal healthy lifestyle.
There is a universal truth that you need to cling to at times like these: You cannot gain fat on a deficit. If you're on a deficit, then any gain you see on the scale must be water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> do you weigh the day after having a few too many drinks?
I weigh every day, but any variation I see that is more than a few-oz or in the wrong direction from my calories is definitely more water than fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
My first third of my weight loss was very smooth -- every week I weighed less and less.
The middle third of my weight loss, I had a couple of plateaus, usually 9-14 days, but otherwise mostly smooth.
My last third of my weight loss, it was plateau after plateau after plateau. Plateaus were the rule, not the exception. My trend was still downward, but it looked like a staircase.
As we reach normal weights, our bodies are not mostly composed of fat anymore. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I can relate to your story. At this time last year I was almost 300 pounds, severely depressed, abusing alcohol and other drugs and generally miserable. It reached a tipping point and I realized I had to make some big life changes or I would not be long for this world. I got to the root of why I was miserable and by starting to treat that, my need for those coping mechanisms greatly decreased. It is a personal journey and I'm not going to tell you to see a therapist, even though I agree with others that it might help. For me it was something I had to come to on my own.
Anyway, my life has improved tremendously since then and I'm sure you can also turn things around! Here's some specific advice:
Good luck!
For judging your fat loss progress, an accurate calorie count > scales -- and, especially, short-term scales readings are poor indicators.
Hormones, sodium, regularity -- all of that amounts to water for one reason or another. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I've been under my TDEE the majority of the time recently, but I'm not seeing that on the scale.
Total up your weekly/monthly intake and your weekly/monthly TDEE -- if you're at a deficit, and your numbers are fairly accurate, then just keep going. It'll happen.
Looking at this day by day "majority of the time" is useful (especially for habit building), but it's the longer term that is the better indicator for CICO.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on your decision to lose weight and get started.
I am reading a lot of intensity and impatience in your message. Your program is grueling and not resembling a normal life.
I think you're "just lost" because you've changed everything and lost touch with the things that made your life your own.
My advice is to
> last week I gained four pounds. Now I am down 2,
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water. Weigh daily, in the morning, after the toilet and before dressing, you'll see that water is what's happening here.
> I have a food scale and I’m tracking calories relentlessly
Good. It's an important skill. After a few months, it'll be simple stuff. You'll appreciate having the skill.
Don't forget that it's our habits that make this work without so much effort. Find a comfortable groove and stay in it as much and as long as you can. When you take a wrong turn, as we all do, then just get back onto the path.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Don't quit when it becomes long, hard, or tiring. And, most of all, do not judge your progress from the top of your scale -- you have to look at the trend over a few weeks.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> That's what I thought at first, too - so on Thursday I started chugging water like it's my job. 75oz a day and I'm still putting on weight.
Your body will just dump what it doesn't need. There is little we can do (and we shouldn't try -- we're not here to fight water, the body usually knows what it's doing).
Yes, we should stay hydrated because it helps digestion and we need more nutrient absorption because our food volume is reduced. But we shouldn't fight water retention.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I track daily. I ignore the daily data, though, and just look at the trends.
My advice is to have a deficit that is going to cause a safe and effective rate of fat burning. Be very good with your food estimates so that you're confident in your effort.
And then don't worry about it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Does this discourage anyone else too? Ugh.
Commonly.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
It was unlikely that your start would be totally right -- don't worry about that. The best decision was to start, and we adjust as we learn and go along.
Someone who is 300+ should not be on 1200 Calories without their doctor being actively involved. It's the wrong goal for you; it shows you're willing to work hard and make a real change. But we have to do this rationally and in a way that allows us to fight for the long-term.
I suggest that you track and measure your food every day, and set a goal to lose two pounds a week. It's more like 1800-2200 Calories a day instead of 1200. When you feel like trying harder, put that thinking into your patience -- you want to do this successfully for the weeks and months it'll take to reach and then start to maintain (continue working) to maintain your goal weight.
The eating lighter will cause weight loss, so you can pretty much ignore the scale fluctuations. Don't worry about the up-hours and up-days -- just record them and they will create a downward trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Good job in starting, keep going, make it 1800-2200 and not 1200 right now (maybe someday toward the end of the weight-loss phase it'll be right but it's too little right now). Put your efforts into your patience and settling in for a long and enjoyable effort of self-improvement.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
These are random weigh-ins. They are useless because you have different levels of hydration at different points in your day.
Weigh the same way at the same time every day -- after waking, after using the toilet, before getting dressed. You are the most consistently hydrated at that moment of the day and your weigh-ins are more usefully comparable.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
100% be sure about this fact -- you cannot gain FAT on a deficit. You can, however, temporarily weigh more but it won't be because you've gained any new fat if you're on a deficit. 1300-1400 weighing 181 is definitely a deficit. You've had a good week. The scale is being a party pooper.
> I figured I would at least see some loss every week if I kept being truthful
You can do everything totally 100% pristinely right and still weigh more. Why? Waste. Scale error/resolution. Hormones/Water. Hydration/Water. Inflammation/Water. Water water water. (We're 60% water +/- 10%.)
> Should I try to change something?
I weigh daily and put it in a smoothing app. It has really taught me how volatile water is.
I use weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or you could choose Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
CICO works (calorie counting). It cannot fail because your body fat must make up any deficit of calories not eaten. What happens, though, is that we lose fat slowly and water volatility is high, so it sometimes looks like it's not working.
We also eat more than we think. We estimate our intake poorly.
IF works only because it achieves the same caloric imbalance that calorie counting does -- it's a simpler discipline to follow for many and that's what makes it effective. IF is fine, only if it achieves the caloric deficit. (You still must keep track.)
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Get a digital food scale and weigh your foods as often as you can so that you know you're logging them right. Visually estimate when you cannot weigh: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6kmxin/how_to_be_better_at_visually_estimating/
> i lift weights, like heavy weights
Two things:
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Take your waist measurement every 2 weeks. This will help you see your fat loss on the measuring tape even though your muscles swell up.
FINALLY - commit for a solid 4 months to see clear and unquestionable results -- not a month. Be a great logger/tracker for 4 months following the "Quick Start Guide" advice and hitting the calorie goal regularly.
Join us in /r/loseit for good support though this.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
Get the iPhone app Happy Scale or the Android app Libra and put all those random weigh ins in there. It will average them all out.
Remember that poop has a weight. Pee has a weight. Your over-hydration has a weight and, likewise, being under-hydrated will give you a lower weight. So none of these random weigh ins by themselves mean anything at all. It's best to look at the average and to look for the trend across weeks (not days).
Also notice that the scale doesn't matter. If you weigh yourself 10 times a day, you don't lose 10 times faster. If you weigh yourself every 10 days, you don't lose any slower. The scale is just needed to check in to see if the results confirm the work that you're putting into it, but it's the work that you're putting into it that makes the difference -- the calorie difference from what your body burns.
The weight scale is like a rain gauge. You don't look at a rain gauge to see if it's going to rain. You look at a rain gauge to see how much it rained yesterday. It's a lagging indicator of your effort.
What counts is the effort causing the weight change -- your calorie log is a leading indicator -- does it show a deficit? a streak? habits forming? active days? Those are the things that lead to weight loss and improving health that will eventually show up sooner or later.
Keep your appreciation on what matters and -- well -- just smirk at your scale. Sometimes the scale is just dumb. Due to poop and muscle inflammation and salt, the scale goes up after several great days of work on our weight loss. It feels like "I've been robbed!! I did all that work for nothing!!" Nah -- you're burning fat but other stuff is pushing the scale number higher.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
> Is that likely to cause much difference, say maybe 0.5kg?
Yes. At 9am, that's 3.5 hours of urine and warm exhale. You're likely in deficit in those hours so you're likely exhaling some carbon too.
I have to add, though, that on your next workday all those difference work in the opposite direction. That's why we learn to look past the daily number and just use it in forming the trendline.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You're 71 kg so weight loss is expected to be slow. I would expect a maximum loss rate of 500g a week on the average for weight loss at this level, and due to water this means that some weeks will be gains and other weeks bigger losses, with a general trend across weeks of -500g.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
1900 ㎉ is a high number for someone 71kg for weight loss. I maintain a higher weight at that calorie level. (I have to, I have an intestinal situation that requires a higher BF% be maintained.)
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX (guessed) | M | |
AGE | 55 | |
HEIGHT (guessed) | 67" or 5'7" | 170 cm |
WEIGHT | 156.5 lb | 71 kg |
BMI | 24.6 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1503 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1881 cal/kcal |
I guessed in a few places but this should be close enough.
What I do is take 10% for good workout sessions and add that to the TDEE, so +181 on a workout day. Likewise, a totally lazy day is probably -10%. So your range is 1881 +/- 10% and you should subtract about 500 from that to lose 500g a week. However, guys shouldn't eat less than 1500 so if you're a guy, 1500 is your floor.
See if you can edge down your calories a bit.
180g of protein is a whole lot. Your RDI for protein is 56.8g for 71 kg times 0.8g. Add a generous 50% to that since you're working out for muscle repair/growth and 85g average ought to be fine. I prefer not to supplement what I can reach in food so maybe you can delete or decrease some of the supplements.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
I wouldn't worry about "this past week" because water weight is so crazy up and down and it's a bigger factor in our body composition than simply fat or muscle.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Use the long-term trends to determine if you're losing too rapidly (1-2 per week on the long average).
> but I am averaging around 1,100.
This is too low. You should be at 1200+ on your average. Improving this by 100 will mean that you lose weight 1/36th more slowly (e.g. it won't be enough to notice) but it can mean a lot to your nutrition due to the added flexibility 100 more calories can put into your daily menus.
This is not why you lost 4 pounds this week. 1100 for a week instead of 1200 is -700 which is only a fifth of one pound.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Aristotle reportedly said: We are what we usually do. Excellence is a habit, not a one-time act.
Your past four months created your superb 20kg loss. That is the habit, the "what we usually do" talked about by the philosopher. The oddball weekend doesn't affect excellence at all, and 300g is 0.015 of 20kg, a statistical nothing. You're back to your routine, again, and that is more important than "catching up" for any overeating you did.
Furthermore, any overeating you did has some practical value: when we restrict our calories, we put stress on our systems. It's necessary to do this, because we have to lose weight. But the value of a diet break for a few days is called a "refeed" which relaxes that stress, restores leptin and cortisol values toward normal, and frequently results in a water-weight loss that you might get later this week.
> Another part is urging me to eat even less
Don't follow it.
> If I plateau here, maybe I do need to eat less?
Not because you plateau, no. Plateaus are a normal part of weight-loss. Our water volatility is high, and when we've lost a lot of weight, the plateaus come more and more as we get to the middle and end of the weight-losing phase. When we transition to the maintenance phase, we're entering a long "forever" plateau and will work to stay plateaued.
So it's fine.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
Put your stats in your flair and they'll be there for all of your /r/loseit posts (flairs only work in the specific subreddit).
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
> My legs will feel tired the next day
Inflammation is water weight, so you burn some fat and add some water weight and have a net-zero change on the scale.
> maybe I didn't burn 3000+ calories over 8-10 hours but theres no way I did not burn any calories at all.
The long-term question is how much does your habit of exercising add to your daily calorie burn.
One-time acts aren't very interesting. They won't be reliable to set and keep your weight. Plus, if you work extra hard for a couple of hours, then relax the rest of the day and don't do your normal chores because you're too tired, did you actually burn anything extra at all by the end of the day?
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Focus on your long-term everyday habits. What we rarely do doesn't matter in the long run.
More on the small impact on exercise calories...
Exercise is great for fitness/health and we all should keep doing it... IF YOU'RE NOT EXERCISING, START. IF YOU ARE EXERCISING, DON'T QUIT. It's awesome! But, weight loss is nearly entirely about making habitual adjustments to your daily intake calories.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
To gain 2 pounds of fat, you would have had to overeat (or drink) by 7000 calories over your maintenance. Is it possible that you did that?
Don't guess at any one or two scale readouts. Just record them so that you can later look at the trend over several days (a couple of weeks).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
To lose 8 pounds of fat, you'd have to undereat by 28000 Calories over time. This would take about 14 days of eating nothing for the average person, during which they'd start to get sick from malnutrition.
So you lost mostly water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> i ate around 500 calories per day for the past 3 days
You should eat more. Losing weight too rapidly can injure your organs or make you sick: https://old.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/index#wiki_losing_weight_too_rapidly
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Paragraphs, my friend. They help both you and me.
> On top of that i was told i need to watch my heart as i now have high BP because of the loss and my body became acclimated to my fatness.
Who told you that? It's false.
Okay, so 270-ish to 205-ish in 6 months, let's see...
Week | 1% Weight | Date |
---|---|---|
Start | 275.0 | 15-Dec |
1 | 272.3 | 22-Dec |
2 | 269.5 | 29-Dec |
3 | 266.8 | 5-Jan |
4 | 264.2 | 12-Jan |
5 | 261.5 | 19-Jan |
6 | 258.9 | 26-Jan |
7 | 256.3 | 2-Feb |
8 | 253.8 | 9-Feb |
... | ... | ... |
17 | 231.8 | 13-Apr |
18 | 229.5 | 20-Apr |
19 | 227.2 | 27-Apr |
20 | 224.9 | 4-May |
21 | 222.7 | 11-May |
22 | 220.4 | 18-May |
23 | 218.2 | 25-May |
24 | 216.1 | 1-Jun |
25 | 213.9 | 8-Jun |
26 | 211.8 | 15-Jun |
27 | 209.6 | 22-Jun |
28 | 207.5 | 29-Jun |
29 | 205.5 | 6-Jul |
Yeah, you're ahead of the safety curve. You should slow this down. Try to lose no more than 2 pounds a week on the rough average (some will be 4 and some will be zero, but aim for 2 and adjust until your average is 2).
By losing weight too rapidly, you may become ill suddenly or over time. Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
So, because of the BP and because you've been going too aggressively at this, my advice is to have a medical checkup now. Let the doc know what's going on.
If you are done losing weight, you need to eat lighter than your 270-ish normal, but you need to eat quite a bit more than now. Keep weighing every day and keep a record of it. Don't be spooked by daily volatility, that's water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. The trends are our truths, not the latest scale reading.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Yeah, that first few weeks can be scary. Any change is hard.
> Tracked everything and stayed well within my weeklies and gained 1.6 pounds this week.
You likely increased your intake by 25-30% which likely means you increased your sodium intake by 25-30% and your carb intake by 25-30%. As a result, you likely are retaining more water.
For this reason, you should ease into these transitions -- perhaps adding only 2-3 daily points per week. The scale still reacts but smaller and is not as volatile.
I agree with you going back to losing. When you're ready, ease into maintenance. Don't switch all at once.
> What worked for you as far as maintenance? I'm just so afraid of gaining it all back.
I weigh daily and I track it in a daily app that gives me averages. Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
I also still track my food. Having both the food and the weight data, my brain has become used to managing through challenges like holidays, vacations, feasts, parties, injuries, and so on.
That fear about gaining it quickly back has only faded because experience has proven that I can use patience and persistence and data to positively control my weight. All my life, this has been the missing piece: most of my weight-loss efforts did work, until I quit tracking or otherwise gave up too early. They lasted for weeks or a few months and I quit before reaching goal, while this effort reaches 5 years old this summer and I've been maintaining for 3½ years. When I eventually stop logging, I'll still do something. I won't stop weighing. And when the scale goes too far off goal, I'll not be ashamed or in denial and will be able to react to it.
I only know that I won't regain the weight because of experience. Rationally I know the math and science, but it's not until I emotionally know it too that I'm actually at peace with that knowledge and have faith in it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Probably OK.... but you're 5 kg in 3 weeks which is not unsafe when starting so this week's 500g per day is probably just a fluctuation due to some dehydration.
How old are you?
How many kcals are you taking in daily?
Use a weight smoother to track your daily weights...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I've been maintaining 83kg for years, but my weight will go up 5 kg if I have a bad sprain or an illness with inflammation.
If your calorie estimates are accurate and your tracking is complete, then this cannot be a fat gain. You can't gain fat on a deficit, it's impossible. Therefore, it must be water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
However, if your tracking has become loose and you're not confident in your numbers as much as you used to be, the first step is then to tighten that back up. Get back to good data.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Random mid-day weigh-ins are totally meaningless.
I had a really good workout and some salty food this week. My weight has fluctuated up 4 kg in 9 days of ramping up weight training, and back down 2 kg so far. The other two might take 3-5 weeks to work out because DOMS does that.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Water is volatile and makes the scale go up even in weeks where the fat weight goes down.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, female cycles, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Your TDEE is over 1900 and all of these days were under 1255 so you definitely burned fat this week. That means that any difference you're seeing to the contrary is definitely water and should be ignored.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Great job!!
Your TDEE during this month would have been around 2350 with your stats and you're eating 1570 so that's an average deficit (before/excluding exercise) of 780/day X 32 days = 24960 which is about 7 pounds of fat burning. Anything other than that on the scale is water or some error in calculation, weighing, etc..
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Should I be concerned, or change anything?
No, the first 3 weeks or so is frequently like that. It's a good sign that your diet has actually changed. Keep going. Your second month won't have as much water loss in it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> I only plan on weighing in on Sunday mornings, not daily. Hopefully that will even out the daily variances.
It'll just move the variances to Sunday. And that's fine if you know that the scale doesn't make us lose fat, the calories do, and they're reliable to do so. So if you really don't care about the scale, then weekly is fine.
If you do want to use the scale as a final check of success, then focus on the trend and not the daily/weekly data. The data includes water volatility and it's the noise of our data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. If you're a daily weigher, I recommend using a weight-smoothing app.
Since New Years day, do you know how big your deficits have been, on the average? How many pounds should you have lost? Are you confident in your logs and, if so, why not trust them more than the water-prone scale?
I weigh daily and, between yesterday I'm 1.5 pounds lighter today but I ate at maintenance. The deltas between weigh ins are meaningless, it's the long-term trend we look at.
Be great with your tracking of calories, conservative with your workout calories, weigh often and ignore the water by graphing the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
If you drink a two pounds of zero-calorie water, you've gained 2 pounds. Your food and drink have weight. They don't, necessarily, add that much fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You're not in very much control over how-much-by-when goals -- we can call these "result goals" or "product goals"
You are in more control of consistent-behavior-weekly/daily kinds of goals.
So maybe 500g weekly would be a good vision and product goal, since you have little control over it, don't make it aggressive. Keep in mind that you're not in charge of water weight fluctuations, either. So track it as a trend. Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
But also make 2 or 3 process goals to keep your tracking tight and your moderate exercise consistent.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Wow, what a scare you had! I'm glad you're doing better this morning!
The scale reading is really is a rough idea, and it's because of hydration (mostly water), inflammation (mostly water), waste (mostly water), undigested food (mostly water), digesting food (mostly water), non-water liquids (still mostly water), and ... here it is ... water. Because of all this water, if I was graphing my weight, I wouldn't really graph my weight with a fine-point pen. I'd graph it with some kind of tip that more resembled a spray-paint spray. My true useful number is somewhere in that splotch.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Can the jumps between 338 and 342 be because of sugar and or carbs even though I don't go over my calorie limit?
Yes.
Both carbs and sodium can cause water retention in amounts far greater than fat loss -- you can eat fewer calories AND gain weight the next morning. You're doing nothing wrong -- it's just that water weight is more volatile (up and down) than fat loss which is predictable by the calories.
> I haven't been exercising much, could this be one of the issues?
No
> do you think if I started some physical activity I'd see better results?
A little but not much.
Mostly, what I'd suggest is to start tracking your weight in a smoothing app which helps null out the water effects.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Congrats on 20 lb.. NEVER GIVE UP -- you will eventually plateau for a long time and even then, don't give up -- push through it. Long plateaus happen starting once in a while in the middle of your weight loss and are very common in the last part of it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Your body is around 60% water and the exact amount varies constantly due to myriad factors. If you're weighing every day, you need some math to extract the trend from the noise. The easiest way is to get the Happy Scale or Libra app.
If you want to do it by hand, here's the formula for an exponential moving average:
> today's average = 0.9×(yesterday's average) + 0.1×(today's weight)
> 24F, CW: 215, GW: 150ish.
(don't forget your height and your daily activity blurb)
> The last time I hit the sedentary option and stuck with 1000, I gained weight.
You gained weight (temporary water weight comes and goes) but not fat. You can't gain fat on a deficit: this is why CICO works as long as you're counting well and doing it reliably.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
If it helps, I'm like you in that I doubted it would work; but I stuck through it and committed for 52 weeks and we'll see what happens -- I'll either lose weight or be a year older and have a year's worth of proof. Despite my disbelief, I lost the weight. I credit two things: the logging/tracking and the 52-week commitment that helped me not to give up when the scale doesn't move.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Anyway, at this point in the past, even a small gain, or no loss would throw me into a cycle of doubt, causing me to give up.
Commit to a time period. I committed to tracking for 52 weeks -- see what happens. All lost, none lost, or something in between, I'd have 52 weeks worth of logs to show whether it works or doesn't work. That commitment helped me get through periods of doubt, plateaus, rough days (or weekends), holiday seasons, vacations and so on. I logged it all. It wasn't pretty -- but for the first time in my life, I lost that weight and got to a goal. I weigh less now than I did at the end of the 1970s!
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Never judge your effort on any one weight-check...water is too volatile.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
If that 2 kg per week trend holds over time, then -yes- it's too fast. Add calories to aim for 1 kg per week.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Yes -- it's because the amount of salt and carbs we ate recently governs how much water we retain. You've reduced that and so you're retaining less water. It's a good sign that you're also losing fat.
We lose 4-5 ounces of fat per day, so you've probably lost 16-20 oz. worth since Tuesday (about 1 to 1¼ pounds of fat). The rest is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You're not doing anything wrong. It is the retained water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 31 | |
HEIGHT | 67" or 5'7" | 170 cm |
WEIGHT | 203 lb | 92 kg |
BMI | 31.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1834 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2297 Cal/kcal |
So he burns ~2300 a day and this week ate 4000+(6*1500)=13000 ... ~1850 per day = -450 per day deficit.
> My question is this: is this normal? Is he retaining water or some such? He's pretty down about it because he's been trying very hard this past week and going up is very discouraging.
Yes it's normal and yes it's water. He has a sufficient deficit for fat burning of nearly 1 pound per week. He was up two pounds.
You can't gain fat on a deficit. If those numbers are reasonably accurate (95%-105% of true), then it can only be water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You are CW 258 eating 1500 kcal and one 1800 kcal -- definitely you are at deficit. You are confident in your counts because of your meal prep. Conclusion: You burned bodyfat all of those days. Your scale is not showing it because WATER is the body's biggest component, and it is volatile/variable.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Keep going. You're doing the right things and the trends will prove it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I now do mine daily. I put it in the Nokia health app which syncs to both MyFitnessPal and to Libra.
When I started, I only did the new lowest weights. That way I didn't have such a sawtooth weight chart. But since using Libra, I don't worry about that. Libra smooths it out.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) and there is also Happy Scale (for iPhone) if you don't have Android.
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You need about a 3500 kcal deficit to burn 1 lb. of bodyfat. This works rather predictably. However, the body can fluctuate several pounds of water in a week. Therefore, your experience here is what you doctor-types would call "unremarkable" (in other words, this is normal and not a sign of success, failure, trouble, or anything).
Yes, "kickstarting" is silly. It doesn't work like that. There is no reset or launch button. You're an organism -- underfeed an organism and it will draw on its energy stores (in a human, that's body fat).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I’m drinking loads of water and my period is not looming - so can’t be water retention
Yes, it absolutely can. There are many responses that involve inflammation.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Nothing is wrong. Your body is only 25% fat which means it's 75% something else -- and the biggest "something else" is water and the amount of water you store various ways in your body varies a lot.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> This last week I've averaged 780kcal per day, [...] My GP knows about my weightloss plan and is keeping an eye on me! [...] down to 77.5kg from a peak last year of 95kg
Figure out your goal weight calories and eat a few hundred under that much. 780 kcal daily is not teaching you anything and is not enough food to be nourishing you (proteins and enzymes, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins in enough quantities). You don't just want to lose the weight, you want to be healthy and you want to learn how to keep it off.
So, figure out your "keep it off" lifestyle now and start practicing it -- minus 250 kcal so that you keep losing toward your eventual goal.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Congrats on 13 good days. 13/14 = 93%. That's a good score on any test!
> Now, I'm going to be 235 calories over budget even with my daily run which I plan to do after work.
If you had 13 more days like that, you'd offset enough calories to prevent a pound of weight loss. It's okay. Say it outloud, "IT'S OKAY"
> I knew when I began that setbacks were going to happen. But just not this soon. It makes me wonder how my willpower is going to hold up if I can't even make it 14 days without cracking.
No, it's very good that you cracked up right here, because now you get to keep going and see that this won't hurt you. Our efforts aren't that fragile. You have deposited 13 days worth of good habits into the good habit bank and you didn't flush them. You can and will still add to them.
This was never going to be perfect, and does not have to be. Perfect is not required. All that is required is a deficit over time.
> Maybe I shouldn't keep ANYTHING in my desk drawer from now on if I can't control my ridiculous hunger.
Maybe not. Or maybe the answer is 1 bar instead of 3 in your desk. Decisions are streaky and it's very easy for 1 yes to become 3 yesses if the bars are there, even though 1 was enough to cure your hunger. Those bars are delicious and enticing. Maybe it would have been better if it was an apple or a banana?
> I do my weekly weigh-in on Wednesday and I fear the scale will have gone up or not moved at all.
That's another thing that won't be perfect. Even if it is up, it doesn't mean you've failed at burning fat this week.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Yes, it's really a thing. No, it's problably not what's happening with your new running/walking and your yardwork unless you're feeling swole/stiff/inflammed from it.
Plateaus do happen. When the calories are right, they're caused by water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Muscle is created in a process that starts with water -- the muscle is healed weeks later and the result is a little more muscle than you had when you started. It's far from immediate -- anything you see a day or two later is water, not yet new muscle.
But -- over weeks and months -- you do see bodybuilders who weighed 165 when they started and weigh 165 now but their bodies have gone from flabulous to fabulous. They've drop a few pants sizes but they weigh the same. This is because muscle weighs more than fat -- it takes up less physical space.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 27 | |
HEIGHT | 69 in | 176 cm |
WEIGHT | 180.7 lb | 82 kg |
BMI | 26.6 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1787 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2237 cal/kcal |
To lose 1 pound per week, your goal should be around 1737 kcal/day and add a couple hundred on your exercise days.
For ½ pound per week, it should be around 2080 kcal/day. You may want to adopt the range 1750-2050 as your goal... 1750 on light days, 2050 as a fallback or for a heavy exercise day.
When your deficit is that slight, and when you are regularly exercising, water volatility will make it seem full of plateaus on the scales. You should record the readouts on the scales but not worry about the past week or two of readings themselves, just focus on the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> Male - 44 - 158lbs - BMI 25.6 - BMR 2,261 ( activity factor 1.3 )
The 1.3 ... should be 1549 x 1.3 = 2014 Calories ... you should eat significantly less than 2014 ... so probably 1600 for a 400 deficit. Then increase your activity by 100.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 44 | |
HEIGHT (guessed) | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 158 lb | 72 kg |
BMI | 25.5 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1549 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1940 Cal/kcal |
At your BMI, 500 calories of exercise a day is a lot of activity and it has to be additional activity. You played with your kids before you started losing weight, so that won't make it.
But what we've been learning here is that 80% of weight loss has to come from food.
Now exercise is great and you should keep doing it... it makes you fit and that's important to health -- at your BMI, being fitter might be your best top goal since you're not very overweight.
But if losing pounds is the goal, then 80% or so of weight loss happens by adjusting your food ... and you would be better served by a 1500-1600 goal than a 2000 goal.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> My body punished me for not being pregnant again this month and I gained 1.2lbs back during this time, I only exceeded 1250 maybe twice during this time, so why did I gain? Is this normal? I'm trying not to be so hard on myself.
I wasn't sure if this was humor or a harsh emotion. I'm taking it as harsh emotion.
First -- congrats on starting and on two weeks of CICO! Yes, it actually is going to work; as long as you're doing it, it cannot NOT work.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
And, YES, IT'S NORMAL! The female cycle is a monthly water cycle.
I know it's too early for you to be confident -- I won't tell you to fake it. What I will tell you is that you should aim for 60 days of logging before judging this ... and when you hit 60, then decide whether to aim for 100 days next. I'm betting you'll be so pleased that you'll decide to go for 100. Until Day 60 though, just keep trying to rack up those days of consecutive logging.
> I have switched most of my high calories foods like ice cream and bread for healthier and lower calorie options. Other than logging I feel I really have not changed my lifestyle much.
That could be a good thing. It shouldn't be hard! You not only want to reach your goal, you want to stay at your goal after reaching it. If you catch yourself doing something "short-term, temporary, just for weight-loss", then rethink it. It's not just about the calories, it's also about resetting habits and resetting expectations. The calories are the math of it, but the habits are what make it work without too much effort.
Keep going -- you're doing fine.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> My TDEE is 2655 kcal, so I've been aiming for 2155 or less, tracking everything religiously in MFP (weighing and measuring everything). Well...this morning, after a week of eating at at least a 500 calorie deficit (and usually a deeper deficit than that) every single day, I still weigh 320 lbs.
This is very important: you cannot maintain fat on a deficit. No matter what the scale says, if you have a deficit, you've burned fat to make up for it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I feel like I got nowhere and it was all completely pointless.
I know, but it's just a feeling and a scale -- a blunt item that weighs fat, water, muscle, bone, waste. We're only fighting fat here. The scale weighs everything, though.
Your well-kept calorie log is a much better indicator for progress in your body fat. Total up your deficit for the week, divide it by 3555, and that's how many pounds worth of fat you have burned. Anything different on the scale is not-fat -- it's water, non-eliminated waste, etc.
Keep going!
> Aren't you supposed to have a big drop during week 1?
It's pretty common, yes, but not essential.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
When you feel muscle soreness, that's inflammation. Something is swelling up to protect muscle and start the process of repair/rebuild/strengthening. Inflammation is, for the most part, a lot of water. It functions to cool and hold immobile the tissues that are being built/rebuilt. It also weighs heavy on the scale and offsets our fat losses -- it doesn't stop our fat burning, but water offsets and hides fat losses from the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Keep going and look for the long-term trends and ignore the blips. Muscles take the longest ... 3-5 weeks. It's fine. You're not wasting your time on calories, it's just that your fat losing successes are hidden by the water increases.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
If that doesn't work for you, I took a different approach you might like...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I'd use the one at home, on a hard surface, once a day, after waking, after peeing, before dressing. That way, you're being consistent.
You can't do that as consistently at the gym. You've usually had a few things to eat and drink, you've sweated more or less, you've breathed heavy (water vapor) or not.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Once daily, after waking and peeing, before dressing. I log it manually into the Nokia Health Mate app (or website) which syncs it to MyFitnessPal and Libra. Sounds complicated but it's really a quick and routine thing.
Your true scale weight is 100% of your weight. If you're 200 ℔ then 0.2 lbs. is 1/1000th of that weight that's in doubt. That's not worth chasing. Not only that, no one weigh in is meaningful because of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Hi /u/SalemMorgan ... welcome to /r/loseit.
Congrats on losing 30 pounds and keeping it off.
> I've gained 3-5 pounds in the past four days.
This is pretty normal, even when you have good control. I'd just keep tracking it to see if it becomes a trend. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I have ADHD and I don't treat it. I just know that I have it and it's fine. I've learned to cope with it. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and repetition of writing some of the same things in different ways -- such as when I help people on /r/loseit -- helps me learn and incorporate those lessons myself. (And now some people have learned something about me and why I write on /r/loseit so much.)
Don't worry that you don't have the power to stop yourself. Temptations are like that, sometimes we give in. The bigger question is whether, over time and perseverance, do you have control over your weight? Even though your control is not absolute, is it enough?
In sports, a defense works to keep the offense from scoring. This never works entirely -- an offense is going to score some points in a game or in a season. But a good defense does a fairly good job at resisting some scoring attempts by the opponent. It's not complete, but it is enough. That's what we do, too. We make and remake our habits so that our defense gets better and better.
I want to suggest that you reduce your reliance on pills for control and use your own will for control more. Do this slowly, over a month or two. Willpower is like a muscle -- you can use it a few times a day successfully. Like a muscle, if you use it constantly, it will weaken and drop. Like a muscle, if you don't use it, it will weaken due to disuse. Like a muscle, if you give it some work every day, it will grow stronger over time. Over time, a weak willpower becomes a stronger willpower.
Do not use ADHD pills to lose weight. ADHD pills should simply make you normal, and the weight-loss side-effect also wears off. It does kill your appetite for a bit but then you get used to it. If you are diagnosed, aim for normal function. Don't try to exploit it as you'll lose track of why ADHD treatment exists: to be normal. Join /r/ADHD for more support here.
> but I also get really bored before bed and supplement that with eating (not even reading or watching a movie helps, I can't finish either task even if I try and it makes me more likely to get up and grab something to eat).
Track your food before you eat it. That takes eating out of mindless response and makes it more mindful. Tracking before eating makes you think, "why am I actually grabbing this right now?"
> This is my long-winded way of saying I don't want to spend the energy convincing anyone else that I'm not depressed after trying to do that with my mom for years
Screw the label. You are definitely medicating against your behaviors with the caffeine, the sleeping enzymes, and are looking forward to possibly medicating with the ADHD drugs. Just because you want to avoid the label doesn't mean you should avoid getting the support you need to manage your behaviors.
> I got the idea cemented into my head that I need to eat at least three meals a day
I think what you need is some structure in your day. Three-a-day fits in a structured day. It isn't about eating, it's about repetition which creates productivity and clarity.
Structure may not be possible with your schedule, so maybe three-a-day won't work for you anyway. Just make sure you're eating right and weaning off using the pills to manage your food -- manage it with your logging/tracking.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Scary Scale
I've totally got a new idea for an app. :-)
Buy a scale, and realize that it's not worth the high blood pressure. Variations happen and they're fine. A gain doesn't even mean that you've overeaten, necessarily.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Rule of thumb
... 500 per day = affects speed of loss/gain by 1/7 pound per day ... 350 per day = affects speed of loss/gain by 1/10 pound per day
> For example, if you ate 1200-1300 all week and then went up to 1600-1800 on the weekend, would it impede progress significantly?
That's about 500 so you would lose fat 1/7th of a pound per day slower on those days. However, you might see something different on the scale because of water volatility.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> dipped back down again to 133.5 on the 27th, then swung back up to 138.5 this morning
C'mon. Snap out of it. Math didn't stop being a thing. It still takes overeating by 3500 to gain one pound of fat. This is water, and these are daily weigh-ins. They're not long-term trends, useful for judging our weight-loss efforts; they're just datapoints which alone are not useful.
> How do I stop myself from feeling so gross and trust that my body will return to normal when I am so disappointed in myself?
feeling ... gross ... disappointed ... panicky ... baffled ... frustrated ... awesome ... Ugh ... nuts ... these words from your post are emotion words.
Emotions are fine! Emotions are what great songs are written about! They are the glitter of Christmas, the warmth of wonder, and the glow of new snow. However, we should not pilot an aircraft, spend $1M on a new company's invention, or join the military because we're emotional. We do important things with our intelligence and in a rational state.
Emotions are like the child in our household. We are the patient parents. We love our child, train it, teach it, calm it when it's frightened, explain how the world works, and even indulge it if the situation is right. We don't let it stomp and scream until it gets what it wants. We don't let it run the household. We don't throw it the keys to the car and tell it to "go have fun and try to hit fewer things this time!"
Weight is not just about fat -- day to day, it's more about water retention. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Three week plateaus at this point are not uncommon. They do shake your faith, though.
The truth remains you cannot gain fat on a deficit. Any higher scale reading, therefore, must be water (because muscle doesn't grow that fast). Full stop.
If you're confident in your numbers, all you can do is what you are doing -- keep going. A day or two (or week) at maintenance to reset the hormones might or might not do anything, there's no way to tell. But it does increase the sodium and carbs to new levels and that means more water so be well-prepared for that -- you might be making it longer.
...and that's okay too... because plateaus are just water. You still can't gain fat on maintenance.
> But 3 weeks?
Sometimes longer. Three weeks is where it's okay to start asking questions, but I wouldn't call it a definite stall until two months.
> when it shows backwards results
It's not. Again, this is not new fat. This cannot be new fat. It's impossible. Zero chance of new fat. It's just water-based noise, a common plateau which commonly happens in the later half of weight loss. You must still burn fat to make up the difference between whatever you're eating and your TDEE -- your body temperature and your activity isn't powered by magic, they're powered by your food and fat burning. So, this is just water. Nothing to worry about, but understandably frustrating when your progress meter is the bathroom scale.
> The last 2 days I have eaten around 1000 calories
Don't do this. It makes the stress (cortisol) worse and helps you retain water.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 25 | |
HEIGHT | 61.4 in | 156 cm |
WEIGHT | 133.8 lb | 61 kg |
BMI | 24.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1296 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1623 cal/kcal |
I like 1200-1300 for a goal for you. Your weight is now light enough that your water volatility will be often "in the noise" of your fat loss rate, showing lots of plateaus.
Your best gauge of your future success is in your accurate calorie log and in your sustainable, friendly, healthy effort. To track weight, you must now turn to the trends due to the noise.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
How long ago was that 3rd opinion?
Someone with hypothyroidism properly treated with meds will lose at predicted rates.
How confident is your logging completeness (everything included - foods, drinks, condiments, cooking oils, snacks, bites, tastes, etc.) and accuracy (weighed on food scale, measuring cups, etc.)?
Most people overestimate food intake, even when they're trying to be careful or pessimistic.
> I don't really have money or time to go to a doctor/nutritionist.
Then you must not eat less than 1200 Calories a day because of nutrition. If you've been underestimating your food, this still could mean a net reduction. Do not undereat nor succumb to temptation to eat even less food and sacrifice nutrition for weight loss.
Walking is fine.
> I have been chronically constipated from birth though the brown rice and protein-heavy diet helps.
You want to weigh your fat changes, not your poop changes. So, you have to be consistent.
Only weigh yourself on mornings within 24 hours after a good poop. Weigh yourself after waking, before dressing. Do not weigh at any other times.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water/waste.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
This week is clearly a fluke but it was a due fluke -- you earned this at some point. This week you got paid.
Based on last-week's post plus this week's post, you've lost 20-21 pounds over 19 or 20 weeks. That's a fine and healthy rate. The scale isn't consistently showing our fat loss because water is a confounding factor.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
DO NOT FIGHT PLATEAUS as this is fighting your body's natural water usage which is up and down. Stay the steady course on your moderate food and moderate exercise behaviors. Let those bring your weight-losses and your goal weight closer to you.
The best fitness scheme is the one that you will do enjoyably and frequently. It really doesn't matter as long as it's not sitting or lying still.
If you're not following your doctor's advice to eat under 1200 Calories, then you should keep it up at 1200 and above. Do not undereat.
That first month had a lot of water weight loss that enhanced your totals. That's gone now so expect more normal losses that align with your intake, but it'll still be "rough average" stuff because of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> weight training 5-6 days per week with 20mins LISS post workout. Getting really frustrated the last 3 weeks.
The weight training can cause a bump here and there, especially if it's just starting or significantly changed or ramped in the last three weeks. It doesn't stop our fat loss but it hides it from the scale while our muscles calm down (inflammation in the muscles).
> started at 250. Been dieting at 2200-2400 calories for the past 7 weeks.
You've lost 21 so you're below 230 and sometimes eating 2400 -- that's not much of a cut anymore. See if you can cut down to 2000-2200 or 1900-2100 comfortably. Calories are most important, THEN protein macros (secondary consideration -- keep them highish). The other two macros are of little importance as long as they are present.
> Is there something I should be doing different to lose weight faster?
You've lost 1-2 kg in 6 weeks eating up to 1500 kcal.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 25 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 167 cm |
WEIGHT | 152.1 lb | 69 kg |
BMI | 24.7 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1448 cal/kcal; 6058 kJ | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1813 cal/kcal; 7585 kJ |
I think with your stats, I'd recommend 1350 kcal as a target for faster weight loss. It's safe, and since it's -150 from what you're currently eating, it should be comfortable.
> I'm wanting some hope that this won't stay stagnant and I will continue to lose weight.
You will continue to burn bodyfat as long as you have a substantial deficit from your TDEE (which is your BMR plus some daily movement). You burn bodyfat at a predictable rate.
However, most of your body isn't fat, it's mostly water and our bodies use water for a lot of different things, so the amount it takes in, holds, and expels is different most days.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of weight variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that. There will be good days where you weigh more the next day. There will be rough days where you eat all wrong and weigh less the next day. All because of having more water change than fat change.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
When the calories are right for weight loss, then a plateau is only about water volatility. 10 pounds in 6 weeks for someone who is < 200 ℔ is fine weight loss at 1900 kcal. Just keep going and keep tracking well.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 21 | |
HEIGHT | 72" or 6'0" | 183 cm |
WEIGHT | 191 lb | 87 kg |
BMI | 25.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1909 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2391 Cal/kcal | |
Add 10% on exercise days | 2630 Cal/kcal |
> MFP says that I need to be at 1804 calories per day to lose a pound per week [...] I've been sticking to the MFP calorie count pretty strictly
If you're confident in your counts (well measured, everything is included), then this is just a plateau. Plateaus are about water -- you are still burning fat but retaining offsetting water. When the water eventually makes its exit, your fat losses will be revealed.
The closer you are to a normal weight range, the more water volatility starts showing up in the weight graph. When we are a high fat% (I started at BMI 41), the first months are a pretty smooth glide down. The lower in our weight, the greater% we are of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> am I eating too much?
If you're eating 1800, then definitely no, you're not eating too much. But at 6'0 191℔, you could eat 1600/day if you want to. However, 1800 is not why you're not losing. You're not losing due to temporary water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Exactly. Drink a pound (16 ounces, a small tumbler) of water and not eliminate it through peeing, sweating, or breathing -- you'll be +1 pound.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Daily weight changes are much more about water than they are about calories. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
> Is every diet based on eating less than you burn
Every successful fat-loss effort is, yes, based on eating less than you burned at Starting Weight (SW) to lose weight and to continue to eat less than SW to keep it off. The amount you should eat at Goal Weight (GW) is based on your GW stats.
You can lose weight by shedding water but it's temporary.
> If I burn 250 calories 7 days a week and I'm also on a 500 calorie deficit, how much weight would I lose in a week.
You would burn about 1½ pounds worth of fat per week, which is about 700 grams of fat. However, the body's water retention is quite variable in volume and it's erratic, so you could successfully burn 1½ pounds in fat and still be up a pound or down four pounds because of that water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> Can being sick make the scale go up?
The body's response to stress, illness, or injury is often water retention.
> I actually gained 0.2
Consumer bathroom scales don't have the fine precision of expensive lab equipment. A difference of 0.2 ℔ would likely fall within a bathroom scale's expected and acceptable amount of variation.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I concur. I use a weight-smoothing app daily to keep a better eye on my trend because my water is so volatile.
Happy Scale (for iPhone) is iPhone only, though. There's no Android version of it.
Or use Libra (for Android).
http://www.weightgrapher.com/ is a website that does this.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
It affects cortisol levels which can cause water retention. It won't harm your fat loss, but it will make your scale drops less steady (more volatile).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I wonder if you have a scale like mine is sometimes: uses fakery to pretend to be very consistent.
Before you weigh in, do a test weigh holding a heavy object. Let it read you with the object. Then weigh "officially" without the object.
If I'm right, then your official weigh ins following that method won't be as consistent, but they never were. Your scale has some programming to pretend to be that consistent. Most people's weight varies a few percent across a week -- not as consistent as yours.
And if that does help, maybe you should track your weight using a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
This tends to null out the variations from daily water and scale inaccuracy and give you a more useful line to see your trend.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Your RMR is about 10% higher than your calculated TDEE, but after keto and Crossfit for a year, you're probably at a higher lean mass (higher FFM%, lower BF%) than most at your stats, too.
Even though we're not guessing well at your reason for this week's higher weigh in... a week is just a week. If your Calories are right and tight (it sounds like they are), the weight loss will follow.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Water is very volatile and it's part of the fat burning process. The fat cell holds energy called triglyceride. Water is used to extract it. That water doesn't necessarily leave right away, either.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Libra (the Android app) also tracks BF% (they call it Body Mass but it's just BF%) in the same smoothing way. With as much as these impedence scales misread water as fat, plus water's volatility, a weighted-average smoothing app really helps.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> as I definitely spend significant time resting while I'm lifting and don't know if the estimates are meant for only time spent actually doing a lift, as opposed to total time lifting(i.e. lifting, resting, stretching).
If you're on your feet moving about, you're spending at least 70 Calories an hour or so (your TDEE / 24 = 1 MET and standing and moving slowly = 2 METS). A lifting session doesn't burn much, but what it does do 6 months from now is give you a leaner body which burns more per hour every hour. So maybe count 100 or 150 max for a good lifting session and don't worry too much about it. You want to come in on the conservative side on exercise estimates.
Your taking creatine so let's stop worrying about water. We are not in a battle of water here in /r/loseit and unless you're going for really sharp competition-level definition -- most of us shouldn't be putting extra stuff into our body that our kidney/liver have to deal with. If you are going for that super-cut look, then be careful with supplements:
In the United States of America, the supplement industry is under-supervised and under-regulated. We could be drinking what's on the label, or we might be eating mere sawdust and getting ripped off. In most cases, nobody knows -- there is no supplement police! There are some good 3rd-party testing houses that can be trusted. This article http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/107141/?_r=0 does a good job explaining the problem and what USA consumers can do to ensure they're getting safe products that actually contain the ingredients on the label.
You can't gain or maintain fat on a deficit. It's impossible. So anything on the scale to the contrary is always water. Make your tracking very good and you'll know what's water and what's not.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Neither -- both -- nobody knows. They're consumer products and are subject to a bit of drift across their range. They're not designed to pass the dumbell test, even though that's a popular test around here. The difference at your weight of your body tests is 00.6%.
> . should I use my usual scale for consistency's sake
yes. Also, because of errors and water, record them on an averaging app.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water or scale mechanical/measurement errors.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
This is the one that I bought. I would buy it again if this scale crapped out.
That all said, don't worry about the little variations. This is a consumer bathroom scale, and you're quibbling about +/- 0.6 lb. variation on a ~210 pound subject. This could be that you have a softer floor, that you stood somewhere different, that your battery is weakening, that you took a drink of water -- who knows and why care? It says nothing about the trend of your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore -- aside from scale errors -- most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water or scale errors.
Congrats on starting and your 7 pound loss!!
Now, most of that is water because 7 pounds of fat would be 24500 calories burned and most people of your weight burn about 1750 a day. However, if water weight was a large part of the "last 10 pounds" you want to lose, you've lost some of that!
So the most fat you can reasonably and safely lose per day is about a seventh of a pound (500 Calories worth), between 0.1 and 0.2 pounds on the scale. Anything outside of that is a variation of water...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> Do I need to reduce my calories? Up my exercises?
You need to increase your patience and make sure that what you're expecting is right and what you're doing is safe and healthy. Do you have good goals and good plans to get there? You should be reviewing those here and/or with your doctor. If you're a teen, you need to go slow because you're still developing into an adult and your needs for nutrition and calories are higher than adults who have finished developing. We can help, but set your patience on "high" which is hard to do when you're really motivated and the goal is in sight.
> I'm scared I'm just not going to lose any more weight
We know how this works: take in fewer calories than you burn and your body burns fat to make up the difference. There's no need to fear. It's as clear as "if you drop a hammer, it will eventually fall to the ground."
You not only want to reach your goal, you want to stay at your goal and you want to stay healthy. This is why patience is required, even though you are anxious to get it done.
I hope this helps.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
How do you measure yourself?
Every two weeks, and consistently. Everyone wears clothing a bit differently so where to measure may vary. As you are a female, I'd recommend your widest bust, right at the navel, and widest hips. All measurements to be parallel to the floor. Tape is to be tight enough not to fall but not so tight that it pulls in your skin at all.
> the numbers on the scale since they seem to make me crazy
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Hope these ideas help!
This is correct, /u/im-stressed-af-fam, carbs = glycogen = water
Water binds to glycogen in correlated amounts, so when you have a high-carb thing like pasta, you'll have water retention. When you have a lot of pasta, you'll have a lot of retention. Doesn't sound like you had a lot, though.
Glycogen is temporary energy storage. Go do something physical to burn some of it off, and you should shed the water it holds.
> My weight has plateaued at around 165. Before I was eating pasta every day, 162 was my lowest. I know I couldn't have gained 3 pounds of fat in 2 weeks because the calories don't add up, but my weight won't go back down
It could have been that the 162 weigh-in was a dehydrated weigh in. Ignore any one data point and look at the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Good post.
That's one way to handle it. I wonder how many balance beam scales there are anymore?
When I started, I would only log my lowest weights, but that bugged me because it seemed I was only taking the best-case news and throwing away the averages.
I was one of those who got happy/sad/etc. at the morning weigh-in. What I did was to weigh daily and compare it to my calories -- and they'd seldom align. Over time, I became more and more emotionally settled that my daily weight changes were more about volatile water weight fluctuations than they were about more subtle fat-loss trends. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Later, I would learn about weight smoothing apps. I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android). If you have an iPhone, there is Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help people see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Apologies if you already know this but a few tips on weighing: if you want to suss out minor changes to your weight trend then the easiest way in my experience is to weigh yourself every day and put the results into an app that makes an exponential moving average, which is what people use to look at stock prices: this smooths out the day to day noise, which helps you see subtle trends
In my chart here, you can see that my actual weigh-ins are all over the place. Apparently the average adult's weight can shift up or down in a 5-pound range in a day, so you gotta measure every day in the morning, naked, after going to the bathroom but before taking a shower AND use statistical smoothing. If you were losing .3 pounds a week that's not nothing, but it would be impossible to see any other way. likewise if you were gaining .3 pounds a week that would obviously be a good thing to know as well.
android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_CA&gl=US
Congrats on your success so far, and for getting back to tighter tracking!
I'm in the philosophical (if not scientific) camp that the CO part of CICO adapts to regular exercise. That, after a while of doing it, regularly exercising isn't much for calorie burning. Our body adapts to it.
Hard work (burns calories) brings hard rest (conserves calories). No work (conserves calories) brings restlessness (burns calories). And when we work really hard -- over a 30-45 minute run -- certain of the body's systems begin to slow down to lend the energy to the muscles that need it.
This is supported by recent work on CTEE or constrained total energy expenditure and the data tends to suggest that there is a CO increase of about 10% compared to an inactive day, but then that's about it. Still, 10% of your 2700 TDEE should be 270 calories -- that's not nothing -- but most of us think we do more than that when we're regulars.
Exercising for calories almost overlooks all the greatness that exercise does for fitness and overall health -- we can't diet ourselves strong. A lower weight is only part of the health picture. We need and ought to have that strong, capable body. Only physical activity does this.
> so I switch back to my original 1,800 (which should result in weight loss) but I got on the scale this morning and I’ve actually gained a pound.
Put this on a poster near your scale as a reminder: You cannot gain fat on a deficit. That means that anything you see contrary to your well-tracked food log is due to water, waste, inflammation, or so on. You said that you know this (and I believe you) but sometimes we rationally know something but our emotions aren't yet convinced.
I use Libra so that I can look at the trend lines. It really helps. At your BMI (which is also near my BMI), our body weight trend is prone to plateau-loss-plateau-loss-plateau-loss in stair-step fashion. More so now than when we started at our SW.
For readers: Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I hope this helps. Keep going. Keep weight training, but for the fitness. Manage your weight-loss with your CI exclusively. If you start losing too fast, or are too uncomfortable (often hungry), then bump it up.
> 0.5kg.... isnt that bit much to be all water?
Not at all!
> but i cant have gained weight because i eat in a 500def the rest of the time...
You can gain weight on a deficit (water), but you cannot gain fat on a deficit. Fat is what we're fighting, so we ignore these watery fluctuations.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Working out hard -- did your muscles get sore? If they did, then they still are retaining some water (in the form of inflammation) from that work. That water helps them in the healing/building process. Hard workouts do not harm your fat-burning.
Constipation is blocked-up waste and you'll lose weight after a good poop. Constipation does not harm your fat burning.
Keep eating right -- eat fewer calories than your body needs -- and you will keep burning fat and your weight trend will be downward across the weeks. Some weigh-ins will be higher but your trend will be downward. Keep track of your weigh-ins, even these high ones. However, ignore them and look at the trend lines.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water (or poop, or inflammation). A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> you start losing water weight when you start exercising in the initial days itself
There is no exercise reason why this is true. However, if you're exercising for weight loss you're probably also reducing your eating and THAT can lead to shedding water weight: reduced food means reduced carbs and sodium -- carbs and sodium changes result in water-weight changes as well as fat-weight changes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> "Your body responds to the micro tears and inflammation in two ways that cause temporary water weight gain.
Actually inflammation (water in the muscle that is cooling and immobilizing the tissue so it can be repaired) -IS- the response to those microtears. You strain a muscle, you feel "swole" or swollen and stiff, that stiffness is water in the muscle starting the long healing and building process.
This is another reason why it's important to make sure that your food is right and tight for fat-loss, because all this other stuff can affect the same weight scale you're using to judge your fat-loss efforts. Be sure of your deficit with your food and logging and then you can relax a bit about the confusing (and confused) numbers coming off of the scale.
Make charts, look at trends, because the day to day data is a mess (due to water).
Great work so far! Yes, just keep on track and keep doing what you're doing. Unfortunately, weight loss is not linear. There are periods where your weight will stall, go up, go down, stall, go down, go up... so many factors affect our weight fluctuations. I think it's best to just accept that it will happen along the way and go with the flow.
Continue being consistent with your caloric deficit and over time the weight will come off. It sounds like you've got a good groove going with your cooking weighting, measuring, tracking, etc. Just keep that up, give it time and be consistent with your caloric deficit.
Here are some notes from the wiki sidebar that may shed some light on stalled weight:
>Why has my weight loss slowed or plateaued?
>
>If your plateau has lasted for a month or more
>
>The first thing to check is that you are restricting your intake sufficiently to lose body fat. You are either underestimating how many calories you are eating, or overestimating how many calories you burn.
>
>Make sure that you set a calorie goal that is less than your TDEE. If you use a logging app, make sure that your calorie goal has been updated to use your most recent weight. Verify that your app is close to this calculator.
>
>Ensure that you are tracking your calories. Are you logging everything you eat?
>
>Ensure that you are tracking portions correctly. It is helpful to use a food scale and/or measuring cups at least when you are getting started to get a better sense for portions, especially with calorie dense foods like peanut butter, nuts, or oils.
>
>If you are tracking exercise calories, keep in mind that it is easy to overestimate.
>
>If your plateau has lasted for less than a month
>
>It is likely that you are losing fat, but water retention after eating more than usual or other factors are keeping your weight fairly steady. This is very common since there are many factors that affect your weight other than body fat.
>
>It is not unusual to see a "whoosh" of weight loss after a few weeks of no change in weight
>
>If you have started or made changes to your exercise routine, especially adding weight training, it is very common for your muscles to retain additional water, which will temporarily increase your scale weight for as long as 3 weeks
>
>Weigh yourself daily at the same time (right when you wake up is best), and use an app such as HappyScale (iPhone) or Libra (android) to keep a moving average. This will give you a much more accurate picture than weighting weekly or monthly, where one bad day can have a huge impact on your perceived weight.
>
>It is a good idea to have goals other than your scale weight to make sure you don't get discouraged by plateaus. For example:
>
>--waist or other body measurements
>
>--body fat percentage (especially if you are doing weight training) using the caliper test or measurements
>
>--progress pictures (just go on Facebook and look at pictures from a month ago and before you started)
>
>
>
>Additionally, it is a good idea to have goals that are related to your plan, not the results, since these will be 100% in your control:
>
>--committing to tracking every day
>
>--improving a food habit (e.g. replacing a bag of chips with some baby carrots and a cheese stick)
>
>--consistently meeting your step goal
>
>
>
>As long as you don't get discouraged, the weight WILL come off.
> then it happened... weight gain while only eating 1,100 to 1,300 calories a day.
Weight gain but not fat gain. You can't gain ANY fat on a deficit, and you can't build or lose muscle that fast, so it's just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
This is just water being water. The amount in our body moves up and down to manage hydration and salinity.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
PS: Guys should be at 1500+ ... eating so light increases stress hormone cortisol and that promotes water retention. There's a ton of other reasons, some serious.
There are general minimums that are 1200 for females and 1500 for males. These are Calorie minimums for adults (teens should eat more).
These general minimums are recommended for most people who are losing weight without the guidance and monitoring of a physician or registered dietitian. They are the current minimums of MyFitnessPal which sources them to the National Institutes of Health. These minimums are too low for adolescents.
By not observing the minimums, you may become ill suddenly or over time. Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
There's a lot of additional discussion/information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here:
Be sure you only weigh at the same time and in the same conditions -- for example, only after waking, after using the toilet, before getting dressed. No other weigh-in counts as usable data due to differences in hydration.
Even then water plays a big role -- such as it does in your period. Sodium-caused water lasts a few days, too.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> just had ice cream one day and a beer the other. I don't think that's enough to gain 5 lbs
It's not.
> I currently follow CICO, but not all foods are made equal
All foods are essentially equal for fat loss. Keep tracking and track accurately and completely. Make sure no calories are leaking in unawares.
Plateaus are more common as you get to the middle and constant at the end of weight loss. Just wait them out -- they must and will break.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
You didn't eat 14000 calories so you know you didn't gain 4 pounds of bodyfat. Therefore, almost all of that is water -- and if you were at a deficit then all of that is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). That averaged trend shown by this method is the closest thing to the "real weight" that you're seeking.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Don't let emotion be the reason for doing something or not doing something. You ought to be better than that -- so get on that scale and record the number. Know that most of the increase you probably will see will be waste and water from the weekend, not new fat. You have to eat 7700 ㎉ over maintenance to gain a kilogram -- there won't be that much in an extra meal and bigger portions. 7700 ㎉ is 3.5 days worth of EXTRA food.
Feel your emotions, but do the right things anyway.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a tall glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
> Life got complicated, and in the last two years I gained back up to 184. The weight gain was a slow, up-and-down process. I would gain a few, lose a few, hit the gym regularly for a month and lose a lot, then binge the next month and gain it back + some.
Do random things, get random results. When this chapter in your weight-loss story reaches that point that all your previous chapters have reached, this time keep going so that you maintain your wins.
Maintaining is a verb, and verbs are action words. That means that you can't just reach your goal and then entirely quit. You have to keep going, perhaps at a less-intense level. It's relatively easier because you have more calories when you're maintaining.
> I'm following the CICO advice now. Since I started, I lost from 184 down to 173.6. However, in the past couple of weeks I've gained back up to 176.8.
Excellent, but the way to look at this is that you went from 185-ish to 175-ish over X weeks. We must look at trends, not individual weigh-ins. Expressing it with a point-something missing the point that fat is a small component of a normal-weight body (around a fifth of our body composition is fat) but the scale weighs the other 80% of our body, too.
We're here to control the fat part, and to reduce it by maybe only a few percent points of our body weight, but the scale weighs everything -- the no-problem parts and the excess-fat parts.
> This is despite extremely meticulous calorie counting (by weight) and starting to hit the gym again.
Our body is mostly water and it's very volatile, and weight-training causes a water plateau that lasts for weeks.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Someone who is 262 will always burn fat on 1500 Calories to make up for the caloric deficit. Even being 2 pounds heavier this morning, you burned significant fat yesterday eating 1500.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Losing 5 pounds in 3 weeks is a perfectly fine rate of fat loss. Remember that we're trying to lose fat but water can cloud the issue.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
A new workout can add pounds due to swelling, inflammation of muscles. After that calms down, the swelling and weight disappears.
> People tell me I look slimmer but I can’t tell
This is often the case. We're often the last to see it.
> I’m just ranting because it’s been on my mind and upsetting me.
Weight management is a forever endeavor. Patience and a long view are very useful.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Don't wait to hit those weights ... as we lose weight we also lose muscle and weightlifting is a good way to preserve what you still have before you lose that too. It won't hurt your fat burning, either. So since you see lifting as part of your future, start today. There are zero reasons to wait and several reasons not to wait.
> I worry that i will be putting on fat again if i start upping my calorie intake.
If you are losing at an average rate of 1 pound per week, and raise your calories by 250 per day, you'll keep losing but at ½ pound per week. However, water will still be just as volatile and will even increase due to the upward shift in diet, so it'll look on the scale as a weight gain or plateau even though you're never gaining fat, you're at a deficit and cannot gain fat.
For this reason, in /r/loseit we recommend that you add back calories when shifting into maintenance by 100-200 more daily calories, increasing each week. Slowly shift from weight loss to full maintenance. This will be less harrowing on the scale.
You'll still see fluctuations on the scale. My weight cycles as if I was a woman with a monthly cycle (I'm not)! Even with good calorie control, my weight sways up and down in a 7 pound range. (My maintenance goal range is 10 pounds ... 178-188 in the morning, aiming for 183 +/- 5 pounds.)
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Keep at it. Ignore the scale -- do the right things and the fat-burning happens and the scale eventually follows. Most of what happens on top of a scale is affected by temporary water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Plateaus happen a lot at our weight, because the body changes weight so much more so from water than fat. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
During a plateau, we should double-check our tracking and estimating of Calories to make sure we're doing it right and tight and that everything is included. If we're at a solid deficit, then we're burning fat for energy. The weight on the scale, therefore, becomes about the water. We just wait that out.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
> i wish to lose weight on the most fastest way possible!
Chop off a leg. 20 Kg down in an instant.
> i hope you guys can give me some tips on what to do becuase im really looking forward to this!
All right, let's do this.
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is around 2730kcal/day.
Typical dieting would be 2200 kcal for you. You're quite overweight, if you can take it you can push it down a bit more and you'd lose weight faster, but I wouldn't do less than 1500-1700, the energy levels drop like lead and a bit lower than that is just unhealthy, there's a base level energy a human metabolism needs. Also, the less you eat, the worse you're goign to feel.
You also need to cover all the macro nutrients like protein to preserve muscle mass (which in turn helps you lose more fat since muscle is spared in the deficit), fats for hormonal and metabolic purposes and carbohydrates to fuel muscles and brain. A 40/40/20 proportion is one i like and goes well with exercising. Would be 223gr protein, 98gr fats, 110gr carbs - every day.
Do also some moderate exercise, but don't sweat it. Do an hour of cardiovascular training like running or cycling or anything that moves a lot and spikes the heart rate, 2-3 times a week if you could. And try to walk everywhere, everyday. If you could lift, that's help too.
If you can't exercise, the math is still goign to work anyway.
You'd be losing like this some 5lb a month on 2200, and, some dieting downer feelings aside, your health would never really be at risk at all, and in fact, your vitals should improve.
Hands on!
Now what you need to do is go to Amazon, and order a digital body scale and kitchen food scale. Prefer dark? Here and here
You don't need the expensive fancy ones, you need the simplest cheapest ones. I'm convinced of two things; anyone can lose weight, and 20-30 bucks is all you need to spend to lose weight. The rest is savings because you buy less food.
You'll use the body scale every morning. You'll weight yourself in underwear right after pee and/or numero dos but before eating. And you'll log that into an app like Libra (android) or Weight Diary (iOS).
You will just step in, log the number, and absolutely give no importance or meaning at all to that number, because that number is absolutely inaccurate and meaningless. Bodies are not in a constant state, their weight is fluid. Weight loss is tracked comparing and averaging those numbers over time. Again, you'll do that after pee and before drink/eat, log the number, forget about it.
You will use the food scale along with a site like myfitnesspal, the USDA food database and the nutritional info on the package of what you eat to accurately track the kcal intake and macronutrients. You need no special pills, fancy shakes, low fat or organic anything. You need very basic regular food in the specified amounts.
If you only put 70% of the effort you'll only get 70% of the results. If you eyeball the food you'll get an eyeballed body. But if you actually do this and you are constant, you'll lose the weight in a constant downwards slide and you'll be able to actually meter it and judge the process and the stage you are in at any point. And as you lose the weight in such an orderly way and surefire way, you'll wonder why you didn't do it before.
Now you know how.
So.
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is around 2200kcal/day.
Typical dieting would be 1700 kcal for you. I wouldn't do less than 1500, the energy levels drop like lead and a bit lower than that is just unhealthy, there's a base level energy a human metabolism needs.
You also need to cover all the macro nutrients like protein to preserve muscle mass (which in turn helps you lose more fat since muscle is spared in the deficit), fats for hormonal and metabolic purposes and carbohydrates to fuel muscles and brain. A 40/40/20 proportion is one i like and goes well with exercising. Would be 170gr protein, 76gr fats, 85gr carbs - every day.
Do also some moderate exercise, but don't sweat it. Do an hour of cardiovascular training like running or cycling or anything that moves a lot and spikes the heart rate, 2-3 times a week if you could. And try to walk everywhere, everyday.
You'd be losing like this some 5lb a month, and, some dieting downer feelings aside, your healthy would never really be at risk at all, and in fact, your vitals should improve.
Hands on!
Now what you need to do is go to Amazon, and order a digital body scale and kitchen food scale. Prefer dark? Here and here
You don't need the expensive fancy ones, you need the simplest cheapest ones. I'm convinced of two things; anyone can lose weight, and 20-30 bucks is all you need to spend to lose weight. The rest is savings because you buy less food.
You'll use the body scale every morning. You'll weight yourself in underwear right after pee and/or numero dos but before eating. And you'll log that into an app like Libra (android) or Weight Diary (iOS).
You will just step in, log the number, and absolutely give no importance or meaning at all to that number, because that number is absolutely inaccurate and meaningless. Bodies are not in a constant state, their weight is fluid. Weight loss is tracked comparing and averaging those numbers over time. Again, you'll do that after pee and before drink/eat, log the number, forget about it.
You will use the food scale along with a site like myfitnesspal, the USDA food database and the nutritional info on the package of what you eat to accurately track the kcal intake and macronutrients. You need no special pills, fancy shakes, low fat or organic anything. You need very basic regular food in the specified amounts.
If you only put 70% of the effort you'll only get 70% of the results. If you eyeball the food you'll get an eyeballed body. But if you actually do this and you are constant, you'll lose the weight in a constant downwards slide and you'll be able to actually meter it and judge the process and the stage you are in at any point. And as you lose the weight in such an orderly way and surefire way, you'll wonder why you didn't do it before.
If the karate is making your muscles sore or 'swole' then you've likely lost more than 7 pounds of fat, but are retaining some water due to inflammation. These fat losses and water gains offset some of the pounds and so the scale doesn't show your true progress.
The muscle inflammation due to working out takes 3-5 weeks to finally calm down as your muscles will be less angry about the workload. As that happens, the retained water also finally goes away and your scale weight will "catch up."
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> About a year ago, I tried WW for two months and lost almost 25 pounds. I ended up falling off the wagon and gained it back.
We WILL all eventually fall off the wagon (as it were) or break a streak or derail. That something begins necessarily means that it will not continue indefinitely. It's a certainty that something different is eventually going to happen.
But, the whole streak/train/wagon thing is a misunderstanding about what's important.
We're not depending on a wagon or a rail, where falling or crashing would be a disaster. Streaks are motivating but they're neither the means nor the ends.
We're more comparable to being on a roadtrip, where a wrong turn is just a wrong turn. We don't crash the car and light it afire and live there. We just make some corrective turns and keep going. Any trip of any complexity or length is going to eventually have a wrong turn in it. They happen and we move on.
Your Points reflect your intake and output, and logging/tracking is a very important skill to usefully guide our way day to day and week to week; but what we're really working on here are repeating habits and adjusting our expectations around food. The good habits make the Points thing easier and more sustainable. The Points become less of what you're making happen and more about what's simply happening due to habit and effortless daily inertia.
When we go 16 days and screw up on day 17, it doesn't erase 16 days of repeating good behaviors that we're trying to make into habits. We might have a Points setback, but those 16 days are in the habit bank. We've had 16 days of seeing right-sized meals. And if we keep tracking through the wrong-turn, we'll learn something and do better during the next wrong turn (because that will happen too). Next time we 'fail' -- we'll 'fail better.'
So, when you break your streak, fall off your wagon, or derail your train: KEEP GOING. Get right back to it because it never was about that day! It was about the behaviors on all the preceding days and those memories are becoming muscle memories and habit memories and repeating them over and over are important. The one-day or one-weekend blip is not.
Life is not placid -- there are storms ahead. We won't handle them perfectly, but we don't have to. We just have to weather the storms and keep going.
... especially if you've been pretty good before 12 days ago, then you won't have that satisfying sudden drop of weight in your first week that you remember from previous efforts. Instead, weight loss is just slow and balky from here (due to water). Start tracking on a trend app ... use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
> At what point do I reassess my calories? Am I there yet? Ugh.
Every 10 pounds or so, or every 10 weeks.
> 33F, 5'8", 172lbs
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 33 | |
HEIGHT | 68" or 5'8" | 173 cm |
WEIGHT | 172 lb | 78 kg |
BMI | 26.2 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1534 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1920 Cal/kcal |
If you're finding 1700 quite comfortable, maybe try 1600 or even 1500. You don't want to go so low that you're risking failure, but you probably could go lower than 1700.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Going from 1200 average to 1650 will mean more salt and carbs and more water retention. You will instantly gain a lot, but it will be all water since your CW is 157 and your TDEE is less than 1650.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
The body's response to illness or injury or even emotional upset is inflammation. Inflammation is retained water. We're not here to fight water.
> I really haven’t changed my diet in the past three days at all and a 3lb gain in 3 days would take a shit ton of kcals.
Exactly. There are only a few variables here -- muscle, which changes slowly based on repetitive challenging activity; fat, which changes according to calories; and water which changes due to several factors like sodium, potassium, hydration, waste, injury, illness, hormones, and so on. Because of this, if it's not a change due to calories, it's due to water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
> I’m very prone to discouragement when the scale fluctuates slightly or my weight plateaus. So this time I decided not to use a scale at all and to only measure progress based on how I feel and what I see in the mirror. I feel like this helps me worry less about minor day to day changes and focus more on the big picture/end goal.
I had this situation which is why I switched to weighing daily and training my emotions not to feel that way. It has been successful -- and I rate that success in that I am no longer gloomy or gleeful over a weigh-in. The emotion is still there but it's much less pronounced, it's more of an inkling. My weight today is lower in my range but I'm not so carried away by that such that it changes my mood anymore.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Focusing on a trend that moves more slowly will help you not get carried away with daily weigh-ins.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
It's water.
We burn fat at predictable rates and we often have the calorie records to prove it. But our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Yes, it happens to everyone. Your body is 50-60% water by weight, and the exact amount fluctuates constantly as you eat, drink, breathe, sweat, use the bathroom, and so on. Check out this diagram — a typical body at maintenance weight will take in and get rid of more than 13 pounds a day, most of it water!
When we talk about "weight loss" we really mean "fat loss" so the water weight is just a distraction. It's not worth the effort to try and predict or control it. It's just a few pounds in either direction. Use an app like Happy Scale or Libra to smooth out those day-to-day fluctuations and you will see your long-term weight loss trend.
(By the way, that diagram also explains the mystery of "where does fat go when you lose it" — you breathe it out as CO₂, the "exhaust" from the engine of your metabolism!)
It is water but chasing it down is a fool's errand. It might have been your previous weigh in was overhydrated or this one was dehydrated.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
It lasts 3-5 weeks if it causes muscle inflammation.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Hey I'm 6'0 and 183 cm and weigh 91 kgs.
Hiya!
> > I've tried a lot for the past year to lose weight and at times I have managed to stick to my diet for 1 - 3 week periods and in many situations, I would weigh around 92 kgs and within 6 days my weight would drop to 88 kgs, and I would be able to slowly go down from there for another week before messing up my diet.
You're operating on the assumption that it has to be perfect and if you mess it up that it's all been a waste.
The reality is that this is about retraining our habits and expectations and we will mess up all along the way. Changes to our basic habits are hard and life is busy and chaotic. When you mess up, just keep going. Don't stop. When you do well for 3 days and mess up on day 4, that doesn't erase 3 days worth of better habits and better portion sizes becoming more of your new normal.
> > There was one instance where I ate a lot of food in a very short amount of time and went up to 99.5 kgs and I went down to 90 kgs in 12 days.
That's water weight. Carbs, sodium, and just plain high food volume all cause us to retain water. That's not fat gain.
> Three years ago I also went up to 99 kgs and it took me 2 months plus daily cardio to lose that.
Something stuck after that because you didn't go back to 99 kg, you're only 91 kg today. That something -- eating better since 3 years ago -- is what we're aiming for. Better habits and better portion sizes leading to getting to and keeping a lower/smaller weight.
> > But whenever I use a calorie counter or diet planner like myfitnesspal and it asks me how much weight I want to lose then how long it will take, it always says "based on your inputs you will lose 3 kgs in 2 months" even when I put my deficit lower than what is recommended
Don't do that. It's designed to help you do this safely and effectively.
> but if I discipline myself I can lose that in half a week and continue to lose more. >
That's water ... when you decrease sodium, carbs, and volume, you decrease retained water. That's not fatloss.
You have to have a deficit of 770㎉ to lose 100 grams of fat. But if you cut 770㎉ and weigh in tomorrow as 1Kg lower, that's 90% water loss. It's exciting but not the point.
> I know that water weight has a factor in this but it's happened many times before and it's irritating.
It might be irritating but our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I weigh daily but I take little stock in the latest weight. That took practice because it's very easy to get emotionally wrapped up in a result that is nearly entirely influenced by water and only a little by fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You can't gain or even maintain fat on a deficit, and if you're sure on your deficit then the scale stall is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Rule #1 -- You cannot gain fat on a deficit. CAN-NOT. Won't happen. So, no matter what number you see on the scale, you at 230℔ eating 1250 Calories did not gain any new fat yesterday. 100% definitely not fat. So you are right -- this is water retention, not fat. But sodium isn't the only cause of water retention, and we don't have to worry about water retention -- we're counting calories to slay fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Which numbers should I use to accurately track my loss?
Weigh consistently once per day: after waking and using the toilet, before dressing.
Use the overall trend. Ignore the daily data points.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You're not weighing yourself frequently enough to figure anything out.
I weigh daily, even though my weight hasn't changed much in 3½ years. I suggest that you use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Doing so will help you see trends without being thrown by the occassional water-retention spikes or dehydration valleys.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I weigh daily. I don't think about the last weigh-in at all because it's mostly influenced by water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
They're really plateaus when the calories don't explain it.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX (guess) | F | |
AGE (guess) | 20 | |
HEIGHT | 67" or 5'7" | 169 cm |
WEIGHT | 156.3 lb | 71 kg |
BMI | 24.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1504 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1883 cal/kcal |
If you're confident in your 1400 kcal, keep going. It's just water and these eventually break.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Don't go to 1200. Just increase your patience. It'll happen.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Water, almost definitely. Your body held more water% yesterday than it does this morning.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The goal of that advice is to weigh yourself at a time where the chances are for a more consistent hydration and waste level. Presumably, the lowest weight of the day is the one with the least amount of uneliminated waste in your bowel and water in your tissues.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that. One of the ways to minimize that is weighing consistently.
Another way to ignore the fluctuations is to focus on the trends: Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Yes, a sustained increase in salt can result in what looks like a stall within that week
> I just have not had a week go by where the fat loss hasn’t balanced itself out with the water weight and results still show up on the scale. Any insight is appreciated!
You're actually in the early third of your weight loss ... just wait until the final third where plateaus are more the norm than the exception! Don't fight water, it doesn't matter really. Just keep your CICO tight and keep doing it through the plateaus, the trends will emerge and hold.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You'll be glad later that you started using a weight-smoothing app now! :-)
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Law #1 of CICO -- you can't gain fat on a deficit. Cannot. CAN NOT. 100% no chance that this is a gain of fat. So? What is it? Water.
Possibly from weight training (inflammation = water). It's fine and it'll work out. Give it 3-5 weeks from starting, restarting, or ramping up a weight-training effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I'm 4 weeks behind schedule now.
Don't judge this by the scale, judge this by your calorie log. If you're supposed to have deficit X calories by Y date (but do it safely), the weight loss will eventually follow when the water balances out.
But you can't judge your weight-loss effort from the top of the scale because of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Are you using a digital kitchen food scale?
> I'm walking with my dog every day for about two hours
That's fine.
> Should I go even lower?
No
> I can't do fasting because of the meds I have to take and I can't do keto because of the veganism.
That's fine. Stick with your regular, normal food and adjust that to fit your weight-loss needs. In the long run, it's better to learn to adjust your regular foods.
> 92,1kg for the fourth time today.
This is very unusual for a few reasons. If you drink 400 mL of water, do you still weigh 92.1 kg? Shouldn't you weigh 92.5 kg after drinking 400 mL of water?
Get on the scale -- weigh -- and then get on the scale again holding 1L bottle of something. Do you weigh 1 kg more? If not, then your scale is not weighing correctly.
Let's check your calorie needs...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 31 | |
HEIGHT | 70" or 5'10" | 177 cm |
WEIGHT | 203 lb | 92 kg |
BMI | 29.4 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1711 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2142 cal/kcal | |
Recommended minimum daily | 1200 cal/kcal |
Your 1200 goal is not only fine, it's aggressive. You are definitely burning fat eating 1200. So...
Expect about 750 g per week of fat loss eating 1200. However, water will cloud that result so look at the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Big YAY for exercise, but not for weightloss.
Now exercise is great for fitness/health and we all should keep doing it... but weight loss is nearly entirely about making adjustments to intake calories ...
> I’ve been doin. CICO for a month and lost four pounds. I’ve not budged the scale for the past 10 days though.
That's pretty normal. If your CICO is tight (you're confident in your sums), then just keep doing it. (If your CICO is not tight, fix it.)
Increase your patience -- be mentally prepared for some plateaus to last 3-5 weeks when you are 12 pounds from goal weight. They do break, however, and when they do, it "catches up" to what you should be at.
When the calories are right, plateaus are only offsetting water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bones don't change, our muscles change slowly, our fat changes faster than muscle, but what we're mostly made out of is water and the amount of water we have changes daily.
You cannot gain fat on a deficit. If you had a deficit yesterday, then the 1500g you're up today is less than +0g of fat. It's all water, and maybe a tiny bit of new muscle but 99.9% water. Zero new fat -- can't have new fat on a caloric deficit. It cannot happen.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
If the calories are right, then plateaus = water weight.
> at my current state my maintenance calorie intake is around 2.5k but I only eat around 1.2k a day, however on the 8th and 12th I had 1.8 and 1.9k calories
date | kcal intake | kcal expended | accumulated difference | lbs gained/-burned |
---|---|---|---|---|
4 | 1200 | 2500 | -1300 | -0.4 |
5 | 1200 | 2500 | -2600 | -0.7 |
6 | 1200 | 2500 | -3900 | -1.1 |
7 | 1200 | 2500 | -5200 | -1.5 |
8 | 1800 | 2500 | -5900 | -1.7 |
9 | 1200 | 2500 | -7200 | -2.0 |
10 | 1200 | 2500 | -8500 | -2.4 |
11 | 1200 | 2500 | -9800 | -2.8 |
12 | 1900 | 2500 | -10400 | -2.9 |
13 | 1200 | 2500 | -11700 | -3.3 |
14 | 1200 | 2500 | -13000 | -3.7 |
15 | 1200 | 2500 | -14300 | -4.0 |
You've burned 4 lbs. of fat since the 4th. Are your logging records tight? Food is well estimated? Everything included? Then you can trust your numbers. If you're just "thinking" you eat 1200 and not logging -- you're not being very vigorous about an important part of your weight loss effort.
3555 kcal = 1 lb. of fat. If you like stones and decimal places that's about 50000 kcal per stone.
Weightlifting causes swelling and swelling is retained water. Your muscles use this to heal (the stiff and swole feeling immobilizes the tissue while it heals, then you get used to that and it doesn't hurt as much but the water says for 3-5 weeks).
Don't worry about the scale, worry about your Calories. That's the fat-burning stuff and that will -- sooner or later -- be reflected on the scale. Water is short-term and hard to predict. Fat-loss is slower and predictable.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> Seriously, what am I doing wrong?
You're forgetting that your body isn't mostly fat. It's mostly water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Fat loss from fat-burning is predictable from the calorie deficit. But water can go up on a good fat-burning day and make it look like we overate even though we didn't! We weigh what we weigh, water and all, so we have to ignore today's weight on the scale (be it high or low) and always look for the trend which is made up of all the weigh-ins.
To do this, use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
That's two questions ... and a shitty title. Do better my friend -- this is Reddit. Quality counts.
> I'm not sure why but when, I start counting calories and going for 1800 calories a day i rapidly lose weigt. I don't understand why, I go from 89 kg to 85 kg in the span of a few days, but after that i lose weight with somewhere around 0.7 kg a week. And that's where I'd like it to be. Any reason I'd rapidly lose 4 kg in a few days?
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> the main problem I'm facing while dieting is my lack of willpower. I just randomly snap and go and eat complete garbage and after that I'm angry at myself for not stopping.
Track your food every day, even when you're not behaving like you intend to behave. Don't "feel bad" or be guilty or whatever. We are humans and life is chaotic (and delicious). We have to stay informed to stay in our efforts and when we quit logging, we're basically giving in to those emotions for a while and not being rational until we snap out of it.
Log everything, always, no exceptions. I'm not saying not to have the cupcake or whatever; I'm just saying to log it if you eat it. Let the information be your rational guide, a light to your path. You're brain will do the rational thing more often if it has the information.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
All of these devices will have a degree of error, usually less than 1% of your total actual weight. Add to that the fact that there is more water than fat in what we're weighing: our bodies.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Water volatility plus scale/weighing errors = a fair amount of fuzziness in the daily scale.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water and errors.
With an app like that, you can buy any cheap scale that you find. The trend line will work it out.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 30 | |
HEIGHT | 64" or 5'4" | 163 cm |
WEIGHT | 191.6 lb | 87 kg |
BMI | 32.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1574 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1971 Cal/kcal | |
Recommended Minimum Daily | 1200 Cal/kcal |
Since you are confident in your food log counts of 1200 per day, then this is just a blip. Most of us wouldn't count a week as a plateau but there is no official number.
Your 1200 intake is definitely much smaller than your 1971 exertion. In order to keep living (warm body temperature, liver that works, brain thinking, other basal and voluntary movements), you are burning 771 calories of bodyfat to make up the difference. Any difference you see in the scale is just water volatility.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> I can lose at about 1200 calories, anything more than that and I seem to gain.
That's because of water -- and your lifting even makes that data more noisy.
Yes, you should trust TDEE unless you have a diagnosis of PCOS (especially with insulin resistance) or take certain medicines daily. In that case, your TDEE might be at wide variation.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 19 | |
HEIGHT | 61" or 5'1" | 155 cm |
WEIGHT | 145 lb | 66 kg |
BMI | 27.4 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1370 Cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1712 Cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 1918 Cal/kcal | |
Active TDEE (BMR*1.6) | 2192 Cal/kcal | |
Very Active TDEE (BMR*1.8) | 2466 Cal/kcal |
... yeah, 1200 is fine for you. Don't overestimate "just to be safe" ... just estimate well. This is a long effort and so make it comfortable.
Your lifting heavy is going to interfere with your scale numbers -- don't worry, your calorie performance is what burns the fat. Lifting does not hurt fat burning at all so keep doing it. You're burning the fat and once your body calms down from the workouts, the scale data will be less noisy.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Daily and I focus on my calories, not my scale weight. This took some retraining on my part, because it's the scale that gets us started and it's the scale that usually is the goal. But -- day to day -- it's the regular and daily calories that make that big change happen.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Yeah, that's normal with a period, but I can prove it's not a fat gain... you were eating at a deficit! Right?
You can't -- can not -- gain fat on a deficit. 0% chance that any of that weight gain was fat. Muscle doesn't happen that fast. Bone is stable. So all that's left is waste and water -- two temporary things that we don't worry about.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I do it daily... I record it on Nokia's site and it syncs it to Libra, a weight-smoothing app, and MyFitnessPal. (see link and thanks to /u/cjottawa for this).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Hey /u/brotasticFTW ... welcome!
You are making sense.
Your powerlifting really messes with the water -- keep doing it, it's great -- but as you know, water is 60% +/- 10% of our body composition. That +/- 10% is volatile from hour to hour, day to day, week to week, (and month to month in females).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You lost 2 lb in 1 week at 1600. I would stay right there for two months and see what the continued rate is. Log/track food accurately every day, even if it is 100% repeated meals. High confidence is required for actionable data. Don't presume you know what 2 oz. or 56 g or 250 mL is even if you are a nurse -- professionals can't do this without tools, we can't either. We also have portion creep -- each repetition getting more and more optimistic about how much ice cream we dish out to ourselves. So weigh that food, even if it feels redundant.
> I am just so scared I will do it incorrectly and lose all my hard work.
You won't. If you accidently go above your maintenance by FIVE HUNDRED CALORIES and do that for ALL SEVEN DAYS IN A WEEK, you'll only gain 1 pound of fat. So, disaster is not looming.
You don't need to reverse diet to reset your metabolism. That's not really a thing. A lot of bro-science and "starvation mode" belief out there.
If you're plateaued for 60-90 days, going to maintenance for a week or so might help restore your hormone levels so that your body doesn't hang on to water as a stress response. I wouldn't suggest it until 2 months and unless you had high confidence of your intake accuracy.
Reverse dieting -- incremental increases to your maintenance -- is the way to do it. If your weight continues at 1 lb. per week, you need to increase intake by 500 Calories. Do this 100 or 200 at a time, with about four days between increments up. Increases in intake mean increases in water-retaining sodium and carbs, and that causes the scale reading to jump a bit. We get nervous at those jumps but they're only water. You can't gain fat on maintenance or a deficit. But that's the key number
500 Calories = 1 pound per week average
If you're losing 1 pound per week, your deficit has been averaging 500. That doesn't mean that your deficit last week was 1000, because it only was a week and water is volatile. You have to use the trend and that requires a longer sample period.
Make sense?
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
No one reading means anything, because water is our major component. Because of that, 1 kg overnight is meaningless to fat loss.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> How exactly do you lose weight outside of going to the toilet?
Exhaling. You can lose a kg overnight just because of the water vapor in your breath.
For best results, weigh yourself consistently: in the morning after waking, before dressing, after using the toilet.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
That should link you to it in the play store for android.
My recommendation this week is the app Libra for Android. This is a weight tracker that smooths out all your day-to-day water weight fluctuations and shows you the general trend your body weight is moving in.
Here's a screenshot of my data from the Spring Into Summer Challenge, where I lost about 10lbs in 10 weeks:
http://i.imgur.com/eBwrb5W.png https://imgur.com/DGrTsyi
And here's what it looks like a little more zoomed out (check out my month-long plateau turning into a downward trend again! wooh!):
http://i.imgur.com/rBDArpR.png
The blue line is a guide showing where my weight should be to get to my goal (132lbs) by April - roughly 1lb per week. At the moment it doesn't look like I'm gonna hit that date, as you can see, but you can revise it or remove the guideline entirely if that bothers you. There are tonnes of ways to customise the chart to suit your preferences.
I weigh in almost every morning, before eating or drinking anything but after using the bathroom. I've discovered that my weight tends to fluctuate up a little more over the weekend, then drop down again a bit throughout the week - Fridays are usually my lowest, which is great for the challenge!
I'm a data-lover so if you are too, or if you get stressed out weighing in once a week and seeing the numbers jump up and down, the "smooth general trend" principle of Libra (and the similar app Happy Scale, for iPhone) is highly recommended.
What's special about October 5th?
My advice is to buy yourself a food scale and weigh everything you eat, and record it all in my fitness pal (or similar). Also, if you ever decide to weigh yourself daily use a graphing program like http://www.weightgrapher.com/, or http://happyscale.com/, I have libra. They help smooth out the ups and downs and keep you from feeling like all your progress is ruined because you ate a lot of salt yesterday.
Good job everybody! Although I'm actually up a couple pounds from the beginning of the challenge (I had a couple of, let's say, challenging weeks) I'm down 1.2 pounds from last week, so woo!
Technology... I love me some technology. Here are the apps that I use or have used to help me keep on track.
Libra Android: Fantastic weight tracking app. You can set it up to remind you to weigh yourself as often as you want, and it has a beautiful, customizable chart of your progress. You can also export and import data.
Endomondo Android|Website: Activity tracker. Integrates with MyFitnessPal. Does what it says it does. I haven't tried using any of the social pieces though, so I can't comment on those.
MyFitnessPal Android|Website: The Big One. In case you live under a rock and haven't heard of it before: you use this to keep track of what you eat, as well as weight and other body measurements. Has good social features and integrates with a lot of other apps, but if you're looking for forums look elsewhere cause MFP's aren't very good.
LoseIt Android|Website: A good alternative to MFP. I used this for awhile when I didn't have a good phone because I like the web interface way more than MFP's. I like MFP's app more than LoseIt's though.
Fat Secret Android|Website: Another alternative to MFP. I've never used it before but I know that a lot of people really like it.
Noom Android: I used this for awhile and I like it, but it just wasn't quite for me. It's kind of like a personal fitness and wellness assistant, giving you tips and encouragement throughout the day to help you stay more active and eat healthier. Free or paid.
The Hacker's Diet Website: Combination of a book and tools to help you lose weight. Libra (the app above) uses charts that are based on the Hacker's Diet. I read part of the book and enjoyed what I read but never finished, but I used the web tools for about a year and really like them.
Fitbit Website: A wristband you wear that keeps track of how many steps you take and connects to your phone. I've never used one but everyone I've talked to has loved it.
If anyone has any other suggestions let me know!
I use Libra.
It's an Android app called Libra.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
I like it because it's simple.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
I know Libra will take multiple weights per day and average them.
Personally I only count my first post-pee naked just-awoke weigh-in. This is the most consistent state of our body each day (and even that is quite variable). I see no value in other times of day because of water weight variations.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 27.5 | |
HEIGHT | 65" or 5'5" | 164 cm |
WEIGHT | 168.6 lb | 77 kg |
BMI | 28.4 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1492 cal/kcal; 6242 kJ | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1867 cal/kcal; 7811 kJ |
Your TDEE is probably about 1867 so 1425 is a good moderate goal and should result in 1 kg loss every 17 days or so.
A solid rule that you should remember is that our bodies absolutely cannot gain any fat on a dietary deficit -- so if you're eating under 1867 and getting a higher number on the scale, it's not new fat at all. It's temporary water, or waste, or whatever.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 300 g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Yes, very typical. If you're on a deficit, you can gain no fat so what you're seeing on the scale is the normal but sometimes rhythmic and sometimes not fluctuation of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I weigh daily. I've been doing this for 7 years ... six maintaining. This year I'm trying to lose 5-10 pounds before my next doctor's appointment (I'm expecting him to lower my weight goal). But, suffice it to say, I have 7 years of weight data. I ought to be used to it. I AM mostly used to it.
But trying to lose weight this year, two weeks ago I started a 10 day plateau. My eating and activity were all on point, and I'm an excellent logger and calorie estimator, but water does what it does and it doesn't tell me why. My last three days have been downward and today is my lowest weigh-in in over a year (again, I changed nothing, it's just water doing mysterious water things).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I’m trying to lose 2-3lbs a week over the next 3-4 months and I’m wondering how feasible this is. Any tips on how to do it successfully?
Doable. You're 256-260 so 2.5 to 2.6 pounds a week average would be as fast as you ought to try to go (try to keep it roughly around 1% of bodyweight per week). This slope will flatten as time goes on and you become lighter. You could probably lose 30 pounds in the next 3 to 4 months, with well more than half of that in the first half of the time and the remainder losses being slower in your waning weeks of that time frame.
That all said, what's going on then in 3-4 months? If you return to your previous habits, you'll return to your previous weight. So have a plan that take you into your future without giving up the hard-fought progress you've made.
I've had a good week calorically, enough to lose 2 pounds every 3 weeks, but my weight this past 10 days is in a plateau.
I'm an excellent calorie tracker. Plateaus, in our case, when the deficit is right, is simply about water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Over the course of a normal day, the average person takes in and gets rid if 12.5 pounds of stuff -- most of it is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
If you're eating around 1650 then whatever you're seeing happening on the scale isn't ANY new fat. I can't imagine the math that would calculate you at 1800 and even if that's right, you'd have to eat higher than that to gain fat.
You're still learning this but your skills are only going to get better from here as is the confidence in your tracking. I'd encourage you to keep tracking as you are, learning how to use that food scale.
When we eat fewer calories than our bodies burn, we cannot gain or even maintain our bodyfat. It has no choice but to release its energy to fill in the gap that we create (the deficit). However, that is a water process -- the cell is hydrolyzed. Water is involved in most every part of our body and is used by many of the body's systems. When we're a healthy weight, about 60% of our body's composition is water. Because it is used for so many things, our water weight fluctuates by a few pounds every day and sometimes in arcs that lasts several days to over a week.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I really, really want to be successful this time
Do not quit. Fail, and learn. That's how we figure things out. If you're like me, you've maybe made the mistake of failing and quitting in the past. The main thing I've done this time is to not quit, and as a result, I continued to stay on course through the plateaus (which get longer and more frequent as you lose) and lose over 100 lbs and keep them off for 6+ years.
> my BMR was ~1500kcal (which, is that low btw?)
It's about 200 lower than I expected, which may mean slower weight loss by about 1 pound every 17 days. In a month where you might expect to lose 6-7 pounds, maybe you lose 4-5. That is, if the scale is right.
Libra is the equivalent to Happy Scales as far as I know.
At your job and exercise, you should be losing an average of about 2 pounds per week on 1500 ㎉/day. However, because of hydration differences due to several factors, some weeks will be 4 pounds lost and some weeks will be 0 lost.
As an RN, you've certainly tracked what a patient's output and intake are. The following will resonate with you fairly well:
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I weigh daily for the data point. I know that a weigh-in is totally meaningless, but the data is needed for the trend. It's the trend that matters.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Dont know if this solve some of the problem
​
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
IOS:
Plateaus come more often as we get closer to our right weight. This is because we are carrying a higher percentage of water in our composition (less fat%, more water%) and water fluctuates in cycles and responds to imbalances and hormones.
Focus on the trends. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (at normal weight, give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Best way is to track in such a way that water doesn't affect your mood/security.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
SUGGESTION: Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Use that "trend weight" line created by these apps to determine how well your efforts are proceeding. Even it is affected by water cycles, but not as badly as the day-to-day.
To gain 5 pounds of fat, we have to overeat by 7000 Calories over maintenance.
Your daily calorie goal is a weight-loss calorie goal so it's 500-1000 under maintenance per day. Going over by a little bit still leaves you at a deficit.
You cannot gain any fat -- at all -- while on a deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
At 1200 your TDEE is about 2000 and your deficit is 800, which would provide for a loss of a pound every 4.5 days or so
... it's been 60 days and so you should be down about 13. 5 pounds and you're actually down about 17 so you're ahead of the game.
You should stay above 1200 even if you gain. Going under 1200 isn't an option for any reason other than your doctor is now actively involved.
Your exercise is light to moderate and you're improving. Your calories are right. Keep good track and keep going. This is working.
It gets slower, not faster, as time goes on. Often we want to increase our intensity because we fear it is failing. What we ought to do is increase our patience because our biggest risk is quitting and surrendering.
Remember that the goal isn't to reach gw130. It's to STAY gw130 FOREVER. That means quick isn't really important -- longevity is important. There will be months and years at gw130 with no progress at all, because the goal is to stay 130. So when the scale stalls or goes up for some reason (water, especially for females), patience is the prescription, not increased intensity.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Congrats on a good start and your good progress!
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
An increase like that is almost entirely water, from the carbs and sodium in those nachos.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
/u/corwe's explanation -- people are different -- is essentially right.
The basic BMR formula of Mifflin-St. Jeor is correct in that it produces a bell curve where about two-thirds of us fall within 7% of its prediction; and 95% of us are within 15% of its prediction. If you do not, you're one of the 5% (the most likely culprit is your thyroid).
If your BMR is right but you're a very still person, you might fall below the basic activity level even for a sedentary person: 25% of BMR. This means you never fidget, you don't get up and move about your house or office -- you're nailed to your desk, chair, couch, or bed -- everything within arms reach. Your TDEE could be off by 15 or 20% due to that.
The average rate of weight loss across several weeks when dieting exposes your deficit and 500-1000 Calories (1-2 pounds per week) is safe.
I can't overstate the impact of water on the daily scale. Even at 270, water is your biggest factor for differences in daily weigh-ins. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. You must follow the trends across weeks, not days.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
Yes, but don't miss my point. You're not gaining fat, you're gaining water, probably. We can gain water over weeks due to hormones increasing (especially stress hormones). How has your sleep been?
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
It's still there.
Just double-checked the google store to make sure. It's listed as Libra - Weight Manager.
It's called Libra (Android link).
Thanks.
Your doctor's advice is in the right zone for your stats and activity; and plateaus are just about water fluctuations and are much more frequent at your current weight than they are of someone who is decidedly overweight or obese.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> It’s possible that I am overestimating my caloric intake (1800 kcal/day), but not so systematically much that over a month I underestimated by 15,750 (monthly goal of 6 lbs, minus 1.5 lbs is 4.5 lbs, times 3,750 kcal/lb of fat).
You should use 3500 ㎉/℔. But even more importantly, you should be tracking/weighing your food closely if you're not already doing that (you sound unconfident in your estimates). We're never 100% accurate but we can get into the mid 90s and that's good enough to remove most doubt.
> I also noticed an interesting seasonality where my weight goes up during the week, probably because of water held in damaged muscle cells, and resets down over the weekend when I rest.
Exactly. Also happens with a good salty meal, sunburned skin, mental stress (cortisol), and so on.
> I also don’t understand why it’s so difficult for me to lose weight and it’s really frustrating.
Consider this training on keeping it off. Yes, this right now for you is even harder than keeping it off, but keeping it off is forever and so forever patience is required. Remember that any time you feel frustrated about lack of speed of results -- a future is coming where it will take forever to get no results!
Summary: Tighten up your tracking, use a weight-smoothing app to see your trends and feel less impacted by plateaus/fluctuations.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
> I did successfully lose 15lbs and I’ve managed to keep that off, but I have 10 more to go to reach my goal, and I don’t feel like my goal weight is exceptionally “skinny”, it’s just what I think will be healthy.
... and that is?
Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
As for cutting through the nonsense, the rest-of-our-life weight is going to result in the rest-of-our-life lifestyle. If some webpage or technique or book or something is leading you to do something that simply won't work with YOUR life, YOUR traditions, YOUR work, and YOUR friends/family -- then pass it by.
Weight management is about Calories IN being in balance or imbalance with Calories OUT over the long term. If your Calories IN is less than your Calories OUT and you "go right back up the next week with almost identical diet and activity," then either it wasn't actually identical or it is just a water fluctuation. We can't gain any fat on a deficit -- so if we're very confident of our deficit, then we can be equally confident that any gain we see is just water doing its water thing.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
> I have added weight lifting back in the last 6 weeks or so.
Starting or ramping weight training causes water weight gain due to the muscle inflammation (that swole feeling) which lasts about 3-5 weeks. By week 6, it's usually starting to calm down and the scale is starting down.
But the calorie cycling on weekends will also have you extra water heavy on Mondays due to the increased sodium/carbs and just food volume.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
My suggestion: Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
During this time, tighten up your logging. Buy and use a digital kitchen food scale. Make sure everything gets counted: cooking oils, condiments, vegetables, salad dressings -- nothing is truly free except water.
If after four more weeks your weight isn't moving, drop your calories another 250-500 and see if that gets it going (not going below 1500 though). Nobody 290 should be at 1500 for long, you may have to do that every other day. 1500, 2000, 1500, 2000. If that's what it takes, I agree that you should have your metabolism checked and look for causes. A solid, confident food log will be an asset into that decision.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The popular apps seem to be Libra or HappyScale
I have also written about how to calculate it manually here.
Yeah, I think I'll get to a gym eventually, but right now I'm just sticking with things like squats, lunges, push-ups, etc. My arms are so weak that's already a good start :)
> Using myfitnesspal I have my daily calorie goal and looked online for weekly bmr-3500, first week I hit it and saw around the predicted weight loss. 2nd week now out the way, I'm not seeing the results despite sticking to the weekly target and adding some more walks in (which I'm not adding to the calorie target)
If you eat salty on the days before your 2nd week's weigh in, that's just one reason that this can happen. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> So.. if I keep within my calorie count could it be the type of food ? Ie I may have pizza but then apart for a couple of apples have nothing else which does leave me in the calorie target. How big an issue is this provided I stay within the calorie target ?
Aside from the water weight, which is not fat and is temporary, the type of food doesn't matter at all.
> might zero calorie drinks be the issue? How much of an impact are they on weight rather than be real health? (Still getting 3L+ water a day)
No problem at all.
> Started out 12-8 intermittent fasting on Monday hoping to see the results return to what I saw in the first week, would that help if my exercise during fast time is only a 20 min high incline walk, or would it only impact if I did weight work in the fast time?
The first weeks are almost always fastest because the changed diet has less volume, sodium, and carbohydrates in it, meaning less water retention. BMR minus 3500 for a week should have resulted in 1 pound weight loss and you lost two, right? One of those two was water, provided that your tracking was accurate.
If you want to run your stats and targets by me, I can help validate your assumptions. Also make sure that your quantities/volumes are well tracked (e.g. a digital kitchen food scale is an excellent tool if you're on the fence about getting one -- get it, you'll love it).
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
Congrats on maintenance!
You cannot gain any fat at all on a deficit. That's a solid rule.
But water is most of our body and the amount we retain from day to day is very volatile. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> i eat the same food for most days so i know that im not over eating.
You're better than I am. If I'm not logging, a lot of extra calories sneak in beneath my notice.
Plateaus are a real thing. If your calories are less than you burn, you still burn fat. However, water change is much more pronounced and volatile than fat loss.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
If you want specifics, we need specifics. Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
Also include how much you're eating and tell us about your workout.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+����+TOPS
Did you weigh at the same time of day?
Use this data in a charting app so you can see the trend. Water and scale usage errors, inaccuracy, imprecise granularity, will cloud the issue.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see your trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of these problems.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[Maintaining&nbsp;3¾y], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Sure, no problem. Now what you need to do is go to Amazon, and order this two
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bathroom-GreaterGoods-Precision-Measurements/dp/B01929N69G/
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Kitchen-Scale-Food-Multifunction/dp/B01JTDG084/
You don't need the expensive fancy ones, you need the simplest cheapest ones. 20-30 bucks is all you need to spend to lose weight. The rest is savign because you buy less food.
You'll use the body one every morning. You'll weight yourself in underwear right after pee and/or numero dos and you'll log that into an app like Libra.
You will just step in, log the number, and absolutely give no importance or meaning at all to that number, because that number is absolutely innacurate and meaningless. Bodies are not in a constant state, their weight is fluid. Weight loss is tracked comparing and averaging those numbers over time. Again, you'll do that after pee and before drink/eat, log the number and forget about it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=es
You will use the food one along with a site like myfitnesspal , the USDA food database and the nutritional info on the package of what you eat to accuretale track the intake and macronutrients. You need no special fancy piils, shakes or low fat or organic anything. You need regular food in the specified amounts.
If you only put 70% of the effort you'll only get 70% of the results. If you eyeball the food you'll get an eyeballed body. But if you actually do this and you are constant, you'll lose the weight in a constant downwards slide and you'll be able to actually meter it and judge the process and the stage you are in at any point. And as you lose the weight in such an orderly way and surefire way, you'll wonder why you didn't do it before.
The body-weight exercises, have they pushed you to the point where you feel the workout in your muscles?
> Starting weight was 67kg (147Ib) BUT NOW 5 days later I’ve gained 1,6 kg!? I have no idea how this has happened
To gain 1600 grams of fat, you'd have to overeat by 12320㎉ in those 5 days. That's a lot of overeating and you'd know if you did it. If you ate lightly because you're calorie tracking, then you know it cannot be any new fat. Solid truth here: you cannot gain any fat on a calorie deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Because you're worried that you're not losing weight. The differences in weight on scale is the best way to know, not what you think you're losing.
A good weight chart will help you see your trends clearly. Suggestion: Use an app that takes some of the daily water noise out of the picture.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Make sure your logging/tracking is complete and accurate. Use a digital kitchen food scale; they are awesome in this effort.
Our efforts are about fat loss, which we often think of as weight loss and -- the long trend -- is weight loss. However, day to day and even week to week, water can create noise in the data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> - Do sugar free soft drinks have any effect on weight loss or is the consumption of them not an issue?
No issue by the calories. They do answer your sweets-seeking urges so if you want to tame those, you might someday decide to seek less-sweet foods and drinks. But, no issue at all for weight loss by the calories.
> - Does caffeine have an effect on weight loss?
None that I know of.
I lost all my weight and have kept it off, all the while drinking embarrassing amounts of diet soda and coffee.
> - Does drinking more water have a beneficial effect on purely weight loss, other benefits aside?
Not really, by the numbers, but definitely by the fact that a consistently hydrated body is going to have a more consistent experience across weigh-ins. You're also less likely to confuse the urge of thirst as an urge of hunger, which is common.
> - Does stress have a negative effect on weight loss?
Yes, in water weight. Water retention is one of the body's responses to stress and strains and illnesses. Cortisol, a stress hormone, is correlated to water retention.
Also yes in behavior as we frequently respond by eating to soothe our difficult emotions.
> I exercise daily (20 minutes walk) and do some weight lifting at home twice a week (2.5kg dumbells, 12 reps each arm, 3 sets each)
That's 140 minutes walking, which is 10 minutes less than the Heart Association recommends for moderate exercise. I'd like to see you grow that a bit.
Consider adding other at-home calisthenics to your good bicep habit. See the /r/bodyweightfitness' own Recommended Routine for some ideas for shoulders, chest, back, legs, core, triceps, and so on.
None of this is for weight-loss, but fitness is a very important part of health, too.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
CICO rules for fat gain/maintain/loss but doesn't speak to water which is more unpredictable.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I use Libra every day since like 5 years ago https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra is free
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Follow that guide.
> I don't love scale stuff because I feel like it just measures me differently if I step on it slightly differently than last time or if I feel super bloated randomly.
That happens. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. It will also help null out the odd errors from a bad scale reading.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Sounds pretty good for trusting 1300-1400 then.
Are you using a weight smoothing app?
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Does the doctor want you to lose body fat now?
> My metabolic rate is in the normal range.
Other than the thyroid test, how do you know? Did you have an RMR or similar test?
> I started CICO 51 days ago. My daily allotment they've granted me is 1860 -- my TDEE is 2253 and my BMR is 1959. I've set MFP to lose one pound a week. In these 51 days I've lost a total of four pounds -- sometimes fluctuating nearly to my starting weight.
Fluctuations don't count. Trends do. If you were to chart the trend, does it plausibly say -4 in 51 days? If so, go with it.
I'd like you to plot it in http://www.weightgrapher.com/ or one of the phone apps if your a phone user: Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). Put your historical data in there and then use the trend weight and not the datapoint (latest weigh in).
> Some of that is also fat, correct?
Correct.
> And the scale will slow down to reveal smaller losses which are actual fat losses?
Several days after you start, yes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I weigh daily too.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Your body is 50-60% water by weight, and the exact amount fluctuates constantly as you eat, drink, breathe, sweat, use the bathroom, and so on. Check out this diagram — a typical body at maintenance weight will take in and get rid of more than 13 pounds a day, most of it water!
When we talk about "weight loss" we really mean "fat loss" so the water weight is just a distraction. It's not worth the effort to try and understand or control it. It's just a few pounds in either direction. Use an app like Happy Scale or Libra to smooth out those day-to-day fluctuations and you will see your long-term weight loss trend.
(By the way, that diagram also explains the mystery of "where does fat go when you lose it" — you breathe it out as CO₂, the "exhaust" from the engine of your metabolism!)
1600 is fine, with 1800 as a fallback ... like you said 2500 is your TDEE so that can be a 'last gasp' fallback but remember that going from 1600 to 2500 is going to bring on some water weight (when you're eating 50% more sodium and carbs, you're going to have 50% more water retention).
Track with trends... Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water, strains from work or gym, etc..
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I don't think I'm losing water weight
Why do you think it's not water weight? It's very common to lose a lot of water weight in the first two weeks of a diet, since you have less food and waste inside your body.
> (but i have no clue what that actually is)
Your body is 50-60% water by weight, and the exact amount fluctuates constantly as you eat, drink, breathe, sweat, use the bathroom, and so on. Check out this diagram — a typical body at maintenance weight will take in and get rid of more than 13 pounds a day, most of it water!
When we talk about "weight loss" we really mean "fat loss" so the water weight is just a distraction. Use an app like Happy Scale or Libra to smooth out those day-to-day fluctuations and you will see your long-term weight loss trend.
It's fine. There are so many factors which can cause it. I have seen jumps of 4 pounds and I don't have a menstrual cycle.
This is why I recommend apps like Happy Scale and Libra. The averaging means you see steady progress rather than day-to-day jumps. I use a similar method and you can see my graph here.
> I weigh myself every morning and average out the readings week each.
There are excellent tools for this ... a weight-averaging/smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
> My split is 165g protein, 185g carb and 39g fat.
Focus on one -- and based on your effort, the only one that matters is protein. Let the rest float. I think 165 is highish but follow your trainer's guideance. Anything that is too much is going to be converted to energy and, unless you have some problems with your liver or kidneys, that's fine. It won't hurt anything. If you do have medical issues, don't overdo the protein until you've cleared it with the doctor.
Congrats on your cut. Lift well. Have good form. Get your goal!
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
It's a little wordy but maybe I'll refine it in time...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, activity, etc. etc. <em>The Hacker's Diet</em> has a nice diagram from some NASA research — they concluded that a body at maintenance weight takes in and expels 13.5 pounds per day, most of it water! Most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
If your calorie tracking is tight and you should be losing weight by those numbers, then just keep doing it. The plateau will break and your weight loss will "catch up."
Plateaus are either about sloppy calorie accounting or water retention. If the calories are good, then the only reason left is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I have a goal to get to 150 lbs in at least 6 months.
That's 1.8 pounds a week -- very difficult, especially as your weight gets lower and lower. But what if you were 160, wouldn't it still have been worth doing? And you don't want to just be 150 for the wedding -- you want to be 150 after that as well -- so better to use this time to be both safe and sustainable. (Don't cut so irrationally that you don't learn lessons on how to keep it off, or that it is unsafe.)
> Sorry for the rambling post...it's my first lol.
Welcome!
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Water retention changed between weigh-ins.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I weigh. I measure. I write down everything I eat.. Every single thing. Some days I eat only 600 calories. Once a week I have a big calorie day. But here's the thing, it averages out to 1350 a day.
Unless you weigh very-very little, then your trendline will show a weightloss. Not every weigh-in will be a drop, but the trend will be downward.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Libra is similar but not quite the same.
If you're confident in your calorie estimates, than any scale news to the contrary is always water. The source of the water can vary, but water, fat, muscle, bone (in that order) are pretty much what makes up our body's weight volatility/variability. Bone changes glacially, muscle very slowly, fat about 4-5 oz. per day at 1000 deficit, so water is all that is left.
You lost almost 40 pounds in 30 days; very strong sign of positive change but -- for the same reasons above -- most of that had to be water. Don't mentally bank that as fat lost because it wasn't. Figure about 3-3½ pounds a week at your size as fat loss and the rest was water. Knowing that means you'll mentally allow water to adjust upward when something changes. It's still weight loss, just not fat loss and fat loss is the thing that the calories are about.
What's up this week: Female cycle? Hitting the weights harder? Strain/sprain something?
> What can I do?
Keep your program tight and keep it going. Water doesn't interfere with fat burning, it just hides it from the scale for a few days or weeks under a plateau. Your fat burning isn't paused or stopped during this time. Remember, it's not losses on the scale that cause fat burning, it's your eating 1900-2400 per day that causes it. Keep that going and keep it accurate.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I eat anywhere from 500-1000 calories under my maintenance (2900), and I go to the gym for about an hour, 4-5 times a week.
My read of your stats shows this is right on the money. Good plan.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
For iOS: Happy Scale
For Android: Libra
It's just a plateau, they're normal and more frequent the longer you are at a deficit and the lower your weight gets toward normal.
You can't gain or even maintain fat on a deficit -- your body burns it to make up the difference. What the scale also shows is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> maybe I’ve lost fat
Not maybe, but definitely. If you are sure your 1200 was correct (confidence in the completeness of your log and accuracy of your measures), then you burned fat.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 21 | |
HEIGHT | 61" or 5'1" | 155 cm |
WEIGHT | 143.6 lb | 65 kg |
BMI | 27.1 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1354 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1695 Cal/kcal |
Your BMR (comatose burn) is more than 1200. You probably burned 1450 or so on a very restful stay-in-bed sick day. So, ignore the scale. Look at your log and know that's what's happening in the fat-burning department.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
If I was fighting a sickness, I'd probably aim for maintenance calories and pushing the nutrition-filled foods: fish, garlic, citrus, yogurt, red peppers, skinless poultry, leafy greens, and blueberries. These are foods naturally high in vitamin C, proteins, zinc, anti-oxidants and are useful for fighting, shortening, and preventing sicknesses like this. Getting well in the short-term is more of an immediate need than weight loss (long-term).
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Welcome!
On the website version of Reddit, look for the link that says "How to set your flair" ... it'll help you get those stats in.
If you have an inconsistent scale, a weight-smoothing app can help you get a useful weight in the noise...
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better even though the data is "noisy."
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Keep going... water will make your scale weight drop non-linear, but you can't gain fat on 1200-1500 per day.
You should eat 1500 or more each day... There's a lot of great information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/6ynmvo/eli5_why_is_the_1200_calorie_limit_universal/
You should not worry about little blips on the scale. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Just get your calories to 1500 and keep going...
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
6 days a week. I lately am skipping the weigh in after salt-laden Wednesday poker nights because it's so meaningless.
I log my weights in Libra.
> I don't think I ever got to the point where I felt "detached" from the numbers, which made the daily weigh-ins often a make-or-break for my whole day.
I think this is a reason to weigh more often than less often. If you switch to once a week, and have a "bad" weigh-in, do you take it (and emotionally "ruin" a week) or redo it the next day just in case it was a blip? And then what does THAT mean?
The only things we're going for are the trends, averages over time. And when you're maintaining, time is a very long frame, indeed!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Let's say you're 100 calories a day off... doesn't matter which way, as long as you're consistently that way ... you will gain/lose 1 pound per month. Water is more noisy than 1 pound (for me, the noise is 5 pounds of volatility). I have to go 2 to 3 months before deciding that I'm actually gaining or actually losing. Even with Libra, it's hard to be that patient.
So, what I do is manage in a range. If I'm low 180s, I'm fine. If I'm high 180s, I'm subtracting an average of 250 Calories from my daily diet. If i'm high 170s, I'm adding an average of 250 to my daily food. It's a rough average -- I hit my averages, not worried too much about the daily goal. I'm also not worried about my weight -- I've been doing this for over 2½ years so I've got this. I have to stay vigilant, but this is pretty easy compared to losing weight or being fat and worried about everything.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Okay, that makes a big difference over thinking you're a middle-aged female...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 19 | |
HEIGHT | 67" or 5'7" | 170 cm |
GOAL WEIGHT | 120 lb | 54 kg |
GOAL BMI | 18.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1518 Cal/kcal | |
Recommended Minimum Daily | 1500 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1900 Cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 2125 Cal/kcal |
1300 isn't right for you. 1500 is more like it. Above is your goal stats, so 1300 is too severe. You could ask your doctor but it's really not necessary to cut that deeply.
Consistent weight loss... doesn't exist. That's because of water and various things that cause water-retention and dehydration. However, steady fat burning sure can exist, we just can't see it on the scale because of how much water's volatility messes with the graph.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
1500 is a good target for you. 1450-1550 is fine. 1200 is just as off-target as 1800 would be.
When you get to the 120 area, you'll be eating more like 1900-2100 to maintain it.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
If your CICO says you should have lost fat, then anything to the contrary is water. Either that or you're doing your calculations/estimations incorrectly.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Always know that you're doing something wrong. It keeps us humble and gives us room to improve.
> I am 5'7 Male I consume 1200 calories a day gave or take a 100
Should be 1500 unless actively under a professional's care. This is not why you only lost a pound.
> Last week I weighed 236.6 and today I weighed 235.6 Technically, It is not a plateau but I am worried that I am doing something wrong.
No, it's fine. We humans are mostly just big bags of mostly water ... 55%-70% of our body composition fluctuates as water, sometimes completely overrunning any progression or regression that we've made in the week in our fat-loss efforts.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> 1 was the original and the others were 0 calories. I know they are bad for you and it was just the occasional one.
One full-calorie Monster drink wouldn't cause enough of a difference to see.
TIPS:
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
Nice. :) Well-written, too.
I personally use Libra on Android, it plots nicely too.
> Is 9(ish) at night a bad time each week?
It's hard to be consistent because hydration and waste is a toss-up through the day. It's more consistent first thing in the morning before dressing, after peeing. You've been exhaling water vapor and carbon all night, are probably as empty as you will be all day of waste. Best case scenario for consistency...
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
You can use your "official" weight for flair as the line created by these apps. Weigh as often as you like -- the will handle it well.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
In Reddit, hit the Enter key twice to make paragraphs. It will really help.
> My caloric intake if i'm lucky hits around 1000. But is it necessary to have the 2000 calories a day the myfitnesspal asks for? If i feel satisfied after i eat my meals do i need to gorge to get to that calorie quota?
No, you need to plan better and achieve that calorie goal. Yes, 2000 is your right number and 1000 is a wrong number.
Should you just fill it with junk? No - that's an error too. Just plan better tomorrow so you don't repeat the error.
Your daily goal (the one you get in the morning) is the important goal. If you add hundreds of calories in exercise, you don't need to eat all of those added calories. You may eat some of them, though -- you may need to or your may want to let them slide if you're not hungry. That's okay - exercise calories are usually optional to eat.
> It's a bummer when you're eating right kicking ass at the workouts and then you see zero progress. And i get muscle weights more than fat but it's discouraging to do all of that and see nothing.
Working out intensely causes a water weight gain that lasts for 3-5 weeks -- this offsets your fat losing but it doesn't stop your fat losing. It just hides it from the scale. But 3-5 weeks of no apparent progress may cause you to quit so keep going and know that it's just a mirage of water. You're still burning fat and after 3-5 weeks, your fat losses will start to show up (it'll even catch up as the water finally starts to depart).
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
> A large part of me if afraid that I will give up like I did sp many times before when I tried losing weight. I really don't want that.
I suggest making the calendar one of your motivational tools. Right now, you're messaging your parents when you complete a mile.
How about messaging your parents when you complete your weekly weight-loss activities? (your workout and your food disciplines)
> I'm refraining from sweets, watching my portion sizes, and even slowly weaning off of drinking milk
I'd like to suggest that you to get more organized about the food part of your plan...
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Because you've suffered with bulimia in the past, additionally use tracking to make sure that you always eat enough. When it gives you a calorie goal to lose 1 pound per week (do not set it for faster), always eat to within 100 of that number. Above the number by 99 is okay, just as below the number by 99 is okay. It's not okay to regularly be 300 under just as it's not okay to be 300 over. Once you've mastered this, you can be more relaxed about it and it won't trigger any bulimic problems -- you're the master over it, not it over you.
> I weigh myself only once a week so that I don't end up getting obsessive over the number
Sooner or later, you will have a weigh-in that is higher than your last weigh in. This is normal. Most of our weight changes aren't caused by fat burning, most of them are caused by water fluctuation.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> like [if] more people knew I would feel like my goals are more realistic.
It's a common notion but it's also a false one -- it's okay. Announcing that you're going to lose weight is like announcing that you're going to become rich -- feels good but it's meaningless. It's okay!
The really important signals are that not only have you actually (#1) decided to do something really, you're actually (#2) doing things toward that end. You have put gym shoes to pavement. You've changed the trajectory of your food choices. Those are two essential and actual real steps on the path toward your goals.
We have some <strong>daily posts</strong> that I'd like to point out -- the 24 hour pledge and the daily SV/NSV post. These are great place to record your miles and milestones, your intentions and your completion of those intentions. The daily Q&A is good for quick simple questions and if something needs a discussion, a solo post like this one is also quite welcome.
Welcome to /r/loseit!
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
> First, that is a very rapid loss and I think maybe most of that was water retention, right?
Right.
> Well, I was at 195 that night and when I woke up, I was all the way up to 199.2
Sodium and maybe hydration.
> Is this gain normal?
It's not a fat gain. Look, we gain/lose a few OUNCES of fat each day. 900 Calories over our maintenance is 4 oz. of fat gained. 900 under is 4 oz. of fat lost. Differences of multiple pounds between days -- that's almost entirely a water/waste/error/whatever difference.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> It's hard to lose weight while also socializing, particularly when there is beer involved.
I have a Wednesday night poker game and it's hard not to be way over that night -- I think I've done it once in two years. I just adjust the days around it -- after a big Wednesday, I'm not even hungry for breakfast on Thursday. So I will be +400 on Wednesday and -400 of the goal on Thursday. It's fine.
Alcohol lowers the inhibitions and when we're trying to apply our self-discipline, inhibitions are our friends. So we're going to struggle more when we mix it up with alcohol and after a lot of Wednesdays - I've just accepted that perfect isn't available so I try to do as well as I can and not beat myself up about it.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
I've been using trendlines for years. An easy way to do this, if you have an Android phone is Libra
Its called Libra, its on the play store for android users, unsure if there is an Apple version.
Link to the Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
Libra, may or may not be what you used, but it's a great weight trend graphing app.
> It's possible my Fitbit is overestimating calories burned
I'd go a bit further and say your fitbit is almost certainly overstating the amount of calories burned.
/u/gfpumpkins mentioned the Libra app yesterday. Record your weight everyday and it'll show you the avg caloric deficit/surplus required to get the weight loss/gain you're seeing.
BQ: I get things stuck in my vocabulary a lot. I don't really know what the current one is though, but I did notice that I think I said "I'm pumped" like 4 times in my recap yesterday so maybe that's it haha
Yesterday:
Yesterday was pretty dang productive. We're pretty much out of things to watch on TV for awhile so I just played some video games (Don't Starve, anyone?) and then headed to bed early. We've got an exciting weekend planned out already so I'm just counting down the days until Friday. I booked the rest of our stuff for our trip to Portugal over Labor Day weekend which is a relief (and something I can cross off my sprint goals!) and I weighed in this morning already down 1.8 pounds which mostly just tells me that I did a good job hydrating and treating my body well yesterday. I downloaded a new app that the ladies over on r/xxfitness seem to like - Libra - where I'm going to log my weight every day to start getting better metrics. I'm going to continue logging my weight into MyFitnessPal every other day. Also, to get back into my running habit I'm going back to C25K week 6. I think it was week 7 that things started to fall apart last time so I'm going to ease back up to that point.
Today:
Sprint 3 Goals:
Personal Development
Fitness & Health
Travel
Money
if you have an android phone, you can also use the libra app. it's a great free app which does the same as the weightgrapher website.
I manually enter my weight into the Fitbit app every day. Works just as well.
Also, there's an Android app called Libra which does the same thing.
You can also get the same graph from Excel or the Hacker Diet website.
I weigh myself daily, but I don't worry about the ups and downs -- I look at the averages and the trends.
There is an iPhone app called Happy Scale and an Android app called Libra that can help you to see your trends and averages very easily, without being thrown off by the odd fluctuations.
I just do it in my head.
M52 5'11½"^/182cm SW:298lb^/135kg CW:184lb^/83kg GW:190s [recap] with MyFitnessPal+Walking/Hiking+TOPS
This is why I always recommend using a tracking program that has a sliding average for those that want to lose weight. Online they can use the hacker's diet online tools - not pretty but very effective.
https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html
On android I use the app Libra:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en
The important thing for many people is to disconnect the number on the scale from the concept of weight. For many that number on the scale is shame, even if it's up 100g from last time, regardless of why that is... So they need to start focusing on another number instead. I recommend using Libra each day, and then feed the trend value from there into MyFitnessPal or any other apps you use to track your weight. Then you'll have a realistically fairly smooth curve that you can stare at, focus on, obsess over, and actually make informed decisions by without worrying about water weight and how full your bladder is.
Find a website (like www.trendweight.com) or an app (like Libra for Android) that show your weight trend. Weigh yourself at about the same time of day for your weigh-ins (I do second thing in the morning), and then focus on the trend and not the day-to-day fluctuations.
Libra for Android does this. It's pretty great.
Edit: here's a link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
It's water. Those smart scales aren't so smart.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You lost -6 of weight, but only -2 of fat. The rest was water. A deficit of -1000/d is not enough of a deficit to lose 6 pounds of fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I've been weighing my food, eating 2000 calories a day and I've been swimming 3 times for an hour each time since last wednesday
Your body is definitely at a calorie deficit. When that is the case, then any increase you see on the scale is going to be additional water/waste/food/etc. in your body and not any new bodyfat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I agree with /u/differencemore5431 ... weigh daily with the express purpose of getting over the feelings. You'll have up days after excellent behavior and you'll have down days after really shaky eating. For a few weeks, your feelings will whipsaw as you try to divine some kind of meaning out of the watery meaningless. After a while, you'll relax about the noisy data and start getting more into your trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You can't compare same-day weigh-ins because of the food and drink that we ingest and the waste that we eliminate. Those things change the numbers.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I log weight every morning first thing. The data is just the data, because of water due to eating out or having a certain choice for dinner over some other choice for dinner, these morning weigh-ins can be all over the place. Most of any change, one day to the next, is a water mass change and not a bodyfat mass change.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
You weighed yourself after an evening of drinking, so you probably woke up more dehydrated than normal. But after many years, I'm of the conclusion that no single weigh-in means anything -- it's useful as a long-term trend-establishing datapoint but nothing else. Give it no consideration, but do put it in your records and create graphs from your records.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Congrats on your first week.
You're coming off of covid with that cough, so inflammation is probably going on in your body right now. Inflammation is often the body's response to illness or injury and its water retention often messes with our seeing what is happening in the fat-loss part of our efforts. It's noise in the data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You have a daily deficit of -400 which would result in less than a pound of weight-loss per week. It is -2800 weekly calories, which is -2800/3500 of a pound (0.8) of fat. You lost about 1. If we can rely on that as accurate (we can't, due to error margins), you also lost 0.2 of -- most likely -- water.
So, yes, this is normal.
> What's the point of this tremendous effort and daily mindf**k if it's for naught?
You said it yourself. "I need something that I can do for the rest of my life." If about 1700 is your TDEE at 161, then about 1600 is your TDEE at 140. You will have to eat 1600 for the rest of your life.
This feels like a bigger change because you were gaining before you started. You just reached a new high weight, then started, and now have lost a pound. You have stopped the gain, meaning you achieved a reduction in calories; and, you have lost a pound, which is a further reduction in calories.
I hope this helps.
^^7 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂59 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🚶🏋️
> Can the scale sometimes make mistakes?
Yes. It could be that you stood on the scale a little differently the first time, or that the scale's initial reading had a little power imbalance/instability.
Be prepared for water variations, because they will happen also. No one scale reading is very important, it's better to put them in a trendline.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Judge across weeks and months, not day or a week.
We have to look at long-term trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> What would be your guess about what is happening with my weight loss progress?
Most likely, and unwittingly, you are eating as much as your body burns now. Are you actually tracking in a log accurately, daily, in real time? Or are you mentally keeping track? Is it complete, including the cooking oils, salad dressings, and other condiments you consume?
> Do you think I've reached a plateau? If your answer is yes, at which weight do you think it is?
I'm not sure this is a cessation of weight loss, because you only have that one October 29th reading and no one datapoint should be taken to mean anything.
> I've readed in some articles that Plateaus disappear after some weeks without having to do anything. But in other articles, they say that Plateaus only disappear if you either reduce your calorie intake or increase your calorie use. So which one do you think is the correct answer?
Usually the first one is true. After 90+ days at a strong deficit, though, we can build up stress and stress-out hunger hormones to the point where our "CO" (in CICO) is dropping and a 10-day period at maintenance can help relieve that situation.
> every day. If I decided to consume that amount of kilocalories (1500) and I reached a plateau, what should I do? Should I reduce my calorie intake below 1500 kilocalories?
Always keep your short-term average above 1500 kcal/d.
> So, is there any way to break the (not-yet-confirmed) Plateau with a moderate and sustainable diet?
We don't have to concern ourselves with breaking plateaus. We need to manage and ensure our moderate caloric deficit, sleep well, keep our stress manageable, and exercise for endurance and strength. If we do that, then any plateaus are water doing it's water thing.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
We can behave quite well with our weight-loss eating and gain weight due to water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Have you checked your 1400 goal with your personal doctor or your dietitian? Generally teens need to lose on 1600+ as steeper deficits can interfere with their development and growth into adulthood.
Our own eyes are a poor judge of our progress. They can get fooled by our own bias, or by the way a piece of clothing hangs that day, or by poor lighting. Don't accept their impressions as truths or facts because they are so poor at this. In weight loss, a week is no time at all and its unlikely anything major has happened within a week. Similarly, we should not accept any rapid changes as changes at all.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Because you are confident about your intake and deficit, you can breathe easy. Whatever you are seeing on the scale cannot be new fat.
By the process of elimination, it must be water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Probably sodium in the sausages, too, also causing water retention. Usually this takes about 3-4 days from the salty meal and the BBQ to clear.
> Did I really undo almost an entire weeks work of hard weight lose because I had two maintenance days?
Of course not, but we're talking days here, and water is variable and sometimes unpredictable. It will swing +1 or +2 kg when our fat swings -50g or -100g.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You're seeing greater water weight fluctuations than you do the more steady fat-losses. This is confusing you.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Start right now by kicking out the idea that there's such a thing as "cheat meals" or "cheat days" or magical thinking that bites of this or that won't matter. Your body's systems and cells don't know if that's a cheat calorie or not -- they just process whatever comes.
Track your food and gather data around your habits, and then improve your habits towards the ones that you'll need to get to and stay at your goal weight and goal fitness. This takes time -- give it that time. Start gradually and build habit upon habit and let those habits (the causes) bring weight loss (the effects).
^^7 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂59 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🚶🏋️
Keep going. Your body burns about 2500 Calories a day before the excess walking, so you know you're at a solid deficit. You may weigh the same due to some kind of water plateau, but you have to be burning fat with numbers like that.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Be patient. CICO works over time, and a week is a short period of time to start to worry when it comes to this.
Your last weigh-in could have been a dehyrated weigh-in. This weigh-in could have been in a more hydrated state.
We cannot gain fat, nor even maintain fat, on a deficit. As warm-blooded animals, we have to burn fat to make up a substantial deficit. That fact being true, anything to the contrary of it on the scale must be due to some other reason than maintaining or gaining fat -- such as weight from how much water we are or are not holding at weigh-in.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Any time you increase calories in a moderate way, you'll get that weight gain. However, as long as your calories are under what your body burns, none of that increase is bodyfat. It's water needed to handle the increase in food.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
For fries, I compare what I received with McDonalds Large, Medium, or Small fries and I log the McDonalds entry.
For restaurant chicken wings, use this data: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/1942686/nutrients
Those are 3 oz. wings, which are the heavier ones. If you had six small ones, you might log them as 4 large ones.
> but I gained a pound the next day
... because of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Perfect, thank you.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 27 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 271.1 lb | 123 kg |
BMI | 43.6 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1984 Cal/kcal; 8301 kJ | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2484 Cal/kcal; 10393 kJ |
Eating ~1400 a day, the deficit is strong and sure.
So here's the fact: we cannot gain or maintain our bodyfat on a deficit. We might maintain weight temporarily, but that weight is not going to be bodyfat being maintained. As warm-blooded animals, we must burn our typical amount (roughly 2400-2500 kcal/day in your case). So, even as the scale doesn't move or shows a gain, you are burning fat. The gain of 0.5 kg is going to be water, or waste, or a scale inaccuracy, or a user error, or something else.
Keep eating 1400 and whatever it is will yield and your downward trend will continue.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I used to have harsh feelings when the scale showed a gain, even when I knew I had an excellent day previously. To me, correcting such false impressions is about using logic to test them. My conclusion is that no single weight number -- either daily or weekly -- means very much. Only the trend tells the story.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
For the calm mind: All that we have power over is our inner self in this present moment. We can choose to warmly accept whatever has happened. Having accepted it, we can get about whatever work is set for us.
For the continuation of progress -- all of the decision trees point the same way: eat right towards our goals.
I am alerted to the fact that you said, "Last night I weighed myself ..."
I would never take as useful any measurement taken at night. Part of this is because nighttime weights are the least consistent.
Any time we weigh, we're weighing everything. In a human, the bodyfat, the muscles, and the blood all together total roughly 50% of our body's composition. The other 50% is water, poop, food being digested, other tissues, and so on.
To figure out our progress across time in losing bodyfat -- what we in conversation call "weight loss" -- we need to take these measurements at the most consistent time for our body composition -- hours after eating, usually after a nice good sleep, after peeing/exhaling/sweating out as much water was we typically do in a night.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Your strength-building routine can have something to do with it, but the main truth is this: our bodies cannot gain any bodyfat on a deficit.
As you are certain that you are in a large deficit, you can know that this gain must be entirely something else as it would be impossible for it to be any additional bodyfat mass than before.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Looks great to me.
> I use surplus calories, meaning: since i use 1874 calories per day as BMR, i use 78 calories per hour, so if i burn 278 calories running an hour, the surplus is 200. Dont know if this is true, but it is safer.
Exactly. Most people -- in fact most websites that provide us these values -- don't relate this very well. Good job on you!
> If i do all this, after a week with 3 days cycling, 4 days weightlifting, 1 day running, 2 days of house chores and eating 1800 with friday and saturday (not extreme) cheatdays, i loose only max 0,5 kg? i knew it would be slow, but wow, this is slow. I am doing everything correctly?
Summing your "med" deficits, I get -3173 and -3173/7700 is -0.41... yeah, that's about right. OH, just now I see the green box. Yes, you're doing this math (or the maths, depending on your version of English) correctly.
Now, since you're just starting, you will see vastly different performance day to day, and even week to week (if you only weigh your body once a week), because of water. Take the long averages (trendlines) to determine your actual performance.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water before weighing your weight instantly goes up by the weight of that water! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of water variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Yes, it's normal. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Everytime you weigh yourself you should do it right after you wake up for consistency
/u/misslulusaid,
This is my advice as well. Look at 8/15 and 8/16 in your data -- the poop matters but not as much as your body's hydration which goes up through the day. That matters more and that's the factor to try to get as consistent as you can: right after waking and peeing, weigh-in before you get dressed.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
AND, again, congrats on your good work so far! It's definitely showing in this data!
Do not make comparisons to your husband's results. For several reasons, men lose faster than women can.
You have lost 20 pounds in 13 weeks, which is a perfectly ideal -1.5 pounds per month. This is not mild weight loss, it is between normal (-1 per week) and aggressive (more than -2 per week).
The biggest factors of success is repetitions of our healthy habits and rituals, which many repetitions require time. If you're going to keep it off later, it's because of the habits and conditioning that you are learning now. Time and repetitions is often what makes the difference between someone who loses and regains weight a lot, and someone who takes it off and keeps it off.
> I’ve been pushing myself a little more and my weight is stationary
That's fine. Someone who is 245 and eating 1400 is definitely losing bodyfat. Anything to the contrary on the scale is temporary water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Day to day changes are roughly 90% comprised of changes due to something other than calories. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The first thing to check is that your program is right and tight -- solid deficit, complete itemization, and accurate estimations. If that's right, then (as a warm-blooded animal) your body can't live off of less than it needs -- it MUST burn fat to make up the difference. Anything to the contrary -- a gain, a maintain, or a loss greater than expected -- must be due to something else.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> should i cut my calories to 1500 or 1550, or return to maintenance for a little while, or just see if it sorts itself out?
Recheck your work, and if it's good then keep going for a while.
> I’m doing everything right but it I weighed myself this morning before eating and I gained 1.5 lbs and it seems that my weight is slowly crawling back up.
Based on this one weight? Ignore it. It takes some time to cut through the noise and you've got your body doing lots of things.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> At this point when having a healthy eating habit 3000kcal is too much to eat also with my extreme weight I think I can have a bigger defficit than 800-1000 daily without starving or risking any health issues. What would be your take in this?
Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
To keep the demands manageable, we've been given the guidelines to keep us out of the hospital. These include keeping deficits between -250 to -1000 from TDEE. It is my experience, though, that very obese people tend to avoid these problems if they keep their losses to -1% of their bodyweight. I happened to lose at -1% of my bodyweight and, while I already had silent gallstones, I never had a gall bladder attack. I also had my blood tested regularly for nutrients and had no deficiencies. I lost 45 kg in 10 months and kept my weight loss from exceeding that 1% per week "speed limit."
> I'm not very experienced with tdee calculations so I've question, when I factored my bmi with body fat percentage which was 48% and I'm assuming i'm still in that range my bmr shows as 2527. Which one is more accurate?
Your body is the only calorie counter that matters. So after your first 4 weeks (during which you'll lose fat+water), start paying attention to your loss rate and figure out your apparent deficit from that using 7700 kcal per kilogram. If you're averaging -1 kg per week, your deficit is -7700 kcal or -1100 kcal per day. Because water weight fluctuations will still happen, you have to use the averages and not just the latest weigh-in.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> My exercise plan is to start 2 days in the first week or two and increase it to a minimum of 5/week in a 4 to 6 weeks or so.
I think that's fine. Just know that this will happen -- life will get busy or you will have to travel and you'll not be able to do a minimum of 5/week. So have a plan that keeps you doing something. Mine was 3x a week of 30 minutes of walking. I can do that when traveling, I can do that when life is chaotic due to the holidays or relatives invading or whatever. We don't need a "best case" plan, we need a "worst case" plan. We can already behave well in "best case" days when we're feeling inspired and passionate, we really don't even need a plan for that. We need a "worst case" plan when our gym isn't there, our motivation is gone, and life is being rough on us.
> IF fits me because I'm almost never hungry when I wake up and it just postpones my first meal by an hour or two, main thing with IF it helps my limit eating anything after dinner.
I know all about it. You used it before. It works for weight loss. Yet, here you are again.
Don't let the facts that IF is useful keep you from learning the lessons we need to stay at our goal weight. It's the same problem with keto. Keto works. Keto, however, is incompatible with most lives. Most people regain after keto because keto didn't teach them to do anything but reach their goal. Once they quit it, they regained.
We don't need weight loss, we need weight management.
It sounds like you weighed your body before lunch and before and after your workout.
You should only weigh your body once daily and at the most consistent state you can: after waking and using the toilet, weigh yourself before getting dressed. Never at any other time.
The reason is because of water weight, which changes continuously throughout the day. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! When you use the restroom, it drops weight right there into the toilet. However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort. Look at these trends over a few weeks, not a few days or hours.
Although you didn't ask, 1200 is too low for a male to get full nutrition. We depend on good nutrition for our body's various systems to work well, and these systems sum together to create our metabolism. A body with systems not running at 100% will run at less than 100% metabolism, so it is important to weight loss to eat enough.
Don't "go fast," instead "go long."
Increase to 1500.
To answer the question you did ask, it's normal for weight to plateau here and there. You're confident on your deficit, so you know you're not maintaining fat with a deficit -- your body burns fat to make up for the deficit. So anything you see to the contrary must be something other than fat -- and the almost certain suspect is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You've got it. Instead of thinking of it as "real" or unreal, think of it as bodyfat vs. other non-bodyfat stuff (mostly water). It's all real weight, but we're here to fight fat. Water is up and down and adds noise to the data we really want: how we'll we're doing in our fat loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 23 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 246 lb | 112 kg |
BMI | 39.7 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1888 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2359 Cal/kcal |
So 1300 is a deficit exceeding -1000 so we want to get that back some... say 1500 would be a little kinder to you.
You are clearly certain, though, that there is no way that you ate more than 2359. So you burned, not gained, fat this past week. When the calories are right for fat loss, the differences we see on the scale is something other than fat gain.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Is it possible that because of the heavy exercise I was holding a lot more water when I took the first measurement
Yes, because of muscle inflammation, the food you were eating on your hike also had high salt content, and because the 160 was a random inconsistent weigh-in. You also used two different scales and my bet is that the 160 one was taken mid-day and the 150-151 ones were in the morning before you ate or drank anything.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> What is the best time of day to weigh yourself in order to get the most accurate reading of your weight?
The most useful and comparable weights are the ones taken after using the toilet right after waking from a long sleep, before getting dressed. Your body in this state is as consistent a hydration state as bodies can reasonably be. These are the ones to chart day after day to see what trend is emerging for weight-loss purposes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> How long after eating a calorie surplus would the additional weight show on the scales?
One second after the last bite -- you weigh as much as that meal or drink is going to make you weigh. From that point, digestion begins and respiration is causing you to lose weight.
> E.g if I ate a surplus of 7000 calories spread over four days (meaning +2lb in weight gain), and ate at maintenance for the following days, how soon after would I see those additional 2 pounds on the scale?
You would have seen the +2 pounds (plus more due to water) at the last feeding in those 4 days. Undigested food always weighs more than digested food -- so food amounting to +2 pounds of bodyfat would look like +8 or +10 on the scale at the end of Day 4. You'd probably be down to +2 after 3-5 days.
Now, all of this is beside the point. This is kinda what happens at the major end-of-year holidays and other family feasts. Don't stress -- just get back to your healthy habits and focus on those. If there are lessons to learn from those 4 days, review them with cool and compassionate eyes and not with regret. (It never was going to be perfect. We're going to improve, but always fall short.)
Some weeks are up like that. We have pretty limited control over our body's water weight and the amount of water it retains or not is quite variable.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
First I'd like to make sure you're in a dietary deficit. This means that your "Calories In" is less than your body burns in a day before exercise. It's a necessary element to successfully losing weight.
If you're not sure, let me know and I can point you to /r/loseit's resources about it.
If you know you're in a moderate deficit even before your exercising, and you've double-checked your own at-home practices to assure you're doing well with it, then I would encourage you to outlast these temporary plateaus and increases. They're always about non-fat water we temporarily gain sometimes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I've been losing only 0,1kg per day
That's perfect! That's a deficit of -770, which is between moderate and aggressive. If it's over 1200 for women or 1500 for men, and the deficit is between -250 and -1000 (as -770 is), then you've found your groove.
> I'm used to losing weight quickly
Losing weight, while part of the point, is the short phase. The main phase is keeping the weight off forever -- and in that second phase you don't lose weight fast or slow or even at all. It's weeks and months and years of -0 overall rate of weightloss (and a non-zero amount of effort to do it).
So "embrace the suck" as they say, but it doesn't suck. It's fine. We'll be managing our weight as part of managing our health for our entire lives in this obesogenic environment (one that tempts overeating).
> I'm used to losing weight quickly and now I'm getting disappointed to the point that I keep eating less and less every day.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
By eating with aims to hit the target (1250-1750) and valuing the center, we no longer have a calorie limit. Too little is just as off as too much. This can help you relearn your tendency to lower your calories -- value hitting the target and aim for the bullseye and always simply accept what happens.
> is it normal to lose only that much per day?
It's not only normal, it's ideal. But we also don't measure in "per day." The shortest interval we use to talk about weight-loss is "per week" but even that interval has a tendency to have a lot of water noise in it. We look at our weight losses over the span of several weeks and then determine an average per week out of those several weeks. Water is the reason why.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^7 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂59 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:171℔^^/78㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🚶
I went from 298 to 193 in about 10 months. What I noticed was very few short plateaus at all in the first third, more often and a bit longer in the middle third, and a lot of plateaus -- some longer -- in the final third of that weight-loss time.
If the calories are right for moderate weight loss, and there being no other explanation, then plateaus are likely about temporary water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The body's response to illness or injury is often inflammation. That inflammation is mostly made out of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
If you drink 16 oz. of water, your body will be 16 oz. heavier. However, the next time you go to the bathroom you'll lose much of that.
Same is true for anything we ingest, and later eliminate or expel. The body processes food and liquids. We also exhale some weight and sweat-out some weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> That seems too much for water weight.
I weigh daily and I have done so for years. I have a handful of examples of 10-pound gains over a couple of days. It's definitely water and uneliminated waste after a couple of bigger days. It takes a few days before we can see something more reasonably resembling normal.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Really my average over the week was 3500 calories over my deficit so I was just eating at maintenance.
Exactly. So your body's fat mass is probably the same as it was a week ago. Anything to the contrary on the scale is going to be the food you ate, the added sodium in it, more carbs being stored as glycogen and water, and so on.
We often ask questions about the most recent weight without asking the same questions over the weigh-in that preceded it, and without considering the unknowable weigh-in tomorrow.
Your body burns ~1914 (probably 67% chance some number within 1790-2039) before exercise so you were at a surplus around 847 Calories, which is worth a gain of 4 ounces (0.25 pounds) of bodyfat.
We don't gain skeleton or muscle very fast at all so really any difference we see on the scale that doesn't match our Calorie math is going to be differences in the amount of water and waste we're carrying.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Always go to the longer-term trends. Stress causes water weight so if that's up right now, tend to know it shows up on the scale but it is only water. If our calories are right for fat burning (definite moderate deficit), as warm-blooded animals we burn fat to make up the deficit -- regardless if the scale is up.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Do not weigh yourself inconsistently. For me, I only weigh first thing. After waking and using the toilet, I weigh my body, then I get dressed. I log that weight into my database (Libra) and it becomes data for the trendline.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Did anything happen just before "the other morning?"
> Why do I randomly gain weight out of no where?
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Separate how you feel emotionally with what you rationally ought to do. In no universe does "I feel fat" translate into "I shouldn't walk."
Go walk.
> Losing MOJO
Motivation's job is to get us started. After that, it's determination and discipline. Don't do it for the feels, do it because you goddamned said you were going to do it. Don't whimper because the scale isn't friendly this morning, keep going because you goddamned said you were going to do it.
The scale is your data, it isn't your judge. It's also noisy because 2 out of 3 times, it's going to be too influenced by our body's water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> how to stick with this long term
When you fall down, get up. When you feel discouraged, keep going (feelings pass). When you don't quit, the only two other possibilities left are winning, and learning about the obstacles so you can defeat them and win.
My other advice is to forget about YOUR OPINION about your pictures and your mirror. Ask your trusted best friends or your doctor. They have one thing that you don't: objectivity. We usually can't look at ourselves with detachment and objectivity, we're too wrapped up emotionally in self-judgment. Explain to them that you need their objective and honest help in whether progress is being seen.
I like Libra, super simple and you can set your goal weight and it will interpret moves towards the goal weight as good (green). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en&gl=US
> While now I feel like a bite of banana and next day I am a pound heavier.
You'll never gain more than you consumed. The most you can ever gain from 1 ounce of banana is one ounce. Heck, the most you can gain from 1 ounce of butter or other fat (as dense as calories get) is one ounce.
Retained water is why the scale is so fickle -- we must ignore today's reading, regardless if it is up or down, both are equally affected by water. Only the trend matters. Never, never, not ever be impressed either way by a higher or lower weigh-in. Just chart the data for the purposes of the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> If I have been doing the same thing and not changed my diet, why did I gained 1 pound?!
A plateau (I personally define that as 9 days or longer of gaining or staying the same) is a good time to recheck everything and make sure that I haven't let anything creep in, that my accounting is right and tight, that my deficit is strong and sure. If all of that is true, then any difference happening on the scale is water. I should work through the plateau.
> Also is there any way to avoid this to happen?
No, it's unavoidable. Remember too that you won't be able to keep 143 -- you will only be about to be "around 143" but you'll have up days (and weeks) and down ones. Water fluctuates and is a part of most of our body's systems. The body increases water due to stress, sleeplessness, injury, sodium, and certain illnesses and their medications. The body also decreases water retention due to relaxation, good sleep, good health, and potassium.
We aren't here to fight water -- water is part of our nature, likely an outcome of our evolution on this blue planet.
> before I started working out I was 75 Kilos but now I checked and Im 77, why is this?
Hydration and inflammation. Working out makes our muscles swell. That swelling is water weight inside the muscle to stiffen it for repair and building. The hydration is likely from water you drank during the workout.
Random weights taken throughout the day are very noisy and full of unhelpful changes relating to the the food and water we've consumed or eliminated as the day goes on. It is important to us that our weigh-ins are done in as much of a consistent time and method as possible.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Adding info for American readers:
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 19 | |
HEIGHT | 55" or 4'7" | 140 cm |
WEIGHT | 127.3 lb | 58 kg |
BMI | 29.5 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1197 Cal/kcal; 5008 kJ | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1498 Cal/kcal; 6267 kJ |
> base on my TDEE which is 1833 calories
You may be overestimating this. What is your full-time job?
> i ate like 1300-1500 calories a day
I would make your target 1150-1250 a day. I would treat it like a target, eating over it sometimes and under it occasionally, but keeping the average at around 1200.
Make sure these foods are well estimated and well logged - include condiments, cooking oils, drinks, snacks, bites, and other food sometimes forgotten or judged too small to be included in the items. Include them, especially as a beginner. They add up.
> when i check my weight before morning workout
Keep in mind that this weigh-in will include anything you had to drink or eat before the workout. It's fine, but it's noisy.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I weigh daily.
> I've read here that people lose fractions of lb per day when they do weigh themselves every morning.
That happened to me while losing in the beginning -- the first three months. Toward the end, it was up and down. Some up days were even on the mornings after a very good day behaviorally.
As we lose more and more bodyfat (which contains little water), the remaining of our body is more and more water. Water's influence grows over time. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You are very confident in your counting and that you have a good and solid deficit, and,
> This week though, I didn’t change anything in my routine and didn’t have any cheat days, and when I went for my weekly weigh in I was .7 pounds heavier.
That's perfect. You can be assured that your body burned fat this week as it has been doing in similar weeks. This leaves us to conclude the only possible explanation -- water weight fluctuation.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
When the calorie deficit is solid and the accounting is correct, then plateaus are about water. Plateaus are a good time to second-check everything but once that's done you can rest assured that CICO is not broken: you cannot gain or even maintain bodyfat on a deficit. You, as a warm-blooded mammal, must burn fat to make up for the deficit.
It's water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> what I can do to overcome it?
Water is part of many processes in our body. Let it do its thing. Fat losses will eventually outstrip it and when the body is done using the extra water, it'll eliminate it.
EXACTLY! That's what I mean. Before, you were losing weight so fast that it was always down. But it will be normal everyday now for it to be up and down, even by a few pounds!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your loss or maintenance effort.
Starting or increasing a weight-lifting routine can cause your weight to plateau or increase. Don't worry, it's okay, you are probably still losing fat at a good rate! Inflammation caused by weightlifting temporarily slows your weight loss but not your fat loss.
When we start or intensify lifting, we're creating micro-sized tears in our muscles. Muscles swell (water) and become inflamed (water) during a muscle-repair process that takes several days. This additional water added offsets our fat loss. BF% still going down but Water% going up can cause the weight-losers total scale weight to slow, stall, or even temporarily go higher.
Keep lifting. The water weight from lifting can take 3-5 weeks to calm down. After that, the added water weight still happens at smaller amounts because the lifter's muscles become accustomed to the workloads and the amount of inflammation is reduced. By then the weight-losers fat loss has outpaced the water weight remaining and the scale graph is back to its normal downward slope.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
This article (actually a book chapter) https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/rubberbag.html talks about water in context with our body's intake and output.
For weight-loss, we're looking for an idea of how fast we're losing -- a weight-loss rate. So as long as its imprecisions are fairly distributed, we don't care which of those 20ish times are accurate.
I take the first weight. Log that. And go about my day. I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or you can use Happy Scale (for iPhone) if you have iOS. One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly and overcome the nonsense created by scale errors, human errors, soft floors, temperature changes, and so on.
Things you can try:
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
That first month is deceptive, because we don't just lose weight because of the calorie deficit, we also weight because we're eating quite a bit less sodium, far fewer carbohydrates, and just plain less food mass which results in less water retained in our body to process and balance it.
From Week 5 on ... that's where CICO and your scale weight should start to align. You've lost all that water weight (and probably had a couple of cycles of putting some water back on after a salty-meal day).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
By Day 56, you've overcome the worst part of logging and now you're heading to the parts were it becomes more automatic and less of a struggle. Make sure your calorie log is so tight and complete that you can show yourself and other calorie loggers WHY you're 95% or so confident in it. It has all of your foods, your snakes, your bites, and your sips. It has your condiments and cooking oils. It has foods that you frequently weigh on your digital kitchen food scale. For the foods you eat frequently, you have double-checked them against several sources to ensure the database entries that you're relying upon often are accurate. If it goes in the mouth, it goes on the log. As for that 95% confident, you should also have a sense that if there are errors in it, that those errors have a fair chance of being over or under, equally. You're not overestimating "just to be on the safe side" nor underestimating because you just can't bring yourself to keep logging on those days when the discipline flew out the window hours ago. (Readers -- if this is you -- log anyway, it's fine. It's your data, not your judge.).
> After 56 days my deficit is currently at 188,055 calories.
To reach and maintain 560 requires about 4500 daily calories.
Let's press the "reset" button on these numbers, particularly if anything I said above results in better logging from here.
My refeeds were about 90-120 days apart and they lasted about a week. Perhaps you should do 60-90 apart because of your gall bladder (obese bodies tend to make gall stones and deficits tend to make them not be passed until they're too big and block a duct, a painful attack requiring surgery). Plateaus happen. They're a good time to examine your process to make sure it's tight, and to practice your patience because at the end of this process is years-and-years of continued efforts with zero weight-loss (keeping it off).
188,055 calories would mean your body is at a daily deficit of 3358 Calories. Since a body that is 560 requires about 4500 Calories, it means you're eating 1150 Calories a day?
In 56 days you've lost 30 lbs which suggests your deficit was 105,000 which, over 56 days, suggest that it was Calories kcal. Most dietary experts advise keeping a deficit to no deeper than -1000 from your body's TDEE.
What's going on here?
> I noticed i lose about 1 kg after a workout + cardio session.
How do you determine this? If it's simply <weigh> → <workout> → <weigh> then it is nearly entirely a water weight difference. Your bodyfat% has not appreciably changed.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is just one reason we should weigh consistently: only first thing in the morning right after using the toilet (but before dressing or eating/drinking).
When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 200-300g, but your body fat is not changed a bit. However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I track my calories in my calorie counter, but my weight on Libra. Every week or so, I update my trend weight in my calorie counter so it can recommend updates/changes.
That happened to me when my first scale crapped out about three months into my journey and the replacement gave me a higher-than-expected number.
This isn't actually a setback, it only appears to be one because of the weighing error. However, it is in those appearances that we suffer. We fear the future but then we get there and realize it isn't as bad as we feared. We're horrified about some macro-economic trend but later realize that we're personally doing okay.
I weigh daily and one of the reasons for doing that, for me, is because I'd always have a strong reaction: strong glee at a lower number, strong angst at a higher one. My aim became to focus on two other things instead: the habits that are leading my weight trend (my effort and my food log), and on the weight trend that lags my habits (my effort's lagging data). The daily weigh-ins became a kind of exposure therapy to me; before I get on the scale, I'm just going to record the number and have my normal day. If I have feelings, I'll remind myself it's about the habits and that today's weigh-in only helps show the resulting weight trend.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or, if you have an Apple device, you can use Happy Scale (for iPhone) that does the same thing.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening as a result of your fat-loss efforts.
Can't say for sure -- and I wouldn't based on one day's weigh-in.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I weigh daily -- even when I'm not losing, I weigh daily. It's taught me a lot about the ups and downs and to see through them at the trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
My other thought for you is whether you have a good program or not. That you lost 11 pounds in week 1 suggests that you changed something from week 0. You've not given us anything by which to know if something changed in week 2, or whether what you did in week 1 was something that was sustainable. Please say more about that if you want us to evaluate it with you.
Please tell us about your weight-loss efforts and post your body's stats and a general description of your daily physical activity (movements of your job + any regular exercise) ...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
Your metabolism isn't damaged by any of this.
Dinner-time weigh-ins are full of non-fat information that clouds up the picture. You've got the day's worth of drinking, eating, hydration, and inflammation all built up. It's best to weigh in "for real" only right after waking after a good night's sleep, after using the toilet, weigh in right before putting any clothes on. That's your most useful and consistent-state numbers to use.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You mentioned mom making your meals -- if you're a teen, keep your intake at 1600+ and keep your losses in the slow-lane so that you don't impact your transition from a teen body to adulthood. Unless and until your body's health expert says differently, be gentle with weightloss as your body has many competing jobs right now.
Agreed. I ran your numbers and your plan seems cautious, which is right given your past.
> I'll adjust a little every couple of weeks
Good
> to keep momentum going.
OK, but understand that a slighter deficit will have weeks of 0 loss and weeks of -2 losses and the reason is not fat-burning, but the body's ever-changing uses and retention of water. Your current plan looks like it should provide -1 pounds every 10 days, but this will be a wavy and jittery line. That's fine. Be loose about it. If you change every two weeks, you should follow the trend you expect to be seeing and not be cheering and jeering over the latest weigh-in.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Exactly right.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The first thing you need to do is start weighing yourself properly and consistently if you're not already doing so: weigh yourself once a day every day, preferably in your underwear and after waking up in the morning and going number 1. Write the number and forget about it. Then on Sunday, calculate the average weight for the week (add all the weights of the week, devide that for the number of times you weigh yourself, so 7 if you did it every day). That weekly average is the only number you need to pay attention to, not the other daily ones. You track your weight like that comparing the weekly averages of each week. You can also use a weight tracker app instead, like Libra (or similar ones for iPhone), and it's the same there, you don't pay attention to the daily values, only to the "tendency" or average they display and only after having at least 2 weeks of data.
So once you're tracking your weight accurately, the rest gets easier. If you want to be in a 300 kcal daily surplus, then your body weight needs to be moving up by around 300 grams each week; if it's not, then you're not and you need to eat more. I see you mentioned that you only track your food during a single day of the week, so I figure you're not big on tracking. That's fine, you don't need to be a serial tracker especially if you're accurately following your body weight. So, whatever way works best for you, just know that if your body weight is increasing by much less than 300g/week or even stalling or decreasing, then you need to start eating "more", and if it increases by more than 300g/week, then you need to start eating "less". That magnitude of food refers to calories, and when we talk about calories, we're mostly referring to fats and carbs, so increase or decrease the foods where those macros dominate. It's not about protein, which you mentioned before, protein has very little impact when it comes to being in a surpluss, it has other uses and you probable don't need much more than 120g/day (you can eat more if you want to, but if your appetite is restraining you from achieving a surpluss, then you may want to use that opportunity to eat other more calorically dense foods).
You don't need to work out at all to lose weight. Exercise -- so important to a healthy body -- is not important to weight loss.
> I’ve eaten 1,500-1,800 cal worth of food yet my weight shot up .8kg. Yes I may be panicking but I just wanna make sure if it’s normal and that I should pay no mind to it and continue my deficit.
Yes, continue your deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
A deficit burns a predictable amount of bodyfat. For example, every deficit of 700 Calories releases 0.2 pounds worth of energy from our fat. So when we know we've burned 700 Calories, but the scale does anything else but go down 0.2 pounds, we can surmise that most of that difference will be due to water.
That said, we should not expect an immediate loss but an eventual loss. We don't burn fat, we release the energy held inside fat cells through hydrolysis (a water process). That water, those cells, and the elements involved are still around for a time. We "burn now, shrink later."
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
It just goes like that sometimes. Nothing is wrong -- our bodyfat% is a minority component of our body and you can't help but expend the energy of bodyfat when you're in a deficit. However, our water% is the majority component of our body and it varies -- it can offset fat losses and even cause a gain when we've behaved perfectly well on our weight-loss (fat-loss) activity.
Keep going. It will break. The fat-loss trend will win out.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Should I switch to weighing myself once a week?
Not necessarily. Weighing your body regularly is a good habit and so whatever helps you keep the habit is what you should do. I weigh daily as part of my waking-up routine, and I track it in a weight-smoothing app like Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). The weight-smoothing helps see the trends despites the daily ups and downs.
> Where did the 5 lbs come from?
Possibly muscle inflammation from the new workout. It could also be from a particularly salty meal, the female monthly cycle, a previously dehydrated weigh-in, or a current overhydrated weigh-in.
Here's the magic of CICO -- we can know things like this:
When we gain weight for eating 700 Calories over our maintenance calorie goal, only 0.2 pounds of that could possibly be from fat. Anything different from that on the scale, up or down, is the effect of what we ate and not additional bodyfat.
So if you're up two pounds when you know you didn't eat THAT badly (because you're a good logger), you can trust the log. Since 3500 Calories is about a pound OF FAT, that means 350 Calories is about 0.1 pound of fat -- and anything different on the scale is the water, waste, and other what-not going on under the body's skin.
Now your 1500 budget is a weight-loss budget -- it has a deficit built in, one that might be 500 Calories. When you overeat that 1500 by 150, you're probably still in a net deficit and you probably still burned fat that day -- just a slightly less than you would have otherwise burned at 1500.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
So perfection isn't required -- and it isn't available, to any of us with anything like a life. What is wrong with this story is the expectation that the scale will always go down when it should -- but thanks to water -- even that's not true. Sometimes we behave perfectly, but we retain water that day, and the next day the scale is up. Trend-lining the weight helps us see through that.
I weigh daily. For me, it's one of the valuable morning habit routines that have been the underpinning of my weight-loss and weight-maintenance.
The man "con" of it is getting upset with a gain. However, my answer to that isn't in avoiding the weigh-in, but avoiding the upset.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
99% of the time, I go with the first weight. But every once in a while, the readout doesn't make sense -- it's off by a lot more than I would accept. Did a setting get jarred? Is it on a bad spot on the floor? Did I have a salty meal or am I constipated or have a big muscle sprain?
So, in that 1% case, I do what you describe after relocating the scale and checking the settings: I pick up something heavy, weigh, then zero, then weigh normally. I accept whatever that second weight is.
Now, STILL, I don't put much energy into any one day's info. It goes into the trend data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) ... if you're an iPhone user, try Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water or the other stuff that can happen. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I can't poop right away either. It's fine, though. It's good enough. Remember that today's poop is likely not all the poop -- as my dog-walking reminds me, don't be fooled by the first one: there's more where that came from!
There is no perfectly good measure of just our bodyfat. We have to accept "good enough" and go with that. To null out the noise from poop and water and muscle inflammation and whatever is causing us unusual dehydration or extra hydration, we keep graphs and trendlines.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water and poop and such. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Someone of your BMI (which is close to my BMI) is 20-24 percent bodyfat. That's the part we're trying to shrink. For you, it's about 22% of your 97 kg ... 21 to 22 kg. And we do this by eating 500-1000 kcal less than our body needs to maintain, which represents bodyfat of 65 grams to 130 grams a day.
Now fat isn't 'burned' per say -- we don't immediately weigh less when the stored energy is accessed. It's actually a water process -- the energy is released from the cell by hydrolysis. That water will be an offsetting gain and won't be immediately gone.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> how much weight can be water weight.
My weight can range 5 kg in the same week, and I'm maintaining. This represents my body at it's most and least hydrated, full or empty of waste, perhaps with a muscle strain or illness causing inflammation, which is the cause of those swings.
If you eat 500 kcal over your maintenance one day, you'll likely find the next morning you've gained a lot more than 65 grams -- only 65 grams of this could be stored fat (if our numbers are right). The rest is water, waste, and other non-fat stuff going on.
You have to look at long-term trends. Day to day changes are too influenced by water.
Yesterday is a perfect example. I ate at a 350 calorie surplus (worth +1/10 of a pound). I'm up 2 pounds. I record the readout to get the trend, but the trend is what tells us whether we're making progress.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
It's nonsense. Ignore that info completely. There is no way to gain 20 pounds of fat mass in two weeks and no way to lose 25 pounds of muscle mass in two weeks.
I'd return that thing for a refund. All we really need is a weight scale and enough datapoints to make and see our trend with a little math. This lets us cut out the noise from our body's biggest component, water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Make most of your wardrobe out of fabric that doesn't stretch -- that is correctly fitting so that it both looks nice plus it won't let you gain 10 kg. and still feel comfortable.
Weigh daily and keep it on a chart. Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250-300 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> what’s the best website for figuring out how many calories you should be eating?
Simplest answer:
https://tdeecalculator.net/ will help you determine your BMR. You can eat your BMR as a target amount of Calories for reasonable and healthy weight loss, and let your physical activity (non-exercise plus exercise) create your deficit. Females should not eat less than 1200, males 1500, and teens 1600 (and see your doctor to confirm).
Best answer:
Same site. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week. Females should not eat less than 1200, males 1500, and teens 1600 (and see your doctor to confirm).
> > how much weight fluctuation is normal?
Between any two weigh-ins, it can be a lot or a little. To "norm" them we use averaging across 7 or so weigh-ins. That lets a trend emerge.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> So essentially I might have lost fat, but due to inflammation and the shock my body probably experienced from the change in routine, it's holding on to water weight and so it sort of equals out?
Right. And if you are confident in your deficit, you should change that 'might' to 'have' because -- as warm blooded animals -- its impossible not to use fat to fill in for the deficit. So that, to me, is job #1 of a plateau is making sure that my food logs are right in quantities and completeness and that my deficit is 500-1000 Calories below my intake.
> I can sometimes lose 2 pounds overnight too, which I assume is just purely water weight.
Right. Between Friday and Saturday, I ate -200 from my maintenance but lost 2 pounds. Now -200 (if accurate) is 1/17th of a pound of fat, so 1 and 16/17ths pounds of that was water. But there's a better way...
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I committed to weigh myself daily as I was feeling like that. I wanted to overcome that fear of the number -- and that fear of my reaction to the number. So I weigh daily right after waking.
It took about 2 months to be almost completely fine with it. It definitely went from a problem to a non-problem in 2 months. I still feel a little blue when I weigh in heavier, but that reaction is very short-lived now.
> it caused me to overeat & become obsessive
One rule I made for myself was to never change my plans based on this morning's weigh-in. This morning's weigh-in is just a datapoint and it's not a good judge of my progress.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Yes, this is normal. It's also not bankable -- you can be 150 kg tomorrow even if you behave well today. This is due to water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The best way out is always through, they say. The obstacle is the way.
You don't learn how to handle your challenges by hiding them away -- you won't get stronger in your regard of the scale, you'll get weaker. If you have a difficult perception of what the scale means, you certainly shouldn't avoid the scale. You should work to change your perception.
I also struggled in the beginning, especially when the scale would go up. But then I was realizing that my difficulty went both ways: I'd do a mental celebration when it went down. Both were problems because the scale going down or up was simply a result and -- if anything -- a lagging indicator of my effort. But many times it was just an indicator of my body's hydration change since my previous weigh in. I truly needed to change my focus.
Looking at the scale to check on your effort is like looking at the rain gauge to check on the weather. If there's anything in the gauge, it's already rained!
My scale weight is a lagging indicator. What is my leading indicator? My calories. My miles/steps/walks traveled in my walking. My attending my IRL support meetings. Keeping my 24-hour pledges. Those things make it happen.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The 221 one could have been a more dehydrated weight -- water is a big factor in what our body weighs and the amount we carry varies from hour to hour!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
This all sounds really good.
Yes, you lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks, and probably 7 of that is water weight as your previous diet had you retaining more water than your current diet does. This 10 pound loss is a strong signal that you've made kinds of dietary changes that typically lead to successful fat burning: eating fewer sugars/carbs and sodium-laden foods.
A month from now, you won't be able to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks, it'll be more like 1-2 pounds a week as the water from before you started will then be gone. The scale will still be wavy sometimes -- and those little ripples are water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Some days I'm super hungry by the time I need to go to bed so sometimes I drink an Atkins shake or something. Is this feeling hungry normal? Was my body just used to being full all the time from all the fattening food I was eating?
Either that, or habit, or some of both. It doesn't matter why -- you're doing a smart thing by answering hunger with a little something instead of trying to bear hunger. Our biggest risk to success is quitting entirely -- it's not in adding 100-200 more calories to answer some hunger when needed.
Many people are fine with not eating after dinner. If it's truly habit, you can gradually retune this one but there is no rush and it's not necessary to be successful. As long as your Calories-In are less than your Calories-Out, you'll lose weight and the timing of these things is secondary.
> I probably shouldn't be weighing myself every other day lol and I know that.
I weigh every single morning. It's fine. But I rarely weigh myself except first thing in the morning (or for TOPS at 10am on Thursdays but that's a different thing and I keep separate records for it).
I hope this helps!
I round to the nearest integer, but I also only use the trend weight on Libra (weight-smoothing averaging app for Android) to make it official. (Happy Scale is an iPhone version of this.)
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I started out using the online tools on the Hacker's Diet website and am still logging there when I think of it, since I am following its suggested exercise program and its tools include convenient fields for logging my progress in that as well. But I'm also using the Libra app, which (1) is somewhat prettier and more mobile-friendly, and (2) stores my information locally on my device, which I sort of prefer to being long-term reliant on someone else's storage. The app has the usual "free with ads or pay to get rid of the ads" setup; I paid to get rid of them because it wasn't that much.
The calculation is also simple enough that you could just use a spreadsheet if you really want.
I use Libra
If you're not pooping then that stuff is accumulating, and that weighs on the scale.
> I DO feel like I lost 1b or two from being 190.
Feelings are nonsense. I laugh at mine. They're impressions, not facts. Kind of cute that we confuse them, but that's human.
> What should I do?
Drink a moderate amount of water and eat foods high in fiber. My favorite choices are fruits with the suffix -berry -- like blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry. Fiber helps us to poop and it feels normal -- not urgent or loose, but regular daily stools.
Keep track of your weigh-ins on a long chart and see the trends. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Why is your need 'dire'?
> ... I was really happy when I got to the 89.7kg point. Then the other day, after following my usual schedule, I weighed myself and 8 weighed 91.3kg.
> This obviously made me feel frustrated ...
They're practically the same number.
This is going to take months, not days and weeks. The day-by-day fluctuations of our body is mostly about how different parts of our body uses water for various things.
> I just find it really difficult to find the exact foods I eat most of the time on like applications that you can track your calories with. [from the comments]
It is very hard.
The first month is very hard. Do it as best as your time will allow, and know that over time it gets easier. You learn more about both the tools and how to get and use the data. The first month is rough.
The third month you'll be calling easy. You're breezing through it. It takes mere minutes out of an entire day.
Get to the second month and you'll already be finding some efficiencies and it won't seem like an impossible fight all the time. At the other side of that month is where it will be very nearly free of trouble.
Fatness is about too much food -- but please hear that with zero judgment or feelings of guilt. We learned to eat too much food, we're prompted by our environment to eat too much food, and -yes- our human vices can also lead us there. But it doesn't matter because that's our past and it's unchangeable history. Only now matters. The future doesn't yet matter and the past matters no more.
Your 12000 steps is about fitness. It's quite enough fitness. You need some strength stuff to do and you don't need a gym to do it.
Do this for strength:
Keep track of your weight via a weight-smoothing app so that the water is less of a factor. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Yes, the body sometimes does the opposite of what we think it should, because of the volatile behavior of water in our systems.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
No, not concerning yet and probably not at all ever. You're losing 1.8 pounds per week averaged across 9 weeks. You ate less last week which means less sodium, fewer grams of carbs, and less bulk being digested -- so what you're seeing in losses last week is mostly water. Should you go back to consuming as you did in your 7th week, you'll probably regain that water (but still lose fat)..
Your period could definitely be a factor. Water is the major player here in bodyweight -- fat is secondary.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Water is very variable (kinda rhymes) so yes it's normal. But you're also a beginner so we also have to use times like these to make sure we're being a good logger and have a solid deficit. If we have a solid deficit, then we can rest easy that it's just water: it's impossible not to burn fat on a deficit -- but those losses may not come off the scale right away.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Also talk to your prescriber about problems with the drugs they've prescribed. It's okay to ask reddit, but let's not leave your doctor out of the loop when you do. They're your body's health expert and should be consulted when you have problems or have questions. Otherwise, you could start down a road of wrong advice and they'd be none the wiser.
Don't accept the daily weigh-ins as a sign of your weight-loss progress. Chart them. Wait until you have 10 days and then see if you can see a trendline.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I felt those feelings but pushed to overcome them so that I could weigh daily (good basic habit for me). I learned a lot in the process.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount of water we carry varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
When I went to bed last night, I weighed randomly and I was over 179. This morning I am 173. The time of day matters because of how much water and other bulk (including body waste and food digesting) is happening. The only weigh-ins that I record are the wake-up naked weigh ins after using the morning toilet.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Not reliably.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You are making the mistake of thinking that changes in the scale throughout the day are meaningful to fat loss. They are not. Even when the fat cell is accessed, the scale doesn't immediately go down. That won't happen for hours or even a couple of days.
> I did some weightwalking, with a 5kg weight in my backpack and guess whatt !?!? I lost 500g within 1hr walk....
It's probably water from sweat and exhale. Random mid-day weigh-ins like that don't tell us about our fat burning.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I'm tempted to just ditch the scale because it's really demotivating.
I've felt exactly this. What I did instead sucked for a while but now it's just normal: I weigh every day. I embraced the suck because I needed to get over those weigh-in shocks of glee or disappointment.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
As you have already seen, you can behave perfectly and get a gain or not lose weight. The opposite is also true; after a day of indulgent eating off plan, you can weigh in the next day lighter! The daily weigh ins are more about water than fat.
Both scales are probably accurate and precise enough.
> My mechanical Bathroom scale, without clothes and after i went #2 told me right now that i'm 99kg.
This second method is more useful. The random mid-day clothed reading has no idea if you've just eaten or are about to eat, just drank a big tumbler of liquid, need to eliminate waste, etc.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Make that the only weigh-in that you do, and its results are simply a datapoint in a longer trend. Only the trend "counts" for the purposes of judging how well your effort goes.
When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250-300 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Water is a major component of our bodies and is used by many of our body's systems. It retains and releases large amounts of water and it's not always obvious why. Most of us already know that a particularly salty or a carb-filled meal will cause water retention for a short time. The female monthly cycle also regularly does.
> any tips to break this
If the calories are right for fat burning, then you are fat burning. Someone eating ~1330 Calories at 241 is definitely burning fat to make up the difference between that intake and their much-higher TDEE. There is no question.
You can't gain -- or even maintain -- bodyfat on a deficit. However, just because you burned fat at 4pm doesn't mean you weigh less at 4:01 pm. Our fat cells release their energy in a water process called hydrolyzation. That filled fat cell membrane is opened with water (hydrolysis) and that water can stick around for a while. The now-spent cell is still there, the water is still there, and the energy inside is now part of your bloodstream ready to be used to heat our body, move some muscle, think some thoughts, or many other things it needs energy for.
My suggestion is this: use plateaus to remind us to make sure our logs are right and tight, that we're measuring as we should, that our calorie goal is still right for our current stats, and determine whether or not we're still solidly in a deficit. (It sounds as if you are sure right now.) Then, just keep going. Don't worry about the scale results -- they're coming, keep going on the things that will make them come about.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Drop the word "cheat" and call it something else. If you're a weekend socializer, then you need to adjust your plan so that your weekdays are even lighter. There is no cheat -- CICO is just the math. That said, life needs tension and relief and it is not like life not to have times of work and times of play.
IF YOU ARE NOT TRACKING CERTAIN DAYS: You need to track your weekend foods just as you do your weekday ones so that you see what is happening -- tracking does not mean not having them, it simply means appreciating what they are. A GPS doesn't mean your lost, it means you know where you are. (Tip: when you don't want to take the time to log, take a picture of your food and log it later.) Remember that your friends aren't preparing foods as you would prepare them. You likely use the lower-calorie products at home. They probably do not.
With that said, there will still be weekend rises and weekday falls. That just follows because of the extra water that comes as a result of more food. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort. Always, always, always discount the latest weigh-in as meaningless to everything except for the trend. Recalibrate your brain to that trend line and you'll gradually learn to be less alarmed at Monday's scale reading.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) which is similar to Happy Scale (for iPhone).
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 22 | |
HEIGHT | 69.7" or 5'9.7" | 177 cm |
WEIGHT | 165 lb | 75 kg |
BMI | 23.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1750 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2187 Cal/kcal |
With no extra exercise, your body burns about 2187 kcal a day.
If you are not losing weight across several weeks, then you are eating about 2187 every day. It could be as low as 1859 or as high as 2515 -- 95% of the population of your stats would fall somewhere between those.
I would urge you to reconsider your conclusion that you are maintaining on an average less than 980 kcal a day. If you are certain, then consult your doctor as you may have problems affecting your metabolism. Problems to that degree would be rare.
I recommend eating 1500 kcal/day which should result in a fat-loss of about 100g a day. Water will make that very hard to see, so track it on an app that tracks trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Reddit is a written medium. Please write in paragraphs. It's a very difficult thing to read a large wall of various run-on thoughts. Paragraphs help us help you.
Here are my answers to some of your thoughts.
> 2500 mon - fri. Sat & sun = 7000 and even add an extra 1000 to adjust for mistakes.
Fair enough for now. As you get better at remembering to include everything, though, drop that extra 1000. Mistakes work both ways so we don't need to adjust for them. Make your logs as complete and accurate AND FAIR as you can. Some errors will be -250 and some will be +250 and they cancel one another out.
But since you're not seeing losses yet, the -1000 is fine for now.
> I’m 183cm, 26M, 273lb my maintenance should be around 3000+ quite easily.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 26 | |
HEIGHT | 72" or 6'0" | 183 cm |
WEIGHT | 273 lb | 124 kg |
BMI | 37 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2256 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2820 Cal/kcal |
Yes, fair enough.
> So that’s 20500
20500 divided by 7 days is 2929 kcal/Calories so that is no substantial deficit. You need to drive this 7-day average into the 2300-2500 range. How about 2300 weekday and 2500 weekend?
The good news here is that you've essentially proven ~CI=~CO in your case four weeks. You know how to maintain your weight and not gain -- by eating your TDEE, which you're basically doing.
Now, you did have a harder workout week last week. If this made your muscles really sore, that's inflammation which is temporary (3-5 weeks) water weight used to suspend (stiffen) the muscle tissues to heal and build them. So there could be some of that going on, too. This is normal and healthy and nothing to fight. It does not prevent fat losses but it does offset them on the scale for those 3-5 weeks until the muscles get used to the new loads and routines.
> I weight myself the same time the same place the same scales on Monday 6am before I’ve eaten or drank anything.
Since weekends are your bigger eating days, and more food means more water-retaining sodium and more water-retaining carbs, and more food also means more 'gut water' in the food and more water used to digest it, then Monday morning is a poor weigh-in time for consistency's sake. You'll likely get better consistency on Friday morning or Thursday mornings.
Personally I weigh in every day and log it into a weight smoothing app, and, as the paragraph above suggests, the reason is because of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I hope that helps.
When you increased your intake (the right move), you increased the salt and carbs and other bulk -- which needs more water to process -- so much of the new weight you're seeing on the scales is water.
Use the daily weigh-ins to form a trend, but don't adopt the latest weigh-in as THE indicator of your fat-loss progress.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
This morning's weight was down 3 pounds from yesterday, 4 from the day before that. I'm not giving it any consideration other than logging it and seeing what happens in the future several weigh-ins.
Both of these have the same answer: use a weight-smoothing app and weigh frequently. The weight-smoothing calculation will deemphasize the highs and lows and show you a more useful trend -- both line and "trend weight."
Lack of sleep will cause hormonal imbalances which causes water retention.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Teens always should routinely talk to their doctor as they're losing weight. This is not idle "boilerplate" advice -- it's important that an objective, unbiased set of eyes is helping teens with this.
You seem to be expecting perfect behavior from yourself. That's not going to work out. Instead, we do with persistence and perseverance what we cannot do through perfection.
When we behave differently than we intend to behave, it's good to appreciate that this is part of being human. You're not a robot. You're not defective. You are human.
At age 15, you're still developing into adulthood in some ways and have reached adulthood in other ways. Some of this growing is still visible in changes seen across the next years -- and some skeletal changes will keep happening into your 20s. It's very important that you eat ENOUGH calories and nutrients at age 15.
So, your biggest challenge is to accept that fast weight loss is not appropriate to you. That is a very hard fact to accept. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to eat lighter, but you cannot make it so light that you are not getting adequate nutrients. An appropriate weight loss for you may be 2 pounds a month, but you should ask your doctor.
> the scale keeps saying 149.0 for 4 days straight and it would only go up ( like after I finish eating) but in the morning it’s still the same.
Two things here...
Even the most consistent weighers (which you are not) will have ups and downs. This is more due to water and other substances in the body than it is about bodyfat. I've been weighing daily for 7+ years and my weight ranges across 8 pounds in about 10 days regardless of my calorie performance. I agree with you that this is frustrating, even with all of my experience!
But the other thing is that you will do better if you're more consistent. The only weigh-in you should do is that one time in the morning after you wake up, after you use the toilet, before you put any clothes on. That is the most consistent time for the body. Take that weight and chart it.
Then, take that chart and wait until you have 10 days and then start to figure out the trend. Keep weighing, charting, and trending, and -- across two weeks -- see if you're gaining, maintaining, or losing weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Since /r/loseit is a place for healthy and sustainable methods of weight loss, we can expect that people are losing about 300-1000 Calories a day worth of body fat. That is about 0.1 to 0.3 lb per day (0.05 to 0.12 kg per day).
We're not here to fight water. Water has a natural purpose. The way to get the noise of water out of the way is probably not water pills; you should ask your doctor if those are safe or useful to you. The way to get the noise of water out of the way is with averaging and trendlines. Fortunately, there are apps for that!
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound (~300g)! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I did "just for science" weigh in even after bathroom stuff and saw no changes even after.
If you weigh yourself, then eliminate substantial waste, and weigh again and there is no change; the scale is imprecise. You just unloaded some weight and left it in the toilet. The second scale reading ought to reflect that.
Here is something to try when you need to use the bathroom. Weigh yourself carrying a heavy object (don't record it). Now weigh yourself normally (record it). Then use the toilet. Weigh yourself again carrying a heavy object (don't record it). Now weigh yourself again normally (record it). Now do you see a difference?
If this changes things, it means your scale has some programming in it to fake precision. They do this in order to use cheaper parts and make it appear to have precision that it doesn't have.
This is one reason why we have to weigh consistently only first after waking after a good sleep, after using the toilet, before getting dressed. And then do not worry about that weigh in other than to record it and average it into a trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250g or so! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Ignore that weigh-in that you did after eating cookies and high-calorie foods. Your body is full of that food and its accompanying gut-water.
The only weigh-ins that I use are first thing after waking, after using the toilet, before I get dressed. And these only count as datapoints; it's the trendline over a few days of data that I respect.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> If so what helped you get back to it?
The resistance to start or restart is an imaginary one, but it is palpable. Because it is not actually real, we can step through it and do the things we ought to do. We procrastinate doing this because doing nothing feels safe; but as you are discovering that feeling isn't true, either.
The only use for the past is to inform us about our future. Ignore the regret or the guilt and get to the business of doing right things for right reasons.
The other thing to know is that this will absolutely happen again, so figuring those reasons out (and they'll be personal to you) and doing something preventative about that can help avoid or reduce the problem in the future.
For me, I weigh daily like I described above and log it.
I also discovered (at age 51) that all of my previous successful weight losses involved food tracking, and as a result I commit to tracking daily. This commitment also feels like it's too much: I had a hard time promising myself that I would, forever, track food. So I commit only one year at a time, and I renew that commitment every July 9th -- the anniversary of my first day of tracking in 2014. I can do that much easier than committing forever.
I hope that helps! When you wake up and read this, it'll be your brand new Day 1 -- but you are wiser as you have done this before, and you also discovered what was going on before you regained all the weight you lost. It is a new effort, but it is informed by the old effort and a considerable amount your previous progress is still intact.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Body weight fluctuates constantly- not just daily but as you've noticed over the course of a day too. For that reason consistency is all the really matters.
Personally I wake, pee, weigh, every day.
But again, because daily weight can fluctuate by as much as a few pounds I look at my 7 day/weekly average as a truer body weight and not what I weigh on any given particular day.
Tip: I keep a spreadsheet with my weigh ins and calculate a running 7 day average BUT there are apps that will do this for you. For iOS there's Happy Scale and for Android there is Libra.
You can't eat zero and have gained fat, even with your conditions. So, any increase that you see on the scale must be something other than fat. Likely, it's improved hydration between today's weigh in and yesterday's weigh in.
Also very possible, you have not yet processed and eliminated the waste from that one after-6pm meal that you had.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Your situation sure sounds challenging! Keep up the fight as best as you can and hopefully they can dial-in the right dosages to get you on a losing track.
When you are used to eating at 1200 and then have a 1600 or 2000 Calorie day, you are also eating 33% or 50% more water-retaining sodium, that many more carbohydrates (which also retain water when they bind with glycogen), and that much more bulk/waste in your intestine and colon.
To overcome this, look at trends across several days (more than a week).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Dropping 100 calories, it would take 35 days to lose an extra pound of fat from the change. What you're seeing is water fluctuating. Water weighs on us, too.
You can trust this BECAUSE you're so confident in your counting. You're also CW 148 which means that your body's water% is a lot higher than when you were SW 184. Not only will the fluctuations be wider, they will be more frequent.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
One more thing to consider is that if you changed your routine during the holidays and now you're back at it -- some swelling due to working those muscles for the first time in a while. Also, if you flew, some water retention due to the plane trip.
Water is weird.
My major advice here: trend tracking your weight, keep excellent calorie records, and trust the process. You are doing wonderfully!
That trek continues into maintenance. At the end of the day, the rule-of-thumb that 3500 Calories is a pound is true enough. We don't have to worry that the Chinese Restaurant has us puffy (and +5 pounds) for a few days. It will pass.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Don't focus too much on crushing the losses; instead, focus on the lifestyle you want to have at goal weight that will be the lifestyle that keeps you at goal weight. The watery spikes don't matter.
Food is very important to us -- not just as fuel and nutrition, but our friendships and business relationships are often bonded over food, we celebrate with it, we have traditions with it, we feast and mourn with it. We are going to have to have a full rich life at goal weight and to do that we have to not worry so much about keeping that line steady, but we do have to keep the trend.
I'm sure making it sound tougher than it really is. The toughest part for me is trusting the process even when the scale trend has been going in the wrong direction for a while -- if I know my calories are right, I just keep going. That plateau does break. And if I am not sure, then I tighten things up a bit so that I am more confident that I'm having a good deficit. Time and deficit will erode whatever water is temporarily doing.
Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
You increased your calories by 1000 (100%). This means you also increased your sodium by 100%. You increased the fiber by 100%. You increased carbs by 100% and are probably replenishing glycogen which creates a water-weight gain.
You cannot gain bodyfat on a deficit -- if you're sure about your deficit, then you can know absolutely that you did not gain any fat. This is all water and waste and other non-fat stuff.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
All of it is real. Not all of it is body fat. If you spent 15 days eating 2000 calories over your body's maintenance, you'd gain 8-9 pounds of body fat. The rest is water, waste, inflammation, poop, and other gunk.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> If i eat 1000 calories a day I wont loose weight.
That's incorrect. It may seem that way because the scales also weigh our body's water changes and with big drops like that, we actually see big drops in weight the next morning.
Fat losses are a lot slower -- 2 to 4 ounces a day on a good deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
It's a weight tracking app. You don't have to use this one - it's just one I've tried and looked enough to not look for another.
When you go from 1200 to 1800, you're eating 50% more salt, 50% more carbs, and 50% more bulk than you were before. That's going to cause a lot more water and waste retention. And, they will be permanent as long as you keep eating at 1800. It's not new fat, it's simply how much water and waste your body holds on an 1800 diet.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I understand you're back at 1200. This time increase it by 100 or 150 daily Calories each week so that you don't get those large responses. It may take a month to go from 1200 to 1800, but that graph is not going to jump up so suddenly and you'll be able to "tune in" into what maintenance weight you're actually at a lot better this way.
If you're sure on your calorie deficit, then spikes are only about the volatile nature of water. The water is there for some reason -- including that we just drank or ate some -- but it doesn't matter.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Never change your plan based on one weigh-in. Water is too much of a factor. You have to make charts and look at the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I think that 2500 kcal is very high for someone trying to lose weight moderately. You'd have to share your stats for someone to give you a suggestion: Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
> I'm eating 1600 calories at 235 pounds. There's no WAY that's enough to sustain all that extra weight.
Exactly. If you're sure (95% confidence) on that 1600 Calories, then ignore the fluctuations. The trend will eventually reassert itself. All this other stuff is water% fluctuations -- the body doing the various things a body does with water.
> I go to 900 calories on accident for ONE DAY, and my stupid body decides that's the norm and anything over that causes me to gain weight despite me not eating enough to sustain my weight.
Water is weight but not fat. The body's response to illness, imbalance (pH or salinity), injury, or stress (cortisol) is to hold water. Water also has periodic cycles in a couple of the body's systems.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I'm on Day 9 of gaining despite being on a very certain deficit. My plateau/gaining cycles during deficits usually have 9-11 days in them and then my body's weight finally breaks to a new lower level of support. I can tend to lose from there for a while (2-3 weeks) and then I hit another plateau where I'm either level or gaining a few again. It might be more understandable if I was a woman with a cycle but I'm a 58 year old guy! Crazy!
^^6 ^^yrs. ^^maintaining ^^• ^^♂58 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:173℔^^/78㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🚶
Your body is short and petite so most of it is water, not bodyfat. While we add and burn bodyfat at predictable rates due to the deficit, water is often unpredictable. As water is a major factor in many of the body's processes, many of them which are automatic, we really can't know why we gained a pound when we think we should have lost one.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I concur with /u/sqitten, the most likely explanation is the weight of the food mass. Eat a pound of anything, even lettuce, and you weigh 1 pound more than before you ate that. You have to look at the trends, not the daily scale weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Remember that a pound of fat is roughly 3500 Calories more than a person your size would eat to maintain -- so if you're the proverbial 2000 Calorie TDEE, to be two pounds heavier due to fat you would have had to eat 9000 Calories yesterday to be up two pounds of fat. I'm sure that didn't happen.
My guess: Either mostly or entirely water weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Do you have Android or iOS?
Here is a link to the app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
For iOS, I've heard that Happy Scale is the (better) equivalent.
>and a very highly rated app for farmers to track the weight of the grains they harvest (who knew?!?)
Now we're are the lucky ones who know!
> how is it that even with 1200 calories I’m maintaining weight, shouldn’t I be losing it like crazy?
Fat loss is slow. Fast weight changes is mostly about water.
If your TDEE is 1500 then 300 difference (eating exactly intake 1200) means you'll burn a pound of fat over twelve days. But most of what we see on the daily scale isn't fat change, it's water change.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> It worries me a lot that if I actually get off this diet and start eating my recommended 1500-1800 I’ll definitely gain weight
Let's see...
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 21 | |
HEIGHT | 63" or 5'3" | 160 cm |
WEIGHT | 180 lb | 82 kg |
BMI | 31.9 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1551 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1938 Cal/kcal |
With 95% confidence, your personal pre-exercise TDEE is 1648-2229 so there's no way you gain any fat eating 1500. You will gain water weight any time you increase your intake, and you will lose that water weight any time you lower that intake. That's because our body's water% responds to changes in sodium and carb intakes. There is nothing you can do about that.
But we are here about fat and we can burn that.
If you're not keeping a graph of your weight loss, try to start one so that you can see the trends. Your deficit is somewhere around 600-700 Calories so you lose about 0.2 pounds of fat on a good day. Everything else you see happening on the scale is a change in your water retention, waste not yet eliminated, scale error (imprecision or inaccuracy), user error, or something else. After a while, you may see on such a graph a wavy nature to your weight losses -- and maybe not there in your first 20 pounds of loss as often in your final 20 pounds of losses.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I’m on a 1600 calorie meal plan and wondering if I should be a little higher or at least bump protein up because of weight training.
I like 1600 Calories for a 5'4 female nearly down to 200 who is weight training. That is not a harsh deficit. It's a good target.
> I’m currently at 120gm protein a day.
Also quite good. A lot without being too much. Keep doing that too.
Summary: keep going as you are. Don't worry about the daily fluctuations and certainly don't react to them. Observe the trends that they make but otherwise ignore them.
Daily, and logged in a weight-smoothing graphic app that accentuates the trends more than the daily dots.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
That change should result in roughly a 2 pound per month, or ½ pound per week, loss. Because our water variation is so high, and our body does adapt to changes like this by using glycogen, this fat-loss would be hard to perceive except through seeing the trend long-term.
It will happen but it will be wavy and resemble a downward stair-step (due to the waves).
I use a weight-smoothing app like Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
By your stats, your TDEE (pre-exercise) is 1800 so your 1500 goal is fine for losing about 1 kg every 25 days.
Make sure your counting is right and tight, and that no calories are going uncounted. Then simply (!!!) stay the course and it will happen.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink even a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 grams (none of which will result in any fat)! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Taking measurements every two or four weeks is just as important as weighing on the scale. Fat collects in regular places -- around our neck, navel, and hips -- and taking cloth tape measurements and keeping track of them over the weeks can confirm your fat losses.
Someone at a deficit cannot NOT lose bodyfat. So make sure your 1500 kcal is counted with a daily WRITTEN (or computer) log of all foods, drinks, condiments, snacks, cooking oils. Use a digital kitchen scale often. Don't just use your memory. Rarely weigh with your eyeballs. Rarely guess.
> How To Deal With Insecurity?
This isn't a false sense of insecurity. This is a legit situation. One hundred out of 100 people would be discouraged if this was happening to them.
> i have to emotionally prepare myself for the fact that there's a possibility that on friday the scale won't change
Every scale reading is a dice roll. Water is too much of a factor for it to reliably show our fat loss on our very next weigh in. We have to chart and see the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
FYI the Libra app for android is great for tracking weight trends.
Your scale has those set points, called "resolution." My current scale has a resolution of 0.2 pounds. A scale's reading is derived from the electrical signal returned from the weight sensors.
This is one of the reasons why the trend is all important and the daily data is nearly dismissible once you've recorded it and calculated it into the trend.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the data noise.
Same thing happened to me. The first third of my weight loss was rather straight-line. The middle third had a few plateaus here and there. The final third was a staircase of plateaus. (The duration of all of this was 10 months.)
I think it's because when we start, we have a lot of bodyfat% in our composition which leaves less room for water%. Water is wavy -- a normal-sized male person's body is 60% or so water and 15-20% fat whereas an obese person's body could 40-45% water and be 30-40% fat. Variations in 40% of the pie are harder to see than are variations in 60% of the pie, especially when weight losses are happening faster as they are in the beginning. This is all guessing on my part, but I think that's what is happening: plateaus happening in people toward the 2nd half of their weightloss that didn't happen in the first half.
> It feels like I should be on a steady decline regardless of my workload or am I mistaken?
Mistaken.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Since our normal-sized bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I've been eating 300 under my TDEE all week (including yesterday), and my weight is up over 3 pounds this morning. When I take my socks off, I can tell by the indent of where the socks were that I'm retaining a lot of water for some reason.
> I just don’t get why they’re so extreme.
We sometimes know -- like after that dinner from the Chinese Restaurant, an evening of eating County Fair food, after a bad back sprain, a stressful event that has the sleep off and the cortisol up (which my sleep -was- off last night, but I don't know why).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Ignore the weigh-ins after you've recorded them and look at only the trend lines. That's how to cut through the water noise.
Congrats on your first week of calorie tracking!
> When it comes to recipes from the web, the number I get from MFP is often up to 100 calories off from the number on the website of the recipe.
The recipes are calculated by the values on the packaging of the ingredients. They may have chosen a different brand of this or that ingredient, which had different values. Sometimes we also change it, such as using 1% milk instead of whole milk.
> How do you ensure that your calorie calculator is accurate?
A calorie app is an adding machine. It will add up whatever we submit into it. It's the itemization that we need to get approximately right, and then there's this wonderful thing that happens that makes the total truer: the Law of Large Numbers.
As long as we're issuing good estimates -- fair guesses -- as to the calorie counts of things, then errors here and errors there will be both positive and negative. They cancel each other out so that even if we have 20 items and 15 of them are a little off, the sum of them are still close to the true and accurate sum as if all 20 were correct.
> Is there a specific site that is more reliable than others?
Sometimes I confirm an entry from this USDA site: Food Data Central ... it's the official site for calorie values from the US government.
> but there’s still a little disparity
These tend to work themselves out over time.
> I’ve noticed that every day I’m going 100-150% over my recommended vitamin A. Is this a problem?
Your body can tolerate that. The recommended daily amount of vitamin A is 900 micrograms (mcg) for adult men and 700 mcg for adult women. The upper limit -- beyond which regularly and repeatedly getting that much becomes a concern for toxicity -- is 3000 micrograms. SOURCE You're not getting that much.
> If it’s important to use a scale, how do others avoid becoming obsessive about it?
You need to weigh at least monthly to make sure you're making some progress. I weigh daily. It took a while but I trained myself not to worry about the daily numbers and to just record them so that I could later look at the trends. Most daily changes on the scale are nearly entirely changes due to how much water we store in or release from our body.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You need to be realistic to yourself.
Cutting process
You're 5'8'' that currently weights 78 kg.
https://i.redd.it/xl211wbznx371.jpg
This guy posted on this sub who is 5'8'' but weights 62.5 kg. And as you can notice he is not skin and bones, he has muscle.
Let's hope you don't feel self conscious about appearing skinny (only appearing, not underweight which would be 55.4 kgs for your height).
So your plan should be to get to 62 kgs, with the option to going as low as 56 kgs if you still feel have significant amount of fat on your frame.
That's 16 kilograms (or potentially 22 kgs), so if you ideally lose 2 kgs per month it would take you 8-12 months. I'm confident that you will look good at around 55-60 kgs if you followed a great protein diet with good enough exercise. (Remember you're in normal range with 55.4 kgs, not underweight).
So say you used up 12 months to get to 57 kgs, and now you're satisfied with the amount of fats around the frame, don't rush the bulk, never do it.
How to track progress, I'll copy a comment I just recently made:
Eat 1900 calories per day for a week.
After 1 week, write your weight every day first thing in the morning after going to the bathroom.
Then you average 7 days by 7 days to be closer on how much you're losing weight.
So for example say wrote your weight for 14 days:
180, 175, 178, 182, 174, 176, 179, average is = 177 pounds.
178, 180, 170, 181, 173, 171, 177, average is = 175.7 pounds
So this would mean that you lost 1.3 pounds of weight in one week.
Keep your averages, and try to ideally lose around 0.5-1 pounds per week, this is marathon not a spring.
So if you're using kilograms in your daily life just write up as kilograms, and try to lose around 0.5 kg per week.
If it's higher than that say you're losing 1 kg per week, then up the calories a bit, add +100-300 calories per day, and then recheck.
Bulking process
So then for example in 12 months say you finished your cut at being 57 kg, and eating at hypothetical 1800 calories, you don't just add 1000 calories. You add 500 only.
So now you're eating for 2300 calories only first week of the bulk.
After 1 week of eating 2300 calories you again start writing your weight first thing in the morning after peeing:
57, 59, 56.5, 58.7, 60, 58,1, 57 = average is 58 kgs
58, 58, 56, 58.7, 59, 60, 58 = average is 58.25 kgs
Perfect, that would mean that you only added 0.25 kg per week. That would mean that your current diet is perfect for adding 1 kg per month. (0.25 kg x 4 )
If for example you increased a lot 0.5kg or 1kg per week, you immediately cut -300 calories on your day.
If it didn't increase at all you would add +300 calories.
This is what clean bulk is increasing at 1kg at most, 0.5 kg per month at least which will mostly go to muscle given proper diet/training.
I was also made known on this sub that there is app that can keep your averages and trend and do the calculations for you: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en&gl=US
So you can look at that as well.
Ask any question you'd like and good luck.
Libra is an Android weight-loss app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en\_US&gl=US
It's accurate enough over the long term.
> Btw : 25 yo, f, 132lbs 5'6" goal weight is 124
> And if you guys don't believe me, I was 135 lbs last Thursday and I have been eating around 1600 cals a day since then even going a bit over my limit a few times
I believe you. This is because of water variations adding to the fat losses you've accomplished.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You've lost 10 pounds in 7 weeks, which is quite effective.
> am I eating too little?
No. Eating more will slow down your weight loss.
> Why will I loose 3lbs one week and nothing the next week?
Because water, not fat, is our body's biggest contributor to our composition. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
> I also used to weigh myself daily. Now I’m doing it weekly so it may look a bit odd at the start.
I weigh daily but I use a weight-smoothing app. Whatever works.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or you can also use Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
SUMMARY: You're doing fine. Keep going as you are.
My emotions would whip up and down based on my scale -- to get over that, I weigh exactly once a day regardless of the feelings about it. That helped desensitize me.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Cleanses are bullshit but if bullshit is what gets you started, it can't be all bad. Your body's systems are self-cleaning.
Your 51 kg on Sunday was after a snack spree and snacks are often filled with carbs and sodium, two things that cause us to retain water for a few days.
47 kg at 154 cm is a perfect, ideal weight. There is nothing wrong with it. 45 kg is fine, too. So any feelings of terror you are having are emotionally disproportionate to the (non-)problem.
But the other thing is that our weight fluctuates in a range normally -- not because of body fat but because of water retention across the body's many systems. This is normal and healthy. If you're keenly interested in your weight, you should track it on a weight-smoothing app.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your weight-management effort.
My routine is to take the very first reading of the morning and I use Libra for my database and for weight smoothing. Every so often, I'll update MyFitnessPal with my weight so that it keeps my TDEE correctly.
All scales have a certain precision and a certain accuracy -- but none are totally precise and accurate. We have to accept "good enough." The scale is not the only problem -- there's also a human factor and a water factor.
We may not use the scale the same way twice. We stand on it differently, and with a different forward, backward, or sideward lean.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Your weight today is not a reflection of how much fat you've lost in the past 24 hours. Water fluctuations are too large and too volatile to try to eke out any useful data between two weigh-ins that are 24 hours apart.
I like 1200-1400 as an intake goal for someone who is 176. Your previous 1900 was too high a target to hope to lose weight.
> walking and hula hooping, i wake up today so, so, sore
Soreness suggests inflammation which is water retention for the purposes of immobilizing and healing/building the muscles that were worked. This does offset fat losses on the scale for about 3-5 weeks but it is temporary and does not mean you've stopped burning fat -- it just hides it from the scale. Keep doing this workout and your body will get used to it and your muscles won't get as inflamed in the future.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with me?
Not a thing, now that you're at 1200-1400, stay in that range and give it another 3.5 months and you should see quite a difference from when you were eating 1900.
These scales aren't great at the body composition thing, and really can only measure what's going on between the connections (usually the feet). So what it knows, it knows by measuring up one leg and down the other, but nothing higher than the groin. (Shortest electrical path.)
The body's response to many things is to retain water. I have had 10 pound gains twice in the past 6 years, and it's usually like an allergic reaction to something.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I lost 4lb in 4 days, should I be worried?
No. Especially if you're starting. You're shedding water weight.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Yes, but realize it doesn't mean anything. Water is the main reason that our weight is different than yesterday or tomorrow and water retention changes rapidly while changes in fat happen slowly. So keep a chart and see the trends -- ignore the datapoints except to let them form the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Use a scale, and this app. Libra is essentially an app that does the paper work of the hackers diet for you.
To make this work: - weigh yourself every morning, consistently - give your self a week to establish the trend you are on - make a tiny change to see how that influences your weight loss.
Calorie counting is a huge pain, especially if you are eating home made food. Rather than trying to measure the input side of the system, measure the output side - your weight.
This tool doesn't tell you what to eat - it only tells you the impact of what you ate (trended over several days). You can feel your way to what works for you, or follow a regimen - up to you.
For me personally, intermittent fasting (no breakfast, no lunch) has been pretty reliable.
Good luck, you're on the right track: CICO is correct, but there are better ways to monitor it than pretending to understand each calorie.
> This morning I climbed up the scale and it showed 70.1 kgs. I tried 2 more times and again both the times it showed 70.1 kgs
This is software in the scale faking precision. Consumer bathroom scales lack the hardware to be very precise so there is software inside that fakes it. The reason for this is because they don't want the bad reviews from a lack of precision nor do they want to have to have the higher price required of better sensors.
> so i changed the settings to pounds and weighed myself again and it showed 153.4 lbs. I was like "isn't this 69.5 kgs? It just showed 70.1 three times" So i changed the unit back to kilograms and it showed 71.6 kgs! I tried two more times and it still showed 71.6 kgs. Then I again changed the unit to lbs and it showed 157.8 lbs. Then I again changed unit to kgs and it showed 71.2 kgs and finally 154.4 lbs.
Changing the settings is one way to get around the problem. Another is to first weigh carrying something heavy. Then weigh again without the heavy thing. Accept this new reading. Don't keep doing it over and over.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of scale error or water retention.
> if staying at my weekly budget will cause me to gain weight
If you eat less than you burn, you will lose bodyfat. However, since most of our body is water, and because water fluctuates so quickly and widely while fat burning is slower and more predictable, we all can get easily fooled by what water is doing and associate it (falsely) with our eating.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
I also say to use Libra (or Happy Scale).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You will plateau, and it's fine. You shouldn't exercise more -- keep exercise about your fitness and other health. Likewise, do not eat under 1200 Calories -- instead, accept that your weight loss trend on the large average will get slower and slower over time. So, what do you do about the plateau?
Use the plateau to sharpen your skills. Is everything logged? Is everything that can be weighed, weighed. Do you have your current measurements?
If you think you are retaining water and it's not the time for that in your female cycle, then there are some other questions you can answer. Are you taking care of your creative interests and staying mentally healthy (less stress, less cortisol, less water retention)? Are you eating some items from the list of foods high in potassium (helps in dealing with excess sodium-caused water retention)?
And the most important thing is last, but the above are not to be skipped. Lastly: Let time pass. You are burning fat at 1200 intake and what you're seeing on the scale is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I hope that helps.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
>Awesome job as seen on the pic. I see the bulge right above your belt and wonder if there is some loose skin involved there. Fat is a layer of skin and when we have a lot of loose skin, it collects at the lowest points (thanks to gravity).
Thank you & yeah I am actually thinking that it maybe loose skin & to even try to get rid of this if there is some fat there would be pointless.
>But the math of it is this -- you're going to be at a deficit, even at 1550. You will gain, this is due to water caused by more carbs/sodium/bulk and it won't be very temporary (it won't go away in 3 days like a high-sodium meal -- since your +350 calories will be daily you will have a sustained water gain. But the deficit will continue to cause reductions in your bodyfat and after a few weeks, you'll see that trend start to emerge. In the meantime, the water fluctuations really are spooky and we have to trust the math of it.
I do increase my carbs on a Saturday & my calories. Not by much but just so I can enjoy something I wouldn't normally eat & I can gain 3 to 5lbs over night just by increasing my carb intake. I tend to look 'puffy' when I gain this water weight & that's what put me off & concerns me but I need to come to terms with this. As you say I need to just trust the math & realize it wont be extensive fat gain when the scale weight increases. Thanks for the reassurance here.
>Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
>
>Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
>
>One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I do use Libra & it is fantastic. I weight myself each morning but the weight that I use as reference is every Saturday at 11am. As you say Libra shows a trend over the period & its good with the fluctuation that we can see each day in scale weight.
This is me when I was over weight & prior to the first pic I was even bigger. The bottom pic is last year when I was 133lb & even then I should have been happy I think with my progress. I think when we were once overweight & lose that weight the prospect of gaining it again can be very scary. Before & after
Thanks again for your great advice :)
Awesome job as seen on the pic. I see the bulge right above your belt and wonder if there is some loose skin involved there. Fat is a layer of skin and when we have a lot of loose skin, it collects at the lowest points (thanks to gravity).
But the math of it is this -- you're going to be at a deficit, even at 1550. You will gain, this is due to water caused by more carbs/sodium/bulk and it won't be very temporary (it won't go away in 3 days like a high-sodium meal -- since your +350 calories will be daily you will have a sustained water gain. But the deficit will continue to cause reductions in your bodyfat and after a few weeks, you'll see that trend start to emerge. In the meantime, the water fluctuations really are spooky and we have to trust the math of it.
It's impossible to gain new fat on a defict. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
At 313 or so and eating 1500 Calories, you're not gaining any fat back. You may be retaining water or waste, which is offsetting fat losses that simply must happen at your stats and intake, but you are not gaining any fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 29 | |
HEIGHT | 74" or 6'2" | 188 cm |
WEIGHT | 313 lb | 142 kg |
BMI | 40.2 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2454 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 3068 Cal/kcal |
One of the reasons we retain water is due to cortisol. As 1500 is too little food for you, your body can be reacting with inflammation and your body's systems can be underperforming. You should not have a deficit of more than 1000 Calories for these reasons. A good calorie target for you would be 2000-2100.
> I don’t feel like I’m starving myself
A deficiency doesn't feel like anything, and it generally takes time to develop. But it does catch up to you, making you eventually feel poorly, or suddenly unable to ward off an illness, or have an attack of some sort.
I hope these ideas help you.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
It is due to water retention fluctuations.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Can you break your ultimate goal down into smaller ones? I use Happy Scale (iOS) to do this, but I believe Libra (Android) does this as well.
Happy Scale and Libra do a lot more with the data than just store it!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&feature=search_result
Yes, that is fine. The long average across many days is what is useful for both weight management and nutrition management. Keep that average above 1200/day of varied foods for good nutrition, and you can cycle 1200 and 1500 weekly, daily, or however you want (some people like 1200 weekdays and 1500 weekends).
> Will I see slightly faster results in this way?
Not much. What's most important is keeping the 10 kgs off after you lose it, so this is a long effort that doesn't end when you reach -10 kg. Don't be in a hurry.
> I know that some people actually gain weight when they increase their daily amount of calories
... because of water. As long as they're not overeating, they won't gain fat. But they do gain water. You should expect this, too, as going from 1200 to 1500 is a 25% increase in food and, therefore, a 25% increase in water-retaining salt, carbs, bulk, and so on.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
If you don't want to buy a new scale, there is an app called Libra that you can enter your weight in and it will graph it as well. You can modify it a little to determine how many days it uses to see trends and such. Link to app in Google play store
> This time I’m even going to try and change my eating habits (which I didn’t do the last time because I was not willing to give up food). I just want to know how much weight I should and could lose in a week through healthy eating and regular excersise.
You're 16 so one thing to do is to safeguard your late-teenaged development by eating enough varied/healthy food. Don't cut out any food groups or cut way back in any attempt to lose weight fast. Instead, focus on those habits that you mentioned trying to find that "sweet spot" where you're losing weight moderately. For example, 1 kg per week is too fast for someone who is 16 and 87-88 kgs. But you could lose 500-600 grams per week and do that safely as long as your food was mostly healthy and varied (covers all the food types/groups).
> I’m still able to do several excersises perfectly fine after a few days of working out (I think because of muscle memory??)
Yes. Our muscles have great ability -- even years later -- to come back. It's the first time ever that is the slowest/hardest.
Your water weight changes will be all over the place, making your daily progress impossible to track. So make a graph...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I hope this helps.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
Great point! Weight loss is NOT linear. There are many great suggestions about her emotional state, so I’m just going to suggest something to help visualize how it’s not linear. There’s an app called Happy Scale for iPhone and Libra for Android. They do fantastic jobs at smoothing out the daily fluctuations so that you’re not overwhelmed by them and can actually see the overall trend. It definitely helped my mental state, it might help hers.
Unfortunately, the Happy Scale app is only for iPhones, so I wasn't able to grab that. But I did find an Android equivalent called Libra. I really appreciate that recommendation. Libra is able to do the same thing: I entered all my weight data for the last three weeks and it sort of smoothed the line out to project what my weight is doing overall, amidst all the fluctuating. Turns out I am slowly, ever so slowly, gaining weight.
But, again, I'll continue to wait and see. Three weeks is only three weeks. I'll see what the data look like in another month.
Thanks for the kind words, you two.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
No, you didn't gain any fat eating 1800 Calories.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 27 | |
HEIGHT | 68" or 5'8" | 173 cm |
WEIGHT | 212 lb | 96 kg |
BMI | 32.2 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1911 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2388 Cal/kcal |
Your intake of 1800 would put you more than 500 kcal/Calories under what your body burns just to live just a normal day (extra walking NOT included).
What you likely gained by going from 1400- to 1800 was a lot of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I gained it back a lot of weight REALLY fast if I missed a few days of walking
Make sure you're tracking your intake every day as you eat -- not just guessing or logging what you remember a day or so later. I know that when I have exercised, including walking, my food discipline is a lot better. When I am not exercising, I eat a lot more.
> I wanted to know what is a good way to calculate my calories
Digital food scale and MyFitnessPal
> macros
If you're going to do keto -- which would not be my choice for someone with carb-heavy family members and carb-heavy traditions and, therefore, likely carb-heavy favorites -- then your macros are defined by keto.
Otherwise, I would recommend trying to keep your carbs to under 50% of your calories, thereby getting the rest from proteins and fats. Forget keto.
> my mom also eats very poorly and has a bunch of issues with her health, when I noticed how little I was eating, I noticed my mom (and her mom is EVEN WORSE!) was eating even LESS and there were days she didn't even drink water! Now she freaks out about health issues and I cant seem to get through to her about having just enough calories!
Does your mom use a computer? I'm probably older than your mom. Have her reach out to us if she has a weight problem.
If she's overweight like you are, and eating even less, than that's your perception probably. Overweight means overeating.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
Men should not average below 1500 Calories/day. A severe cut in nutrients adds stress to our body which produces cortisol and creates some water retention. While our body has bodyfat to burn for energy, it gets most of its nutrition from the foods we are presently eating. This is why it's important to stay above 1500 Calories/day so that we have enough room to vary our food and get nutritional coverage.
Even doing that, though, weight-loss is wavy.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Another thing that might help is Happy Scale or it’s Android equivalent Libra . Going by straight scale numbers can be depressing or straight deceiving when you consider daily fluctuations. The overall picture is often very different than today’s number and you shouldn’t let a plain number with no smart algorithm behind it have that much control over your life and mood.
Agree with /u/JASN_DE ... this is water.
You said ...
> I always keep a record of my cals and measuring and I haven’t gotten over my cals
... which confirms that it cannot be any new fat and therefore can only be water for one reason or another.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
We have a saying around here: You can't outrun your fork.
It's a reminder that food must be controlled. Must - must - must. Exercise is awesome for health and fitness and mental sharpness; but far down that list of benefits is weight-loss (for normal weight people). For obese people, exercise does help more but -- think about it -- exercise also makes us actually hungrier and makes us feel deserving of eating more.
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Follow that guide to manage the eating part of losing weight. Consider it required -- weight control is managed with food control.
The other thing that a new workout can do is cause water retention. If your muscles are swole and sore from the cycling, this is water retention used by the body to immobilize and heal the muscles. This also weighs on the scale and can even offset fat losses -- so even if you are burning fat, you weigh more. However, if your food is right, you will steadily burn fat but your muscles can only hold so much water before they're topped out. Sooner or later, the fat burning weight losses win out over the water retention.
Keep up with the exercise. Add the food control. Give it lots of time and you'll see the trends emerge.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
I know you're freaking out right now. You're not alone in feeling that way when the scale goes up unexpectedly. I can explain it, though and if you understand, then you won't worry.
There is no way that you can gain any new fat on a dietary deficit. There is a zero percent chance that the +2 pounds this morning is any new fat. In fact, you have to burn fat in order to stay awake, move a bit, and have a body temperature. So if it cannot be new fat (and it cannot), then it has to be something else.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
You didn't mention how you were losing your weight.
If you are not organized about it, then we can have a short-term success but then our body and mind start to fight back to defend the weight that we were. This is called a set-point or settling-point. However, if we're organized and tracking our kcals, then we're not likely to be affected by this because we're eating to those goals instead of to the urges of our hormones and habits (which is how set-points work).
If you need a way to get organized about losing weight, then follow our /r/loseit guide How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Most of the daily ups and downs we see on the scale are water -- and when I say most, I mean 90% or so. When we are in the normal-healthy BMI range -- as you are now -- fat loss is slow. If you have a moderate and good deficit, you will lose at a rate of about 50-60 grams per day of fat. However, your body processes between 6000 and 7000 grams -- and not evenly.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 300-400 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
So with a refocusing on the trend instead of the latest weigh-in, and giving it a lot of time, it won't be so frustrating.
> If we put our weight number in front of our eyes every day, in time, the brain will learn what works well and what doesn't. Does this makes sense?
Only if you focus on the trend. Focusing on the latest weigh-in will drive you nuts.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
So -- YES on weighing daily. But look at the trend line, not the latest datapoint.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
As for mom, I think you need to grab your mask and go out for your run. You are 24, not 14. You are allowed to discuss and resolve to sensible precautions with her, but she is not your warden and you are not her prisoner. That said, you must willing to be more responsible then you're reflecting in your post here.
Viruses are serious and if her eating habits are that bad, she likely has the comorbidities that would make an infection that is deadly or a serious hospital stay. This would be unlike your illness wouldn't maybe wouldn't mean anything at all to you or would be more like a bad flu. You getting sick now at home, however, would also mean her getting sick now. Like it or not, you're not just being careful for yourself, you must be careful for her, too.
Meanwhile, this may also be an opportunity to show mom that you can cook, too, and that good food isn't that hard to make. It's not like you don't have the time, right? Since you're at home, why not make 2 family meals a week out of fresh ingredients?
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
When I started, I'd only record the new lows because I didn't know how weighted averaging worked and it seemed like too much math. But even now - a bunch of years later - I get too jazzed over a new low or bummed over an unexpected high.
I rationally know better, but the emotions still need a little convincing. They're a lot better than when I started.
If anyone needs a tool for this, I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) and there is also Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
One of the strengths of CICO (MyFitnesssPal and other apps) is that you can have anything and everything, as long as the calories work out. So there really is no such thing as "a meal that isn't in the diet" because there is no such list (and there should not be such a list).
OK, rat poison. Don't eat rat poison. Otherwise, there is no such list. Your life is one diet, and you're still on it. There ought not to be such a thing as "on a diet" and "off a diet." It's our diet. We change it, but the idea that it starts and stops and resets -- not very useful to us.
> but a year ago my dietician put me on a low dosis of metmorfin each day [...] I had been on vacation so i hadn't been dieting
I use vacation to vary my experiences and try new things, but also as an opportunity to try to have good control while doing so. So I don't try to lose weight on vacation, but I do try to walk and see everything that I can walk to. If I'm in a place with a different cuisine, I try to have that instead of the same stuff I usually have -- but I still keep the amounts reasonable. This means that my spouse and I split a lot of restaurant meals. If he wants more, he can order more in a second order (same goes for me, too). That very rarely happens -- less than 5% of the time is there a second order between us.
> weight skyrockets again to 102.5 kg aprox, and then it's a whole week or more of effort to go back down
That's almost entirely water and I can help prove it. When we're on a deficit of 500 calories, the most fat we can burn that day is 500/7700ths of a kilogram -- that's 64 grams. And if we overeat our goal by 1000 kcal, we can put on 64 grams (the first 500 kcal gets us to maintenance and the rest is added fat).
Now neither our bodies nor our estimates are that perfectly exact but this is close enough to think it through.
So if we can change by 64 grams a day, how is it that we go up 1800 grams after a big meal? Water. Water in the food, water in what we drank, water used for digestion, water retained because more food means we ate more sodium, and so on.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> i don't understand what i'm doing wrong or what i should change.
Be an excellent logger -- all your food, accurately and completely, all of the time. Be a good weigher of your body and your food. Be so good that you're 95% or more confident that your numbers are accurate.
Be very patient. Use Libra or Happy Scale to see what your trend is. A rate of 500-1000 g per week is a perfectly fine rate and is not too slow. Ignore water blips and the other daily data points, notice only that trend line but don't become emotional at it.
Put your satisfaction in the things that cause weight loss: hitting your calorie goal, staying persistent and patient. Don't be distracted by cool-sounding techniques by IF as solutions: they're tools, but they only work if CICO works. (Ask your doctor whether someone on metformin should be on IF because both affect your blood glucose regulation.)
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🏋🚶
No guy, even one who is completely sedentary, should be eating less than 1500 without his doctor or some professional dietitian monitoring. So that's an easy guideline -- you're undereating on any day you're eating less than 1500. Keep it 1500+.
But some of this weight loss will be water loss. Some will be reasonable fat loss. And a fraction of it will be caused by the excess deficit on your 1200-1400 days.
Just keep it at 1500+ and you'll be okay.
> People say if you lose it too fast you’ll gain it back fast, at what point should I be concerned I’m losing too fast?
Correlation but not causation. They regain it because they eat more than their body burns. Usually it's because they have quit tracking, quit trying, quit paying attention. It does come on fast. Temporary measures have temporary results.
> Also is water weight always a factor with weight loss even after the initial “big drop”?
No. At some point you have no more extra water to shed.
However it will come back when you increase calories, so don't be spooked when you move from 1200+ to 1500+ (a 25% increase of calories includes a 25% increase in water-retaining sodium and a 25% increase of bulk which has weight of its own). This is not new fat (you are 225 and will not gain an ounce of new fat at 1500 Calories). Just accept that our scale weight is often a contrary indicator to what is happening with fat burning.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+🚶🏋+TOPS
Is it possible that you're more aware, recently? Are you paying more attention to your weight throughout these hours and days than you ever had before?
The reason that I ask is because we humans pass about 13.5 pounds a day of food, drink, and other stuff in and out of our body ON THE ROUGH AVERAGE. Some hours and days are higher than the others and we retain and expel at different rates than our intake.
Perhaps you're thinking that everything you're seeing is unhealthy bodyfat when what it is actually is normal and healthy water retention, food digestion, waste disposal, and so on...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Right now I’m in a period where I’ve been barely moving so as to reduce calorie usage and eating all the time
That's not healthy and that's not living.
We eat and get healthy to live; not restrict our lives to meet some arbitrary number we think is exactly right.
> I hate this so much
We rarely act intelligently when our emotions are high. It's like our brains are blinded by the fog created by our distress. Feel your feelings but don't decide anything when you're in this state.
You can surely say "I hate this" without assenting to whether or not you should hate this: "I hate this, and it's good that I hate it" or "I hate this, and it's bad that I hate this." Just notice you hating it, as if you're somewhere else in the room looking at you. Don't judge it. Let it be. Let it pass -- all fogs lift, including the fog of strong emotion.
> I also seem to have no control over when each one happens.
Some of our fluctuations are autonomic. Females are more prone to this than males, owing to their monthly cycles. Some of our fluctuations are caused by our activity -- we gain weight after good exercise, for example, because of water being used in muscle rebuilding and adding blood volume. Also, if we have allergies, we can gain weight due to inflamed tissues and we can feel it -- it's harder to breathe. None of these are causes for any alarm in the fat-loss department; but they show up on the scale even if we had a good day of eating according to our weight-loss plans we can have a 2-pound gain!
It's very clear that no human or mammal will gain weight when the calorie intake is less than the calories expended. When the calorie intake is less, then the body converts bodyfat into energy in a few-day process of extracting triglyceride from adipose tissue using a process called hydrolyzing. This means that the weight isn't gone right away (as water stays behind for a short time), but the fat is converted into energy right away.
You seem confident that her calorie intake is, indeed, less than what she would need to maintain her weight. You can be confident, therefore, that she is burning this fat and this will lead to a trend of weight loss. Any time where you're sure of this, and the scale reports something difference, that difference is always -- always -- water for one reason or another.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I do want to ask you about this, though...
> We've both been keeping track of how many calories she's consumed, and every day, she has been between 300-600 calories under her target calories, besides one day when she was about 900.
If her target are the right number of calories for weight loss, she should not be coming in 300-600-900 under that target. Undereating not only causes stress (which promotes water retention as well as mental distress), it has longer-term impacts that can harm organs and take disproportionate amounts of lean tissue because the body just can't burn fat fast enough.
Typically, a weight-loss target already has a 500 calorie deficit built in, which should produce a fat-loss trend of -300 grams every 4 days or so (but, as described above, water will make that look very noisy and uneven but it will be a downward trend).
Be sure to eat enough.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
What I'm reading
It's discouraging seeing the number go up.
Here's a secret to losing weight: it doesn't happen on the scale, nor does it happen based on how many times you weigh.
The scale to weight-losers is like the rain-gauge is to weather forecasters. The rain gauge says how much it has already rained. The meteorologist isn't discouraged to find rain or no rain in the rain gauge. Neither does the meteorologist use the rain gauge to determine their forecast. The rain gauge is a lagging indicator -- it talks about the past.
Same with the scale. It lags the effort. It isn't the effort. It is data -- noisy data, due to water. You said yourself it sometimes goes up, but you're on a weight-loss plan. Are you overeating? If not, then why are you saddened? Your scale doesn't determine your success, keeping your body's CI<CO does determine your success!
So I say weigh daily, and practice not being emotionally invested in what it says. It is just a noisy datapoint (noisy due to water).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Do figure out what your plan is and stick to it. Keep your emotions out of the way (have them but just notice them) and NEVER, NEVER react to your feelings and discouragements nor your elations or pride. Just keep on your rational course and let those feelings slide by. Your smart plan is the substance of life -- your script -- and your emotions are simply music that plays in the background.
^^♂57 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+🚶🏋
These consumer scales have accuracy within a non-medical or non-scientific tolerance. They're still quite good, but we're talking about a error bar of 0.28 lbs at ~183.55 which is 0.00152546989921 (1-2 tenths of a percent).
These are data points and they're not only going to have errors and vagueness due to scale design and component tolerances, but environment like the softness of the floor, the temperature of the room, and how you stand on the scale versus last time.
But also -- and even bigger than above -- is our own water weight. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
And the trend is also made despite scale errors due to equipment or method of weighing.
Insanity is insanity! (That's a good thing.) It's a hard, taxing routine on the body.
I would expect your water weight due to inflammation and swelling (that achy and 'swole' feel you get from working out) to be up a few pounds for 3-5 weeks after starting. Then your body starts to calm down and working out doesn't mess with the scale so much anymore.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Your 1800 calorie budget will create a weightloss rate of X per week, where X can be calculated based on your stats, TDEE, and deficit. Yesterday represents X/7 (one seventh of your weekly loss). Generally this is somewhere between 2 and 4 ounces worth of fat burning.
You were over your budget by 1800 so whatever you were going to lose this week according to plan will be changed by 1800 calories worth of either new fat or less fat burning.
We approximate a pound of fat as 3500 Calories on the rough average. 1800 divided by 3500 is 0.51 which comes out to 8 ounces.
If, yesterday, it was the expectation to lose 3 ounces of bodyfat, you can now expect that you gained 5 ounces of fat. -3 + 8 = +5
> : is my progress halted for a day? A week? Longer?
You're probably losing 1-2 pounds of fat a week. Instead, this week you'll lose .5-1.5 pounds.
Keep in mind that water weight will cloud up the scale, especially after a big day like yesterday. Give it 3-5 days for the water to get out of the system before looking at your scale seriously.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I am successful at predicting what water weight will do only about half of the time. This means an untrained monkey will do just as well as I do at it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> WW SP, CICO and If it fits your Macros, [...] diabetic exchange diet
I tried a bunch of these. They all worked for a while. Then I realized that it wasn't the plan, it was the tracking. All of these involve tracking and I would get so far in them, feel "I understand now, I don't need to track as closely, just keep doing what I'm doing" and then I would stop tracking but try to keep doing it. Within a few days or weeks, it was all over and the weight would be going back up.
All of those methods will result in our eating less energy than our bodies burn. Because of that, all of those methods work. For me, the tracking is the thing that keeps us from unconsciously eating more than our body burns.
> I have been 174.6 for a week. Doesn't even budge at the "point six." Is this normal?
No. I expect your scale is playing a little funny. My suggestion is to take your first weight holding a nearly full gallon of milk or water or something else heavy. Then take a second weight without the added weight. What this does is defeat a programmed consistency algorithm in some scales that tries to make the scale appear more consistent than it actually is.
Quite a lot. Over 6 KG of water and other stuff passes through you each day, on the rough average. All of this weighs on the scale weights.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Congrats on -120!!! That's awesome!
There's a number of reasons why you might be plateaued, but if the Calories are right, then the reasons don't matter; regardless of what the scale difference is, you cannot gain or maintain bodyfat on a deficit. Your body must -- MUST -- burn bodyfat to make up for the missing calories. As a warm-blooded human, weighing over 300, you will burn a lot more than 1500 Calories.
> I lose about 4lbs a week usually because I’m so big. \
Yes, but you're not as big anymore. At 350 or so, you should be losing no faster than 3.5 pounds a week (1 percent a week) at the extreme. Losing too fast puts your muscles (including your heart) and gall bladder at risk, as well as other symptoms.
If your doctor or registered dietitian didn't give you that 1500 target, it might be too low. This would not cause your plateau, but it can cause you trouble down the road. You should make your Calorie target no lower than a thousand off of your current TDEE.
Water is a fact of human life. I agree with you, it is frustrating because we need that bathroom scale as an indicator in our weight management, and the water interferes with that indicator. BUT, IT IS JUST AN INDICATOR. That the indicator is sometimes thrown off by water does not change the fact that we burn fat to keep things warm and running when we're in a dietary deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You're eating enough in calories ... 1683 would be your higher-assumption floor (vs. 1500).
> I do 2-3 full body workouts a week with lighter workouts every other day. I incorporate on average, 2 rest days. I walk around 5km+ a day.
Since when? For months? For the past 3 weeks?
I ask because new workouts bring on muscle inflammation which is water retention. It can last for 3-5 weeks and offset our fat losses on the scale, making it look like a plateau and that our effort isn't working (even though it is, it's just hidden).
Your calculated TDEE is the center of a bell curve and it can be presumed to be correct for people with your stats +/- about 7 percent with 66% confidence, and +/- 15 percent with 95% confidence.
I think we can safely say that you're in a deficit and are burning fat. It's important to know that there is no way to avoid this -- your body must burn fat to make up the difference, it's a hallmark of being a warm-blooded animal. So when the deficit is confidently there, you can be confident that you're burning fat.
The typical errors made by someone a few weeks in are
So if the calories are right for fat loss, than anything to the contrary on the bathroom scale is going to be water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
It is impossible for someone who is 280 lbs. to eat 1487 Calories on the average and not burn fat to make up the energy difference (the deficit). If you're confident in the truth of the above, then you can know that any different reading that you're getting on the scale is water weight for some reason.
The walking and yoga, if new, can be the cause of this. Yes, the Gatorade adds some sodium and one of the functions of Gatorade is to replace the water you're losing through activity with electrolytes so that it is less likely to just pass through. I don't know whether it actually does anything useful that normal food wouldn't do. Also, the female cycle messes with the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Don't worry about water. It's not slowing down your fat burning. It is hiding it from the scale.
Congrats on your great success over these past 5+ weeks!
> I thought eating at a deficit would lead to weight loss most weeks.
Not quite. It burns fat every week, but fat is not the biggest component of our bodies. Water is, and the percentage of water in our body fluctuates both rhythmically and arhythmically. Water isn't what we're fighting -- water is just the body doing it's various things -- but it clouds our fat-fighting picture on the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I did weigh myself after drinking a cup of coffee and eating 3 strawberries
A teacup of coffee is about 250 grams, and a mug is just short of twice that. Coffee is almost entirely water. Strawberries are mostly water.
The difference between 66.5 and 67.1 is 600 grams.
> Is it possible that I've actually been logging what I'm eating incorrectly
This is always the question to ask and if you're asking it, you likely can tighten it up. The two typical issues are being complete and estimating quantity/portion. Be sure to include condiments, cooking oils, salad dressings, add-ins to salads, add-ins to coffee, small snacks and bites, and so on. Secondly, be sure to use a digital kitchen scale regularly.
> or is this just my weight fluctuating?
This is also very possible. My view is that most of what we see between any two daily weigh-ins is water. You're estimating 1200-1300 per day on a weight averaging 66.8 for a pre-exercise TDEE of about 1750 calories. I would expect you to be down about 500g in fat but water is so volatile and variable that it can entirely hide that fat loss on the bathroom scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 500 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Libra - Weight Manager | 4.3 rating | Free with IAP | 1,000,000+ downloads | Search manually
> Libra tracks your daily weight changes and displays them in a beautiful interactive chart - Simple data entry - Scrollable, zoomable chart - BMI - Weight goal - Time-to-goal estimate - Daily KCal estimate - Visualisation of your diet plan in the ...
|Feedback|PunyDev|Lonerzboy|
Congrats on -5 kg! Great job!
> Is my deficit too big? I dont want a lot of loose skin after I lose weight, I heard slower is better, but is 850 too large? I am not having much trouble sticking to it
Your deficit of 850 kcal is fine. The deficit does not create the loose skin, it just controls the rate of your loss. Either way - fast or slow - if your skin is elastic enough, it will eventually catch up to your new current weight. If you lose faster than your skin can retract, it only temporary will sag until it catches up but -- 18 months later, fast or slow, your result will be the same concerning loose skin. You will either have some or not, and it was created at your maximum weight, not by losing too fast.
> Speaking of loose skin, how much loose skin will I have (minus 80 to 60 pounds)?
A good test is whether you, at 18, wore your excess weight all over or was it "belly fat" out in front of your lap, hanging over. It's that hanging over that stretches and breaks our skin's natural support in that area. If you wore it all over, as many late-teens early-20s do, then you very well could be left with no loose skin at all.
> Ok, this might sound extremly dumb but I would rather look dumb than follow wrong procedure; I should measure a banana after peeling it, right? What about a peeled mango? Should I subtract the weight of seed after eating it (or just slice it into cubes and measure it?) What's the rule of thumb here?
Rule of thumb: All weights and calorie values are of the edible portion (never bones or rinds or seeds). Enter cooked foods as cooked. Enter raw values as raw. If you are eating apple with skin, enter apple with skin.
> Last question, on week 2, I was 98kg, on week 3, I was 99kg, on week 4, I was 97.5kg. This is water weight right?
All those bouncing numbers -- in fact any changes we see weigh-in to weigh-in are both fat-changes and water changes. Fat changes happen rather slowly -- at your pace, about 0.1 kg per day. But you can see that your weight is different by 1-2 kg per day, up and down, sometimes opposite of what you expect (your weight is up even after a good dietary day, sometimes).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 gram! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Weight loss is wavy when you're not obese. I think you've made all the right moves and determinations, especially realizing that you weren't in deficit. Now you are, but your panicking.
When you've had a 700 deficit day, you burn 0.2 lbs of fat -- that's it. Just 0.2. It's almost nothing. It takes a long time for it to add up to something. Water fluctuations hide it pretty good, too, making it frustrating!
Remember that March and Spain was only 60 days ago. You're only 30 days into a deficit and have only recently intensified it.
Here's the thing -- you're almost certainly in deficit now. Your body cannot run at a deficit without burning body fat to make up the difference. IT CAN NOT HAPPEN and does not happen.
300-600 in exercise and 1700-1800 Calories on a daily average. I agree, you're now in a deficit.
Keep tracking. Nudge those calories down -- 1700-1800 is what I eat to lose weight and I'm 5'11 183 and a guy. But don't slam them down... go for 1600 for 7 days ... then 1550 ... go easy. Patience and persistence.
EXPECT WAVY WEIGHT LOSS. A downward staircase of plateaus is normal at these stats.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I hope that helps. KEEP GOING. Do not panic.
Hello from a former Chandler-ite.
Your weight will jump up most days where you move from -1000 kcal to +/- 0 kcal. This is not new fat causing the scale to jump, it's temporary water and can last for 2-5 days. It's confusing and may startle you, making you think that this is something not to do. However, it's fine. Our weight loss efforts are fat loss efforts, and water fluctuations are fine.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Go ahead with your plan to eat at maintenance on 1 or 2 weekend days.
I weigh daily ... right after waking, using the toilent, but before dressing. I track it in a weight-smoothing app which reduces the undue influence of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Thanks /u/mqoc for the callout.
> why am I no longer losing weight?
Two reasons are causing this...
You weigh 325 and you're eating 1500 (you probably should eat more for nutrition but I haven't run your numbers). You can be 1000% sure that you have no new fat since last week, and that you've burned fat during this time. It's necessary to burn fat to provide the energy that simply gives you a body temperature, enough blood flow that you don't pass out in that 30 minute elliptical, and so on.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
PS: Re-run your numbers. Do not have a deficit more than 1000 calories. As you eat more, make those nutritionally valuable calories -- proteins, healthy fats, and carbs from vegetables and fruits.
> Is 13lb in ~7 weeks a good number so far?
Yes, that's excellent, especially if it's comfortable for you. Our biggest risk is getting frustrated and quitting so if you're in a good groove and losing, then the rate of progress doesn't matter much. 1-2 pounds per week is ideal.
> I think I'm going kind of slowly because I've had weeks where I plateau.
But you also have weeks where you lose 3 or 4, so it's the ongoing average across the weeks that is the rate to see. If the calories are right for weight loss, than any plateau or gain to the contrary is water and not fat. We cannot gain any fat on a deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> what's more important? The calorie defecit or the actual nutritional content of the foods being eaten?
For weight loss, only the deficit matters. However, we have other priorities at the same time -- doing our work, staying healthy, keeping our body's systems running. That is about the nutrients. And during a time when we're eating to lose weight, we have to be especially concerned with packing nutrition into those reduced calories that we are eating.
You're not alone, and there is a good way to better see your progress across temporary blips like that.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
I am so glad that this ended with you deciding and following-through on keeping it up.
You cannot gain fat on a deficit. There is zero percent chance anything you're seeing as an increase on the scale is new fat, because you're eating at a caloric deficit to your output.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
You ate or drank something, most likely. It probably amounted to .6 pounds (a 12-ounce glass of water is 0.75 pounds).
Always weigh consistently and never look at today's weight as the thing to judge your weight-loss efforts. Always look at the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
nope.... Libra
​
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_US
Because water is a main part of our body and it fluctuates a lot...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> Praying for a big poo and lose a bunch of weight tomorrow.
You're focused on the wrong thing. It's the 1200-1500 that does the job. The scale is too much about water and waste to be pinning any hopes about tomorrow on, or any regrets about this morning on.
Focus on what matters -- your deficit causes fat burning. It's impossible not to burn fat on a deficit. The scale is only useful for the long-term trend; your daily data point matters only to the trend being averaged, and is otherwise meaningless.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
Start tracking in a weight-smoothing app since water makes all of this cloudy... Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
> I know I’m in a calorie deficit.
Based on my reading, you're estimating that you are. But if you are, then you're burning fat. So whatever else is happening on the scale, it is offsetting and will be water-based one way or another and therefore temporary.
My guesses would go with poor food estimating since you're winging that. Get more regimented with it. If OMAD isn't going to be your forever lifestyle, then avoiding learning how to manage your food with OMAD isn't going to put you ahead. You'll lose weight but not keep it off as it'll quit when you quit.
Fix your forever habits.
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
My other guess is water weight offset. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary spike won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort.
The components are bone (grows or degrades at a glacial rate), muscle (very slowly builds or wanes), fat (follows CICO), and water including blood volume.
Because bone and muscle change so slowly, we can count them as not changing day to day. Fat will move 0.1 lbs per 350 calories surplus or deficit, but fat isn't actually burned and gone -- the energy is triglyceride and it's hydrolyzed (a water process) out of the cell. That water weighs against the scale and sticks around between several hours or a few days.
Water does many other things within our body and we retain and release water as part of several processes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You burned some fat for sure .... your body can't do what you do at 247.2 on 1600 Calories and have a normal body temperature, have an active day, think clear thoughts, and operate your body's other systems.
However, our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You're on the right track.
> I was originally suggested by many to only lose 1lb a week, is 2lbs too much?
No and yes. At 136, you want to lose between 1 and 1.5 pounds per week. Tune your plans to that. But that may not be what happens in a week -- you'll burn that fat but water makes up most of our "net change" from weigh in to weigh in.
Our bodies are mostly water, and we can fluctuate up and down by a few pounds in a few hours, so it's entirely normal to lose 3 pounds when your eating and lifestyle should mean a 1 pound loss, or even gain 2 pounds under those conditions. It's because of water gains/losses and not fat burning.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I really got an idea of how horrible my portion sizes were and how much extra calories my Arizona Green Tea and other sugary drinks were. Yikes.
You're 136. You do not have horrible habits. This is learning and tuning. You were already doing many right things. There are no horrible things, unless you're eating sugar straight out of the sugar bag for three meals a day.
Congrats on a good first week. Keep going and keep learning. YOU WILL STRUGGLE SOMEDAY, and that's fine. Just don't quit. We win some, we learn some.
> TDEE is ~2,500; I eat ~1,600.
Period or no period, as long as CO > CI like yours is, you cannot gain any fat. CAN NOT. In fact, you must must must burn fat, instead.
Your body will not run properly on a deficit unless it can make up the difference with stored energy. While this cannot be tested safely, so there are no studies; but if you were somehow able to operate on a deficit then you'd be terribly cold (low body temperature), feel awful, and probably unable to think clearly.
> I've seen lots of women talk about how they always gain water weight on their period so I know that's normal, but my question would be, am I actually losing fat right now,
You are burning fat right now -- your adipose cells are being emptied of triglyceride and may or may not still be there along with the water that hydrolyzed the energy out of those cells. That water will go away in hours up to a few days. That's when you'll possibly see the difference on the scale, but whether or not you see one depends on what else is going on water-wise (the body uses water for a lot of purposes).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
Make 1500 your target ... it'll be tough for you, mentally and maybe even physically, to hit it immediately. Keep trying -- you can be there in a few days and be comfortable.
YOUR WEIGHT WILL GO UP SOME, and it will stay up. This is water. You cannot gain any fat on 1500 -- there is a zero percent chance the new weight you're seeing on the scale is anything but water retention from the increased sodium, carbs, and bulk of the additional food you're taking in to reach 500 more calories on average per day. It will stay up because that 500 addition is a permanent addition. However, then your weight will gradually fall because 1500 is still a deficit for you.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You've lost fat and have been straining your muscles -- that muscle ache that you feel is muscle that you've strained (a good strain, healthy) and now it's retaining water for healing and building. That water gained offsets the fat losses on the scale, which is why it hasn't moved.
This is normal and will calm down after 3-5 weeks. Meanwhile, your fat burning has been happening the whole time. When the muscles finally get used to this and start losing their water, your scale will "catch up."
> Any suggestions/tips?
Keep going. You're doing exactly the right stuff and you'll see the results. Get past the 3-5 week period from the start of this routine and you'll see.
Also track your weigh-ins on a weight-smoothing app. It won't fix this problem, but you'll have lots of ups and downs even when your efforts are right and burning fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You're fearing a feeling, which is nothing that can hurt you.
What I did when I noticed myself getting a bit emotional over the scale was to insist I weigh myself every single day, and log it in a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
> What if I’m over 193? Or over 200?
Your weight isn't what causes weight loss, your CICO does that. You're doing the right thing. The weight trend (not the daily weight) is just our lagging indicator -- it confirms that all of our other data is correct (CICO across the past few weeks).
> Do any of you struggle with this fear?
Yes. Although misplaced, it's quite common. When a fear is irrational, we should step through it and do what we need to do. When a fear is rational, we should use caution. This is an irrational fear. You knowing your weight doesn't change it or anything.
Yeah, the scale can do that to us. Don't let it.
One hard and certain rule is that you cannot gain any fat at all on a deficit.
At 190 lbs, and at 1400 intake, you are at a good deficit: one worth about 1/7th of a pound's worth of fat burning for yesterday. Anything to the contrary on the scale is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Now the floor for men is 1500 and it's a good floor. Nutrition is the main reason and there is little difference between 1400 and 1500 ... but we do not support 1400 eating here for guys, just as we don't support 1100 for females.
> based on my loose tracking I am averaging ~1400 per day for the last four days
Make it good tracking ... now is the time. We don't have much else to do. How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
> I don't have the dicipline to keep up with home workouts at the moment.
Keep up with? Just do one. Go on YouTube and pick out a fitness blender workout ... or hit up the Planet Fitness page on Facebook and do one of their "Work-Ins" (they're doing one a day).
Common to both ideas is to crush out the belief that this has to be a streak of good behavior to work -- it doesn't. It does have to get to the level of "pretty good" but don't worry about struggling with that until you figure out a way to find your comfortable groove and stay in it.
Both of you are doing well but eating slightly less than you should. Females should use 1200 as a floor and males should use 1500. I'll put links below describing why. This is not why your scale isn't falling for the last 2 days...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250-300g (the weight of the water)! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
There are general minimums that are 1200 for females and 1500 for males. These are Calorie minimums for adults (teens should eat more).
These general minimums are recommended for most people who are losing weight without the guidance and monitoring of a physician or registered dietitian. They are the current minimums of MyFitnessPal which sources them to the National Institutes of Health. These minimums are too low for adolescents.
By not observing the minimums, you may become ill suddenly or over time. Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
There's a lot of additional discussion/information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here:
Hi there!
Coming here was a good step.
At 5'0 and eating 1200 (a right amount) from 130, fat burning is going to be slow. Your weight changed 10 pounds in 2.5 months, but let's do some math and see how much of that was likely fat.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 20 | |
HEIGHT | 60" or 5'0" | 152 cm |
WEIGHT | 125 lb | 57 kg |
BMI | 24.4 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1258 Cal/kcal | |
TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1576 Cal/kcal |
1250 average intake minus 1576 Calories is a deficit of 326 Calories
326 times 70 days (10 weeks) = 22820
22820 divided by 3500 Calories in a pound = 6.52 fat loss
Now, presuming all of that is correct (and we know it's not but it's approximate), then in the 10 pounds, you have 6.5 or so of fat loss and 3.5 of water loss.
So right now, you were feeling that you lost 10 and gained 5. But you didn't.
Same goes with the stressful week... if you were overeating, you may have gained a little fat (it takes a whole 700 Calories of overeating to gain only 0.2 pounds of fat) but most of what we gain when we do this is water due to the increased levels of sodium and fast-carbs we take in.
You're also probably feeling a bit defeated because of the stress.
> my weight is stuck at 125 lbs for more than two weeks now.
Keep doing this, keeping it true and accurate, and the scale will respond across time. Water is still our biggest factor, and we don't worry about water. It does natural things that help our bodies. We need to be able, somehow, to "see through" the noise it creates to figure out fat burning.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I am losing motivation. Any advice on motivation or what am I doing wrong?
Your goal is 5'0 110 lb. and that's a fine goal. You'll be living as someone who is 110 lb for ever, about 1450-1500 Calories a day. Forever. Even in stressful weeks, you need to keep those calories in that 1450-1500 average (some days bigger, some smaller, but the average is 1450-1500). The journey doesn't end, it just turns a corner when you get to 110.
Knowing that it will continue is actually relaxing. It means we don't have to stress about losing weight slowly, because forever with no change is infinity slowly. There is no deadline.
We can start thinking about that 110 version of you -- what does she do and how does she eat? You can start doing that right now and get your mind off of dieting and working out and into living long-term like the light and fit version of you that you are becoming.
Just keep going. Your calories are certainly right for fat loss, so it's likely happening. Keep a right and complete food log with good measurements/weights.
The scale will often disagree with the previous day's work. That's because of water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> 'No sugar, no carbs. Protein and healthy fats'
None of this matters to weight loss.
The formula is Calories-in < Calories-out across a lot of time.
You gained 7 kg because Calories-in > Calories-out over that time that you gained. It didn't matter if you ate cakes or cabbage or caribou.
Similarly, if Calories-in = Calories-out across time, your weight trend will be the same through that time.
In all of the above cases, your weight might still fluctuate up or down day to day or even week to week contrary to the calorie picture, but that is not body fat doing that. That is water.
> Do you have any tips or diets that could help?
Follow this guide and this timing...
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Use your regular, normal, everyday food (not "diet" food). Eat the food you will be eating for years after you reach 56 kilograms. You need to learn to tune your portions and your patterns to match that weight ... which will reduce your calories a little bit from whatever you need to eat right now to maintain 62.5.
> I have an incredibly fast metabolism
Maybe or maybe not. Many of us have a lot of water variation and that's what we mistake as a fast metabolism. That doesn't mean a fast metabolism doesn't exist -- about 1 in 40 people have a very fast metabolism (defined as greater than 15% of the normal center of the bell curve).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
As the other two have pointed out, we lose water crazy fast. We lose fat about 0.15 or 0.2 pounds daily, on the very rough average (water makes it look way different).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Should I start exercise?
YES!! But not for weight loss ... what can you do right now with the restrictions in Italy? Can you go outside at all or are you stuck dancing and working out to YouTube videos?
Exercise is great for fitness/health and we all should keep doing it... IF YOU'RE NOT EXERCISING, START. IF YOU ARE EXERCISING, DON'T QUIT. It's awesome! But weight loss is nearly entirely about making adjustments to intake calories. Exercise is important, to fitness and to health.
> since I was never able to stuck with a diet.
Stop using the word "diet" like it's a temporary thing that we do for a while. Start thinking of all the food you've eaten, are eating, and will eat as your life's diet. We're not dieting, we're tuning our diet to live a lighter and better whole lifetime. When you're not on a diet, you cannot fall off of it.
Now would be a good time to keep a chart so that water does not make you feel over- or under- confident.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Weight loss at this stage is a series of plateaus, because water is now such a larger percentage of your body's composition than it was when you were 280.
You're right, your 1600 intake and 2900 TDEE assures us that you are burning fat. Anything to the contrary on the scale is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I worked out every day to burn 1000 calories while in taking 1300
You probably are not burning 1000. See https://www.google.com/search?q=ctee+constrained+total+energy+expenditure for an explanation. Our total output calories over time are constrained. We tend to think of them neatly summing up but doing that tends to discount the fact that after hard work comes hard rest. We can't just count the hard work.
The Charts in Figure 1 here and Figure 3 here show that exercise additions tend to level off, and I personally am using 10% on heavy exercise days. Considering that I'm not working right now thanks to COVID-19, I'm not even counting my exercise at all. But on a regular active workday, with some good exercise thrown on top of that, I'll eat about 110% of my Calorie target. Instead of several hundred calories, I'll add maybe 200.
> I am not sure what to do from here.
Keep eating 1600 and keep a daily log that is complete and well estimated. With confidence in your intake, just live and active life and let it take all the time it needs.
At this stage, my weight loss was a series of plateaus -- zoomed out, it looked like a downward staircase, even though my calories were fine.
I was 21+ stone when I started...
See
and read the section Normal Motility and Function ... that's part of understanding what's happening after you eat.
> if I eat say 300 calories over my limit at like 6-7pm, and they weigh myself at like 9-10 the next morning, will that excess have been burned off by then?
If your deficit is more than 300, then over your limit is still not excess. Since you're losing weight reasonably well, we can assume that you're at a good deficit.
The second problem with your question is that the body is always burning calories, taking in calories, storing energy in fat and glycogen, or taking energy from those stores. It's not as transactional as our database entries and daily totals might make it seem.
It will become an increasing problem for you that water, not fat, will make the scale do things that are disproportionate to the calorie picture. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Those trends, not the daily weigh-ins, are what your focus should be. AND ACTUALLY NOT EVEN THERE, but the habits that create those trends. The habits make it happen, the trends are what happens as a result. The habits lead, the trend follows.
> How long was it until you started seeing results?
About 2 months for me.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^Journaling+🚶🏋+TOPS
Water is our biggest component, not fat. Water will cause the scale to go inversely to our calorie performance, sometimes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Same here. I'm on a deficit (1999 Cal/aver/week) but I gained 2.4 lbs (about 1kg) this week. It happens -- it's due to water. You cannot gain fat on a deficit, so when you are confident and complete in your calorie tracking and they show you're at a deficit, you can know with certainty that it's water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a small glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
What was your calorie average the past week?
> Please provide suggestions for: Hurt feelings
Time. Emotions do not make good evaluations or decisions. Accept your feelings but do not assent to them.
> Please provide suggestions for: Losing water weight safely
You have retained water because your body needs it for something. We don't fight water. We just let it happen. Time and experience teaches us not to worry too much about it.
Wednesday, 10 days ago, I had a poker night where I just couldn't stop hitting the chip bowl or the nuts -- 3449 Calories, about 1100 Calories (+3 ounces worth of Calories) over my 2350 TDEE.
My WEIGHT CHART [imgur] shows what happened -- 5.2 pound gain!! My calorie average that week was 2117 and the next week was 1776.
I gained no fat last week or this week, but my weight readings took 6 days from that Thursday morning to fall back from the water retention.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Ive heard of people trying reverse dieting, but tbh I’ve never taken a closer look into it, or are there any other ways?
I increased mine all at once. I gained no fat doing this, because I was on a deficit and simply went to maintenance, but because of the added salt and carbs and bulk in 500-600 additional calories every day, my weight jumped up by five pounds on the very next day -- all of it water, but so upsetting to someone who has been working hard on weight for nearly a year!
That is why to increase your calories slowly as you approach and pass your GW -- this additional water retention is essentially permanent because the additional carbs+salt+bulk will be permanently part of your daily diet.
Add 100-150 daily calories each week, until you think you're probably eating at maintenance. Then stay at that level for several months and see how it is tracking.
In maintenance, GW is really a range .. +2.5 kg to -2.5 kg of your GW. This is due to water. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a small glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
If you took your heaviest and lightest weights, then you get the extremes including all the water variation. Instead, use a weight-smoothing app.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You've got a firm grasp on the issue ...
> I've lost a large amount of weight twice before in the past and regained most of it, but this is the smallest I've been and it's the first time I've reached my goal. Obviously this is a mental issue as well as a technical issue, and I'd love some advice from others who are maintaining. How best to do it, and how to get rid of both the "I'm going to regain it all" fear and the feeling like I should just lose a couple more pounds. I'm also worried that when I do start exercising, I'm going to see a small gain and it will throw me off.
I've been here for what will be 5 years this May. The biggest part of calming down has been the time and experience. I rationally know all this stuff, but emotions learn through experiences. There have been plenty of oopsies and birthdays and excellent months and rough weekends in five years. There was even a 30-day bus-tour with no exact calorie information in there (all eyeball estimates).
What I've done is to create a "keep going" plan instead of a weight-loss plan. We know that CICO works, so that's not at risk. What is at risk is quitting so having a plan to prevent quitting is what I knew that I needed. Mine was three bullets:
Everything else was bonus, such as hitting a calorie target or not. If I miss it here and there, I know I can use time and adjustments to compensate.
> when I do start exercising, I'm going to see a small gain
Yes you will but it's water. Nothing that you do in the exercise realm will cause ANY new fat at all. If your calories are on point, then all gym gains are water (in the beginning) and then, gradually and a little at a time, muscle.
We were never here to fight muscle or water. Our battle is with our bodyfat. So we're not worried about those other two except that they make the scale a less-useful tool for judging our fat-loss efforts.
I use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) and there's one called Happy Scale (for iPhone). Even these aren't perfect because they'll show gains in the gym as trends upward, but they smooth them out and they are easier to accept with less emotional angst.
10 pounds a month for you is likely a safe rate.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 21 | |
HEIGHT (guessed) | 70" or 5'10" | 178 cm |
WEIGHT | 375 lb | 170 kg |
BMI | 53.8 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2712 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 3396 Cal/kcal |
1700 minus 3396 = -1696 daily imbalance = 11872 weekly deficit 11872 divided by 3500 calories in a pound of fat = 3.92 loss rate
You're right on track. You should be losing about 39.2 pounds per 10 weeks and you have.
> I think I need to up my requirements, More exercise smaller portions, and longer time fasting, maybe eat once every two days. forcing some fat to be used as fuel.
No. Be patient and keep going as you are. When the calories are right for fat loss (and they are), then plateaus are simply about water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I know I can do said changes.
Keep it moderate. Make sure your tracking and food weighing habits are right and tight and just keep them up. Do not go more intensely -- we do not want to give ourselves reasons to hate this. We need to keep it doable.
> yet any increase seems to be adding weight
If you mean the next day after the increase in calories, you should ignore that. That's water retention because more food meant more carbs and more sodium. That won't be any new fat.
We add fat very slowly. We have to be 700 OVER MAINTENANCE to gain 0.2 lbs. of fat and you'll definitely know you did that because it'll feel like a huge day of eating after being on any decent deficit.
Use a weight-smoothing app to null out some of that noise, and be consistent as much as you can.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> but enough that I’m a little sore.
That's inflammation -- water retention. But that's just part of this. Your weight was up after that and that's something else, but also water.
You are definitely on a deficit and the ONE RULE to CICO (trying to channel "fight club" here) is YOU CANNOT GAIN FAT ON A DEFICIT. Therefore, anything to the contrary on a scale is error or water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Give it more time, and use a weight-smoothing app.
> I still eat basically whatever I want. That might be incredibly naive but in my mind I see it as - as long as my daily calories doesn’t add up to 2000, I will lose weight.
This is not naive, this is correct. The thing to keep in mind, though, is this is less than what you were eating -- but within these reduced calories must come all of our nutrients: protein enzymes, fatty acids, important minerals and vitamins. They're called nutrients because they're both essential and our body doesn't just make them when they are absent. (Our bodies are wonderful -- they make a lot of what we need when it is absent from our diet, just not these.)
So, yes, we can eat what we want. But we want to stay healthy so we need to make sure we get a good range of healthy food and not a lot of empty (non-nutritional) calories from sugar or junk-food treats. There is some room for these things -- we don't have to ban them -- but there is much less room now that we're eating less.
> My weight seems to fluctuate a lot day to day and I’m really not sure why, yesterday I was X stone 3lbs and today I’m X stone 8 lbs, surely that’s not normal? I didn’t eat a massive amount yesterday and I went to the gym.
Yes, this is normal. Lifting weights causes strains and makes the muscle swell and heal. That's the onset of water weight and if you're new to working out, it can last a while. It's not a problem for fat burning, but it does hide it from the scale. It can take 3-5 weeks for it to calm down and during that time, you may lose no weight or less weight but you're still losing fat just as fast or faster than before, it's just hidden.
When the muscles do calm down, the scale will "catch up" and reveal all that fat loss.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The woosh is promised to no-one. Don't expect it, don't work for it, don't worship it. It's a gift and sometimes never comes.
To figure out if what you're doing makes sense, please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app such as Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You have to eat 1200+ as well, unless your own doctor will support you as you go less.
Some explanation (long) follows...
There are general minimums that are 1200 for females and 1500 for males. These are Calorie minimums for adults (teens should eat more).
These general minimums are recommended for most people who are losing weight without the guidance and monitoring of a physician or registered dietitian. They are the current minimums of MyFitnessPal which sources them to the National Institutes of Health. These minimums are too low for adolescents.
By not observing the minimums, you may become ill suddenly or over time. Weight loss puts increased demands upon the body. Gallstones, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances can happen when those demands exceed the body's capability to cope with them. More minor side-effects include hair and nail problems, irregular female menstrual cycles, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches.
For someone with the last 10 pounds or so, gallstones and muscle/organ wasting are less of a concern but everything else is nutrient dependent (not calorie dependent). In those cases, you need this food VOLUME of 1200 for the nutrients. So you're kinda stuck and ultimately still need to get 1200 of healthy food.
Calories are the energy that powers the body's motors (muscles and muscular organs, like the heart). The body stores excess calories in bodyfat. When we have a caloric deficit, the body takes from this bodyfat to fill in the missing calories.
Nutrients are the enzymes, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins that enable the organs to work and the various systems to work together: endocrine, immune, integumentary (hair, skin, nails), digestive, renal, nervous systems, etc.. Unlike calories and bodyfat, the body does not store many nutrients long term. We get most of our nutrients from the foods that we are presently eating.
There's a lot of additional discussion/information on why 1200/1500 is the Female/Male strongly recommended minimum right here:
> just trying to get the last little bit off in a not-so frustrating and tedious amount of time. Sometimes the scale will end up going up for several days in a row or even a week just because of water retention, etc, even though I’m eating at a deficit, and it’s very discouraging.
Maintenance is forever, and the scale goes up due to water there, too. It's been a test of patience for sure.
> If anyone has advice even just about keeping the bloat off so I can see steadier progress and more tangible results
Use a weight-smoothing app and keep reminding yourself to ignore the daily readings other than to input them as data.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> about 4 beers a week on Fri and Sat only, no fast food but do tend to eat "less healthy" on the weekend
Are you tracking that? Is that part of your 1500 a day average? Are you continuously tracking or are you "winging it" based on some tracking you did several days ago?
Inconsistent and incomplete tracking is often the main cause of problems within your control.
The other is water which is not in your control. You're not that heavy so weight loss is "wavy" for us at these weights -- not predictably down in a straight line.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Summary:
You're 17 so start with your doctor as part of starting -- see your doctor sometime in the next few weeks because going from 240 to -- say 140 or less -- is a huge change. Your doctor should be watching you more closely as you make huge health changes.
Let's talk about a few things...
> I weight about 240 last time I checked.
Let's check every day, and keep it in a chart on your phone. DO NOT WORRY IF YOU GAIN SOMETIMES.
It's a weird truth that you can have more days gaining than days losing and still lose weight overall, because of small gains and big drops. WATER does this to us and it's fine. We are big human bags of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> nothing seems to work.
Eating less than your body burns is always going to work, so the only things we have to worry about (and this is not easy) is doing it for a long time, not kidding ourselves, and not quitting.
This is hard but worthy. We will also have a lot of days of wanting rightfully to do one thing and finding ourselves doing another out of habit, emotion, boredom, or even defiance. STILL KEEP GOING, DO NOT QUIT. As long as we never quit, we will (absolutely WILL) lose some battles but still win the war.
You WILL fall off the wagon (as it were). Not really, because the whole wagon thing is a misunderstanding. We don't 'derail' either, there are no rails.
We're not depending on a wagon or a rail, where falling or crashing would be a disaster.
We're more comparable to being on a roadtrip, where a wrong turn is just a wrong turn. We don't crash the car and light it afire and live there. We just make some corrective turns and keep going.
Calories count, and logging/tracking is a very important skill to usefully see calories to guide our way; but what we're really working on here are repeating habits and adjusting our expectations around food. The good habits make the calorie thing easier and more sustainable.
When we go 6 days and screw up on day 7, it doesn't erase 6 days of repeating good behaviors that we're trying to make into habits. We might have a calorie setback, but those 6/7 days are in the habit bank. We've had 6 days of seeing right-sized meals. And if we keep tracking through the wrong-turn, we'll learn something and do better during the next wrong turn (because that will happen too). Next time we 'fail' -- we'll 'fail better.'
Life is not placid -- there are storms ahead. We won't handle them perfectly, but we don't have to. We just have to weather the storms and keep going.
> I play lacrosse once a week sometimes twice a week. I can’t afford the gym rn but I dont want that to get me down. I use to go but even then i was told i hadn’t really lost a noticeable amount of weight. I don’t want to give up on myself, where do I start? I hate running but in action game play is okay for me, but what exercises or cardio should I do to lose fat
FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!
Exercise is for fitness and good health. You 100% should be doing it. Do not be a motionless potato! Food, however, is how to lose weight. Control your food, control your weight. DO NOT UNDEREAT DRAMATICALLY - losing weight fast is not your friend. Make moderate changes only, FASTER IS NOT BETTER. Make progress, not a killing.
> is there anyway to prevent lose skin from being left behind? Ik I will keep the same build, my whole family is basically broad shouldered
This is all "after" stuff. Lose the weight, see where you are. None of this matters -- your only other option is to stay at high health risk due to obesity and that's no option at all.
> Please help I don’t know where to start!!
Eat moderately less. One serving per meal, avoid second helpings. Keep your snacks smaller and rarer. Do not overdo it -- starving is not the answer. GIVE IT PLENTY OF TIME. A pound a week is not too slow.
When you're 18, you can join some of the calorie counting apps (they won't let you sign up at 17, except for Fitbit I think). For now, just cut moderately back.
Do something for exercise but make sure it's something you enjoy. The only wrong exercise is imitating a potato. Anything that moves and is regular (say 3 times a week for 30 minutes) is fine.
Do see your doctor -- it's not urgent and you can start before you see one, but do see one as part of starting.
> I read in a post on here that I should be weighing myself every day to keep it logged into MFP, would that be true to be a good idea?
Every two weeks is fine, or every day is fine. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> Honestly if anyone could message me to help me get some good pointers, I would be all ears. I'm super nervous about losing weight since I have never been skinny really and doubt someone like me could ever be anything but fat.
I was 330 lb. at my max, and I'm 185 today. I've kept it off for 4 years and 10 months ... going to be 5 years in May.
If you haven't read the Day 1 post, read that. If you haven't read the Quick Start Guide, read that. Those two things are fundamentals and even though you know fundamentals, re-read them every month or so. I am a singer and I teach singing. I'm constantly reminding 20-year singers on fundamentals because we forget! We get focused on nuances and niches and most things are based in fundamentals.
My key message to you is this -- fat guy to fat guy --
Pick 3 things and make them your "never-gonna-quit" plan. They will be your things and not my things. My things were
OBSERVE: If I do all three of these, I still could gain weight. Those do not insure that I am at a calorie deficit. THAT IS NOT THEIR POINT. If I'm doing these three things, then I haven't quit. Quitting is the only wrecking strategy. If I'm doing these things, then I'm likely to be paying attention and making better choices. If I'm walking my 3x30 plan, I'm likely to walk for 45 to 90 on a nice day, or 4-6 days in a nice week. If I'm going to face my scale and my friends at TOPS, I'm likely not going to accidentally forget that I'm in a weight-loss effort when someone brings in cheap donuts to the work break room.
> I'm super nervous about losing weight
The cure to this is time and experiences. A sailor learns his ABC's on calm waters, but doesn't learn to sail until there is some wind and things to steer around. He doesn't know what he can do until he does some things. You will learn, with experience, that shit happens and it's not the end of our efforts. You will learn, with experience, that sometimes what we want to do and what we end up doing are not aligned and that's also not the end of our efforts.
You WILL fall off the wagon (as it were). Not really, because the whole wagon thing is a misunderstanding. We don't 'derail' either, there are no rails.
We're not depending on a wagon or a rail, where falling or crashing would be a disaster.
We're more comparable to being on a roadtrip, where a wrong turn is just a wrong turn. We don't crash the car and light it afire and live there. We just make some corrective turns and keep going.
Calories count, and logging/tracking is a very important skill to usefully see calories to guide our way; but what we're really working on here are repeating habits and adjusting our expectations around food. The good habits make the calorie thing easier and more sustainable.
When we go 6 days and screw up on day 7, it doesn't erase 6 days of repeating good behaviors that we're trying to make into habits. We might have a calorie setback, but those 6/7 days are in the habit bank. We've had 6 days of seeing right-sized meals. And if we keep tracking through the wrong-turn, we'll learn something and do better during the next wrong turn (because that will happen too). Next time we 'fail' -- we'll 'fail better.'
Life is not placid -- there are storms ahead. We won't handle them perfectly, but we don't have to. We just have to weather the storms and keep going.
Congrats on starting and on tracking your food.
If the calories are right, then plateaus are only about water. If you are confident that you are eating less than your body burns, then the best way to fight a plateau is with patience and understanding that our water goes up and down but a weight-loss trend will be discernable through that noise.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
As for being certain about your calories, you can continue with Omada and also track calories. Follow our guide, How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide and continue with Omada's 16 week course logging your next week in MyFitnessPal or Lose It! or Fitbit some other calorie counter. If after the first week it shows you're already eating at or near the indicated calorie goal for Week 2, then this plateau is about water.
If you're eating well above that goal, then you can use this additional data to help you make choices going into the following week.
> and try to workout (mostly cardio but some strength) a few times a week
Another reason for a plateau is starting or accellerating a weight-lifting routine such that your muscles get sore for a few days. This is a strain and the muscles retain water to help them heal and build. This is all part of weightlifting but it is also the onset of additional water retention. You're trying to lose fat but you're gaining water -- and this is totally fine and normal. The water onset goes away in 3-5 weeks (yes, weeks, sorry) but it does not harm your fat burning. When the water does abate, your scale will "catch up" and show you that you've been burning fat all along.
You're 86 kg at 6 ft -- why the austere measures?
You're fighting water. Your fasting against increased activity builds stress and cortisol which promotes water retention.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
My advice is to be more kind and moderate to yourself. Eat about 500 to 750 kcal less than you need to eat to maintain 86kg and you'll lose 1 kg every 10-14 days. Keep going to that gym for fun and awesomeness and to make a lifetime habit of physical activity -- it's really not much for weight loss (that's about the food) but the gym helps and really shines in the other areas of fitness and health.
To see your weight progress, see your long-term trend. Water is noisy and will cloud our progress. You've definitely burned fat but offsetting water makes it hard to see on the scale.
Weight loss is not linear. If you're eating right for 1-2 pounds per week of weight loss, then do not worry about it.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Yes, you may.
I lost all my weight and have kept it off drinking an average of two mixed drinks per week. I just include the calories as I do with my food.
> I know alcohol cause water retention
...but also dehydration so I think that's probably a mix. Anyway, water retention is temporary so there's no worries about that. The calorie tracker is the tool for predicting fat loss over time and our weight trend eventually follows that. Our scale weights get noisy due to water, but it's always short term.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water or alcohol your weight instantly goes up by more than 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You're a funny writer, a little sloppy but I like words that you choose and how you describe what's happening.
Congratulations on losing about 35 pounds/15+ kg.
So the good news is that you have not had a metabolic adaptation. All those previous weeks where you lost faster than you expected and knew that you should, they have an elastic rubber-band effect because other weeks are like last week where you lost less than you expected. Weight loss is not linear -- fat burning is linear, but our smaller body is losing our larger fat component and so the volatility in the amount of water our body carries becomes more of a factor on the bathroom scale. Water sometimes makes weight-losses of more than we expected, and sometimes less than we expected.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 300-500g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
For every 5 kg or 10 lb that you lose, I would expect Lose It! to drop your calorie goal.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 22 | |
HEIGHT | 69" or 5'9" | 175 cm |
WEIGHT | 273.1 lb | 124 kg |
BMI | 40.5 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2228 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2789 cal/kcal | |
Not Very Active (Sedentary) TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2784 cal/kcal | |
Lightly Active TDEE (BMR*1.4) | 3118 cal/kcal |
Your legit calorie target right now is somewhere between 1784 and 2618 calories -- I know that's a wide range but anywhere in there is moderate for 500-1000g or 1-2 lb of weight loss a week at your current stats and activity.
You won't have stubborn metabolic damage like you're worrying about unless you're sub-1000 in intake or doing stupidly aggressive and lengthy physical training (e.g. double or triple bootcamp classes) and you'd have to do that for multiple weeks without interruption to have the adaptation that sometimes is called the mythical "starvation mode." No worries.
Keep going. Expect these variations between what you are expecting and what you're seeing in the latest scale readout to become longer and more frequent as you approach goal weight -- it's normal. Use one of those apps to see your trend and to null-out the water noise. Focus on your right behaviors -- let the behaviors drive the calories.
Do not play the calorie game, where you try to end days perfectly -- play the repeating habits over time game and then evaluate your habits measuring them by calories, and adjust those habits as needed. The solid habits and good food portion expectations will be what keeps you at goal weight without too much effort.
> how come when I just count calories without exercise I lose weight, but the minute I start incorporating exercise I gain weight?!
First thing that happens when you work on your muscles -- they get that "swole" feeling, that kinda achy feeling that means you had a good workout. That is water being put into and retained in the muscle to immobilize it (that's why it feels stiff) and that lets the healing and rebuilding process happen. The bad news is that all that water being retained offsets any fat losses that are happening on the scale (and they are happening as long as your calories are right for it, you just can't see them). The other bad news is that this takes 3-5 weeks to start to calm down enough for the scale to get moving down again. But then it "catches up" because you've been losing fat that whole time and once the water abates, you'll see your progress pretty quickly.
So... keep going.
> I know everyone says to not look at the scale
Nope, not everyone. Not even most of us. Many of us weigh daily. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. (But it'll still take 3-5 weeks after you began weightlifting before that weightlifting plateau starts to wind down.)
> I do count my calories (between 1200 and 1300 a day)
No matter what the scale says, you're burning fat every day that you do that. It's just offset by water. The water will go away and then you'll see all your progress.
I see that you tried to do some formatting / paragraphs. On Reddit, you need to hit ENTER twice (make an entirely blank line) for formatting to work. Reddit is persnickety.
Losing weight and keeping it off by exercise simply isn't going to work, long term. It barely even works short term.
Exercise is great for fitness/health and we all should keep doing it... IF YOU'RE NOT EXERCISING, START. IF YOU ARE EXERCISING, DON'T QUIT. It's awesome! But weight loss is nearly entirely about making adjustments to intake calories ...
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
That's important -- that Quick Start Guide is how to lose your weight.
You are 280 pounds -- which is a good thing for your muscle goals. You're twice the size of some adults and you carry that around everywhere, all the time. That is a lot of strength, and a lot of muscle, but it is hidden under your excess body fat right now and you cannot see it.
Your goal, restated, is to keep and harden that capability and those muscles and melt away the fat that is covering them. For that you need the strength training.
Strength training does not burn a lot of calories. If you check your heart rate and breathing after 30 minutes of strength training and again after 30 minutes of cardio, you'll see that cardio is more taxing. Cardio also expands your endurance and lungs. Your fitness effort should include both and you should basically just forget about most of those calories because they're not very important. You may be tempted to give yourself a lot of extra calories because your exercise seems so awesome, but it really amounts to only about 15% of what your body burns (and that's only on workout days -- it's 0% of what your body burns on rest days). So.... fahgeddaboudit! Do the exercise for the awesomeness and to keep the muscles you have, make them harder, keep a good habit going, as you're losing your weight with good sensible and reasonable dietary changes.
> if i do hit a plateau can I break through it by intense weight training
You will hit plateaus, especially in the last half of weight loss. Just push through them. They're only water retention cycling up and down. As long as you have an intake of fewer calories than your body burns, you are burning fat to make up the difference. Water is what is hiding it from the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You gained weight but not any new fat. If your dietary intake is proper, it's impossible to gain fat. On a caloric deficit, there are zero ways to gain new fat.
> I'm not really tracking my macros very closely, should I start doing that?
Not macros, but calories.
Macros are useful problem solvers ... such as excess hunger or sudden losses of energy ... these are the kinds of problems that a macro adjustment can assist. Calories are why we gain/maintain/lose bodyfat. Keep an accurate and complete calorie log and you can almost ignore the scale. I weigh daily but I have zero worries when the scale is up but my calories are right and well-kept -- I know for certain that it is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The thing you are doing wrong is expecting that your weight loss will be at a consistent rate week for week because your eating is consistent.
This is false, because our bodies retain and release water across time.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 300-500g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The body has multiple systems and overlapping processes, many of which use water. Some cycles are a few hours and some are multiple days. Women have a monthly cycle, too. And, not to be gross, don't forget that poop has weight too so if it's been a while...
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The loss is water when the calories don't add up. The body does multiple things with water, in different cycle times, and it really skews the scale readings.
I'm down over 5 this week but the calories only explain 1 of them.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
You are not doing anything wrong. You followed your doctor's advice and are confident that you're doing it right.
What you are expecting is incorrect: you're expecting weight to only drop. You're female and have a monthly hormonal cycle which means your weight will fluctuate on a monthly rhythm due to the water involved in that cycle. Our weight also changes daily due to sodium, like you mentioned. Water is very common in many of the body's systems and processes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Ignore the daily data points, but do look at the trend and I would normalize with a 14-day moving average.
> How soon do you normally see physical changes?
Your close friends might start to wonder if you're losing weight right around 10% lost -- so about 30 pounds lost in your case.
> I'm doing CICO and going to the gym 6 days a week doing a mix of cardio and weights.
Awesome!
> trying not to rely on the scale so much, so that weight is from about a month ago
If my brain was trying to be that fragile due to fluctuations, I'd push back by weighing every day and tracking it on Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). We don't become stronger by avoiding the things that frighten or bother us, we become stronger by learning more about them.
> It's making me feel like I'm going crazy.
No wonder -- you're avoiding the data. Get the data.
> I feel like my shirts are bigger on me. Or am I just feeling that why because I'm paying more attention to my body now ?
The second part is definitely true, but if your shirts were tight when you started, they might be fitting more right now. It doesn't take many pounds to do this.
You might be worried about the data making you obsessed -- but it's not the data that makes us lose weight. It's the behavior that drives the calories, not the calories. It's the calories that drive the weightloss, not the number on the scale. It all comes down to our behavior and you are doing CICO -- you have the important thing down. When the numbers start to invade, remember that the numbers are just the data and the behaviors are what drives them.
Also remember that this is about building up a roster of repeating good behaviors -- not necessary perfect, and not necessary in a single long streak -- but "pretty good" is going to be necessary.
Right now, it may feel like you're winning due to some magic spell that you're afraid to break with bad news (on the scale) or a bad day. Don't feel that way because it doesn't work that way -- we make a wrong turn, all we need to do is correct ourselves and keep going.
If the scale is exactly the same, then try this experiment.
If that last weight is different, then your scale has some software in it designed to create a false impression of consistency or precision (for the larger purpose of better consumer reviews on online sites).
Here's the more important concept -- if you're eating at a dietary deficit, your body MUST (not optional) burn bodyfat to make up for the difference. It's not a question -- you have a body temperature and a basal metabolism that makes up 80% or so of your body's caloric usage through a day. We could ignore the scale if we know our calories are right for fat burning, but we use the scale to keep track of our progress.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
At 1700 calories a day you COULD be in a caloric deficit, especially if you're truly burning an extra 500-700 calories per day through activity. But we can't guess at that without knowing your height, weight, age and gender. Each person's body uses a different amount of energy and these factors all contribute to that. Try plugging you numbers in at tdeecalculator.net and see what you get.
In any case, the truth will always come out on the scale over a period of time. If your average weight is trending downwards over several weeks- you're in a caloric deficit. If you weigh yourself daily (first thing after peeing) you can plug it into an app like Libra for Android, or Happy Scale for iOS they'll do the averaging out for you.
Yes, still a good goal. Weigh consistently and use a weight-smoothing app to cut through any noise ... Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). \
> The next 10 has been a lot harder, but I'm still really proud of it and I think it falls within a healthy rate to be losing weight.
If you lose 2 pounds a week, then your net deficit is -1000 Calories. If it's 1 pound a week, then it's -500 Calories. Keep track using a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). The trend is a lot easier to see when you use one of these apps.
> But now I am back in the field hiking multiple rugged miles 4-5 days a week and burning an estimated 1,000-2,000 calories on those days (according to my fitness tracker watch).
You are conditioned to this work, and the watch doesn't know this. Hunter-gather tribesmen burn about 110% of us sedentary westerner grocery-shoppers. The fitness watches presume a much higher burn than you're probably experiencing due to your well-conditioned muscles and balance.
> It's generally easy for me to stay under the 1,250 calorie limit because I tend to eat less when I'm active and I have been eating tons of vegetables plus lean meat for dinner.
This is consistent with some of that research as well as my own experience. I eat more when I do less. It's easy to hit my targets when I'm physically busier.
> should I try to eat more on the days where I am under the limit, or is it okay to have eaten only a few hundred calories in a day if I feel satiated?
You should average over 1200 a day of varied foods to get the nutrition (not calories) that you need. Calories are the energy that powers the body's motors (muscles and muscular organs, like the heart). The body stores excess calories in bodyfat. When we have a caloric deficit, the body takes from this bodyfat to fill in the missing calories.
Nutrients are the enzymes, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins that enable the organs to work and the various systems to work together: endocrine, immune, integumentary (hair, skin, nails), digestive, renal, nervous systems, etc.. Unlike calories and bodyfat, the body does not store many nutrients long term. We get most of our nutrients from the foods that we are presently eating. So we have to be presently eating the variety of foods and eating them in sufficient amounts.
So, yes, eat more if you haven't eaten enough -- but don't fill it in with junk. Fill it in with good quality.
> Am I setting myself up for disaster by being at such a caloric deficit?
Use your weight-loss rate of 1-2 pounds per week now that your water-weight losses are over (that first 10 pounds has some water losses in with the fat losses). If you're in that weekly range, and aren't getting dizzy getting up from a chair or bed, then you're okay. No need to worry.
I've not read those words before, but I have heard that explanation up until the last sentence.
Potassium reportedly has the inverse reaction.
> Drinking more water flushes out the extra sodium, returning water levels to normal.
I think I've read that it dilutes it, and being dilute the ratio is no longer right AND THAT is why the body releases water. Again -- just my take-away from what I've read. I have no practical experience here.
This is just the body managing water and it's not what I -- being concerned with body fat -- care about. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
It appears so but https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_US this looks similar on Android
Have you tried to just weight you self 1 time/day like in the morning to see if that lower the fluctuation.
I use Libra(Android) and Weight Diary(IOS) to track progress/trends
​
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
I use Libra, which is android friendly! Really helps me see if I'm on track with my goals (currently not...but not too far off, either)
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Track and see your weight using a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Your lowest weight is a mere datapoint, but it wasn't a useful thing to commit to reality because it was your lowest weight. I wouldn't judge my budget by my lowest bank balance, I would use my average weekly balance. These apps use averaging to help you see your trend and give you a trend weight that is more useful to internalize.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Also make sure you're weighing first thing after waking and using the toilet, and before getting dressed. This is our most consistent condition when it comes to the amount of hydration and waste in our body. Track those weigh-ins and ignore any other random weigh-ins.
> Can it be just water retention caused by increased salt intake?
Yes, and also the mid-day random weight check.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Daily.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly using the data from daily weigh-ins.
Congrats on insanity!
That "swole" (swollen) feeling in your muscles? That's your muscles responding to that workout by starting a process of repair and building. To do this, it increases intake of water to suspend and immobilize the fibers, then they heal and strengthen. This process takes 3-5 weeks. During this time, the offsetting water will be heavier on the scale but do not worry -- you eating 1400-1500 a day is ensuring you're continuing to burn fat even though you can't see it on the scale until your muscles calm down.
> But I’m now sitting at 130 pounds and feeling very frustrated.
Assure yourself by making sure that 1400-1500 is well counted and complete. You cannot maintain bodyfat on a deficit, it is a hard natural rule. Your body must burn the fat to make up the deficit. It is happening. The scale can't prove it now (and it never can, due to water weight fluctuations). Be patient and know you're on the right track.
Keep doing the workouts, keep eating at deficit, and in 3-5 weeks, you'll be on happier terms with your scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
/u/Jynxers is right -- any change from yesterday's scale -- or even if it stays the same -- is likely more of an effect of your body's water mass volatility than anything else.
Weight loss is slow. Eating 500 calories deficit means fat burning that eventually amounts to 1/7th of a pound, which is between 0.1 and 0.2 on a digital scale. Eating 700 calories deficit means fat burning that eventually becomes a 1/5th of a pound loss, or 0.2 on the digital scale.
Similarly, overeating to 500 above maintenance would result in fat gain of as much as 0.2 pounds on the digital scale, but you know that if you ate that much, the next day the sale would be 2 pounds heavier. That's 90% water.
> I've seen some people with scales that claim to sense how much is water weight but is that even possible?
Here's the best way...
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. Weigh daily and record your weight. The averages will smooth out the trend and you'll be able to see more clearly what is happening. This isn't removing the water, but it is a method of "noise reduction" of the water changes in our data.
Here's a great rule to remember: You cannot gain fat on a deficit. There is a zero percent chance that this is new fat as long as you're sure you're in deficit. Therefore, any adverse reading must be water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Since you have been working out for 1.5 weeks, it's likely water due to muscle inflammation from the new workouts. This is very common and it lasts for 3-5 weeks (so the muscle can repair and build).
> Do I need to increase my water intake or readjust my strategy?
Neither. Keep going. Keep your food log accurate and complete and trust that it means that you're burning that fat. The offsetting water will eventually calm down as your muscles calm down from the new workload. Then your scale will "catch up" as the water goes down the drain. You'll see you've been burning fat this whole time.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water or the weird thing of having on-track days and seeing a plateau or a weight gain.
> Whereas I lose quite easily eating 500 kcal/day (being sedentery).
Please don't do this. You do lose easily, but what you're noticing is water. When you eat a third of what you should eat, you're eating only a third of the salt you usually eat, and a third of the carbs you usually eat, and a third of the volume that you usually eat. This means you retain only about a third of the water you usually retain. That's what you're noticing on the scale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Your description of your intake:
> I don’t eat a lot of junk foods or drink soda [...] I’ve always had some trouble with my weight.
You probably have some portion creep and snack creep, even if your choices are the more nutritious kinds of choices, the total calories that you take in promote weight maintenance more than they promote weight loss.
When you're in your 130s-140s-150s, weight loss seems glacially slow: less than 1 pound a week is quite normal.
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
Start that plan to get into the habit of tracking your food and then using that data to make sure your calories taken in remain less than the calories you expend. If you do that, then your body will make up the difference in calories (the deficit) to burn your body's fat for energy.
> start going back to the gym [...] I work out, plus I work a pretty physically demanding job
You've always worked that demanding job, so that's not a new factor. The new factor is the gym. If the gym has made you sore, then that soreness is an indicator of inflammation. Inflammation is swelled tissue inside our body and it is swelled with water. That water is used for 3-5 weeks to immobilize, heal, and strengthen the tissue: it's how muscle is built, it's normal, but it is slow. Keep doing it. After a month or so, your muscles become used to the work and the inflammation wanes and the water is no longer retained -- this is when the scale starts to drop more rapidly for a short period as the offsetting water is going away. From that point on (week 6+ after starting the gym), scale losses are more apt to be fat losses.
Now is a good time to start tracking weight in a smoothing app, because water will always put noise into our scale readings.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
/u/koopzegels is right ... water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
That's why you're using a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone). These apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. That's why to use them.
It can definitely take more than two days for it to clear. And a fluctuation of 2.5 pounds is pretty normal even without a cheat day. The best thing to do is to use an app like Libra or Happy Scale, look at the trend and ignore the day to day weights.
Office free food is so hard for me too! UGH!
Say it over and over with me: The scale is not the goal, the habit is the goal.
It's our habits that made us our SW. Its our habits that will keep us at GW with little effort. When we're not paying attention, our habits are what operate our lives and determine our weight.
The scale is just the result, and the scale is subject to the non-linear and herky-jerky way that weight comes off. That's due to water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a 250g glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250g! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of water variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Use Libra or HappyScale to do the auto averaging for you, using something like an exponentially weighted moving average!
> I’m getting conflicting information about eating below your BMR and it’s honestly starting to worry me.
You might be worried that if you eat below your BMR that your body won't work right. Many bloggers write, incorrectly thinking this is true.
When you eat below the amount your body burns, your body will turn to its stored energy, your body fat, to make up the difference. So even though you are undereating, your body is fine because it has stored up some energy for just this purpose -- your body's fat stores.
The technical name for this is adipose tissue, or "fat cells." The body sends hormonal signals to the cells to release their stored energy. So if your BMR is 1471 and you are burning 1700 (BMR + movement and extra bodily function), and you are eating 1200, you will burn approximately 500 kcal worth of body fat so that your body gets 1700 kcal to work with today.
> I was 68.5kg and now I’m 67.4kg. Am I losing weight too quickly?
A week is too short a span to usefully derive the rate of fat burning. You're 19F so there's a female cycle, you're about 67kg so most of your body is water and the weight of that water from day to day and week to week varies quite a bit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
At your weight, you should aim to lose between 600-700 grams a week, but it won't be smooth weight loss because so much of our weight is not fat which we are trying to measure, it's water which confuses the readouts.
> Should I eat more?
I like 1250 as a calorie target for you.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
By treating it as a target, you won't undereat too much as you might if you consider it a limit.
There are 7700 ㎉ in a kilogram of body fat. Figure out your deficit across two weeks. Divide that total deficit by 7700 and that's how many kilograms your body burned to make up the difference and fill in the deficit. Let's say it's 2 kg.
That will mean you burned 2 kg of fat, during which you also lost 1.5 kg of water.
Now, 2 weeks is a short time and the first two weeks, it's often more water than in some middle two weeks of a long effort. You're also working out and that causes water retention, sometimes lasting weeks. FOCUS ON THE LONG-TERM TRENDS.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 250 grams! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+🚶🏋+TOPS
Congrats on 6 weeks in and 1-2 pounds per week of losses!
When the calories are right, then water is the reason for any gain or loss that is not predicted by the calories. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Keep going and remember that the scale isn't telling the whole fat-loss story thanks to water. Your calorie log is your best indicator.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> I halfheartedly ate around my TDEE today. Does this count as my cheat day?
There is no such thing in dietary science as a cheat day. It's a wholly made-up thing by reluctant dieters and those that market to us.
Same goes for the concept of "kickstart" or "kickstarting."
> I have been plateuing for a week now
This is just a normal thing that happens. If the calories are right, then it's always (yes, always) water of one form or another.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
The weight-loss progress is determined by the difference between a before-weight and an after-weight. If you're going to keep using this scale, then use its weight as your standard.
Consumer scales are "good enough" devices. You hopefully didn't invest a lot of money in it. You likewise shouldn't invest a lot of expectation in it for accuracy. It's more important that it have good precision between weigh-ins.
Remember, our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water, scale imprecision or inaccuracy, or our own errors.
Daily water changes are larger than daily fat changes.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Just keep going and keep your 1800-2000 range solid and accurate. You are burning fat every day you do this, because your body at rest burns more than that.
However fat burning does not mean weight loss immediately because of the way an adipose cell works. It's a water process and that water sticks around for a while.
When the calories indicate fat burning, but the scale is the same or higher, you can be assured that water is at the heart of it. It's fine -- we're not here to fight water -- water is used by several systems in our body and if we're healthy, then we shouldn't interfere with them.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂56 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
Your weight can fluctuate +/- a few kilogram during the hours of the day. This is mostly due to factors other than the fat stored on your body. The main factor is water. Think about it: When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by about 250 grams! When you go to the gym and sweat (water that evaporates) and breathe heavy (water leaving in your warm moist breathing), you weigh less.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Good job. At your CW now, 1.5 per week is aggressive but not unsafe. Stay above 1200 daily average .
> end I just gotta keep the scale moving!!
Plateaus are so frequent here, and they're just water. If you're not using a weight-smoothing app, read further:
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I weigh myself every day and enter it into this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
It smooths the data points into a curve and I only pay attention to the daily change averaged over the previous 7 days. It means I don't get discouraged over daily fluctuations and can see overall trends which is what really matters. So much better than tracking once a week or even MyFitnessPal's daily tracking which zigzags all over the place and doesn't give much useful insight.
A week is too soon to tell a trend on the scale, but everything else looks good. I'd suggest 1500 unless your doc/dietitian ratifies 1400 for you (1500 is a strong guideline, and lower can cause greater stress, and greater stress can cause water retention).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^CICO+����+TOPS
It's likely the lifting, and it's likely not fat. Do keep good watch on calories and don't let 2400 really be 3000 because of sloppy counting.
Starting or increasing a weight-lifting routine can cause your weight to plateau or increase. Don't worry, it's okay, you are probably still losing fat at a good rate! Inflammation caused by weightlifting temporarily slows your weight loss but not your fat loss.
When we start or intensify lifting, we're creating micro-sized tears in our muscles. Muscles swell (water) and become inflamed (water) during a muscle-repair process that takes several days. This additional water added offsets our fat loss. BF% still going down but Water% going up can cause the weight-losers total scale weight to slow, stall, or even temporarily go higher.
Keep lifting. The water weight from lifting can take 3-5 weeks to calm down. After that, the added water weight still happens at smaller amounts because the lifter's muscles become accustomed to the workloads and the amount of inflammation is reduced. By then the weight-losers fat loss has outpaced the water weight remaining and the scale graph is back to its normal downward slope.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Weight yourself in the morning after waking up, after peeing and/or number two but before eating, and log the number into an app like Libra (android) or Weight Diary (iOS). Then proceed to forget about it until 24h later.
I use Libra myself. It tells me when I'll meet the target at the current rate.
Please post your stats and a general description of your daily activity...
> Your stats: age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, and goal weight, and a few words about the physical activity of your typical day. This helps others help you, get an idea about you or your effort, and become inspired by you. Customary and optional but helpful.
> Examples:
> * 25M 5'9" SW:225 CW:200 GW:160 Desk Job with jogging habit > * F/33 5'4" SW:14 stone (196 lbs), CW:14 stone (196), GW:not-sure at-home mom chasing the children > * 34F 168cm SW:73kg CW:68kg GW:whatever looks good -- full time busy retail clerk
More on stats in /r/loseit here ... https://redd.it/ak2nys
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[Maintaining&nbsp;3¾y], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
The fat burning is continuous if the calories are right for that, but humans are mostly water and water is volatile and weighs on the scale. So what you get on the bathroom or gym scale won't be as perfect as the fat loss that you're creating.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
> 2 months and I have lost 7kg till now
That's fine for the first two months. Expect 3-4 kg per month now. (That first month likely has some water weight in it.)
> and am planning on shredding another 7-8kg before trying to bulk up a little
Lift heavy now. Doing so preserves muscle you already have and keeps it from being lost during this cut.
> Or should I try a bit harder?
Once you reach 'effective' then stay there. Don't try to maximize it. It's a life and days are long, demanding, and chaotic. If you put all your ergs into the top-most efficient weight loss, something else will suffer and you'll become frustrated. Find a good groove and ride that wave all the way to the shore.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the weightloss trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water, errors, different times of day, and etc.. (Best to weigh naked, right after waking, right after using the toilet for the first time.)
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | F | |
AGE | 25 | |
HEIGHT | 62" or 5'2" | 157 cm |
WEIGHT | 132.2 lb | 60 kg |
BMI | 24.3 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 1295 cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 1622 cal/kcal |
Use that. Since you're very sedentary except for the 3x week training, don't use lightly active (a daily setting). Use 1622 as a basis and 1200 is your goal, even on moderate workout days. Heavy days might require 100-200 Calories more.
Weight loss is slow and water makes the data noisy. Look for the trends across weeks and ignore the daily fluctuations.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
The belly thing is about the food and so to fix that, I'd recommend the diet part of none of those programs. Instead ...
How to get started losing weight: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/quick_start_guide
... and you'll still get the benefit of starting any weight-loss, that initial and impressive water weight loss.
The tone-up part, I do like the video programs for the immediate start. Fitness Blender has some good YouTube stuff as does the 30-Day-Shred or T25 programs. Don't buy anything, though. If you don't own it already, then go with Fitness Blender or some program on a service you already pay for. It should have a body-weight or calisthenics side to it, though ,where you're pushing against your body weight for resistance and building.
NOTE THAT WILL HALT THE SCALE. Don't worry, that's just that soreness you feel which is inflammation (retained water). You're still burning and losing fat as long as the CICO says so. Ignore the scale when you are sore and for at least 2 weeks after. Record your weights, but don't react to them at all.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I highly doubt you've lost that weight in a week. You'd need to be in something like a 2000 kcal deficit or effectively not eating.
Weight swings acutely because of water and food. To track gain or loss, weight yourself at the morning after peeing and before eating and use the values to make weekly averages and compare them.
A spreadsheet or an app like Libra will help.
It's normal when we change our intake.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
If you are sure that you didn't eat a lot more calories than you burn in a day, then it can only be water. It doesn't mean you did anything yesterday to make you more hydrated, because the situation could have been the weight before where you were unusually dehydrated. So neither data point means much, you just use all your data points together to figure out your fatloss trend.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
I always use the first weight after peeing and before drinking/dressing, so neither weight today fits that description as you brushed your teeth.
I'd wait until tomorrow.
As you alluded to, the scale isn't the best judge of your fatloss progress due to water. Your calorie log and calorie performance is the best judge.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Did anything change a week ago? Bloating (water) can change a waistline or an impedance scale and throw off the number.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
I don't know if Happy Scale does it, but Libra does smooth out BF% and converts them into trends. If you're using a spreadsheet, you can make it do this by averaging your last 7-14 entries or just do it mentally by drawing that trendline in your head.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^⚖MFP+����+TOPS
Water weight is a mysterious thing. In my opinion, it's not worth trying to predict or control it. Stick to your diet and use an app like Happy Scale or Libra to look at the long-term weight trend.
I weigh daily but I log it in an app that helps me see the trends and ignore the spikes and ruts of water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
One of MFP's missing features is weight-smoothing.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
https://healthmate.withings.com/ is the app for the Withings scale. However, you don't need the scale to use it. You can use your own scale and use the Withings app. It does some weight smoothing in some of its displays (look over 3 months or longer).
But the Withing app also syncs with Libra (for Android). Libra does an awesome job at weight smoothing and you don't need 3 months of data to do it!
So you can weigh in on your scale, log it in Withings Healthmate, and it'll sync your Withings-entered weight to MyFitnessPal and to Libra. One daily entry takes care of it all.
I've seen fluctuations of 5 pounds up or down in a single day. Most of it is water weight. I recommend weighing daily and using an app like Happy Scale or Libra to see the long-term trend.
If you are actually losing 5 pounds of fat per week, I'd say you should slow down a bit. The usual guideline is to lose at most 1% of your body weight per week.
Run all of this with your therapist before executing...
For defining the workout to be moderate -- non-zero and non-excessive:
The American Heart Association wants us to get 150 minutes of moderate exercise (e.g. walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise (running, lifting); or a suitable combination of both types. Why not use that standard as a guide to keep you from doing too little or too much.
15 minutes faster cardio, 30 minutes lifting -- about 45 minutes including the five or ten minutes for passing between exercises. So, two good sessions a week (average). Not four or five or six. Not zero. One in a hell week, three allowed if we're making up for not going twice last week.
Do this for 3-6 months and then reassess.
> My current plan is to see a nutritionist and lock down my calorie goals and macros, but I feel like I've done this again and again and again and have failed every time no matter how much food I weigh or MFP entries I make.
Then address the failures. Just like lifting or any other sport, if you're failing you don't quit. You learn and fix it.
> Even when I sit on 1,200 to 1,500 calories, I don't see progress.
At your height and weight, you'll lose over a pound a week at 1500, but we gain/lose several pounds of water every day so it's really hard to see progress in that environment. Lifting exacerbates that water problem because of the amount of water it takes to heal and build muscle. It doesn't affect fat burning, but it hides it from the daily scale reading. We must ignore the daily reading, but input it so that we do see a trend forming.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the fatloss trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise caused by the water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You didn't gain 5 kg of fat in a week. To do so would require eating about 7500 kcal a day. What you're seeing is water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by the entire weight of that liquid! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
It's hard to predict or control water weight. And it's not worth the trouble, because it's only a fluctuation of a few pounds around your "true" weight. If you use an app like Happy Scale or Libra, it will smooth out those variations for you and show you the long term trend. As long as your weight today is below your average weight for the past week or two, you're making progress!
> i lost 2 kg in 2 days is that even healthy
That's likely from water and not a worry. To lose 2 kg of fat would mean not eating 15000 kcal which is more than we can even burn in 2 days -- so that's just water weight loss.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
First thing in the morning. After bathroom. Before eating. Only underwear.
Helps to use an app that uses a trend line and smooths out the daily fluctuations. I use Libra on Android, but there are tons of other apps that do the same thing.
A gain of over 3 pounds a week doesn't make sense, as it would require eating +1500 from your maintenance very day. I can only presume, but it is scale error or the random mid-day weigh-in. Your previous weight could have been the one in error.
Your pants being looser and the more-visible clavicles are a tell-tale that things are good.
Start weighing daily and keeping track. There will be a lot of variation because our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
Water doesn't explain the 20 pound gain -- that's something else, and likely it's nonsense. Start keeping track from here.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
I do write a lot about it, because it trips people up. But we're here to fight fat and overall weight, and water fluctuations provide noise in the scale readings since we're majority made up of water, not fat, and water fluctuates hourly and daily and (for women) monthly.
> So what should people be aiming to lose?
Aim for repeating the behaviors and the portion-sizes that will promote weight loss and a lighter life. These are the things squarely in your control. Then, you should get the scale result which is what we're seeking.
The trend, over time, will be between 1-2 pounds a week for many losers (including your stats). But, it's an effect and not entirely in your control. The behaviors and portion sizes cause it to happen, over time.
Like a runner who tries to win a race. Winning the race isn't in her control. But practicing regularly, rehearsing good form, training for her sport -- these are in her control. She should set her goals about practice, form, and training and her dream will become closer to reality.
You can read more about this: search terms process goals and outcome goals
> So losing a lb a week isn't realistic?
It's a realistic expectation for a long-term trend. Expecting to be a pound lighter next week than you were today might or might not happen, even if you behave perfectly. This is because of water, not because you failed to burn a pound of fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
TDEE Calculator | Imperial | Metric |
---|---|---|
SEX | M | |
AGE | 18 | |
HEIGHT | 66" or 5'6" | 168 cm |
WEIGHT | 230 lb | 104 kg |
BMI | 37.1 | |
Mifflin-St Jeor BMR | 2006 Cal/kcal | |
Pre-exercise TDEE (BMR*1.25) | 2512 Cal/kcal |
So you eat 1500 and burn 2500 if you lead the average American sedentary life, before any extra exercise. So -1000 Calories per day... 4.5 ounces per day of fat loss.
Now when we step on that scale, our fat is only about 30% of your body's composition, the rest is water, waste, muscle, skeleton, and other body stuff. So that scale might be up even though we've burned fat because water% and waste% are both more dynamic and less predictable than -4.5 oz. per day. But if your logging/tracking and estimating are good, you can start to chart that ¼℔ per day loss on a graph and see that your actual weight is trending in that way.
Water is the biggest factor. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram ^[source] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
Now, unless these new behaviors become new habits, and your new food portions become your new portion expectations beyond your weight loss, then this will all be temporary. For this reason, focus on doing things that you'll keep doing. Don't take shortcuts, don't buy into fads or pills or powders or fancy things with catchy names that aren't teaching you how to live beyond your getting fitter and thinner. To keep it you have to keep doing it.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
So, as I'm sure you've noticed, there is a lot of day-to-day variation in the weight shown by your scale, due to food and fluid intake, water retention and other factors. If you're weighing every day, you need some math to extract the trend from the noise.
The easiest way is to get the Happy Scale or Libra app. If you want to do it by hand, here's the formula for an exponential moving average:
> today's average = 0.9×(yesterday's average) + 0.1×(today's weight)
Once you have the trend you can get all kinds of fun information:
> Stat|Value > :-|:- > Current weight|250.73 lbs > Lost so far|32.27 lbs = 11.40% of starting weight > Remaining|7.73 lbs = 3.08% of current weight > Progress|80.67 % > Required rate|0.62 lbs / wk > Actual rate|1.05 lbs / wk (r^2 = 0.97) > Deficit|526 kcal / day > > Goal will be reached on 2018-11-24 (37 days early) > > 228 days done, only 51 left to go!
And here's what my graph looks like.
(This is from my own custom software but the apps report most of the same information.)
I'd say average 1 week, but up to 3 weeks. Especially if you have recently started working out more.
If you aren't using one already, I recommend a weight smoothing app like Happy Scale or Libra. Even when your daily weight plateaus you are usually bringing down the moving average. Makes it less frustrating.
I recommend weighing yourself daily and using an app like Happy Scale or Libra to separate out the noise from the long-term trend. But it's up to you to find what works best for you.
That's normal. You have to give it about 2 weeks before you conclude you're truly stuck. You may have a burst of weight loss soon which makes up for this plateau.
It helps to think in terms of a moving average. You are still making progress as long as your current weight is below the average of the past few weeks. You're pulling the average down. The easiest way to see this is to use a weight-smoothing app like Happy Scale or Libra.
I say don't worry about it. There's no need to weigh multiple times per day, and your weight can fluctuate by more than a pound from day to day.
Use an app like Happy Scale or Libra, that will smooth out the variations from both the scale and your body. Any approximate measure of progress is good enough in the long run.
You're doing the right stuff -- get back on your routine keep going. Don't stop!!
When you get to 132, you can't stop then either. You have to keep doing these things to maintain (you get more food, though).
One thing to tell you is this: treat these as separate efforts
Both are important parts of overall wellness and health. They handshake very little, so little that you should consider these as separate efforts that are merely aware of each other, but not as one giant effort.
> Supplement: Protein Shake, CLA, Creatine, BCAA, Amino, Multi-Vits, Fish-oil
Eat meats, vegetables, nuts, and fish. Ditch the pills and powders. Don't supplement if you can eat real food and get the same things. Supplements should be rarely needed and it should start with your doctor saying "you're not getting enough of X."
I really like your physical workout. Get back on that -- do it, or a variation of it, forever. As your interests change, change your workout. Always be doing something.
Weigh your body every day: after waking, after peeing, before dressing. Don't judge your effort from the top of that scale. Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat.
Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. A diagram from some NASA research shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.
Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MyFitnessPal+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
> weight was increasing steadily at 1800.
Water and waste buildup. Your fat wasn't increasing. You can't increase fat on a deficit.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> Re: numbers: if 1975 is the Workout & Non-workout Day weekly average, why do you say to eat between 1925 and 2025?
Because it's too hard to precisely hit the target and we want to treat it as a target and not a limit so that we get all the protein and nutrients that we need.
I view the goal as a target -- like a bullseye. Picture that round dartboard in your mind, with the bullseye in the center. If my goal is 1500, then 1450-1550 is a bullseye. The next ring is 1350-1450 OR 1550-1650 and that's good but not a bullseye. The next further ring is 1250-1350 OR 1650-1750 and that's still on the target board but it's not close to the bullseye. Example: Imgur
Fair | Pretty good | Bullseye!! | Pretty good | Fair |
---|---|---|---|---|
1250-1350 | 1350-1450 | 1450-1550 | 1550-1650 | 1650-1750 |
> Since I have been eating under maintenance for quite a long time, should I eat to maintenance for some time or continueu to eat at a deficit
My spidey sense is that you don't have any long-term metabolic adaptations. If you did, you should eat at maintenance for 6 weeks to 6 months (whichever is convenient) and lift like hell and recomp.. Continue to track very well so that you're confident in your methods and numbers. If you've truly not had a break in several months, then take such a break.
Otherwise, I'd go with 1975 (1925-2025) and not worry about it.
3 pounds of that is water, surely. You didn't accidentally undereat an extra 10,500 Calories so if your 1-pound-a-week program was sound, then anything different is water.
Yes, you really lost 4 pounds. Most of it was water. That's a good sign of reductions of carby and salty foods. It's a positive.
The calories are the math of fat loss. If you're keeping track, then you know how much fat you've burned. Anything to the contrary is just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Ok, I maybe check out Libra (linked by someone else, too) although I found the fit sync didn't always work.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
Edit: just noticed the dev removed Google Fit sync, sorry (was broken anyway).
Some people do toss the scale. When I was feeling like that, I decided to fight the feeling.
If the scale says 3 pounds higher, think!! "Did I really eat 10,500 calories over maintenance? That's like 15 extra lunches eaten yesterday!" Of course, you didn't eat that. So 3 pounds higher isn't 3 pounds of added fat. It's just water.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water. Those apps can help you see the trend.
But, most of all, it's not your scale that causes weight loss. Your calories do that. When the emotion comes, think! How are my calories doing? If your calories are okay, then the higher scale weight isn't about fat loss success or failure. The higher scale weight is just a blip caused by some temporary water and it's nothing to worry about or fight.
Weigh consistently -- the same way every time. Don't throw in random weigh-ins under different conditions.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
The room temperature was colder on the second weigh-in and so the floor under the scale was stiffer. The scale measures resistance against the base of the scale -- the floor.
That said, 0.2 is 0.0006 or 0.06% measurement drift which is within reasonable error tolerance of any consumer bathroom scale.
Finally, you must have been breathing while sleeping. We usually lose some weight via water vapor in our exhale while sleeping.
None of these numbers mean anything because of the variables. What we need to eek out are the trends.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water and these other factors.
^^♂55 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
You should use a weight-smoothing app. It'll null out the little errors caused by water, scale-errors, human-errors, consistency problems, and other issues.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
> I tried to weigh myself this morning to see where I’m at, and once again got different readings each time I stepped on the scale. I’m going to assume the number is not good, because I don’t feel good about myself.
Scales are notoriously unreliable for tracking short term changes. I use this to track my daily weight. It uses statistics to smooth out day to day variations and show an overall trend. There might be a day where my weight goes up by 5-10 pounds, but the app treats it as a data point and it is psychologically beneficial to see that one bad day didn't ruin your overall downward trend.
> So i set my self a new goal and now when im close to it im just scared not gonna make it. Sounds stupid for others but not for me
Not stupid at all, but at some point do transition into more 'forever' in your thinking so that you are not valuing 'fast weight loss' more than 'forever weight loss.'
We definitely do want to see progress over time -- it's the only way to be sure what we're doing is actually working (and why you posted today -- don't worry, it's working).
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Hi /r/dataisbeautiful!
So I've had this weight tracking app for a while now, and decided I wanted to share my data. I started using it just after I turned 15 and have regularly tracked my daily weight ever since (note the gap between 2013 to mid-2014 though, when I didn't own a smartphone).
The dramatic initial weight gain is explained by the fact I was still growing back in 2014-2015. However, the weight loss since the beginning of 2017 feels more worrying to me...
For Americans, the unit for mass is kilograms of course.
This is the android equivalent to Happy Scale, which is iOS only:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en
I agree with the other posters -- just water. If you're confident in your calorie count, then just keep going. It'll wear off.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight changes we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
I've heard good things about Happy Scale, but I've never used it myself. https://happyscale.com/
I've also heard good things about Libra: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en
I weigh daily.
You should ignore any one or two readings, including the before and after. It's the trends that tell the tale.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Although there is no way to prove it, some people believe this happens because of the additional food bringing or causing hormones to rebalance, releasing water weight.
Another possibility is, especially if you were drinking alcohol, is that you're a little dehydrated today.
And finally, you were at a plateau even on a deficit so you were going to break down below it sooner or later. That day may be now.
Either way -- we don't lose fat that way. We're only seeing fluctuations of water. The deficit is the fat-losing part. Our body can't run on less than it needs, so it takes it from our stored fat.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Happy Scale is an iOS app (Libra is the Android counterpart) that has one function: more accurate weight loss predictions than MFP.
1.2 pounds of weight loss is fine.
> I've been eating at a deficit so that I could lose 2lbs a week.
That's an average, not an exact amount. Next week, you might lose 2.8 pounds even though you aimed for 2.
Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat, they're mostly composed of water. Therefore, most of the weight Δ we see from day to day are water changes, not fat changes.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
^^♂54 ^^5'11^^/179㎝ ^^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^^CW:181℔^^/82㎏ ^^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)+TOPS
Every couple of weeks for most people. There is wide variety of opinion here.
I keep my weight in Libra and update MFP every couple of weeks.
When I started, I would only log a new lowest weight in MFP. That's fine, too. Higher weights on a deficit are always water influenced. Lower weight is probably 1-2 pounds optimistic but that's fine because it's going to be consistently so.
^♂54 ^5'11^^/179㎝ ^SW:298℔^^/135㎏ ^CW:183℔^^/83㎏ ^[3Y&nbsp;AMA], ^[1Y&nbsp;recap] ^MFP+[Walks](/r/walking)��[Hikes](/r/hiking)��[C25K](/r/C25K)+TOPS
I use a weight tracking app called Libra because it will smooth out statistical variations over time and, paired with solid calorie and exercise tracking, can help you figure out why you're experiencing what is perceived as a plateau.
It's ~~almost~~ always an overeating issue when I'm experiencing a plateau.
I'm sure you'll have no problems cracking into the 60's once you refocus!
I also recommend using an app to track your weight as a weighted average: Android iOS
The reason this is helpful is twofold.
First, your weight can fluctuate from day to day by a pound or more. Seeing that your weighted average is still going down keeps you from thinking that your diet is off.
Second, the app will tell you if you are in a calorie deficit or calorie surplus and by how much. If you are tracking your calories, and if your caloric intake is consistent, then you can dial in exactly how many calories you need to cut, bulk, or maintain.
The other commenters here gave you good advice for figuring out an initial estimate to run with. Going a step further, here's an easy strategy for gaining a more accurate view over the course of a couple of weeks:
Grab a scale that measures to the nearest 1/10th of a pound, the free app Libra.
Measure your weight at the same time in the morning every day for a couple of weeks, before you eat/drink anything. Log it in Libra. At the same time, keep an accurate count of your calories every day (Cronometer makes that easy).
After the two weeks are up, open Libra and see what it estimates your calorie surplus to be (it does this by looking at your average weight change over time). Subtract that from your average daily calorie intake over that period of time. The result should be a decent approximation of your TDEE.
All this may be pretty obvious as there's nothing new here, but the apps make it easy to keep track of these numbers. Just remember that your TDEE will change with changes to your body composition or lifestyle, so you'll want to go through the process again at some point.
Read the /r/loseit quick guide.
>I haven't been starving myself, or really counting calories.
>Also, I'm using a Fitbit to estimate the calories I burn from exercising.
This right here is the problem. Firstly, exercise calories are very hard to estimate, even by fitness trackers. Unless you're running 12km every day, you're not burning 1000 kcal.
This is why it is always recommended to never eat back exercise calories unless you're maintaining. In addition to this, exercise burns very few calories compared to cutting your intake. Weight loss is 90% diet. ("you can't outrun your fork", "abs are made in the kitchen", and so on)
Secondly, tracking calories will help you more than any amount of exercise.
TDEE Calculator says your sedentary daily calorie expenditure is 2127 calories (if you're 5'7"). Get a food scale, download MyFitnessPal, and start tracking what you eat. Each pound of fat is 3500kcal, so a 500kcal deficit will yield a 1lb fat loss after a week. So if you eat 1600kcal and burn 500kcal every day, you'll lose 2lb/week.
Ignore daily fluctuations. The human body is 60% water, so it's normal to fluctuate several lb in a single day. Weigh yourself regularly and use Happy Scale on iOS or Libra on Android to see a trend.
Libra - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra
It's a great charting program for your weight and body-fat trend data, especially useful because water weight fluctuations skew the daily data.
Libra for Android and PicSay Pro for annotation. Data for Libra is synchronised with a Withings Scale
Don't know which app that one is, but I use Libra and it looks very similar.
If you like stats you should check out the Libra app. My favorite thing about it is that it smooths out fluctuations in your weight so you can tease out the trend and estimates your avg calorie deficit/surplus so you can check it against your other data.
tl;dr - get Libra, it has pretty graphs
Daily after I wake up and take a piss because I'm cutting. I log to this app called Libra.
Welcome! First step is to visit the FAQ and getting started links on the side bar. That's a great place with a lot of information on beginning. For many people CICO (Calories in < Calories out) is the way to go. It has always worked best for me, because I have a hard time completely cutting anything out of my diet. Others have a lot of success with keto or IF (Intermittent Fasting). All of them have the same end result that on a daily basis you use more energy than you eat.
Some of my favorite tools are:
My Fitness Pal - track your calories
TDEE Calculator - calculate your BMR/TDEE
Libra - Great phone app to track your daily weight
Those are the 3 that I use on a daily basis.
Other fitness tools that help me:
Workout DVDs (I love them, may not be your cup of tea, but it's a good home exercise so I don't have to workout in front of people)
Small free weights
Fitbit Charge HR
Keep coming back here - this subreddit is awesome for motivation and encouragement. When I'm feeling down I look through some of the success stories here and sometimes it can help get me through some tough cravings.
Ultimately, weight loss is about CICO: however, there are a lot of different ways of maintaining a calorie deficit long term. Here's what works for me (and a bunch of other people) in order of importance:
When I binge/eat more than I intend, I draw a line under it. I accept that sometimes I'll misjudge or get surprised, and the best way to deal with this is to refuse to get dispirited, and use the experience to learn how to do better next time. (This is probably the hardest bit.)
I'm doing the Every Other Day Diet, or in other words alternating days eating my TDEE with eating a quarter of my TDEE (which works out to about 2300 cals/575 cals). This works amazingly for me but definitely isn't for everyone.
I record everything I eat: MyFitnessPal makes this admittedly annoying process as painless as it can be.
I walk as much as possible. I have a Fitbit which gamifies this but it's not an essential.
I weigh myself every day and record this in Libra.
Hopefully some of this will help you, but the most important thing is to find your own maintainable strategies. So long as you're burning more than you eat, getting your essential nutrients, and staying sane, you'll do fine :)
I started using Libra (for android) to smooth out the weight fluctuations. I know people quite like Happy Scale and it's similar.
I found a daily weigh-in after toilet visit in the morning, but before breakfast that I type into Libra right away the best for me. Even with daily fluctuations I can look at trend and the trendline and see that it's all right.
Weighing myself only once a week led to a shit, squiggly line and I quickly abandoned that.
Track your weight using something like Libra. It will give you trending weight and you can set the softening interval (days used in average to calculate trend). I set mine to 14 due to constant fluctuations from water weight, and poop.
I use Libra for Android to track weight. It's basic, but does a great job of tracking weight and doing projections, etc.
Found an app [for android] that is a weight trend tracker :) Libra
Seeing Oranges13 and other awesome people with their graphs sent me on a search to find just an app that does that. No blu-tooth scale or Fitbit required, you just enter your weight. Libra, Withings scales, and Fitbit all use the weight trend formula from a book called 'The Hackers Diet' by John Walker. So the graphing calculations should be the same across all three of these.
TrendWeight (Web) and Libra: Weight Manager (Android) are great tools to get your mean weight. I use a Withings scale that sync via WIFI to MFP and Runtastic so my weight is logged everywhere, all the time.
First - awesome job dropping 90ish lbs!
Second - I used to be terrified about gaining weight. Thought I'd end up looking horrible. What go me through it, and it probably wasn't the healthiest of ways, was to religious track every calorie I was eating and weighing myself daily. I used Libra to see if I was gaining too much and My Fitness Pal to track cals. After awhile you get the hang of it and can sort of guesstimate your intake for the day and you don't need to track anymore. I still weigh myself just to see if I'm on the right track.
Just go slow, and remember you're doing this for the strength. You've also lost a shitload of weight before, it won't be hard to drop 5lbs or 10lbs again.
Brady said he weights himself less frequently, so he doesn't see the noise and get discouraged? I use an app that smooths my weights and gives me the overall trend. The same could be done with a spreadsheet a la the hackers diet.
I tend to use the Hacker's Diet methods, and weigh daily, but also use a 7-day moving average, so I can more easily see if a single-day weight gain is just because of water-weight.
Fortunately, there's an app for that...
I've lost 35kg (and put on 12kg again in the last 12 month :p). For me it started with being aware of my weight and it's development. Which means weighing once per day and plotting the trend with an app like Libra. It really helped in understanding my body and not getting freaked out by the daily ups and downs. Then I started to establish a routine. Three meals per day and only specific stuff that makes me feel good (lots of proteine). Next I've set a calorie limit and stuck with it. And that's the part were I fully realized how much my eating depended on my emotional state. So I had to find ways to deal with these states without eating. Going for a walk helps. Sadly I've slipped into old habits again in the last 12 month. Currently working on establishing the good habits again.
I think for most people, obesity is not only a disorder of eating, but a disorder of lifestyle. If it were only the eating, loosing weight and keeping it off would be easy and everybody would be slim. That shouldn't discourage you, on the contrary. Bad eating and bad lifestyle feed each other and you will be surprised, how good you can feel after dropping all the sugary and fat stuff from your diet and walking more. Have fun exploring what good food can do for you :)
Water weight. Don't fret about the day-to-day changes. Look at the trend over time. There are apps (like Libra for Android) and websites (like www.trendweight.com) that can help with that.
I went back to using this app called Libra https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en_AU I like that you can enter your current height, weight and goal weight and goal date. It shows a graph with the goal trend and averages your weight to project a trend. As long as your actual trend approximates your goal, you should be good. It's a nice visual that keeps you motivated. It also makes the data points very subtle since the important thing to look at is your overall trend.
The only downside is that it's manual entry unless you have a Withings scale.
Use a weight-smoothing app called Libra (for Android) or Happy Scale (for iPhone).
One of these apps will help you see the trends better with less of the volatile influence of water.
Hopefully tomorrow will be 21 pounds in 29 days. =)
I record my daily weigh-ins and update my flair each morning (CW stats and I lowered my GW today from 255 to 245). According to Libra, I've been averaging a weight loss of around 7 lbs/week, so I should be able to hit this milestone in time for Christmas.
Whatever the final numbers will be, I'm more interested in having a specific goal to target/visualize, to keep me focused/motivated through the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals.
Edit: As of 11/25/2015, turns out it could be 21 pounds in 29 days.