has the "Wooosh" ever happened to you.

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2

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  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
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    Yes, it has happened to me throughout my journey. I stall for a few weeks then drop a few pounds. My graph, like others, is stair steps, albeit uneven and irregular ones.
  • dmt4641
    dmt4641 Posts: 409 Member
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    This is how I lose at least half of my weight. I lose nothing for a couple weeks, then boom 1.5 lbs (I am lean trying to get leaner so not 3-6 lbs at a time!). It usually happens after a day that I am much hungrier than usual and eat at maintenance or above with higher carbs just to not gnaw my arm off.
  • Saryia
    Saryia Posts: 38 Member
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    YES this has happened to me! In fact this happens quite often. It might be more common in women due to hormonal reasons, since that time of the month can influence water retention. That's just speculation, however...

    In my case, what usually happens is that I don't lose ANYTHING for 1-3 weeks, then WOOSH weight loss all at once.
  • vinerie
    vinerie Posts: 234 Member
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    Definitely not a myth. I can now tell when I'm going to have a 'whoosh', which was in fact this morning. 3.6 pounds down from yesterday morning. Did I lose 3.6 pounds of fat overnight? Of course not. But my body finally let go of the H2O it was holding on to in place of burned fat. Weight loss is not linear.

    Here is a nice post about the well-documented whoosh effect.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html/
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,120 Member
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    I noticed that my weight loss now tends to be in whoosh phases. My last one ended up being a five-pound overnight drop after fluctuating at 140-143 for three months.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I've had a weird whoosh pattern thing happening lately. Smallish stall, then a pattern of small daily losses for 3-4 consecutive days totalling about a pound a half. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Me too.
    Last time I dropped 4lbs it took 3 weeks to lose a pound and then 3 days to lose 3lbs.

    At the beginning of my weight loss there was a change in appearance of my stomach fat before the 'whoosh' - much as described by Lyle McDonald.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    This drawing is overly simplistic and misleading. First, what the heck kind of cell is that? No nucleus?

    Here's a diagram of a white fat cell gaining fat:
    connective_adipocyte.gif

    I'm not going to talk about brown fat cells, since your diagram seems to be talking about only white cells. Although it has been speculated that the emptied fat cells temporarily store water before a large scale loss, I can only find speculation on body building sites, not medical journals. I feel like it would be very easy to test and replicate if it were the case. Also, your body has tens of BILLIONS of fat cells. The idea that they're all doing the same thing at the same time and that results in a sudden scale loss is absurd. Your cells are constantly adapting to the environment you provide (nutrients, UV rays, heat, cold, free radicals, pathogens). Cells in different parts of the body behave differently, as well.

    It is also misleading that you could "shut down" a cell. The fat cell is not completely empty. It still contains a nucleus. You cells do turnover, over time, but fat cells are reproduced just like skin cells.
  • Saryia
    Saryia Posts: 38 Member
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    leggup wrote: »
    It is also misleading that you could "shut down" a cell. The fat cell is not completely empty. It still contains a nucleus. You cells do turnover, over time, but fat cells are reproduced just like skin cells.
    There is a lot more going on in a cell than a nucleus, I'm not sure why you're so fixated on the diagram considering that yours is only slightly more realistic.

  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
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    "Woosh" as in a sudden loss of water weight? Sure.

    As in what is shown in that diagram? No.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    It seems more likely that a whoosh would result from fluid being retain in all the normal places that fluid is retained in, perhaps caused by one of the normal causes, and when the cause goes away, so does the fluid. Sore muscles are a common cause of fluid retention and once the sourness goes away, it would look like a sudden weight loss on the scale.
  • jaqcan
    jaqcan Posts: 498 Member
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    I doubt it happens like the graphic, but I've experienced it. I had three weeks of miniscule losses, then 6lbs over 10 days. The whole time keeping to my MFP calorie goal.
  • betuel75
    betuel75 Posts: 776 Member
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    I've noticed the woosh both losing and gaining in fat, especially around the stomach area. For weeks i didnt see any leaning/fat loss then woosh, it just went away and i could see and feel the fat gone around the stomach area. I've also noticed the same woosh affect when i gained the fat around my stomach from not being diligent.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    Saryia wrote: »
    leggup wrote: »
    It is also misleading that you could "shut down" a cell. The fat cell is not completely empty. It still contains a nucleus. You cells do turnover, over time, but fat cells are reproduced just like skin cells.
    There is a lot more going on in a cell than a nucleus, I'm not sure why you're so fixated on the diagram considering that yours is only slightly more realistic.

    It's not a very technical diagram. The purpose in posting a diagram with a nucleus specifically was to indicate that the cell still lives. Most non-scientific people can grasp nucleus = cell brain. I couldn't find a better adipocyte diagram online that showed fat entering or leaving a cell.
  • coreyreichle
    coreyreichle Posts: 1,031 Member
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    leggup wrote: »
    This drawing is overly simplistic and misleading. First, what the heck kind of cell is that? No nucleus?

    Here's a diagram of a white fat cell gaining fat:
    connective_adipocyte.gif

    I'm not going to talk about brown fat cells, since your diagram seems to be talking about only white cells. Although it has been speculated that the emptied fat cells temporarily store water before a large scale loss, I can only find speculation on body building sites, not medical journals. I feel like it would be very easy to test and replicate if it were the case. Also, your body has tens of BILLIONS of fat cells. The idea that they're all doing the same thing at the same time and that results in a sudden scale loss is absurd. Your cells are constantly adapting to the environment you provide (nutrients, UV rays, heat, cold, free radicals, pathogens). Cells in different parts of the body behave differently, as well.

    It is also misleading that you could "shut down" a cell. The fat cell is not completely empty. It still contains a nucleus. You cells do turnover, over time, but fat cells are reproduced just like skin cells.

    Your diagram is inaccurate as well. There are no mitochondria indicated, no vacuoles, no reticulum, no ribosomes, et al.

    Simplified diagrams often work well enough to get a point across.
  • justcat206
    justcat206 Posts: 716 Member
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    Not exactly the same thing, but after I went through an elimination diet to reduce inflammation due to food allergies I lost 15 lbs in 2 weeks - primarily water and improved digestion, but it was definitely a very sudden loss. Since then, nope, nothing other than the ups and downs of water retention. Unless I eat a trigger food, then I swell up again and have to start the healing process all over again.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,416 Member
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    Every month I drop about 3 lbs that way in synch with TOM. First two weeks of the month generally go as predicted by MFP, then last two weeks I have no change until the end when I suddenly drop all the weight MFP was predicting overnight.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Another possible explanation for a whoosh is constipation. During constipation, you can get a backlog of stuff in your gut that could be as much as ten pounds or so. Once that stuff begins to turn loose, the number on the scale will drop very quickly. Since fat loss would've continued during the constipation, a much lower number may be achieved.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited June 2015
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    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I lost most of my weight that way. Definitely not a myth. I'd stop losing anything 2 weeks before my period, then have a woosh the week after and I've lost 60 pounds that way... only the week after my period. The record is 6 pounds in 2 days, I think.. but it's been a while as I've been maintaining for a year.

    I lost in wooshes too.

    Yep-I did alternate day IF and I had 6 months of bounces and whooshes. It's how the plan works :) But I'm talking about on the scale-not the cartoon in the OP lol.
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
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    My weight loss has been more stair-stepped/whooshy seeming the past month or so. My guess was that it had to do with being closer to my goal (so I have much less body fat than I did at the beginning of all this).

    Seems obvious it must be water or stool related. You can easily see a "whoosh" of stool so if you don't know why you've lost it must be water. I doubt it happens like the OP's graph though.

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