Is the Whoosh effect a thing?

BWBTrish

Oh and for the woosh thing...i think it has a lot to do with if you are holding water or not...i know that i lost pretty on schedule till some months ago.. Now ( weight loss is set to half a pound) i lose 2 pounds a month.... twice around the 2 pounds lol
So no idea why, or what triggers that. But i lose a couple days after each other till about 1 to 1.5 pounds...than for 14 days nothing and i have the same again...result 2 pounds a month so average half a pound a week. Fine by me as long as i lose weight

seska422

wickmclean wrote: »

I don't understand what the actual claim of the "Whoosh Effect" is. I think it is a false rumor. It would seem that the claim is that fat simply disappears from the cell, like a reservoir or a balloon draining, which is not how fat cell metabolism works. Fat cells are made up of fatty acid molecules - if even a few these molecules left the cells from every fat cell during sleep without undergoing lipolysis, an incredibly gruesome death would follow, no matter where they went, be it into the bloodstream or into the body cavity. Likewise, if death were somehow miraculously averted, the water that replaced these fatty acid molecules would have to come from somewhere, and the resulting death from immediate dehydration would be pretty undesirable. I guess if you were brought back from the chemical and dehydration deaths you would die from "whoosh" not having enough fat cells anymore. Finally, fat cells never disappear, which is the most suspicious part of this. Sounds gimmicky but again I don't understand what is being claimed.

The claim is that water retention masks the fact that weight loss has occurred.

The whoosh is the loss of water, not fat. The fat has already been lost. Water is acting as a place holder for a while. As you said, fat cells don't disappear but they do flatten out when they aren't holding anything.

Some people are more prone to water retention than others and those are the people more prone to whooshes.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I'm a serial plateau-er, and have had this happen a couple times. Here is what happens for me:
-I'll eat at a deficit, will gain and lose 2-3 lbs. from week to week, but will continue to hover around the same weight. This is the plateau.
-After several months (longest was 6 months), I'll start losing a lot of weight very quickly. The whoosh usually takes a few days, so I don't literally wake up with a bunch of weight loss. It is just that I'll lose a few lbs. each day for a few days. Afterwards, I just return to the plateau (hovering around a now lower weight) for the next several months.

divyatew

Thanks guys !

RockstarWilson

I whoosh three times a day. It's really invigorating. I strongly recommend it!

Primmalim

Man, I haven't had a whoosh yet. I hope it happens soon!

oh_happy_day

divyatew wrote: »

Thanks guys! What caused the whooshes for you?

I don't agree with the above explanation for the whoosh effect but I have found that my weight loss comes in waves. I will often see the drop on the scale after I've taken one or two rest days from gym and the water retention is coming off. I've also found I tend to alternate a smaller loss with a larger loss every week or so.

Lourdesong

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I didn't eliminate carbs and my weight loss in the last couple of months of losing went very stairstep. Nothing, nothing, nothing, four pounds gone. Rinse and repeat.

"Stairstep" is a good way to describe it.

I don't know how it works, but I've lost over 100 lbs and only in the very beginning (first few months) was my weight loss somewhat linear. After that, it has gone down in a very stairstep fashion of plateaus of 1-3 weeks and then big drops (not typically overnight, but dropping a lot of weight over the course of several days is typical).

Water retention masking weight loss is part of it because soon before the drop my body feels and looks similar to risen dough, and then I have to pee a lot.
It seems different to me than water retention around my TOM, intense exercise, or from excess sodium intake. The level of water retention seems more severe, ime.

I wouldn't count on a whoosh if you're experiencing a stall unless you know your tracking of intake and exercise calories are on point.
If you're relying on volume measurements (cups, spoons) and generic imprecise database entries, and also inputting huge numbers for your exercise calories, and then are not losing, you might be waiting a long long time for a whoosh that may never come or if it does eventually come it'll be a disappointing drop that is not what you would expect from your cico data and your goals.

If you get your tracking as precise as you reasonably can (weight measurements for intake and using correct entries in the database, and inputting conservative/realistic estimates for your exercise burns) then trusting the process and waiting out the stalls will be so much easier to deal with, you won't worry that you're wasting your time by waiting it out because you can trust that what should happen will happen.