Water Weight on BC
angelxsss
Posts: 2,402 Member
I've heard that water weight can contribute to slow weight loss on birth control. I feel that this might be my problem, because although I've also read that birth control can increase appetite causing you to eat more, most of the time I have no appetite so that;s not the problem.
That being said, is there some way that I can measure my progress that will show at least some progress (if I;ve made any)? I know weighing wouldn't work, obviously, and I'm not sure if taking measurements would work either, because water retention causes bloat right?
Thanks beforehand for any advice! (And please don't suggest going off of bc- that's not an option for me right now).
That being said, is there some way that I can measure my progress that will show at least some progress (if I;ve made any)? I know weighing wouldn't work, obviously, and I'm not sure if taking measurements would work either, because water retention causes bloat right?
Thanks beforehand for any advice! (And please don't suggest going off of bc- that's not an option for me right now).
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Replies
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The only way water weight could continually slow weight loss would be for it to be continually accumulating, but it doesn't work that way. It might go up, it might go down, but your overall trend will be about the same. That's what you should really look at: the overall trend.0
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Drinking 16 cups of water a day is supposed to help with that...if you can stand it!0
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PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »The only way water weight could continually slow weight loss would be for it to be continually accumulating, but it doesn't work that way. It might go up, it might go down, but your overall trend will be about the same. That's what you should really look at: the overall trend.
This right here. It's not the water weight from BC slowing your weight loss. Water weight is a fact of life even if you aren't on birth control. There are plenty of women here who are on some type of birth control and they are losing weight.
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Okay so then what is it? And I do look at my average trend and it's just staying the same0
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I'm on BC and losing. Yes, slowly, but I'm losing slowly because I like to eat more, so there's that.0
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juggernaut1974 wrote: »
I eat around 1100 a day, not weighing and measuring, currently at about 155, 5'4, and I sit for most of the day but do jazzercise at night and tend to get in around 6,000 steps a day.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »
I eat around 1100 a day, not weighing and measuring, currently at about 155, 5'4, and I sit for most of the day but do jazzercise at night and tend to get in around 6,000 steps a day.
There's your problem, you're eating more than you think you are which is why you're not losing as fast as you think you should be.0 -
All diets in the end end up being the same thing, so I'm definitely more partial to the moderation of calorie counting. However, I have known a lot of people who did low carb for a bit, myself included, and lost about 10 pounds of water weight very quickly within the first bit of the diet.
I have been told that carbs do cause water retention so dropping them for a few weeks should help get rid of that.
Now water weight is not real weight loss as far as I'm concerned, but that little boost does get you motivated to go further.0 -
juggernaut1974 wrote: »
I eat around 1100 a day, not weighing and measuring, currently at about 155, 5'4, and I sit for most of the day but do jazzercise at night and tend to get in around 6,000 steps a day.
Not weighing and measuring = I have no clue how many calories I am eating. Which is fine if you are not into counting calories and use some other approach to weight loss. But, if you want to use a calorie counting approach, you have to count the calories in everythign you eat, there is no other way to go about it.0 -
It's annoying how people judge. I eat mostly prepackaged food- not things you need to measure, but based on how many units you're eating. Not weighing my food doesn't mean "I don't know how many calories I'm eating." It means I don't eat enough food that needs to be weighed for a food scale to be relevant to me.
For those of you who told me I need to weigh foods in a polite way, kudos. For those of you who told me in a you're-so-stupid-of-course-this-is-the-only-reason way, your comments weren't helpful, they just made me feel bad and not supported at all but looked down on. Kudos.
It's sad because I knew everyone would obsess over that and jump on it as the #1 reason I can't lose.
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there saying that as somes things do need to be weighed - i.e fruit and veg? it comes packaged but as a unit - and to weigh a portion of that out is what needs to be down... another thing is bread - yep packaged but ive found some slices are thicker than others.. so in some cases packaged food does need to be weighed too0
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It's annoying how people judge. I eat mostly prepackaged food- not things you need to measure, but based on how many units you're eating. Not weighing my food doesn't mean "I don't know how many calories I'm eating." It means I don't eat enough food that needs to be weighed for a food scale to be relevant to me.
For those of you who told me I need to weigh foods in a polite way, kudos. For those of you who told me in a you're-so-stupid-of-course-this-is-the-only-reason way, your comments weren't helpful, they just made me feel bad and not supported at all but looked down on. Kudos.
It's sad because I knew everyone would obsess over that and jump on it as the #1 reason I can't lose.
Someone's a sensitive sally. Honestly, if you think you're eating at a deficit, and you're not losing weight the options are that you haven't given it enough time or you're not eating at enough of a deficit for your particular situation. Not to be rude, but it's highly unlikely that you're eating only 1100 calories if you're not losing at all. Nobody knows your life but you, but also, physics applies equally to everyone.
If you're taking in fewer calories than you expend, then that energy comes from somewhere which has to be your body's tissues (fat, primarily, but also muscle). Water weight from salt, birth control, etc, will cause you a one time gain up to your maximum puffiness, then stop. Think about it. If you're losing fat, but gaining water weight to negate it, then you'd be a water balloon within a few months.
I hope this wasn't too rude, and I don't mean to insult your intelligence. I'm just putting out information that everyone else has, which is repeated over and over again. Weight loss isn't complicated. It's hard, don't get me wrong, but it's not complicated.0 -
I've been on the pill for the last 10 years. In that time, I shot up to 340+lbs and I've also lost 80+ lbs . . . while still on the pill. I know everyone is different but I still find I have some "water weight" / bloat around TOM however it goes away. You will still have the regular bloating you would without the pill however it isn't a continuous thing, water weight sheds, so to speak, in a few days 4 at most.
Good luck!0 -
It's annoying how people judge. I eat mostly prepackaged food- not things you need to measure, but based on how many units you're eating. Not weighing my food doesn't mean "I don't know how many calories I'm eating." It means I don't eat enough food that needs to be weighed for a food scale to be relevant to me.
For those of you who told me I need to weigh foods in a polite way, kudos. For those of you who told me in a you're-so-stupid-of-course-this-is-the-only-reason way, your comments weren't helpful, they just made me feel bad and not supported at all but looked down on. Kudos.
It's sad because I knew everyone would obsess over that and jump on it as the #1 reason I can't lose.
You'd be really surprised at how inaccurate your logging can be
Reasons you can't lose weight - your calorie in is equal or greater than your calories out
Things that might affect calories out - activity, purposeful exercise, specific medication or medical conditions (thyroid)
affect - not stop - it might affect your CO number eg lower it but eating 1100 - it would be hard for it to be that low
also time matters - over 6-8 weeks you should see a drop - that you can average - some hold on to weight then whoosh - some lose regularly - some go up, down and all around but average out
if you aren't averaging out a loss then your Calories in or your Calories out are wrong (probably both)
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It's annoying how people judge. I eat mostly prepackaged food- not things you need to measure, but based on how many units you're eating. Not weighing my food doesn't mean "I don't know how many calories I'm eating." It means I don't eat enough food that needs to be weighed for a food scale to be relevant to me.
For those of you who told me I need to weigh foods in a polite way, kudos. For those of you who told me in a you're-so-stupid-of-course-this-is-the-only-reason way, your comments weren't helpful, they just made me feel bad and not supported at all but looked down on. Kudos.
It's sad because I knew everyone would obsess over that and jump on it as the #1 reason I can't lose.
First bolded: if you feel you have a large amount of water retention this could be why - pre-packaged foods are LOADED with sodium to preserve them. Maybe try cutting back on the salt intake and see what happens??
Second bolded: I'm not saying this to make you feel stupid but let's look at it this way - if there's a woman who is 5'0 and she eats around 1200 - 1400 calories/day to maintain. And then there's me who eats 2,200 calories a day to lose. Neither one of us is not eating enough that measuring food isn't always relevant. IT'S ALWAYS RELEVANT. It can guarantee exactly what you're putting into your body. Now calorie counting is not the only way to go about weight loss, so if it's not for you it's not for you and that's ok but bottom line: even if you don't log it, your body keeps a perfectly accurate journal of what you eat so whether you're honest with yourself or not your body will always know.0 -
Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time0 -
you are either eating too much or overestimating your caloric burn.
BC would only be a temporary fact if at all.0 -
Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.0 -
Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.
New exercise can cause water to be retained as well.
Ultimately, though, your first priority should be to get a handle on how many calories you're ACTUALLY eating (and not just estimating without weighing and measuring). I know you said you eat a lot of pre-packaged foods, but you may be surprised that each hot dog is not exactly X grams, each carton doesn't contain exactly X grams of yogurt, etc. While each variance individually may be small, cumulatively they can add up to a few hundred calories difference, which at your current size, could easily halt weight loss.0 -
I don't weigh my pre-packaged stuff, but I mostly eat things that I portion myself (ie: buy a big bag of grapes, weigh out 100 grams each time, etc). I eat single-serve yogurts and the occasional protein bar, but I weigh just about everything else.
I recently bought some lunch meat labeled as 1 serving per package, and each package is 56 g for 90 calories.
Since I've read over and over to weigh pre-packaged stuff, I tried it out.
And...98g for the package - nearly DOUBLE. So it would be 157.5 calories vs 90.
If you're not losing, getting a kitchen scale to check these things could be very helpful. You may find that the labeled info isn't accurate. It's more like a minimum the companies have to reach, and could be over by a significant amount.
~Lyssa
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Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.
That's fair enough, it can be intensely confusing when you first start out because we know so much, we've read it all for years, celebs endorse stuff, our friends give us hints and tips and new amazing diet plans, and we all just absorb information
The easiest thing I found is to focus on one thing
No fads, tips, well meaning advice...throw it all out
You're on a calorie counting site so focus on calories ...just that ...for the next month to 6 weeks, weigh everything, enter it in your food diary and then double check it against other calorie sites / pack nutritional guides
It works
Jazzercise sound fun...keep doing that
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Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.
That's fair enough, it can be intensely confusing when you first start out because we know so much, we've read it all for years, celebs endorse stuff, our friends give us hints and tips and new amazing diet plans, and we all just absorb information
The easiest thing I found is to focus on one thing
No fads, tips, well meaning advice...throw it all out
You're on a calorie counting site so focus on calories ...just that ...for the next month to 6 weeks, weigh everything, enter it in your food diary and then double check it against other calorie sites / pack nutritional guides
It works
Jazzercise sound fun...keep doing that
But still, exercise calories? Should I try to eat them back or just stay within my original daily goal? Thank you for the advice by the way, and being understanding.0 -
Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.
That's fair enough, it can be intensely confusing when you first start out because we know so much, we've read it all for years, celebs endorse stuff, our friends give us hints and tips and new amazing diet plans, and we all just absorb information
The easiest thing I found is to focus on one thing
No fads, tips, well meaning advice...throw it all out
You're on a calorie counting site so focus on calories ...just that ...for the next month to 6 weeks, weigh everything, enter it in your food diary and then double check it against other calorie sites / pack nutritional guides
It works
Jazzercise sound fun...keep doing that
But still, exercise calories? Should I try to eat them back or just stay within my original daily goal? Thank you for the advice by the way, and being understanding.
So you're 5'4 and 155
What's your activity level without your purposeful exercise and your age? What's your goal weight?
Basically if you put it in right on MFP ..let's assume you have a desk job and are sedentary ...you would get a calorie allowance ...I would recommend a goal of 1lb a week
Eat that ..it will be more than 1100 ...probably more like 1300 ..but that would be weighed and carefully logged calories
When you Jazzercise or do purposeful exercise log it in the exercise diary, but double click on the calorie amount and half it before entering ...then eat those too
(MFP database overestimates)
You can view your calories as a weekly budget eg eat less on a couple of days and have extra calories for a special meal
Over 6-8 weeks track your average progress...if you find you are losing quicker than you meant to eat back a higher proportion of your exercise calories
The system works if you don't over complicate it (it works if you do over complicate it too, but who wants a complicated life?)
Good luck 0 -
Out of interest what reasons do you think there might be for you not losing weight? (and no I'm not trying to catch you out in something, I'm trying to help)
discounting birth control, because even with any water weight it wouldn't continually mask any loss over time
I don't know, that's why I'm asking others. Contrary to what a previous poster said, I find weight loss to be extremely complicated. Maybe it has something to do with not really eating back many exercise calories (a concept I don't understand at all), or maybe not eating enough in total. I can't be at a plateau because I started jazzercise recently, which is certainly more exercise than just sitting around all day.
That's fair enough, it can be intensely confusing when you first start out because we know so much, we've read it all for years, celebs endorse stuff, our friends give us hints and tips and new amazing diet plans, and we all just absorb information
The easiest thing I found is to focus on one thing
No fads, tips, well meaning advice...throw it all out
You're on a calorie counting site so focus on calories ...just that ...for the next month to 6 weeks, weigh everything, enter it in your food diary and then double check it against other calorie sites / pack nutritional guides
It works
Jazzercise sound fun...keep doing that
But still, exercise calories? Should I try to eat them back or just stay within my original daily goal? Thank you for the advice by the way, and being understanding.
So you're 5'4 and 155
What's your activity level without your purposeful exercise and your age? What's your goal weight?
Basically if you put it in right on MFP ..let's assume you have a desk job and are sedentary ...you would get a calorie allowance ...I would recommend a goal of 1lb a week
Eat that ..it will be more than 1100 ...probably more like 1300 ..but that would be weighed and carefully logged calories
When you Jazzercise or do purposeful exercise log it in the exercise diary, but double click on the calorie amount and half it before entering ...then eat those too
(MFP database overestimates)
You can view your calories as a weekly budget eg eat less on a couple of days and have extra calories for a special meal
Over 6-8 weeks track your average progress...if you find you are losing quicker than you meant to eat back a higher proportion of your exercise calories
The system works if you don't over complicate it (it works if you do over complicate it too, but who wants a complicated life?)
Good luck
Yeah I am at 1300 as a goal. Thank you!0 -
I'm interested ...will you try weighing your food?0
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I'm interested ...will you try weighing your food?
I might. I live with my family and they're all overweight/obese and not trying to lose weight, so I feel like a food scale would make them feel like I'm further judging them or throwing it in their face that I'm trying to be healthy and they're not. It's sort of a hard spot0 -
weighing packaged food is a real eye opener. serving sizes are almost always off. I was eating more than I thought before I started weighing my food and gained weight because of it. even my fruits and veggies were more calories than I thought. I weigh 99% of my food because of this,even single serve yogurts because I found that the weight of the yogurt usually includes the packaging.so there could be more or less yogurt than the package states.fruit and veggies,even if you have the same amount or the same size portions its not going to be the same amount of calories all the time which can result in eating more calories than you think,even though its "healthy" foods.weigh your food you will be surprised trust me0
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I live with an overweight/obese family and have never had a problem with weighing my food. I do it when they're not around, anyway (I pre-weigh and pre-log my meals a day in advance). Also, your weighing foods and wanting to lose weight is all about you, not others.I'm interested ...will you try weighing your food?
I might. I live with my family and they're all overweight/obese and not trying to lose weight, so I feel like a food scale would make them feel like I'm further judging them or throwing it in their face that I'm trying to be healthy and they're not. It's sort of a hard spot Who knows? Maybe they'll be inspired by you.
As for prepackaged foods, their weight can vary even though they're the same foods. There's even weight variations from egg to egg from the same carton, too. A kitchen scale is the best purchase I've made regarding weigh loss. I was without a scale for around 2 months and had to eyeball my portions. When I finally got a new scale, I found I was actually consuming 400 or so calories MORE than I assumed. Crazy, isn't it? That extra 400 cals sent me into maintenance.
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