Stuck, and not sure why

Wolfger

It's been a bad week for me here in weight loss land. It started with me almost hitting my first milestone (275.2) on the morning of my wife's birthday, so I was feeling celebratory on 2 counts and I chucked self control out the window "just for one day"... but that's just the self-inflicted start to the story. Two days later a woke up with tremendous back pain, and so I again blew past my calorie limit in my desire for comfort food.

This brings us to Tuesday morning, with a weigh-in of 277.2 pounds. Since then, I've been under my 2-lb-per-week goal every day (270 under, 30 under, 118 under), but I gained weighed on 2 of those 3 days, ending up at 277.0 this morning. Ironically, the only day I lost weight was the day I was only 30 under.

Gaining on the days where I ate poorly is acceptable, but gaining on the days where I'm well under my goal is just maddening. I'm not sure what to do for the sake of my sanity. I feel like if this keeps up I'll probably chuck calorie counting out the window. Help?

prairiecuzz

i gain weight if my salt intake is high

kommodevaran

Calorie counting works if you do it correctly. Are you doing it correctly?

You can't measure weight loss progress like you described. Weight fluctuates naturally from day to day, for a number of different reasons - and there is nothing you can or should do about that. You have to look at the trend over time, this will show you your real progress. You will have real progress if you over time have a calorie deficit.

Silentpadna

I posted this in another thread; the basics are that fluid and fat change at different rates. Time is your friend - don't ignore your friends.

"Trend is everything. Fluctuation is normal and it has to be that way. You cannot get around it. The reason? You have contributing factors to weight loss/weight gain and the two major ones change at different rates. It's that simple. You could not make weight loss linear if you tried. Or unless you had very few data points in the process. (For example if you weighed yourself every 3 months, it would appear more linear because you would only have 4 points to look at over the year - 5 counting your starting weight). Most people weigh themselves much more often than that.

The more frequently you weigh yourself, the more fluctuation there will be. Because you gain and lose fluid much more easily and quickly than you do fat. That, and your body regulates its fluid based mostly on need. Fact of life. In my short time here, this has stood out more than anything to me. Fluid retention can mask weight loss, but the converse is also true: it can exaggerate weight loss too. That's why trending is so important.

Remember, we look at the scale as a tool to help us figure out if we are losing fat, because that's normally our ultimate goal. There are other tools we can use to tell if we are losing fat too. Like our measurements and general appearance. No one else sees your scale."

seska422

Weight loss is a trend over time, not day-to-day. Keep up an overall calorie deficit on a consistent basis and you'll lose weight over time.

I just look at each day as a data point rather than as my actual weight. My daily weight bounces up and down but the trend is overall downward so I'm losing weight.

Experiment to find a way of eating that's comfortable every day so that you don't have to expend as much self control to stick with your plan. You are in this for the long haul. Slow progress is progress. Giving up won't get you to your goal.

Duchy82

Gaining 2 lbs in fat over a week in context is blowing your calorie budget for the week by an extra 7000calories on top of maintenance calories which I'm guessing is highly unlikely by having a couple of blow out days in the week (did you log the blow outs?). The chances are it's water retention from eating more salt that you are usually used to or something to that extend so it will go down again.

It is life, accept it and move on, carry on with the calorie counting. Also weight will fluctuate naturally going up and down from day to day accept that you will see that periodically. The trick is to push through and carry on regardless. You didn't gain the weight overnight you won't lose it overnight patience and frustration will be part of the process, my weight in context has been fluctuating up and down for the last month by about 3lbs, is it frustrating? yes, will I give up? No, because I am determined to hit my goal weight.

Silentpadna

Duchy82 wrote: »

is it frustrating? yes

It's interesting how we get frustrated by this - not just pointing at you @Duchy82. I just have to remember that fluctuation should not be frustrating. It's a mental trap. Why? Because when we get frustrated by a number that we know is going to fluctuate - because it has to - we can get trapped into making poor decisions based on feeling rather than fact.

So back to the OP, don't chuck this thing out the window based on how you feel. Be like a pilot in bad weather. Fly by your instruments - not your instincts!

seska422

Here's my trend for the last 3 months. I didn't have any days over my calorie goal and quite a few days a bit under my goal.



Now, I'm female so that accounts for a lot of the swing. But, as you can see, my general trend was downward while my daily data points were all over the place.

Keep your focus on the big picture.

StaciMarie1974

You don't gain or lose weight in day. The body is not that efficient. NOt fat, at least. You can change water weight day to day. Have more or less food mass remaining in your body from day to day.

You have to start thinking longer term. Compare changes over time, as day to day is not enough time lapse to see the trend.

TxTiffani

If I eat way over and eat things that I don't include in my daily diet (fried foods etc) I will gain water weight for several days after usually peaking at the 2nd or 3rd day out and it takes nearly a week to regain the ground I lost:(

Wolfger

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

You don't gain or lose weight in day. The body is not that efficient. NOt fat, at least. You can change water weight day to day. Have more or less food mass remaining in your body from day to day.

I don't know... Up until now it's been pretty consistent: beat my goal, the number on the scale goes down; exceed the goal, the number on the scale goes up. Now the amount it goes down did taper off, and I know a lot of that initial fast loss was likely all water weight, but yeah, I definitely did put the weight on in a day, so I do kind of expect it to come off in a day too. Which is probably unreasonable since I'm sure I blew my goal by a lot wider margin on the days I blew it than I beat it by on the good days. Still, going up on a good day is a little bit soul crushing.

Thanks, everybody, for the feedback and support. Especially @seska422 for the inspiring graph.