Weight loss stunt?

tiffany_yy
tiffany_yy Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've only started my journey about a month ago, but I've been seeing progress every day and throughout every week. I usually eat similar things and similar portions, log all my foods, and rotate my workouts to have both cardio and strength training. I usually have 1-2 rest days per week where I just stretch.
I've been consistently losing weight but for the past 4-5 days I've noticed the scale fluctuate back and forth, always back to the same weight. I know its not ideal to weigh yourself daily but I do so that I can see how my diet affects me every day.
Is there a particular reason for thing? Is this normal? Or should I change something?

Thanks!

Replies

  • tiffany_yy
    tiffany_yy Posts: 14 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Yeah, you're about at that point where things settle down...you only sometimes see that linear, everyday kind of thing in the first few weeks or so..then it settles into the true marathon that it is.

    So what should I do to keep losing weight steadily? Change routine? Or increase workout load?
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    Weight loss is not linear. Also, you are female which means increased hormonal (and temporary) weight fluctuations that have nothing to do with fat gain or loss. You could also have more food in your digestive tract than the day before. Or you are retaining water from exercise or a higher sodium meal.

    tl;dr - stop weighing yourself every day if your totally normal daily (or even hourly!) weight fluctuations are going to freak you out. ;)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited July 2017
    tiffany_yy wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Yeah, you're about at that point where things settle down...you only sometimes see that linear, everyday kind of thing in the first few weeks or so..then it settles into the true marathon that it is.

    So what should I do to keep losing weight steadily? Change routine? Or increase workout load?

    It doesn't work like that...you're lucky it went a month...it's usually more like 2-3 weeks. Weight loss isn't a linear function...your body weight fluctuates...that's normal. Basically, you've lost some fat and water and waste and now the water is re-regulating...

    This is how weight loss works...get your head around it. Weight loss is ultimately a long term trend over time...you will have weeks with no losses, weeks with big wooshes, weeks with little losses, weeks with gains, etc...all of this is completely normal...you need to adjust your expectations to match the reality of all of this...

    And yeah, given your concerns you aren't one who's likely to do well weighing in all of the time...step away from the scale.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,104 Member
    Nothing wrong with weighing daily if you don't get to emotionally attached to the number, if you want to carry on weighing daily which can be helpful if you want to learn how things do affect your body, try using a trend weight app like Happy Scale or Libra they can help to see the bigger picture when you're fluctuating. If you can't emotionally detach try using other ways to measure your progress such as taking photos or measurements and weigh less frequently.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    For me, each daily weight is just a data point toward my weight trend. The important part is an overall downward trend over time. Here's a 3-month trend for me where I ate at or below my calorie goal every day:

    2dxkzzd4i5nt.jpg

    Concentrate on having a calorie deficit and the results will fall into place. The big picture is what matters. As long as you consume fewer calories than your body uses over time, you'll lose weight over time.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,735 Member
    tiffany_yy wrote: »
    I've only started my journey about a month ago, but I've been seeing progress every day and throughout every week. I usually eat similar things and similar portions, log all my foods, and rotate my workouts to have both cardio and strength training. I usually have 1-2 rest days per week where I just stretch.
    I've been consistently losing weight but for the past 4-5 days I've noticed the scale fluctuate back and forth, always back to the same weight. I know its not ideal to weigh yourself daily but I do so that I can see how my diet affects me every day.
    Is there a particular reason for thing? Is this normal? Or should I change something?

    Thanks!

    Any chance you're female, premenopausal, and haven't quite yet been all the way through a complete menstrual cycle since starting down the weight-loss track? That can cause some water weight gain that temporarily masks fat loss, and it can happen at different points in the cycle for different women.

    Either way, I vote with the "wait for 2 weeks or so before making changes" crowd. It's very likely some water weight effect.

    P.S. The daily weighing strategy worked best for me. Gradually, I came to understand what caused my daily weight fluctuations, and how long they'd last. It was empowering - took all the unnecessary drama out of the process.
  • tiffany_yy
    tiffany_yy Posts: 14 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Just to make it a bit more clear:

    If you decide to weight daily (which I personally think is a great tool) USE A TRENDING WEIGHT APP to help you evaluate your general trend (www.trendweight.com; www.weightgrapher.com; happy scale for iphone; libra for android).

    If you decide to not weight daily (which I personally think is a trap which gives the scale more power than it would have otherwise) pick a day of the week that would be least affected by water weight. For example Friday morning makes more sense than Monday morning as many people tend to visit with friends and family on the weekend, and this usually involves food.

    Last, but not least, many scales exhibit fake consistency effects and do not show a new measurement unless they detect a substantial change. You can circumvent this by weighing yourself while holding a heavy weight and then without.

    Your weight changes for many reasons and water weight levels change faster than the underlying fat level does.

    The expectation that you will lose linearly is false and is usually only seen when engaged in what I believe to be long-term counterproductive high deficits

    Thanks so much for this! I definitely will get the trending weight app. I guess I'm just really eager to lose weight that I'm holding onto any fluctuations. This will help me a lot

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