lag time

donjtomasco

If someone has been pretty good at CICO for 8 weeks (i.e., got the initial weight loss out of the way, body is now used to lower caloric intake and exercise) and this someone has been consistent with their aerobic and weight room work (free weights/machines), I am curious as to the following, or is there TRULY no answer and the answer once again is simply WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR! Which I read over and over again, and I get that, but the following is still stumping me greatly:

I know weight loss/gain is not linear, but is there some 'general' rule of thumb as to how long it takes, for example, "one week of great CICO (under the goal per week entered in MFP)" to show up on the scale, or conversely "one week of being over CICO MFP goal" to show up on the scale?

For the life of me there needs to be some general rule of nature that says "if you eat more then you should for 7 days straight, you should see the effects of this starting to work its way through your body and into your fat pockets that will cause your weight scale to show an increase in weight", or, if you are well under CICO (but not starving yourself, i.e., eating at least 1500 - 1,900 calories a day but just have been able to burn enough calories to keep under on the CICO), for your fat pockets to start to release and burn off the fat that has been stored up.

Thanks.

TavistockToad

Mother nature isn't that kind...

There are no rules, you just have to learn how your body responds...

collectingblues

donjtomasco wrote: »

For the life of me there needs to be some general rule of nature that says "if you eat more then you should for 7 days straight, you should see the effects of this starting to work its way through your body and into your fat pockets that will cause your weight scale to show an increase in weight", or, if you are well under CICO (but not starving yourself, i.e., eating at least 1500 - 1,900 calories a day but just have been able to burn enough calories to keep under on the CICO), for your fat pockets to start to release and burn off the fat that has been stored up.

Thanks.

Life doesn't work that way. Perhaps a 2018 goal should be to get used to that.

Lounmoun

There are other factors that impact the number on the scale that are not fat gain or loss like retaining water or more or less waste in your system. I don't think 1 weigh in after a week is enough information to truly judge the change in your fat. I'd say 3-4 weeks of weigh ins to compare is better.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/how-to-weigh-yourself-accurately/

https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/subsubsection1_2_4_0_4_2.html

donjtomasco

Wow Collectingblues! That was rather snarky of you, but I kind of liked the creative sarcasm! You are quite the creative one. No offense, that is my kind of sick twisted humor!

cmriverside

I lost most of my weight at 1500-1600 calories plus exercise calories. I lost at pretty much the rate MFP had me set to lose.

Now I've been at maintenance weight and calories for years, and in the last year and a half I've eaten a full 700 calories per day OVER what MFP says I should be able to eat (averaged out) and I haven't gained. It doesn't make sense, I haven't changed a thing, and yet it is true.

BigGuy47

Eight weeks is a reasonable amount of time to test your TDEE. If you're not losing after carefully tracking for eight weeks you should reduce your calories. If you're losing too much you can reduce your deficit a bit.

A week is a small amount of time susceptible to variances (temp water weight, dehydration, etc.).

lynn_glenmont

donjtomasco wrote: »

If someone has been pretty good at CICO for 8 weeks (i.e., got the initial weight loss out of the way, body is now used to lower caloric intake and exercise) and this someone has been consistent with their aerobic and weight room work (free weights/machines), I am curious as to the following, or is there TRULY no answer and the answer once again is simply WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR! Which I read over and over again, and I get that, but the following is still stumping me greatly:

I know weight loss/gain is not linear, but is there some 'general' rule of thumb as to how long it takes, for example, "one week of great CICO (under the goal per week entered in MFP)" to show up on the scale, or conversely "one week of being over CICO MFP goal" to show up on the scale?

For the life of me there needs to be some general rule of nature that says "if you eat more then you should for 7 days straight, you should see the effects of this starting to work its way through your body and into your fat pockets that will cause your weight scale to show an increase in weight", or, if you are well under CICO (but not starving yourself, i.e., eating at least 1500 - 1,900 calories a day but just have been able to burn enough calories to keep under on the CICO), for your fat pockets to start to release and burn off the fat that has been stored up.

Thanks.

Tapping energy stores and creating new energy stores is a constant process, going on in your body all the time. Even if you are at a daily energy deficit, there will almost certainly be times during the day when your body is storing energy (e.g., right after you eat). It's not that your body waits a day or two or seven to take notice of the fact that you've been in a deficit and will now start decreasing your weight by unlocking your fat pockets.

The problem is that over the course of a day or a week or maybe even several weeks, the changes in your body weight that are due to energy deficits or surpluses are going to be less than the changes due to normal fluctuations in water and waste. It's not that the running deficit or surplus isn't showing up on the scale -- it's that other stuff is showing up on the scale, too.

To use the ever popular bank account analogy: Let's say you have an interest-bearing savings account, and you're all agog to see the benefits of compound interest showing up in the account. But this is 2018, and the account is paying less than 1% per annum, and every month you make some small deposits and small withdrawals. Nothing huge, mind you, and over time your intention is that the withdrawals and depositions balance each other out. But at any given moment, the effect of whether you're ahead or behind in having your deposits make up for your withdrawals will completely outweigh the effect of the interest you're getting on the account. It doesn't mean that the bank isn't paying the interest.