Help needed to understand..

AnvilHead

diannethegeek wrote: »

...Cheat day with a little too much sodium? Your body retains water and the scale goes up. A few days later, the body finished processing the sodium, it doesn't need the water anymore, whoosh, you pee a bunch and the scale goes down...

Two nights ago, we were invited by friends to an Italian dinner. Lots of carbs, lots of sodium, lots of calories. Pasta, homemade sauce, meatballs, sausage, wine, chocolate cake for dessert, the works. We also spent the entire day on the lake out in the sun and I was slightly sunburned (another source of water retention). Yesterday morning I was up 4.4 pounds on the scale from the previous day's weigh-in. At this morning's weigh-in, 2.2 pounds of it was already gone. From past experience, I already know that in another day or two, I'll be right back down to where I was before that dinner.

AnnPT77

RoyBeck wrote: »

AnvilHead wrote: »

RoyBeck wrote: »

2 litres of water weighs 4.4lbs? No way?!

Way.

So how the hell is anyone drinking that expected to lose weight?? It's a losing battle! The body really is very complex.

What you (ought to) care about is body fat loss . . . not water fluctuations. Think about what we're telling you here.

Water weight fluctuation is not stored body fat: You shouldn't worry about it. It's a distraction, a red herring.

If you eat two pounds of celery, you'd see a two-pound gain on the scale right away, even though the celery only has 146 calories (= about 4/100 of a pound worth of calories, assuming you didn't burn them off). The two pounds on the scale is almost entirely water and fiber from the celery that you haven't eliminated yet, because it has to go through your digestive system. That will hang around until you eliminate the water from the celery and the fiber in the celery via urination and defecation . . . which can take up to or beyond two full days. But that water and fiber in transit in your digestive system isn't stored body fat. You shouldn't worry about it.

Weight loss, long term weight loss, is about losing body fat. Losing body fat is about having a moderate calorie deficit - burning slightly more calories than you eat - over a period of weeks to months.

Work on fat loss, don't worry about water weight or digestive waste in transit.

RoyBeck

You guys really are great thanks for the responses. I'll watch the video above shortly.

Lillymoo01

Out of curiosity I weighed myself before and after going to the toilet. I lost 700 grams in less than a minute. Is it relevant to my weight? Not really because I gained it with my next meal. Although my weight fluctuates all the time for many reasons my fat levels don't. This is why trends are way more important than an individual number on the scale.

Seffell

Your body is made mostly of water. It is the water weight that fluctuates, not your fat.

AnvilHead

AnvilHead wrote: »

Two nights ago, we were invited by friends to an Italian dinner. Lots of carbs, lots of sodium, lots of calories. Pasta, homemade sauce, meatballs, sausage, wine, chocolate cake for dessert, the works. We also spent the entire day on the lake out in the sun and I was slightly sunburned (another source of water retention). Yesterday morning I was up 4.4 pounds on the scale from the previous day's weigh-in. At this morning's weigh-in, 2.2 pounds of it was already gone. From past experience, I already know that in another day or two, I'll be right back down to where I was before that dinner.

An update, just to illustrate how big the water weight swings can be: At this morning's weigh-in, I was down 2.9 pounds from yesterday, back to within 0.3 pounds of where I was before the big dinner indulgence. So in one day I gained 4.4 pounds, and have lost 4.1 pounds of it back in the last two days. I didn't do anything to compensate (as in crazy calorie deficits or tons of exercise) for the last two days - just went back to my normal eating/calorie levels.

Just a reminder that there's no need to freak out and drive yourself crazy over daily scale fluctuations. Keep your eye on the overall trend rather than the daily ups and downs, the trend is what tells the true story.

mkculs

OP, sounds like you are still a bit confused. If you drink 2 liters of water a day, you do not gain 4.4 lbs a day--your scale weight goes up, but you have not gained any fat. If you go 7 days drinking that water and creating at least a 500 calorie deficit in the calories in (food) compared to the calories out (what you burn through just living, and exercise), at the end of the week, you will have lost 1 lb of fat. In that same time, you drank 30.8 lbs of water--but you don't gain anything from that water. So, if you are weighing your food, logging carefully, and creating that 500 cals/day deficit every day for many days, you will eventually see the scale drop by roughly 1 lb/week of body fat for however long you maintain that deficit.

What causes the fluctuations that can make it hard to see the loss is that your body is processing out some of yesterday's water and food while taking in some of today's water and food. I weigh very consistently first thing in the morning, after I pee, naked, on the same scale in the same place. I'm very consistent with logging and creating my daily deficit. The scale is all over the place day to day, but roughly every week or two, I see a new low, and the fluctuations happen above that new low. The highest fluctuation goes down, too. So one from week to week I might see this:

235.2 (new low); 235.9, 236. 8, 236, 237, 235.8, 236. 3 (week 1)
234. 2 (new low); 236.9, 236.4, 235. 2, 235. 8, 236. 7, 235 (week 2)
233.8 (new low), 236, 235.8, 233.9, 234, 235.9, 236 (week 3)

In the above, my highest fluctuations dropped along with my lowest, from 237 -> 236.9 -> 236.
What's my "real" weight? It's a range, not a number, and right now all I care about is that I'm showing a 1 lb/week loss of body fat.

Hope this helps!

RoyBeck

Thank you. The scales I use in my gym are to the pound not like 251.6 or whatever it's just 252 or 253. My net this week, without checking, is something like 1900, 2000, 1750, 1800 and today 1850 with 5 miles walked everyday on the treadmill. Also very little sodium and 2 litres of water daily. The scales have read 254, 254, 254 and today 254.

However, as annoying as it is, I've taken on board everything and won't be weighing now until next Friday 6th when I'll update here. Surely it must drop by then????

RoyBeck

Can I also add I haven't poo'd in 2.5 days!

AnnPT77

RoyBeck wrote: »

Can I also add I haven't poo'd in 2.5 days!

That will make a difference! Make sure you're eating enough fiber, drinking enough water (or equivalent), and eating enough fats - no need to go crazy with any of that, just come close to the default nutritional goals. Beyond that, patience.

BTW: I hope you'll see a drop next week, too . . . but remember, a week or two of weight holding steady will happen now and then (especially after you've had a week or two of pretty substantial loss, which you have). It's not really considered a plateau until you've stuck at a weight for a month or more. I know that can be crazy-making, but weight loss does require patience!

Best wishes!

RoyBeck

Weighed in this morning at 251 meaning a 3lb drop in the last 10 days. Progress, however for a man weighing 261 a month ago to drop to 254 in 2 weeks was great but just 3lbs in the last 3 weeks is disappointing CONSIDERING I'm eating 1800-1950 and walking 10-15000 steps per day of deliberate exercise. Anyhow off to the gym...

Lillymoo01

1 pound a week is the amount of weight you should be losing for healthy sustainable weight loss. What you are doing is working well so don't change it.

RoyBeck

You're absolutely right I just hoped to lose a bit more, bearing in mind I have a lot to lose, in the initial stages before it levels off that's all.

fb47

I know we always want to lose the weight fast, but unfortunately there is no reward in that, ou will be eating your muscles away.

RoyBeck

I don't even particularly want to lose FAST I'm in the for the long haul (finally)

I'm sticking to fortnightly weigh-ins going forward probably on a Monday before breakfast.