First 4 weeks

donjtomasco

When you started your weight loss journey, how long did it take you to get those initial junk, water swolen 'whoosh' pounds off? After that the scale is less friendly, but it better correlates to CICO.

Seeing these weight loss commercials on tv, they all say ""Lose 10-12 pounds in your first week (or two)". Yes, its not their special diet, its what we all lose when we first start if we are doing this correctly.

malibu927

I never had a whoosh starting out. I gained a pound each of my first two weeks then went right into losing 1-1.5 pounds per week.

sardelsa

As soon as I enter a deficit (from maintenance), within the next few days I usually get a 2-3lb drop (water weight drop from less calories and carbs), this lasts about two weeks then my real loss starts.

donjtomasco

So it seems that the best statistic (number) to keep track of is my net cals under or over my goal (target) weight loss per week. In my case my goal is 1 pound loss per week. If my net cals for the week is (3,500), then (3,500) / 3,500 = (1) pound lost. Regardless of my actual weight on the scale, my body will catch up or slow down on the scale at some point.

This has been my most frustrating thing each time I lose weight, seeing that I am being disciplined and logging and measuring accurately CICO, but my weight is higher (bad) or lower (great surprise).

Focusing on that net number per week should allow me to not get so caught up in the actual scale number.

I have 4 past weight loss periods of data now that support that my body has pretty big swings around what my weight should really be based on CICO. I have never been able to come up with a solid 'lag time' that it takes my body to digest my daily intake or exercise behavior. I think it is rather impossible to get a real 'lag time' since there as so many variables that affect our momentary weight loss reading when I step on the scale.

This will be my new number to track and see how it correlates to the scale over time.

workinonit1956

It took about 3 weeks to see the scale move but within a few days I noticed little things like my clothes loosening up a bit. I never had an initial whoosh at all.

sgt1372

6 months.

Lost 36# to reach my initial goal weight in the 1st 6 months.

I'd call losing 6#/month in 6 months a "woosh" after that it was easy for me to regulate my weight based on CICO while in maintenance in the over 18 months since.

donjtomasco

So when y'all started you must have not just finished a bunch of crappy eating (like me), which is pretty cool. Each of my weight loss journeys started after I had gone through a very gluttonous period and ending, which came off on the scale pretty dramatically in the first week or two. Then my loss was more correlated to actual CICO.

TavistockToad

donjtomasco wrote: »

So it seems that the best statistic (number) to keep track of is my net cals under or over my goal (target) weight loss per week. In my case my goal is 1 pound loss per week. If my net cals for the week is (3,500), then (3,500) / 3,500 = (1) pound lost. Regardless of my actual weight on the scale, my body will catch up or slow down on the scale at some point.

This has been my most frustrating thing each time I lose weight, seeing that I am being disciplined and logging and measuring accurately CICO, but my weight is higher (bad) or lower (great surprise).

Focusing on that net number per week should allow me to not get so caught up in the actual scale number.

I have 4 past weight loss periods of data now that support that my body has pretty big swings around what my weight should really be based on CICO. I have never been able to come up with a solid 'lag time' that it takes my body to digest my daily intake or exercise behavior. I think it is rather impossible to get a real 'lag time' since there as so many variables that affect our momentary weight loss reading when I step on the scale.

This will be my new number to track and see how it correlates to the scale over time.

Sounds like you're way over thinking it to me?

donjtomasco

Yes Travis, I AM an over thinker (yet, in all fairness 'over thinking' is an opinion and a personal matter of perspective, but I will give you that one since most others will probably agree with you)! I am also extreme in my detail, quest for data, knowledge and understanding.

AnnPT77

4/15/15 184 pounds
4/17/15 181.5 (2.5 in 2 days)
4/24/15 178 (3.5 more in 7 more days)

Around then, it started to slow down to a more steady average rate (a fairly fast one at first), but still cycled up/down through a 2-3 pound range (around a more-or-less steadily dropping trend line) for the rest of weight loss, until I intentionally slowed the loss rate closer to goal.

If we were at a constant (true) deficit, then our fat loss would be linear, but our water weight and digestive contents are assuredly variable day to day, masking that linearity. We wouldn't see that linearity on the scale except as averaged over weeks/months.

Complicating that, we're never at a constant deficit in reality, because intake tracking is just estimates (one apple is sweeter than the next, etc.), exercise is just estimates, and daily activity always, always varies within probably at least a range in the low hundreds of calories (one day I walk around the whole grocery store, the next day I don't). We're storing and metabolizing stored fat all day long every day, in invisible cycles depending on intake and expenditure.

Day to day, what we see on the scale are the fluctuations, and they're mostly the water and digestive contents, only a tiny fraction net changes in stored fat. The trend is a property that emerges over time, and it's a statistical artifact, not some hidden fact that we can see if we just look/think harder. That's why I argue we don't have a "true weight" but rather a current weight range, and a longer-term weight trend.

I don't think you're literally overthinking. I think you're inaccurately visualizing the underlying mechanics, and possibly trying to get things from the observable data that are not available there when you think about the process and how periodic sampled measurements work in a dynamic system. Just my opinion, though.

donjtomasco

Thanks Ann, great comment! I have many different 'things' I have calculated and looked at that did not make any sense but I like digging and trying different things. I know that the bottom line is accurate logging and weighing of food. My goal on July 01 was (is) to lose 28 pounds by March 15th 2019. I will be soon increasing my calories so my weekly goal is 1/2 pound versus the current 1 pound per week loss.