Fatigue, calories, rate of weight loss, and that stupid dumb stupid scale

Evelyn_Gorfram

Last week, I was having trouble with really bad fatigue (as in, I'd be hungry and need to eat, but would have to push myself to go fix myself a bowl of instant oatmeal). I have really severe fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome, but this was a whole lot worse than usual.

I tried upping my Calorie goal by 50 Calories per day, and the fatigue has indeed lessened to the point of not really being a problem.

I lost half a pound this week (according to my 10-day moving average), which is all to the good, or course. But while I don't mean to look a half-pound-weight-loss horse in the mouth, I had been expecting to lose a little more than that.

This is the fourth week of my active weight loss efforts, so I was expecting my rate of weight loss to slow down considerably from the 7, 6, and 4 lb lost in each of the previous weeks, but not quite this much. I weigh about 300 lbs, so 0.5 lbs is only about 0.17% of my body mass.

It's really daunting to think that, in order to keep the fatigue at bay, I might have keep to a very slow rate of weight loss. (113 more lbs/0.5 lbs per week = oh, boy, I don't wanna think about it.)

OTOH, 50 Calories per day works out to only a 0.1 lb/week, so that's probably not that cause of it - if it even has a cause. This may all be fluke and fluctuation and that mischievous scale getting up to it's old shenanigans again, or me crying into my low-Calorie beer over now being deprived of the high rates of weight loss I saw in the first weeks.

jgnatca

.....which means you are completely normal.

A good goal to have is to find maximum pleasure for a modest loss.

Figure out the minimum scale checks you need to stay on track.

nowine4me

Time will pass regardless, so you might as well keep your energy and spirits up with a few more calories and enjoy the ride.

nutmegoreo

Those first three weeks have been fairly high, not unexpected high, but certainly higher than would be expected over the long haul.

Do you only weigh once per week? You may have just caught yourself on a higher weight day. It really will fluctuate all over the place and can be frustrating. There are a good many other reasons the scale may be deceptive.

I wouldn't expect 50 calories to slow you down that much, and you've done the math, so you know that's not it. I'm glad the extra 50 cals gave you an improvement in your energy though. Stay the course for another couple weeks and see what comes out.

Here's my last 7 weeks of daily weights, You can see the ups and downs, short-term stalls, all over the map, craziness (note the overall trend though):

pinuplove

Don't read anything into it. It's likely just water weight masking some of your loss. How many calories are you eating per day?

Evelyn_Gorfram

pinuplove wrote: »

Don't read anything into it. It's likely just water weight masking some of your loss. How many calories are you eating per day?

Thanks.

I was eating 1950 Cal/day; and, after adding 50 more, am now eating 2000 Cal/day. I'm 5'9", 300 lbs, and about as sedentary as it gets.

Evelyn_Gorfram

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Those first three weeks have been fairly high, not unexpected high, but certainly higher than would be expected over the long haul.

Do you only weigh once per week? You may have just caught yourself on a higher weight day. It really will fluctuate all over the place and can be frustrating. There are a good many other reasons the scale may be deceptive.

I wouldn't expect 50 calories to slow you down that much, and you've done the math, so you know that's not it. I'm glad the extra 50 cals gave you an improvement in your energy though. Stay the course for another couple weeks and see what comes out.

Here's my last 7 weeks of daily weights, You can see the ups and downs, short-term stalls, all over the map, craziness (note the overall trend though):

Thanks for posting this.

I weigh myself every day, but have been using Sunday as my "official weekly weigh-in day." The half-pound I lost this week is based on my ten-day moving average: the average of all my weights today and the nine days preceding today, subtracted from the average of all my weights from last Sunday and the nine days preceding last Sunday.

This is my daily scale weight (purple) and ten-day moving average (blue) for the last 2-1/2 weeks (all that I have full data for):


I really kind of enjoy the s-boingy s-boingy scale-weight fluctuations in the middle. It's the increasingly flat horizontal line at the right end of both curves that has me bothered...

nutmegoreo

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Those first three weeks have been fairly high, not unexpected high, but certainly higher than would be expected over the long haul.

Do you only weigh once per week? You may have just caught yourself on a higher weight day. It really will fluctuate all over the place and can be frustrating. There are a good many other reasons the scale may be deceptive.

I wouldn't expect 50 calories to slow you down that much, and you've done the math, so you know that's not it. I'm glad the extra 50 cals gave you an improvement in your energy though. Stay the course for another couple weeks and see what comes out.

Here's my last 7 weeks of daily weights, You can see the ups and downs, short-term stalls, all over the map, craziness (note the overall trend though):

Thanks for posting this.

I weigh myself every day, but have been using Sunday as my "official weekly weigh-in day." The half-pound I lost this week is based on my ten-day moving average: the average of all my weights today and the nine days preceding today, subtracted from the average of all my weights from last Sunday and the nine days preceding last Sunday.

This is my daily scale weight (purple) and ten-day moving average (blue) for the last 2-1/2 weeks (all that I have full data for):


I really kind of enjoy the s-boingy s-boingy scale-weight fluctuations in the middle. It's the increasingly flat horizontal line at the right end of both curves that has me bothered...

Is that from HappyScale, or a different app? Very cool graph. I do tend to prefer my trending app over the MFP graph. Does it predict your rate of loss? For example, mine will give me an idea of when I'm expected to hit my goal and an approximation of loss/week based off the trend.

Evelyn_Gorfram

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Those first three weeks have been fairly high, not unexpected high, but certainly higher than would be expected over the long haul.

Do you only weigh once per week? You may have just caught yourself on a higher weight day. It really will fluctuate all over the place and can be frustrating. There are a good many other reasons the scale may be deceptive.

I wouldn't expect 50 calories to slow you down that much, and you've done the math, so you know that's not it. I'm glad the extra 50 cals gave you an improvement in your energy though. Stay the course for another couple weeks and see what comes out.

Here's my last 7 weeks of daily weights, You can see the ups and downs, short-term stalls, all over the map, craziness (note the overall trend though):

Thanks for posting this.

I weigh myself every day, but have been using Sunday as my "official weekly weigh-in day." The half-pound I lost this week is based on my ten-day moving average: the average of all my weights today and the nine days preceding today, subtracted from the average of all my weights from last Sunday and the nine days preceding last Sunday.

This is my daily scale weight (purple) and ten-day moving average (blue) for the last 2-1/2 weeks (all that I have full data for):


I really kind of enjoy the s-boingy s-boingy scale-weight fluctuations in the middle. It's the increasingly flat horizontal line at the right end of both curves that has me bothered...

Is that from HappyScale, or a different app? Very cool graph. I do tend to prefer my trending app over the MFP graph. Does it predict your rate of loss? For example, mine will give me an idea of when I'm expected to hit my goal and an approximation of loss/week based off the trend.

Thanks. No, that's from my own Numbers spreadsheet I worked up.

The rate-of-loss prediction from the Happy Scale app sounds cool though.

nutmegoreo

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Those first three weeks have been fairly high, not unexpected high, but certainly higher than would be expected over the long haul.

Do you only weigh once per week? You may have just caught yourself on a higher weight day. It really will fluctuate all over the place and can be frustrating. There are a good many other reasons the scale may be deceptive.

I wouldn't expect 50 calories to slow you down that much, and you've done the math, so you know that's not it. I'm glad the extra 50 cals gave you an improvement in your energy though. Stay the course for another couple weeks and see what comes out.

Here's my last 7 weeks of daily weights, You can see the ups and downs, short-term stalls, all over the map, craziness (note the overall trend though):

Thanks for posting this.

I weigh myself every day, but have been using Sunday as my "official weekly weigh-in day." The half-pound I lost this week is based on my ten-day moving average: the average of all my weights today and the nine days preceding today, subtracted from the average of all my weights from last Sunday and the nine days preceding last Sunday.

This is my daily scale weight (purple) and ten-day moving average (blue) for the last 2-1/2 weeks (all that I have full data for):


I really kind of enjoy the s-boingy s-boingy scale-weight fluctuations in the middle. It's the increasingly flat horizontal line at the right end of both curves that has me bothered...

Is that from HappyScale, or a different app? Very cool graph. I do tend to prefer my trending app over the MFP graph. Does it predict your rate of loss? For example, mine will give me an idea of when I'm expected to hit my goal and an approximation of loss/week based off the trend.

Thanks. No, that's from my own Numbers spreadsheet I worked up.

The rate-of-loss prediction from the Happy Scale app sounds cool though.

I assumed it was HappyScale, because I've used both Libra and Trendweight. Both do the prediction, I assumed that HappyScale would do the same thing. It might be worth throwing your numbers into one of them to see what it gives you. I'm not great with spreadsheets, etc. Maybe once I'm finished my current educational pursuits, I'll add that to my list of things to learn.

Stockholm_Andy

@Evelyn_Gorfram IMHO 4 weeks is a relatively short period of time to look at the trend.

The positive is that you've lost 17.5lbs in 4 weeks! Well done you. That's a significant amount of weight. You won't keep losing at that rate but you can and will lose at a rate quicker than 0.5lbs for some time yet.

FWIW I would run your current level for another 2 weeks and see where you are.

At 300lbs and 5'9 I believe maintenance would be 2500Kcals so 2000 is a significant deficit. Certainly enough to lose at a decent rate. (Assuming you ARE actually eating 2000)

Lillymoo01

I am wondering if your period is due soon, or whether you are ovulating. These can both cause water retention. If this is the case you may have a whoosh over the coming days.

Remember though that regardless, you are doing really well and your overall results (which is what counts most) are great.

vollkornbloedchen

Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »

I had been expecting to lose a little more than that.

One of the most important lessons to learn on this journey:

It is NOT about to arrive at the goal fast, but about to stay on track no matter which obstacles might be on the way.
It took you your lifetime to reach your current weight, accept that getting rid of it may take some time too.

PAV8888

Your goal is to investigate alternative ways of eating and to the extent that it is available to you moving/activity/exercise or similar alternatives such that you can engage in long term.

As an obese person 25% of actual TDEE (and as as an overweight/normal weight person 20% of TDEE) are just about the points where deficits start to have more and more side effects.

If your tdee is 2500, 500 is just about the max.

Love the spreadsheet.

Experiment. Find the new normals. And If they are normal it really doesn't matter how long it takes.

So don't deprive. *Add* yummy plain vegetables and 0% Greek yogurt deserts and low Cal beer if that's what you like. Though i would kitten can the instant oatmeal and grab plain oats and some sucralose and cocoa and possibly experiment with egg whites and savoury oats. Or unsweetened apple sauce with your oats. Or pieces of apples. Just saying!!!

Love the graph. What's the formula you setup and how do you grab the entries is sheets?!?