Tell me about your woosh!

jelleigh

5'9". SW 215, CW 190? GW 145.
So ive been seriously tracking since about Dec 10th. I weigh everything. I dont guess even though I can now slice off EXACTLY 30g of cheese and scoop 30g of peanut butter on sight. I did have three days over the holidays where I had to track by sight, and I've had a few days where I've eaten at maintenance or slightly above. But overall I have sat at below 1500 calories per day. I eat back half my exercise calories which I earn by walking over 10000 steps a day and some weight training that I started this month. My weight has bounced up and down by 2 lbs this whole time. I'm really trying to be patient and remember that TOM can throw things off, weight training can cause water retention , etc. im thinking I may be the type of girl who only 'loses' on the scale once a month? I could use some real life examples from peoole like that - how much do you lose during a woosh and how often does it happen for you?

dhiammarath

I started at 243 pounds and in the beginning, I lost pretty steadily. If not 2lbs per week, then it evened out to 2lbs per week. As I got away from the morbidly obese and into severe obesity, the trend started faltering. I started noticing that I would lose way less consistently and have weeks where "I lost my butt" as I used to laugh. The closer I get to a healthy BMI (and I am close now with 30 total pounds left to my ultimate goal and 4lbs away from a healthy BMI), that consistency has gotten worse. That's where weighing daily and a trending app works best for me. Now, general TOM fluctuations can mask fat loss. When the scale shows nothing, often I look at my monthly measurements (it's hard to see change weekly when it comes to measurements) to make sure that if the scale is stagnating, I have other data points to measure.

What I've found is I now have a "magic" week. I will lose a little bit during the hormonal "water dance" as I like to call it, but most of that month's weight is "lost" in the week / week and a half before the cycle starts over again.

Once I get to the last 20 lbs, it'll get worse, so I'm preparing myself for that now. For me, I mitigate the lack of consistency by weighing daily, using a trending app, and abstracting the whole responsibility for change from the scale. My measurements are, ultimately, what matter more anyway.

How "much" I lose is entirely dependent on how diligent I've been and what's healthy (and what's sustainable) for me to lose. Right now, I'm about on a 1lb/week weight loss. Though I can already tell I'm transitioning between the 1lb and the 0.5 lbs per week weight loss as my trend app shows I'm not *quite* at a lb/week, but I've not changed my allotted calories.

No matter what you do, weight loss will never be consistent, especially as a female. Ride through the fluctuations... change DOES come if you're consistent and stick to your calorie goals!

Good luck!

whatalazyidiot

I'm on week 8 and I have mini wooshes every week pretty much. If that's what you call them. Basically I will be the same weight for like 5 of 6 days (I weigh daily obviously), then around day 7 or sometimes the next week, my weight goes down 2-4 pounds. I still average a loss of 2 lbs a week, but it's not like a slow trickle every day for me. It's always nothing, then the 2 lbs come off seemingly overnight. A lot of times, it goes up and down by a pound or so, then finally goes down a few more. I must retain water some days or something.

And yes, I have had weeks where the scale barely moved, especially during shark week or just randomly. Weeks 2 and 3 were the worst for me. Now I'm on week 8, and it's fairly normal.

But I'm also heavier (I have over 100 lbs to lose), so that should be considered too I think.

palmuphandopen

I am 20 lbs out from my goal weight and I'm starting to think it will take me a year of patience to get there. My weight goes up during the TOM about 2 weeks before and settles down during, with a woosh in the week right after. It's so maddening but I do see the pattern and I do know that every day I put in the effort something is happening. Sometimes the scale is NOT the reflection of my success as clothes fit differently and measurements keep going down. Keep at it!

lorrpb

You've done a great job of Identifying the factors that can affect the scale. Now , do you truly BELIEVE these things? Or do you feel that you should be different? I lost 150 over 2.5 years. I kept my daily weight in Happy Scale to learn the trends and fluctuations pattern. I logged each new low in MFP. I can look back now and see that I only logged a new low about 2x month. But I kept my calories and eating habits EVERY day.

Duck_Puddle

How often are you weighing yourself? If you’re weighing weekly (or less), you could easily be seeing only the “high” end of fluctuations (or low to start and all high now). I have a photo of my weight chart where I weighed exactly the same thing one month apart-but was clearly losing weight (I jus happened to be on the low side of fluctuations the first time and the high side the second time).

Also-is your starting weight from some other time? When did you hit your current weight?

jelleigh

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

How often are you weighing yourself? If you’re weighing weekly (or less), you could easily be seeing only the “high” end of fluctuations (or low to start and all high now). I have a photo of my weight chart where I weighed exactly the same thing one month apart-but was clearly losing weight (I jus happened to be on the low side of fluctuations the first time and the high side the second time).

Also-is your starting weight from some other time? When did you hit your current weight?

Ya a year and a half ago I lost 25 lbs over 7 mos or so. Then I kinda stalled / wasnt really weighing and tracking properly. Got back into it in December and havr been hovering here for what seems like SO long - especially when the first 25 lbs seemed to come off a but more consistently.

I weigh in every or every other day and put my data in Libra. Right now it shows my trend as up.

lin_be

When I was larger, the whooshes were larger. Now that I’m thinner, the whooshes aren’t as large, not even sure I’d call them whooshes anymore. Basically I only see the scale go down once a week. An example from this week:

Thurs: 165.5
Fri:165
Sat: 166
Sun: 165.5
Mon: 164 (yay a loss!)
Tues: 165.5
Wed: 166

seltzermint555

Like lin_be said above, the whooshes were larger when I was larger.

For me, it went really closely with my menstrual cycle. I would always "lose" about 4-6 lb (now more like 2 lb) the week before my period, then stall during menstruation (or go up by a pound or so) and see slight losses of 0.5 to 1 lb per week the rest of the month.

Now I'm maintaining for years but still aim to get back down a bit lower (I like the 160s but stay in the 170s a lot...after previously being over 300 lb I am still satisfied though). I still see that "loss" of 2 lb the week before my period, a stall, and then pretty much stay the same the rest of the month or go down a pound or two.

frankzee1

I slipped on some ice this morning and slid 20 feet down my driveway. Does that count?

JeromeBarry1

Since beginning low carb keto 10 days ago, I've had 3 whooshes of 4, 2, and 2. lb.

Machka9

I never had a whoosh ... just lost weight slowly but surely the whole time.

Wendyanneroberts

I definitely lost weight in noticeable whooshes. I lost 50lbs and have been maintaining my now healthy weight for about a year.

With my last 20lb to lose I was aiming for 0.5lb a week.
As I'm disabled and couldn't increase exercise, I relied on diet alone.

But I went 10 weeks and I began to wander if I had hit maintainance weight on that calorie target. But persevered as I knew my tracking was accurate.

10 weeks went by and then I lost 5lbs over night. Another 10 weeks and I lost 3lb and a couple of days later another 2lb. This pattern continued and I hit goal.

The last 20lb lost in 40 weeks, an average of 0.5lb a week. But only 5 weight drops, in larger amounts.

So it can and does happen. Knowing this really helped my mindset and helped me learn to manage and adapt to my new calorie target. Which has proved invaluable during maintainance.

Double check your tracking and know it's as accurate as possible. Then trust in the process.

endermako

My wooshes are on Sundays, which is my 2nd day of rest from being at the gym all week. So my water weight goes down and I'm able to see real losses. It's still small, 1lb - 1.5lbs a week.