Question about weight loss patterns.

Sand_TIger

Hi all!

I'm very happy with my weight loss for January - 14 pounds gone and I'm feeling great. I've been hitting my calorie and macro goals pretty consistently (12-1600 calories a day depending on workload and 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat) so that's all been good. I have plenty of energy and have had no major cravings for anything for the past 27 days which has to be a lifetime record for me. I do both strength training and cardio, taking rest days between weight sessions to let my muscles rebuild. This is all just a bit of background so maybe I can get insight on my question, I started with roughly 100 pounds of fat to lose and now have more like 86 pounds of fat to lose.

So anyway, here's my question.

I notice that my weight will stay the same for a day or two, sometimes more, then drop in whole pound or near whole pound increments. My scale will measure in .2 pound increments. So I might hold steady or even gain slightly and then all of a sudden, literally overnight, it's down a pound or a pound and a half. I was wondering if this was something commonly seen, and what the cause might be? By the way, I'm NOT complaining at all, I was more curious about the mechanics of this process.

I weigh myself nude, after using the bathroom and before eating, first thing in the morning.

TheresaEdwardsmfp

I haven't a clue, but it could be to do with fluids?!

gothchiq

Yeah that's normal. The body holds onto water for a bit then you have a "whoosh" and it comes off.

Sand_TIger

Okay, cool! Good to know!

GeminiLady159

Same exact thing for me. It is helpful to know your own patterns too- because I now don’t get worked up when the scale is “stuck”- just keep going and a drop like you described is a-coming (assuming I’m staying where I should w/everything else of course!).

MySlimGoals

Yes, this is perfectly normal. As you get nearer your ideal goal weight the drops will take longer to get to but you just have to be super strong and wait.

PAV8888

Hello!

So yes, the pattern you're seeing is normal and commonly seen and is one of the reasons I often suggest the use of a daily weigh-ins entered into a trending weight application or web site so that one can look at one's overall trend over time.

In your case the fact that you're exercising and lifting weights could also further complicate the results you're seeing due to water weight variations caused by exercise , but overall the pattern should continue.

It is early going and it is also very common to have an initial faster rate of loss when you first start restricting calories, so because of this I would not be, quite yet, worried that your 14lbs a month is an indication that you're in an excessive deficit.

However, if in your situation and my rate of loss continued to exceed 2lbs a week past week 6, I would most certainly revisit the issue and seriously consider increasing my calories to slow the rate of loss so as to ensure that my workouts continued to be fuelled and my weight loss predominantly consisted of fat mass.

Usually 1% of body weight per week is considered a good limit to ensure maximum lean mass retention. And, of course, what is actually long term sustainable is much more important than achieving optimizing rates. In other words, long term adherence comes ahead of any other optimization including speed. So don't be afraid to adjust even so as to promote long term adherence.

One of the reasons I chose to mention this is that the pattern you notice (flat flat drop, flat flat drop) anecdotally tends to not happen immediately, when fat reserves are abundant, but to start at a time when lower fat reserves would suggest a speed of loss of less than 2lbs a week.

Of course a complicating factor could indeed be your 0.2lb scale. A lot of scales in the market exhibit "fake consistency" in which they show the same number regardless of detection as long as the difference doesn't exceed a manufacturer defined parameter. This is greater than 0.2lbs of detected difference.

One way to work around this could be a double weigh in. Start by holding a jug of water or something else more than 0.5 lb and then weight yourself again without it--assuming your scale doesn't automatically keep track of multiple people you should be able to fake it out that way!

Good going so far! With 100lbs you will have to do some work about re-defining your new normal. I would encourage you to explore options and to make decisions that establish useful habits and promote choices you see yourself making for at least the next five years!

nowine4me

Google “of whooshes and squishy fat” for a full description of this phenomenon

ElizabethKalmbach

Watch your weight fluctuation with respect to your weight lifting schedule. I'll bet you $1 you see a correlation. ;-) I usually lose all my weight for the week after my 2 back-to-back rest days on the weekend.

Sand_TIger

I read the "whooshes and squishy fat" post and really thought it was interesting. Thank you!

thescouselander77

I weigh myself daily at the same time and have also noticed day to day fluctuation is all over the place. What I have found is that of I log my daily weights in a spreadsheet and then calculate a 7 day rolling average I get pretty much a straight line on a nice downward slope.

Might be worth a go and if a 7 day rolling average doesn't work try a different period.

ChickenKillerPuppy

I lose weight exactly the same way, even now that I’m close to goal (started at 162, current weight 132.2 and goal is 130). I weigh daily (with happy scale - a trending app) and it’s nice to know that if I’m in my calorie range and I’ve been stagnant for a while, usually a big drop is coming. I run 4x a week and do barre (strength training) 2x a week.

On an unrelated note (and you didn’t ask about this so feel free to ignore it), I’m surprised MFP is giving you only 1200-1600 calories a day if you had 100 pounds to lose (or now 85-ish). That sounds very low. That’s my range with the above weight stats and I’m a 5’4” woman in my healthy BMI range.

Sand_TIger

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

On an unrelated note (and you didn’t ask about this so feel free to ignore it), I’m surprised MFP is giving you only 1200-1600 calories a day if you had 100 pounds to lose (or now 85-ish). That sounds very low. That’s my range with the above weight stats and I’m a 5’4” woman in my healthy BMI range.

No, it's all good. 1200 would be what MFP suggests with an activity level of sedentary and wanting to lose 2 pounds a week. I set it that low because that way in my head I have to exercise to eat extra, and I usually don't go all the way down to 1200 calories. My light walking/stretching days are often somewhere around 1300.

Now, it's true I do a sedentary desk job and at home most of my activities are done sitting. When I did one of those comprehensive body scan things at the gym yesterday the target calorie intake based on muscle mass/fat mass and diet goal was 1460. So it averages out if I eat a little less on walking days and more on weight lifting days. I know I need the extra protein and carbs to refuel and rebuild my muscles for next time.

AnnPT77

WIth 86 pounds to lose, 2 pounds a week should be OK for a while yet. But you lost 14 pounds in 27 days, so averaged nearly 3.5 pounds a week. If that keeps going, I'd strongly suggest you increase your calorie goal. Having accidentally lost too fast for a while (because MFP underestimated my calorie needs), I don't want anyone else to go through that sudden-onset weakness and fatigue, and have a multi-week recovery period (and I was lucky not to have worse consequences, really).

Your actual average weight loss rate is what should drive intake, not what some calculator's theory is. The two don't necessarily come out the same, and in rare cases (like mine) may not even be very close. That's the nature of statistical estimates.

FWIW, going back to your original question, in my weight-trending app (Libra), one chunk of my weight loss looked like the graph below. (The connected down-hill-ish line is the trend; the little upright bars connect each daily weight to the trend. You can see that the daily weights bounce all over, including some changes in the 2-pound range within a very short span of just a couple or three days: That's the fluctuation. (And that's while in menopause: It'd be more extreme for pre-menopausal women!). Of course, the downhill trend shows that I was losing fat (mostly), over the longer term.)



P.S. That chart includes the period where I accidentally lost weight too fast. Please don't do that: It's a Really Bad Plan.

Best wishes!

** Libra is a weight-trending app for Android. Happy Scale is a common one for iOS/Apple. There are also others like Trendweight and Weightgrapher. [/quote]

Sand_TIger

Interesting stuff! I am going to see what my weight does throughout this month as far as losses, since I really think I got that high a number because of the initial "haven't-tried-to-lose-weight-in-years effect." I had been eating way, WAY too many carbs and came down to a healthy level, usually less than a hundred grams per day, and most of those being made of vegetables. I would be very surprised if I lost that much weight this month.

Thanks for the info on the apps, and your chart was fascinating! I don't use a smartphone so what I will have as far as fitness calculators/programs is going to be PC-based.

I definitely listen to my body as well and if I'm getting a little extra hungry, will have something more to fuel me - I just make darn sure it's not junk food and still fits my goals. If I become more fatigued than usual or start feeling run-down I will also pay attention to that. That said... I will still keep your advice in mind.

AnnPT77

Sand_TIger wrote: »

Interesting stuff! I am going to see what my weight does throughout this month as far as losses, since I really think I got that high a number because of the initial "haven't-tried-to-lose-weight-in-years effect." I would be very surprised if I lost that much weight this month.

Thanks for the info on the apps, and your chart was fascinating! I don't use a smartphone so what I will have as far as fitness calculators/programs is going to be PC-based.

I definitely listen to my body as well and if I'm getting a little extra hungry, will have something more to fuel me - I just make darn sure it's not junk food and still fits my goals. If I become more fatigued than usual or start feeling run-down I will also pay attention to that.

Don't mess around if your weight loss continues to be rapid for another couple of weeks: That would be my advice.

I felt great and wasn't hungry, while eating too little and losing too fast . . . until suddenly, that changed. Hunger is not necessarily a good guide. Losing too slowly may be frustrating, but losing too fast can be a potential health risk. Things like hair loss don't show up right way, let alone the gallbladder issues and whatnot.

And here's a radical thought: A little so-called "junk food" won't be deadly, in a context where your calorie goal is met and your overall nutrition is decent, if you actually like and want the "junk food" sometimes, and can moderate it.

Though I don't know for sure (because I don't use them), I believe Trendweight and Weighgrapher are available on the web. (I think Trendweight requires a Fitbit account, but I think that's free even if you don't have a Fitbit device.) If by PC-based, you mean Windows, I'm not sure if other apps are available for that environment. If you have an Apple or Android device, I would think that Happy Scale or Libra might be available for those. A spreadsheet with a moving average will do a similar thing.

PAV8888

Weightgrapher and trendweight are PC based. I started using trendweight before I had a Fitbit, using a free Fitbit account to perform the data entry.

Weightgrapher allows you to superimpose a user adjustable trend line of your previous cycle in order to visualize similar points of time in your cycle. However I find their suggestions annoying so I would suggest telling it you want to maintain your weight so that it shuts up

A healthy level of carbs makes no sense to me as a concept unless your unhealthy level of carbs is one that is crowding out your protein, your healthy fats, or other nutrients. it doesn't mean that you can't have a preferred level, though!

While part of your loss *could* be related to a reduction in carbs, I would not expect to see much glycogen depletion at a hundred gram intake.

Your stated level of calories is low enough that I don't have much trouble envisioning your loss as being primarily driven by the reduction in calories. However reduction of food in transit, reduction in sodium, more vegetables and fibre could all be involved in some extra initial losses! Which is why Ann and myself are only cautioning as opposed to jumping up and down in earnest

Sand_TIger

Thanks for letting me know about the PC based options there - and I do see your point about healthy level of carbs vs preferred. Speaking for myself only, and this is just a loose example, an unhealthy level of carbs for me would be probably 20 grams or less, or so many grams that brings me back up to old levels - like 3,4, or 5000 calories a day! I do recognize that this is different for everyone based on how their body works, their goals, and their dietary plan.

So I'll go check out those PC based apps sometime.

lgfrie

The step-ladder weight loss pattern might be the most common one of all. I've never heard of someone losing weight in a linear "each day it goes down a little" way before, beyond the first few weeks of a diet when it's indeed possible for the scale to go lower every day temporarily as the water drains off. After that honeymoon period, it's step ladder for most people, exactly as you are experiencing.

Sand_TIger

I just want to take another moment here to thank everyone for their comments - it's so interesting to study what actually happens when fat leaves the body. I haven't been so interested in the process before, I've always just been desperate for it to happen, and not seeing much in the way of results. However now it's different - a lot different - and this really neat.