Please help me understand this yall

NickWildeCA

Hey guys! New to the forums here so sorry if this is in the wrong place or the answer is obvious haha. But I need serious help trying to understand something.

Cutting straight to the chase, I started my weight loss journey exactly 2 weeks ago (May 1). I am a 25 year old, 5'9 Male that started at 211.2 lbs. I do the 16/8 IF and generally walk with mixing in some runs/jogs here and there for about 90 minutes 5 days a week (3 of those days are fasted cardio), and I do strength training for about 30 minutes twice a week. I put I wanted to lose 2 lbs a week, which gave me a calorie goal of 1500 calories, which I meet everyday.

Here is my "progress" which I need help understanding (I put quotes because I don't even know if its actual progress)

May 1 - 211.2lbs
May 8 - 211.2lbs (just out of curiosity, I weighed myself again after doing my 90 minute walk, and was then 208.6lbs)
May 15 - 209.4lbs (walked again for 90 minutes and got 206.4lbs)

...so... What. The. HECK.

How is this even possible? How can I be the exact same weight (literally to the decimal) from the first week to the next despite eating 1500 calories and exercising 5 days a week, then walk for 90 minutes, and be down 2+ lbs? Which one am I supposed to accept as my "true weight" for measuring progress?

Sorry if this is long. I just don't know where else to turn. Thanks in advance everyone!

Westieok

Weigh once a day when u get up. Don’t look at and do t worry. Water 80% of your body shifts around depending on diet eg sofium msg etc. Also when you exercise hard muscles pull water in so even tho you sweated your heart out your body pulled more into the muscle.

quiksylver296

Is the exercise new? Your muscles retain water (which shows up as weight on the scale) to repair themselves, until they get used to the exercise. The water weight masks the fat loss.

You’re doing great. Just keep at it.

KrissFlavored

Sometimes scales have a weird memory setting, standing on it carrying something heavy before weighing yourself should stop it from being right to the decimal.

Water weight fluctuations are normal.

I spent 2 weeks going from 1 pound up to 1 pound down and then back up 1 pound and then down 1 pound.

I ate 40 crackers the other day and by the next day I was up 5.2 pounds.

You weighing after walking 90 min is just water weight loss from sweating

tuckerrj

Weigh once a day, before eating in the morning.

NickWildeCA

Thanks so much for your input guys!! I really do appreciate it! I was wondering if it was water weight, but I didn't know for sure because I thought my body would get rid of the water weight from my muscles after 48 hours of the exercise. Does water weight tend to linger beyond that? Because that's crazy 😅

Westieok wrote: »

Weigh once a day when u get up. Don’t look at and do t worry. Water 80% of your body shifts around depending on diet eg sofium msg etc. Also when you exercise hard muscles pull water in so even tho you sweated your heart out your body pulled more into the muscle.

I was thinking about that, but I thought I'd be discouraged from the weight fluctuations haha. Do you take the average of the 7 days and use that as your "true weight" for progress?

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Is the exercise new? Your muscles retain water (which shows up as weight on the scale) to repair themselves, until they get used to the exercise. The water weight masks the fat loss.

You’re doing great. Just keep at it.

It is pretty new; I'm two weeks in and since I can't go to the gym at the moment, I've just been following strength exercises from YouTube. It definitely gets me sore the next day as I have to push myself to do the exercises so I thought it was doing good work for me haha. Does water weight tend to stick around past 48 hours after the workout? I just wonder because I don't know what to jot down as my "true" weight for progress.

KrissFlavored wrote: »

Sometimes scales have a weird memory setting, standing on it carrying something heavy before weighing yourself should stop it from being right to the decimal.

Water weight fluctuations are normal.

I spent 2 weeks going from 1 pound up to 1 pound down and then back up 1 pound and then down 1 pound.

I ate 40 crackers the other day and by the next day I was up 5.2 pounds.

You weighing after walking 90 min is just water weight loss from sweating

Wow, I didn't even think of that! I will definitely step on the scale with a dumbbell first before weighing myself from now on. How long does your water weight tend to stick around if you don't mind me asking? I'm just trying to get a feel for what number I should jot down to gauge my progress.

NickWildeCA

tuckerrj wrote: »

Weigh once a day, before eating in the morning.

I do this, but weekly haha. But a couple of people have recommended that too so I'm probably gonna try it for a couple weeks just to see. Do you take the average of the 7 days and use that as your "true" weight for jotting down progress at the end of the week?

TeaBea

Don't just use a scale, it's just one tool. Take measurements too. Water weight will come and go.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

KrissFlavored

NickWildeCA wrote: »

Thanks so much for your input guys!! I really do appreciate it! I was wondering if it was water weight, but I didn't know for sure because I thought my body would get rid of the water weight from my muscles after 48 hours of the exercise. Does water weight tend to linger beyond that? Because that's crazy 😅

Westieok wrote: »

Weigh once a day when u get up. Don’t look at and do t worry. Water 80% of your body shifts around depending on diet eg sofium msg etc. Also when you exercise hard muscles pull water in so even tho you sweated your heart out your body pulled more into the muscle.

I was thinking about that, but I thought I'd be discouraged from the weight fluctuations haha. Do you take the average of the 7 days and use that as your "true weight" for progress?

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Is the exercise new? Your muscles retain water (which shows up as weight on the scale) to repair themselves, until they get used to the exercise. The water weight masks the fat loss.

You’re doing great. Just keep at it.

It is pretty new; I'm two weeks in and since I can't go to the gym at the moment, I've just been following strength exercises from YouTube. It definitely gets me sore the next day as I have to push myself to do the exercises so I thought it was doing good work for me haha. Does water weight tend to stick around past 48 hours after the workout? I just wonder because I don't know what to jot down as my "true" weight for progress.

KrissFlavored wrote: »

Sometimes scales have a weird memory setting, standing on it carrying something heavy before weighing yourself should stop it from being right to the decimal.

Water weight fluctuations are normal.

I spent 2 weeks going from 1 pound up to 1 pound down and then back up 1 pound and then down 1 pound.

I ate 40 crackers the other day and by the next day I was up 5.2 pounds.

You weighing after walking 90 min is just water weight loss from sweating

Wow, I didn't even think of that! I will definitely step on the scale with a dumbbell first before weighing myself from now on. How long does your water weight tend to stick around if you don't mind me asking? I'm just trying to get a feel for what number I should jot down to gauge my progress.

Well it happened on tuesday and I still am up a couple pounds, but you gotta remember that, we dont eat the same thing every day, sodium and carb counts change, also I am female and its shark week next week so I will likely also hold water weight from that also.

But my water will go up and down constantly.. and the scale unfortunately will never display my true weight at any given time.

The only way I will know I've lost, is once enough time has passed that my water weight fluctuations are now happening under what my lowest recorded weight is.

So, if I stand on the scale hypothetically at 150lbs let's say, in the morning after pee, and my water weight ends up all over the place and for a couple weeks I'm between 150 and 155, eventually with all my deficits the scale will drop maybe 2 to 3 pounds and my fluctuations start being between 147 and 152.. so I will just record my weight at 147 until things change again.. and that could take weeks but you just gotta wait it out that's all.