Week 3 did I got a plateau?

nicolewalter16
nicolewalter16 Posts: 22 Member
in Getting Started
It's the beginning of week 3 and so far I have lost weight (only about 8 lbs tho) I want to lose a total of 50 lbs. But yesterday I cou yes everything, definitely was in a calorie deficit of 700+ calories and still GAINED weight.

Why am I doing this if it won't work?

Replies

  • nicolewalter16
    nicolewalter16 Posts: 22 Member
    I guess I just don't understand the weight fluctuation thing unless I did something to make it happen.

    It took me 5 days to recover just from having my period and there is no explanation to me for this. I guess I will just have to dig in harder and make up the difference
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    You don't need to dig in harder. Weight fluctuates because the majority of your body is water. You can't do much against it. It's normal. You seem to be losing at a very fast rate anyway, thus if your deficit is 700 calories per day, then you should only have lost about 4lbs in 3 weeks. Thus you're totally on track. Please don't panic, accept it as normal, and continue with what you're doing.

    ^^
    This! And have realistic expectations regarding weight loss. The first week you lost a bunch of water weight. Your rate of loss is going to slow as your body doesn’t have all of that water weight to shed anymore.

    Daily weight fluctuates. It drives me nuts, so I only weigh weekly. If weighing daily is going to cause you to try to cut additional calories because you aren’t losing weight EVERY SINGLE DAY, then stop weighing daily. It isn’t reasonable to expect a weight loss on the scale daily regardless of deficit.
  • dancinbythemoon
    dancinbythemoon Posts: 5 Member
    You can do this - stay on course and you'll see results again! It's normal to randomly gain weight when dieting - frustrating - but normal. This is what derailed my previous attempts - hopefully, the support on here helps us both 🙂
  • cgrout78
    cgrout78 Posts: 1,628 Member
    Here is a great thread about fluctuations. It's pretty normal...

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
  • BiscuitPuncher
    BiscuitPuncher Posts: 6 Member
    edited December 2020
    I lost some weight a few years back and learned fluctuations and plateaus are real and frustrating. My longest plateau was three weeks and then suddenly tons of weight shed within a few days. And the largest fluctuation was eight or nine pounds over the course of a few days. Always averaged out with the largest contributing factor being salt intake, stress, or lack of water (dehydration).
  • KickassAmazon76
    KickassAmazon76 Posts: 4,677 Member
    nicolewalter16 wrote: »
    I guess I just don't understand the weight fluctuation thing unless I did something to make it happen.

    It took me 5 days to recover just from having my period and there is no explanation to me for this. I guess I will just have to dig in harder and make up the difference

    Weight loss is more like a credit card than a debit card.

    You don't see immediate changes in balance as soon as you make a purchase, nor are your deposits reflected the same day. The changes are seen after a few days, or at the end of the month.

    As women, we also have our body cycles to deal with. Often times as we approach that time of the month, our weight spikes (water retention, fluid retention).

    For me, I can see increases of 2-3 pounds in a day and then nothing for a week. But I know the process works.

    If you are logging food. Eating within your budget. Paying down a little bit each day... You will see change. (you've already seen 8lbs!)

    Try not to lose heart. I'm pretty sure the weight has crept on. If you want the loss to be as permanent, you need to be prepared to let it sneak away too.

    You have this though. Just look a little further down the horizon. Let a full cycle pass and then evaluate. If there are no changes, the look at adjusting.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,133 Member
    nicolewalter16 wrote: »
    It's the beginning of week 3 and so far I have lost weight (only about 8 lbs tho) I want to lose a total of 50 lbs. But yesterday I cou yes everything, definitely was in a calorie deficit of 700+ calories and still GAINED weight.

    Why am I doing this if it won't work?

    What they all said above about fluctuations (especially those links!).

    As an aside, 8 pounds in 3 weeks is not slow. It's actually pretty fast . . . especially if 50 pounds is the total amount you have to lose. (That's about how much I lost here back in 2015.)

    Sometimes, I think that reality TV shows (Biggest Loser is the classic example) and tabloid headlines ("Lose 20 Pounds in a Month with XYZ Diet!!!") have led people to have unrealistic ideas about weight loss rates.

    Any meaningful amount of weight loss - and I'd consider 50 pounds meaningful - is a at least a multi-week to multi-month project. (It took me a bit under a year, faster at first, intentionally slower later.) To be successful, it needs to be sustainable for those weeks/months. Further, since we're not off at a camp with coaches and dietitians and stuff, it needs to be sustainable that long while leaving us enough time and energy to carry on with normal life.

    I lost weight too fast for a while (not so much by trying, as that MFP underestimates my calorie needs, which is rare). I felt great, not hungry . . . for a while. Then I hit a wall, got weak and fatigued. It took several weeks to recover. Since I'm retired and don't have a family depending on me, that had less impact for me than it would in a lot of cases. That's without even getting into the health risks and things like hair loss, that can happen from too-fast weight loss.

    Quite a few people here (me included), think that most of us are better served by targeting one-half to one percent (max) of current weight as a weekly loss rate, and perhaps less than that as one gets below 25-50 pounds total left to lose. That implies that 2 pounds a week might be safe if over 200 pounds (but other factors matter, too). Faster loss than 0.5-1% is mainly for morbidly obese people, ideally under close medical supervision for nutritional issues.

    Personally, I liked thinking of weight loss as weight-maintenance practice: A time to experiment, and figure out habits that would be sustainable, easily and happily, in order to stay at a healthy weight long term (which I'm now in year 5+ of doing, after 30+ previous years of obesity, BTW). During weight loss, there's that sensible moderate calorie deficit as a cushion to absorb any missteps along the way. At goal weight, maintaining weight is just a matter of adding back those few calories. There are other ways to go about it, but I think that treating weight loss entirely as a white-knuckle extreme project with an end date . . . well, that's a bad plan, for most people, IMO.

    There's more than one way for a weight loss plan to not work. One - as you imply - is simply not losing weight (like others, I think you *are* losing fat still, just having water retention make that fat loss play peek-a-boo on the bodyeweight scale for a while).

    The other way for a plan not to work is being too difficult to stick with. That can take a couple of forms: One is being so restricted that periodic overeating happens, and wipes out progress, or a fair chunk of it. The other is being difficult enough that the slightest perturbation in daily life throws one off plan, and one quits entirely, or for an extended period.

    Losing weight patiently and consistently at a sensibly moderate pace, over a gradual time period, can sometimes be a faster route than trying to hit a fast weekly weight loss rate, because of those potentials.

    You know yourself better than I do, but think it over. What will work best for you? Have you dieted in the past? How did you do it? Did you reach goal weight? Did you keep the weight off? Make a personalized plan accordingly.

    For sure, for someone with 50 pounds to lose, losing 2.6 pounds a week is not slow, it's very fast, aggressive.

    Wishing you much success, sincerely!
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,356 Member
    Three weeks isnt enough to gauge.

    Many people lose rapidly in the first few weeks, for various reasons (including, IMHO, the gods of weight screwing with our heads) and then become frustrated and quit when weight loss stalls, or bounces up a bit.

    In a month, I bet half the people reading this will be gone. Quit. Gave up. Do you want that to be you? I thought not.

    Here is my weight chart for the past 12 months. I’ve been at goal for the last few months. You can see it looks like a razorback mountain range. Weight loss is not smooth or steady. Neither was weight gain for that matter.
    0uj6ro8z0g7f.jpeg

    Your weight can be up for a multitude of reasons- and inexplicably drop a day or two later for another multitude of reasons.

    Period
    Salty food
    Extra carbs
    Holidays
    Alcohol consumption
    Poor night’s sleep
    Muscle pain
    Illness

    My weight is up several pounds this week. Was puzzled because I’ve done everything right and was back down to goal range following the holidays. And this morning as I tried to get out of bed, it hit me. My trainer put me through three unusually grueling workouts the last week, especially yesterday. This morning I was aching from head to toe. That means.....water weight. Been working out and sore? Your body retains water to repair the sore tissue. It is no exaggeration to say I’m carrying so much water I feel like I slosh when I walk. And you know what? I’m not freaking out over the extra weight. When my muscles recover In a few days, I’m looking forward to (TMI warning here) the longest, bestest pee ever.

    Don’t overthink this stuff. Allow your body time to do it’s thing. Don’t start tweaking in a panic. Chill......

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