Living The Lifestyle - Monday 8/5/24

crewahl

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Wildcard
Wednesday-misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard

Today's Topic: The Blame Game

Your weight is up a bit - or a lot. What’s the first thing you blame? Sodium? Water retention from building muscle? Food pushers? A character fault? Your parents? Or is it something else?

steve0mania

In a perfect world, I know what my eating patterns have generally been in recent days, and I can point (at least somewhat) to the correlation between my intake and my weight.

However, I think you may be asking a much deeper question: how far up the "causal chain" do you go?

I am usually a pretty practical person. I eat too much, I gain weight. I don't often spend a lot of time introspecting on this.

I do sometimes want to better understand the root causes of why I eat too much. Why is it that sometimes I'm perfectly on-plan, and other times every walk through the kitchen is an opportunity to see what's new in the cupboard?

Generally, I'll work up the causal-chain only as far as the things I can control (or at least, think I can control): motivation, boredom, controlling my environment, etc.

So, to actually answer your question: the first thing I blame is too much food going into my stomach. Later on I hope to move to more introspection.

Al_Howard

Not really sure, but it's usually simply my eating too much. Why? The $24 question. There are days I want eat everything under the sun, others carbs, still others sweets.
If I knew....................

misterhub

When I falter, it usually is because I ignored what I knew to be the right choice, which is by choice. There are exceptions to it all; but I am responsible for 90% of my decisions.

crewahl

I’ll confess to being amused by the extent to which sodium gets blamed on Connect. “I ate out last night and I’m up two pounds; must have been the sodium on that 16 ounce ribeye.”

< Insert big-assed eye roll here >

But as I’ve said before, I usually know which end of the fork represents the problem. When it doesn’t, and there’s an unexplained blip? If I can’t associate it with a choice or behavior or activity, then it just “is”, because that’s how weight goes.

As Steve suggested, I’m willing to engage in some introspection to the extent it’s useful to understand the cause. The more I understand, the more I can impact - if I choose. Sometimes, like Boston Cream Pie, I choose the behavior over the result. And there comes a point where I’m not willing to pay for the therapy that would be needed to unravel why I make some of my decisions. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Pretty sure it wasn’t the sodium, though.

imastar2

I would have to confess most of my weight gain is mental but there are other factors that are involved that do frustrate me.

"Your weight is up a bit - or a lot. What’s the first thing you blame?
Sodium?"

I have to blame it on myself. After all it's my body, my life. I do control the sodium that goes into my mouth.

"Water retention from building muscle?"

This item is somewhat tricky for me. It's certainly not building muscle mass.
1st I have congestive heart failure and am 100% paced.
2nd I'm 100% full time catherized. After around 1 year and a half on this program I'm still trying to figure out of balance between the intake and the output.
3rd Due to the heart situation I have some edema in my left leg. I control that with support hose. I am going to the local heated pool and exercising some. Haven't started on the treadmill and other weight or exercising equipment.

Food pushers? A character fault? Your parents? Or is it something else?

I don't believe any of the above have any effect on my weight situation.
I just have to continually work on my weight my attitude and my diet.

Philtex

I usually know the direct cause of weight changes from a combination of tracking everything I eat and my daily weighing. As to the bigger picture, I usually attribute weight gains to a lack of willpower.

whathapnd

I usually know if my weight is going to be up for the week based on both how much and what I've eaten during the week. My weigh-in day is Friday, and it just happens that Thursday is the most common take-out night for us. I could game my weigh-in by ordering a salad or something I know will be low-sodium, but if I want to eat the big dill pickle or chips or samosas, and I've made room for them in terms of calories, I'm gonna. I have several food allergies and sensitivities. If my joints are aching/swollen due to consuming these foods, my weigh-in will be affected. I consider sodium and inflammation weight "blips" that I don't worry about.

Flintwinch

It's simple second-grade arithmetic with me: calories in are greater than calories out. But I do not weigh every day, so other minor factors that may change the scale on a daily basis do not, in my opinion, change the scale from week to week. I only take one medication, to lower cholesterol, and drink about the same amount of water every day......Tim

Philtex

Flintwinch wrote: »

I do not weigh every day, so other minor factors that may change the scale on a daily basis do not, in my opinion, change the scale from week to week.

What if one of those 'minor factors' happens on your weigh-in day? You won't see it even out until the next week, while daily weighers would see the correction the next day.

Flintwinch

Philtex wrote: »

Flintwinch wrote: »

I do not weigh every day, so other minor factors that may change the scale on a daily basis do not, in my opinion, change the scale from week to week.

What if one of those 'minor factors' happens on your weigh-in day? You won't see it even out until the next week, while daily weighers would see the correction the next day.

Over a period of a week, the minor factors smooth out and you end up with a close-enough weight that represents a true gain or loss from the week before. Yes, there could be a minor factor that occurs on the weekly weigh-in day, but over the week it well be less consequential than day-to-day variations.

Another factor for me is psychological. The daily shifts in weight drive me crazy. What? I ate like a pig yesterday and lost 0.2 lbs? I ate exactly on plan yesterday and gained 0.2 lbs? One week is the smallest interval that I can feel confident in a weight change.

Minor factors to me would include things like(1) did I have a bowel movement or pee before weighing? How long has it been since I last ate? (5 pm the night before or 10 pm the night before) . Was yesterday a big exercise day? No exercise? Even sleep quality/quantity can affect weight. Lots of small stuff that nudges weight up and down. Weightwatchers has weekly weigh-ins and that's good enough for me. When I weigh weekly, I do it under the same conditions.

Philtex

I think that the daily vs. weekly question really comes down to what works best for the individual. For me, I would rather have more data points than less. I don't overact to daily changes, instead I use the information to make minor changes before big changes become necessary. My experience is that my weight fuctuations usually do match my behavior for the prior day. I am rarely surprised.

Flintwinch

Philtex wrote: »

I think that the daily vs. weekly question really comes down to what works best for the individual. For me, I would rather have more data points than less. I don't overact to daily changes, instead I use the information to make minor changes before big changes become necessary. My experience is that my weight fuctuations usually do match my behavior for the prior day. I am rarely surprised.

You are exactly right. Each individual needs to determine what works best. The main thing is that it works.