Math is hard.

katemckenna5

I have been losing weight pretty consistently since August 2013, but I do wish the amount was mor consistent. I have been really good about logging food and exercise but am a tad confused by the numbers. It seems as though most members here believe (quite strongly) about calories in/calories out. Can you help me understand these numbers?

Starting weight: 260
Current Weight: 242.1
BMR: 1900
MFP Calorie Goal: 1390 (9730 per week)
Set goal @ 2 pounds/week

I chose two weeks to compare. In one week I lost .2 lbs and the second I lost 2.2 lbs.

First Week
Ate: 10, 005
Exercised: 2, 148

Second Week
Ate: 9, 859
Exercised: 1, 109

I think this is all the information needed. I am trying to understand why two seemingly similar weeks had such different results. Can you help?

neandermagnon

weight loss isn't a linear process. You didn't do anything wrong, you were just retaining more water one week,it's probably linked to your menstrual cycle (many women retain water around their time of the month) or it could be you ate more sodium (this also causes water weight gains). Look for the trend over time and don't stress about the individual weeks. Water weight gains go as quickly as they come... ignore it if it's due to your menstrual cycle, and if it's from sodium, then eating more potassium and drinking plenty of water helps (as does ensuring you're not eating too much sodium, although your body needs some sodium to function so don't cut it out altogether).

Looking at your starting weight and current weight, seems like you're doing everything right, because you've lost a decent amount of weight over the time you've been doing this, nearly 20lb in fact. Unless you find that several weeks in a row you get no loss at all, keep doing what you're doing and don't worry about individual weeks where you see very little weight loss.

EDollah

Weight in short term intervals is subject to too many variables to fit neatly into some y = ax + b type model. Water retention (or lack thereof), glycogen storage (and depletion) and, at the risk of being gauche - poop.

When I started losing weight, I too wanted to see a neat, reliable weight loss pattern. It didn't take long for me to see that was not the case. Basically I now don't evaluate weekly results at all. I take weekly measurements, but I don't read too much into a .2 pound loss or a 4.4 loss. Typically, I do find the next weekly result balances out. That is, a big loss follows a small, and vice versa. That's not always the case but usually is.

In your case, I'd just think of it as a 2.4 pound loss over 2 weeks and then evaluate if that was meeting your expectations. Even better, 18 pounds over 18 (guessing based on August start) weeks.