two opinion questions

tara_means_star

1. To eat breakfast or to not eat breakfast? I like to eat later in the evening and so I don't eat breakfast and eat a little for lunch, then the rest of my calories for dinner. It's not because I think it's best or I'm trying to fast or anything, I just enjoy having a family dinner, which tends to be our biggest meal of the day with my family. I'm curious if popular opinion says who cares if it fits your calories or that this is slowing down my metabolism.

2. How consistent should you expect to loose your goal weight each week? More specifically, if I set out to loose 1.5 pounds per week, should I expect a mostly linear progress or do you usually go several weeks with little loss, then a lot all at once?

yopeeps025

1. Studies show that is really does not matter. I eat the majority of my calories before I exercise. I get into a crazy beast mode though.

2. Weight loss is not straight down.

5stringjeff

1. Eat breakfast if you want to. Don't eat it if you don't want to.

2. Weight loss is not linear. You'll have weeks where you lose 1.5 pounds, and weeks where you lose next to nothing.

erickirb

1. Studies show that is really does not matter. I eat the majority of my calories before I exercise. I get into a crazy beast mode though.

2. Weight loss is not straight down.

^ This

For #2 you should expect on average over time to lose that amount of weight. hydration levels, undigested food, exercise routine, and other things will contribute to weight fluctuations

JTick

1. Personal preference. I used to. I no longer do.

2. Not linear. At all. Sometimes I'll stay completely steady for 2-3 weeks, and then drop 3 pounds overnight, with no further loss for a few more weeks. However, if after 4-6 weeks there's been no true change, then you probably need to reevaluate your calories and logging.

FemWeight

1. To eat breakfast or to not eat breakfast? I like to eat later in the evening and so I don't eat breakfast and eat a little for lunch, then the rest of my calories for dinner. It's not because I think it's best or I'm trying to fast or anything, I just enjoy having a family dinner, which tends to be our biggest meal of the day with my family. I'm curious if popular opinion says who cares if it fits your calories or that this is slowing down my metabolism.

2. How consistent should you expect to loose your goal weight each week? More specifically, if I set out to loose 1.5 pounds per week, should I expect a mostly linear progress or do you usually go several weeks with little loss, then a lot all at once?

I'll be honest with you, I only eat about 100 calories for breakfast through the week . On the weekends sometimes I don't even eat breakfast.

I eat low calorie breakfast and lunches through the week because I'm at work and when I get home I have a husband I have to feed in which he loves a good meal so most of my calories are at dinner also. I've not lost drastically so far but none the less I've dropped 6 lbs within a month so apparently I'm still doing something right, right? lol :drinker:

loribethrice

1. I think it's up to preference. My mom, my sister, and I all have problems eating breakfast and always have because it just makes us super nauseated. I usually wait until about an hour or so after I'm awake to eat. My breakfast and my dinner are the same amount of calories.

2. It's never linear. Some weeks I'll lose 3lbs and then I won't lose anything for a month. The body is a mean, confusing vessel.

LoraF83

1. To eat breakfast or to not eat breakfast? I like to eat later in the evening and so I don't eat breakfast and eat a little for lunch, then the rest of my calories for dinner. It's not because I think it's best or I'm trying to fast or anything, I just enjoy having a family dinner, which tends to be our biggest meal of the day with my family. I'm curious if popular opinion says who cares if it fits your calories or that this is slowing down my metabolism.

Eat if want, don't eat if you don't. It really doesn't matter. I prefer (usually) not to eat in the mornings. I'm not hungry and I'd rather save the calories for ice cream at night.

2. How consistent should you expect to loose your goal weight each week? More specifically, if I set out to loose 1.5 pounds per week, should I expect a mostly linear progress or do you usually go several weeks with little loss, then a lot all at once?

You can't expect linear loss. Be prepared for the scale to bounce around a little. Look for overall trends, rather than small blips.

xcalygrl

Calories don't know time. If you would prefer to eat most of them in the evening, do so. If you end up prefering to eat most of the in the morning, do that. Do what works for you. And you can vary day to day. (For example, during the week, I eat my calories pretty evenly through the day. On the weekends though, I sometimes eat a lot early in the day or a lot in the evening depending on what we have going on (i.e. dinner out or brunch out).)

There will be weeks you lose nothing, a pound, 2 pounds, etc.. There will also be weeks where you may gain weight. What you want is a downward trend over the long haul. If you're doing what you're supposed to be doing (eating in a deficit), you'll lose over time. Weight loss isn't linear (as cliche as it is, it's very true).

funchords

Educated Opinion: Whatever works for you.

Over 70% of people who have lost more than 30 pounds and kept it off for a year eat breakfast. While that's a lot, it's not 90% or 99%. A fair minority of successful weight loss respondents regularly don't eat breakfast.

tara_means_star

Those of you who weigh daily, if you were to record those weight changes over a week or a month, what would that look like? I've very interested in specifics so like monday your weight was..., tuesday your weight was...

I just want to see what SPECIFICALLY people are referring to when they say things like weight loss isn't linear or day to day fluctuations are normal. I get that it's self explanatory but I want to know the measurement of such statements.

Liftng4Lis

Eat breakfast if that works for you. I find if I do, I'm hungrier throughout the day. The loss is an individual thing, everyone is different. You may lose a pound one week and two the next.

funchords

2. How consistent should you expect to loose your goal weight each week? More specifically, if I set out to loose 1.5 pounds per week, should I expect a mostly linear progress or do you usually go several weeks with little loss, then a lot all at once?

It's been steady except for two plateaus, each lasting about 10 days. The first one, I tried to shake it lose by eating more and less on alternating days, the second one I just waited out without changing much of anything. Same result both times -- 9 to 10 days later I started losing again.

omma_to_3

This is what people mean by weight loss isn't linear:

jabarih

1. I don't think it matters when you eat how it will affect your metabolism. I have been losing consistently lately since I've put my mind to it. I have been trying not to eat after 8 pm but I fail just about every night. But as long as I keep a caloric deficit, I still lose weight. I have noticed that I can boost my metabolism with High Intensity Interval Training. It creates an after-burn effect for me. When I do HIIT I tend to lose more weight when I weigh in the next morning.

2.Weight loss will not be a continual downward line. I will look more like a stock movement. But you want to look at it from a weekly or monthly view and see your progress moving downward. Don't get discouraged if one day it moves up a little b/c if you stay consistent, it should move downward eventually.

civilizedworm

I eat breakfast to defeat the hangries.

IMO, weighing yourself everyday will only add to frustration since, as its been pointed out, weightloss (i.e. cutting non-lean mass) is not a linear predictive enterprise.

1961dublin

Well I can answer the second question anyway. I have just reached maintenance this week, and for me the loss occured very much in fits and starts, say 3 weeks no loss then a sudden 3lb loss. If I relied on the scales I would have given up may times, but I was also measuring inches and that kept me motivated. The loss was slow but it was nearly always downwards. I am delighted!!

stacyjh1979

For me the jury is still out on whether I really believe timing matters or not and I can only speak from my own experience. I was having issues with no losing much weight early on and my cousin suggested to me that I should eat within 30min of waking and not go more than 3hrs at a time all day without having something. When I started following that advice the weight started coming off and what/how much I was eating didn't change just the timing of when I was eating it. Now granted it could be total coincidence and maybe my body was just finally cooperating and losing weight, I'll never really know. Anyway I try to stick by this for the most part and I am a person who is hungry when I wake up. I normally have a protein drink and drink it on my way to work at 730am and don't actually eat until 10:30am. I have snacks and lunch during the day and I normally eat very little when I get home for the rest of the evening. Do whatever works for you!

As far as weight loss for me it's all over the place. I will normally hit a number and then bounce up and down for a week or so before that number "sticks" and I go down again. Great example is last Friday I was 189, Monday this week I was 191 by Wednesday I was 188 and this morning I was 186.5. I will expect that over the next week I will bounce up and down from 186ish to 188ish and then in a week or two I'll hit a new low. It can be frustrating but for me weighing daily has helped me see what my body's pattern is and I know what expect so when I see a "gain" I know that if I'm consistently eating in a deficit that it is just water weight or whatever and I don't let it get me down.

GiddyupTim

While it is true that when you eat your calories for the day may not be a big deal, I think it is important to note that studies of breakfast have shown that those who eat a heavy, high protein breakfast (eggs, sausage or bacon...) tend to eat less throughout the rest of the day than those who eat a carbohydrate-type breakfast (oatmeal, toast, etc.). The thinking is that this is because the protein breakfast produces greater satiety that lasts longer.
Keep in mind that these studies did not compare the two types of breakfast with no breakfast, at least as far as I remember. The researchers simply assigned their subjects to one of the two types of breakfast and then watched their caloric intake for the day.

Kalikel

I don't eat for at least three hours after I get up, but your first meal is always breakfast, IMO. Eat early if you want. If you don't, don't.

It's typical to bounce around, going up and down, especially around period time, I don't really pay it much attention. As long as the overall trend is DOWN, I'm happy.

icrushit

1. You're effectively doing intermittent fasting, which is supposed to be quite good for adherence to your intake levels if you don't have an issue not eating in the morning. I do, so I don't do it, but it sounds like it works for you very well, so nothing wrong at all with it. Apparently extending your daily fast has benefits for fat burning, as well as less meals supposedly being better for blood sugar.

2. In my experience, no, it won't be linear, but then I eat the same deficit pretty much every day and think that is a factor. I think if I calorie cycled, and ate the same weekly deficit, but had a mix of high and low days during the week, I think my weight loss would be more linear, as my personal opinion/ observation, is with a prolonged or aggressive deficit, some hormones get low and others high, with the net result of the body getting quite stubborn about releasing those pounds. Calorie cycling doesn't seem to let those same hormones get as high/ low, it would seem.

Plateaus are quite common for me, where my deficit is quite constant, but my weight will remain static for several days at a time or more (up to 7/ 8/ 9 days), and then I will often have a period where over 3/ 4/ 5 days I may lose 2/ 3/ 4 pounds, before I plateau again, and the process repeats itself. You can read a bit about some of the factors involved by reading around 'cortisol' and its role in weight loss, as well as googling something people call the 'whoosh' syndrome.

Bottom line, if you're confident in your methods, and you're eating consistently at a deficit, know the pounds are being lost, even if your body does not get the memo so quickly, and there's a little lag in those pounds falling off. So if you're losing at a rate of 1.5lbs a week, over two weeks you will shed three pounds, but those three pounds could come off at any time during that two weeks, in my experience.