lost 6.9lbs in a week, any explanation?

Justin741

Hello Dear MFPers!

So today I lost 6.9lbs in the last week. However, during the past week I have exercised a lot less and ate the same because I had a cold. Can someone explain to me why this may be the case? Here is some more information:

Daily Caloric Goal (past few weeks range): 1,790-1,920

Normal Exercise Routine: 30-45 min on Elliptical Trainer 7 days a week, 3 sets of 6 push-ups 3 days a week, 3 sets of 15-20 situps/crunches 7 days a week.

Normal Caloric Intake: I normally only eat my calorie goal not including exercise. (usually at or above my sodium allowance)

Past Week Exercise Routine: 1 day of 45 min on elliptical, 1 day of situps, 2 days of slow pace (2.5mph) walking for about 20 minutes.

Past Week Caloric Intake: around 1,850 calories/day overall higher fat diet in the past week & normal amount of sodium

I did a considerable amount less of cardio & strength building exercise in the past week. Why did the weight drop? I drank about the same amount of water as normal.

Could it be because I usually am building more muscle?
Could it be because this past week I was closer to my daily caloric goal which gave me an increased metabolism?
Could it be just one of those weeks where my body was ready to drop the weight?
Or is there no explanation & there are just too many factors to really know?

Any information or opinion that could potentially lead to an explanation is welcome!

crystal10584

water retention now gone?

jeffrodgers1

Were you eating back your exercise calories?

When you expend energy and burn calories, your nutritional requirements will increase. By not consuming these calories, you could be pushing yourself into starvation mode.

sbilyeu75

Sounds like water weight to me.

legalelliot

If you were sick, there is a good chance you were dehydrated. Your daily exercise looks great when you are in your stride. Don't be discouraged if you gain some of that weight back when you feel better. It is most likely water weight. To put it into a net calories perspective, to loose almost 7lbs (of fat and not water) in a week means you would have had to be deficient by 3,500 calories per DAY or 24,500 calories over the week. It would be very hard and unhealthy to reach that kind of daily calories deficit.

concordancia

It sounds like your body is resettling do to the change. I hope you are feeling better and able to exercise again!

meggonkgonk

I find that I actually drop a good bit on weeks I "take it easy"- so about 1x a month I'll work in a taper week.

There's a lot of contributing factors- you may have lost a small amount of muscle mass, but more likely your muscles had the time they needed to repair and so were able to shed some of the water they retain for repair.


Edit to add- "Taper" week doesnt mean I don't workout at all, but I do take an extra rest day and shorten all of my workouts and limit intensity. I don't run for time, I don't really push, just kind of keep my body in the habit of doing things.

keljul

I wish I knew so I could do that:) I have been at this for so long now and I can not lose anything. I am getting smaller though, I really want to lose some pounds

hpsnickers1

Sometimes taking a break from it all can be exactly what your body needs.

I would give your body at least one rest day during the week, too. You have to give it a chance to heal. The body treats exercise (and calorie restricitons) as stress and will try and protect itself.

I try and give myself one week a month to relax and kick back. I don't overeat or eat the wrong things (I do this on occasion anyway since I don't deprive myself). This past week was no weight lifting (recovery). I had a couple of HIIT sessions on the treadmill (40 with 5 minute warm up and 5 min cool down). I dropped .6 pounds this morning (did weights yesterday). Any my weight had been up for the last month due to the new exercise routine. (We're talking 3-5 lbs!)

a_freeman

Just posted something similar although not quit the big loss you've had. In my case, (3.2 lbs in 4 days), I've decided to stay off of the scale for a few days and hope my body catches up to the scale

rileysowner

It was water weight probably along with some fat, the reduction of exercise as mentioned above may have contributed to that.

Just a comment on your exercises, the pushups are great as they work a bunch of muscles directly and indirectly. The situps are not really that effective to lose weight or strengthen your core muscles. Planks are much better. Also, you might want to add something like bodyweight squats, lunges, let me ins http://exercisegarage.com/let-me-in-a-body-weight-instructional-video/ and lying hip extentions to your strength training. They all use multiple muscle groups and will do much more for you in terms of strength training. Situps isolate a specific muscle group, and really work your hip flexor muscle more than your abdominals.

Keep up the good work.

RyonsLions2

Does your exercise usually get your heart rate up high?? There is a target zone for fat burning and you may have been closer to it this last week than before. You can get your heart rate up too high or too low to actually be efficiently burning fat. At least that is what I have heard. Also, you have to eat to lose, so if you were closer to your calorie goal, and in target heart rate range for fat burning, and you drank your water, sounds like a great combination!! Also, with changing up your exercise from cardio to strength then back to cardio.... that could have kept your metabolism guessing!! Thus, working hard!

Shamrock40

I have done something similar this week, too. Last Friday I was at 221 and this morning I was at 216. 5 lbs in 8 days. But I had a massive overage of calories on Monday (close to 3000 for the day after a trip to Cheesecake Factory for dinner, lol.)

About once a week, I have one day (a cheat day, if you will) where I eat more indulgent and "naughty" foods that I don't normally eat. I usually have a a decent loss within a day or two of that day. I eat back a lot of my exercise calories on a daily basis, so my conclusion is that my metabolism works really hard when I eat the junk, or every few days eat more calories. I switch it up all the time. On any given day, I'll net between 1000-1400 calories. I think it keeps my metabolism guessing.

You usually have a pretty awesome burn when you work out, so your metabolism has probably kicked up quite a bit from when you started this. Your metabolism is probably working harder to get rid of the extra calories.

I'm totally guessing, but that's what happens to me sometimes.

Bridgetc140

Did you have a baby? J/K....my daughter was 6lbs 9oz.....I just thought it was funny! Probably some was water weight..either way, good job!

Taylor521

Somewhere on these forums a few hours ago someone posted how the body retains water when you are in a regular exercise routing. There are various processes that go on in the body that are trying to rebuild or repair your body, and it causes tissues to inflame and retain more water. The article was written by a personal trainer that was talking about how whenever people start a new exercise routine they gain weight and she was stating that this is why. Its just your body working on parts of your body to recover from your workout. Maybe when you stopped exercising so much your tissues were able to return to their normal volume.

Assuming that article was accurate, it could have just been someone selling something...