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Weight loss is not linear

jrmartinezb
jrmartinezb Posts: 147 Member
I know I'm probably stating the obvious, but I've seen a lot of comments in the forums of people worried about "plateaus" or "weight gains" from one day to the next. So I did a little experiment. For the last month I weighed myself and recorded it every day.

Here are the results, I hope you find it useful.

In the end I lost about 6 pounds in a month (I'm very happy about that btw), but it was definitely not linear:

wtlos_nov.png
Full pic here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_hSSYL0PK7zeT2QdjauHygi7A64dNdNrOcVeql0PnkY?feat=directlink

I tried to keep a calorie deficit of around 700cals, and I did hit the expected weight loss. However, even week to week I could have seen plateaus or gains. To me at least, this just emphasizes how you shouldn't worry too much about the number on the scale, specially in the short term.

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Edited to fix image, sorry couldn't get the full size version from picasa

Replies

  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    thanks for posting that. I have weighed myself nearly every day for the past 2 years and have had the same experience.

    Plateaus and starvation mode are WAY overused on this site. I do think they exist, I just think they actually happen much less frequently than most people think. Starvation mode is actually very difficult to "achieve". Plateaus are usually weight measurement error or the person estimating food/exercise improperly.

    My 2 cents anyways!
This discussion has been closed.