Daily weight fluctuations - looking for advice

In your workouts are you lifting weights? Muscles weigh more than fat.

I don't think you're consuming enough calories and your body has made adjustments. Read this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Dont weigh yourself everyday. Do it once a week on the same day at the same time. I personally weigh in monday mornings. Post bathroom- Pre breakfast. The fluctuation you are seeing is most likely water weight.


Welcome to MFP!

I can fluctuate my weight up to 8 lbs. some days depending on what I've eaten. Just start weighing yourself weekly or bi weekly instead for a better estimate!

I'm about three weeks in (yes I know...total newbie) and have been using MFP religiously, what an awesome tool. My daily calorie goal is 1600, (not NET as I am trying not to eat the calories I earn back with workouts) and I have been working out 5-6 days a week.

I had a pretty steady trend down from 217 over last couple of weeks to a new low of 208.5 on Monday am. Tuesday a.m. I weighed 213!!?? Didn't change anything. This a.m. I am back down to 211, but still 2.5 heavier than two days ago without changing anything. Is this easily explained? Should I stop weighing every day? Also if anyone wants to take a look at my info and let me know thoughts on my nutrition or anything else....advice more than welcomed!

Help, I'm slightly frustrated. Very focused on my initial goal of reaching 200lbs by Mar 1.

try adding in a cheat day - spike your calorie intake to 2000 or so for that day. well planned cheat days can have a positive effect on weight loss. PM if you need help

It is a total preference about weighing every day. HOWEVER, I am a strong advocate for it. Here is a real example of my recent data:



There is enough error in weighing that if you don't have a sufficient number of data points, you really don't know what is going on. The key is to not take any single datapoint seriously. You need a bunch so you can create a trend.

I agree with weighing yourself weekly. It will do your head in weighing daily.

Being a newbie I think you should work at the energy in vs energy out way of things. Dont focus on eating back your exercise calories and eating more just yet. It can all be a bit daughting and confusing!! Plenty of people here have dropped weight by using the goals and macros set by MFP.

Monitor it for a good month and then maybe look at making changes.

Being a newbie I think you should work at the energy in vs energy out way of things. Dont focus on eating back your exercise calories and eating more just yet. It can all be a bit daughting and confusing!! Plenty of people here have dropped weight by using the goals and macros set by MFP.

You do realise that the goals set by MFP include eating back exercise calories?

OP - weigh every day, or not, as it suits you. I do, for the reasons outlined by GauchoMark. Weighing every day has made me much more comfortable with weight fluctuations. Other people find they can never get their head around it and prefer to weigh less often so they don't get demotivated by an unexplained gain. Fluctuations are completely normal; weight loss is not linear and there are lots of factors that affect your weight on any given day, not just fat.

I'm about three weeks in (yes I know...total newbie) and have been using MFP religiously, what an awesome tool. My daily calorie goal is 1600, (not NET as I am trying not to eat the calories I earn back with workouts)

If you are following MFP the way it was designed to work (ie you haven't set your own custom calorie goal based on a cut from your TDEE), then those workout calories aren't supposed to be a "bonus". You're supposed to eat them to fuel your exercise. The goal given to you by MFP did not factor in any exercise you do, if it did, you would have been given a higher goal. Very large calorie deficits can be counter-productive over the long term.

stop weighing yourself every day.

You've gotten some really good advice on this thread.

Some of the valuable information I have culled over my 60 pound weightloss journey:

1 - Weigh only once a week. This is especially true if you work out. Your body builds up fluids as you work out and this can make your weight fluctuate quite a bit. Once you learn to not freak out about those daily fluctuations, then you can go back to wieghing more often as you like. But it sounds like you're not quite there yet.

2 - Eat enough. Google BMR calculators and find out how many calories you really should be eating. You will not lose weight if you are not eating enough. With 5-6 workouts a week, my bet is you are not eating close to what you should be.

3 - I am also a firm believer in the so-called "cheat day" every so often. When I plateau, I find that if I up my calories for just one meal, I'll lose a pretty good chunk in the coming week. You have to shake things up a bit.

4 - Allow your body to "correct" itself. After speaking with a couple of doctors, I've learned that your body does need to do a correction. You may go 2-3 weeks with only a small or no loss. But you have to hang in there and not do anyting drastic. Eventually it will do a course correction and you will get back on track.

Good luck to you!
Ann

Thanks but I am still a little confused. The MFP guided "goal" has me at net 1320 calories per day in order to attain my goal of 2lbs loss per week. So if my average workout is 400 calories, my daily total calorie intake should be about 1720?

Yes, that's how MFP is set up to work, otherwise it would have given you a higher goal, having factored in your planned exercise.

As you read around, you may hear people saying they do "TDEE-20%" or something similar. It is possible to customise your MFP goal, and a lot of people do that to give themselves a higher goal, and then don't eat back exercise calories. They just eat a flat amount regardless of whether or not they exercise that day. If you like the sound of that better than the "exercise calorie" way, I'd recommend reading up about BMR and TDEE so that you can find the optimal number of calories to eat. Otherwise, it might be simpler just to stick with MFP's goal, at least in the beginning.

You may also find that if you are using MFP's exercise database, it may not give you an accurate estimate for your calorie burn. I personally haven't had a problem with it, but a lot of people find that MFP can overestimate calorie burn, and they choose to only eat back a portion of the exercise calories, to allow for error.

There is enough error in weighing that if you don't have a sufficient number of data points, you really don't know what is going on. The key is to not take any single datapoint seriously. You need a bunch so you can create a trend.

What he said. It's why I weigh myself every day. Need to keep track of trends!

Anyway, as for the original post, you might be doing too much with too little calories. You don't (or shouldn't) work out so much if you're in a big calorie deficit.