Can someone help me understand what happened?

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nrbrake
nrbrake Posts: 38 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay, So I've been on mfp for a few months and have been having success for the most part, except when I let myself fall off the path. I'm down 12 pounds so far but for the past week the scale has not moved. Then last night I was emotional and ate, ate, ate. I'm an emotional eater and have been working really hard to get that under control with much improvement. I'd guess I went at least 600 calories over last night (normal goal is 1400). I woke up this morning and I had actually lost about a half pound...


I did not exercise yesterday or consume any more or less water than usual.


Is my calorie goal too low?

Do I need to make more of my deficit with exercise?

Thank you!!

Replies

  • allshebe
    allshebe Posts: 423 Member
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    1 pound either way is what - 3500 calories?, so 600 is about 1/7 pound, so, at worst, you ate 100 calories over something resembling maintenance (assuming you are budgeting to lose 1 pound per week). 1/2 pound either way is well within the range of normal variation, so it could be real fat loss or it could be water or just random fluctuation. 1400 calories seems a reasonable eating level to me, as long as you are getting close to that number every day and eating back at least some of your exercise calories. Whether or not you need to be eating more somewhat depends on how much you need to lose - what I'm reading here seems to suggest that when you have a lot of body fat, you can afford to have a greater deficit than when you get close to your goal and have less body fat to "contribute" to maintaining your metabolism. If you are losing fairly steadily at 1400 or so, I'd go back to it; if you're starting to stall, it might be worthwhile upping your calories a bit (and maybe "settle" for a slower loss rate)
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Things don't happen that fast. You don't over eat at night and gain or lose by morning already other than food waste in your system. Your weight can fluctuate by 5 lbs a day naturally.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    Weight does not go up or down that quickly. Your weight loss could be the result of a whole lot of things, but it's probably a lot of things that you did over the last 7 days, not last night.
  • nrbrake
    nrbrake Posts: 38 Member
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    So then it would be normal for me to be under my calories all week and the scale not move, and then at the end of the week it will drop?
  • rowanwood
    rowanwood Posts: 510 Member
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    I have noticed I tend to have a scale drop after a day of eating maintenance/cheat calories, and not to be gross, but I think it has more to do with the fact that that tends to cause me to use the bathroom before bed instead of after breakfast due to the extra calories...so it cleans me out, sort of? I think having a day of "cheat" to allow for life is totally acceptable. I don't want to be Kate Moss after all.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Natural body weight fluctuations due to water retention/release, bodily waste, food in/out, etc. Weight loss isn't linear...you don't lose exactly X Lbs per week or 0.X ounces per day or whatever. It is a trend over a longer period of time. You're going to have weeks where you show no loss on the scale...weeks with small losses or even gains...and weeks with bigger losses. When you compile that information and analyze it over a longer period of time, it should come out to X Lbs per week on average.

    Similarly, weight maintenance isn't static. I'm maintaining right now and I'm around 180ish...yesterday my actual scale weight was 178 Lbs...today it was 183.5 Lbs. It's not fat...it's due to the fact that I increased the weight on my squats, dead-lifts, and bench last night and my muscles are retaining water to aid in repair; I probably be even a little heavier tomorrow because I'm getting in extra carbs today to aid in repair and protein synthesis.

    You need to look at things over a much broader period of time...not days or a week or two.

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