Am I doing something wrong??

heyhoneyxx
heyhoneyxx Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey so I started my fat loss journey on the 8th March 2014, and I joined MFP less than a month ago. A week ago I weighed 175.8lbs and was the day I had hit my 14lbs loss. During that week, I started to get period pains and I felt a little bloated but I haven't started my period. And I weighed myself yesterday and I had put on 2lbs? I don't know whether this is water retention or whatever but it has put me off. I am 5 foot 4 and currently weigh 177.6lbs. I do weight lifting 3 times a week and cardio almost every day. I eat around 1900 and burn enough to make my net calories at 1700 or less. This has worked for me and I have lost just over a 1lb a week from it but I am genuinely put off because of this 2lb weight gain. I don't know if it's due to period or water retention because I don't know if I'm due on, the cramps that I had were the type I get before my period. But I don't know. So am I doing something wrong? Do I just stay away from the scale and stick to my diet and carry on taking measurements? My measurements say I have lost half an inch since last week but idk I'm just so put off and I feel really crap because I have snacked on a few sweets these past few days but i haven't gone over my calories so it can't be fat gain.

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Hey so I started my fat loss journey on the 8th March 2014, and I joined MFP less than a month ago. A week ago I weighed 175.8lbs and was the day I had hit my 14lbs loss. During that week, I started to get period pains and I felt a little bloated but I haven't started my period. And I weighed myself yesterday and I had put on 2lbs? I don't know whether this is water retention or whatever but it has put me off. I am 5 foot 4 and currently weigh 177.6lbs. I do weight lifting 3 times a week and cardio almost every day. I eat around 1900 and burn enough to make my net calories at 1700 or less. This has worked for me and I have lost just over a 1lb a week from it but I am genuinely put off because of this 2lb weight gain. I don't know if it's due to period or water retention because I don't know if I'm due on, the cramps that I had were the type I get before my period. But I don't know. So am I doing something wrong? Do I just stay away from the scale and stick to my diet and carry on taking measurements? My measurements say I have lost half an inch since last week but idk I'm just so put off and I feel really crap because I have snacked on a few sweets these past few days but i haven't gone over my calories so it can't be fat gain.

    Day to day or even week to week scale weight changes are meaningless. You will only notice a clear reduction in scale weight due to your routine over the period of many months not day to day. Things like water retention, your monthly cycle and many others will cause your weight to fluctuate seemingly at random. I can quite easily gain 5 pounds in the course of a day from changes in water weight but on the timescale of 3 months I can see that my weight is decreasing. If you look at it day after day and expect it to consistently go down you are setting yourself up for dissapointment.
  • _HeartsOnFire_
    _HeartsOnFire_ Posts: 5,304 Member
    Hey so I started my fat loss journey on the 8th March 2014, and I joined MFP less than a month ago. A week ago I weighed 175.8lbs and was the day I had hit my 14lbs loss. During that week, I started to get period pains and I felt a little bloated but I haven't started my period. And I weighed myself yesterday and I had put on 2lbs? I don't know whether this is water retention or whatever but it has put me off. I am 5 foot 4 and currently weigh 177.6lbs. I do weight lifting 3 times a week and cardio almost every day. I eat around 1900 and burn enough to make my net calories at 1700 or less. This has worked for me and I have lost just over a 1lb a week from it but I am genuinely put off because of this 2lb weight gain. I don't know if it's due to period or water retention because I don't know if I'm due on, the cramps that I had were the type I get before my period. But I don't know. So am I doing something wrong? Do I just stay away from the scale and stick to my diet and carry on taking measurements? My measurements say I have lost half an inch since last week but idk I'm just so put off and I feel really crap because I have snacked on a few sweets these past few days but i haven't gone over my calories so it can't be fat gain.

    Day to day or even week to week scale weight changes are meaningless. You will only notice a clear reduction in scale weight due to your routine over the period of many months not day to day. Things like water retention, your monthly cycle and many others will cause your weight to fluctuate seemingly at random. I can quite easily gain 5 pounds in the course of a day from changes in water weight but on the timescale of 3 months I can see that my weight is decreasing. If you look at it day after day and expect it to consistently go down you are setting yourself up for dissapointment.

    +1
  • stephe1987
    stephe1987 Posts: 406 Member
    I weighed myself today and I gained a pound this week. But I also know I had more fast food than normal (I still exercised but clearly not enough to burn off all those extra calories), changes in my cycle, etc. Some sites suggest weighing yourself once per month due to changes in cycles, because certain days/weeks will be better than others. At least if it's once per month it's roughly the same part of the cycle.

    You could also try:
    -lowering your calorie intake as you lose more weight because it's going to get harder and harder to lose weight... not only will your calorie needs be lower but you will also burn fewer calories doing the same exercises. you can also lose weight faster if you eat less, just don't go below 1200. (this is difficult because a lot of people still feel hungry or aren't eating all their macros if they go too low... but if they go too high then they'll plateau or gain weight.)
    -eat back only half of your exercise calories, due to underestimation in calories eaten and overestimation in calories burned... if your net is already high then you might not need to eat back any of the exercise calories.
    -food scale, measuring cups, heart rate monitor, etc. (if you have a little extra cash to be buying such things; some people are month to month and have extremely tight budgets right now) for more accurate measuring
  • kinmoratree
    kinmoratree Posts: 125 Member
    Trust the process. You are going to have ups and downs. You may be stuck for months on end. If you stick with it and are consistent, you will get to your goal. Don't let every little hitch in the numbers send you off the deep end.
  • catbell2
    catbell2 Posts: 6
    I'm new to myfitness pal but not new to losing weight. What I eat today may not show up on my scale for a couple of days if at all...it's a balancing act of food intake overall and exercise. One of my least favorite tools is the link between my fitbit and myfitnesspal. At the end of the day it only seems like I have 200 extra calories as I found out the hard way by eating 200 extra calories...I'm over and under each day but still slowly losing a bit of weight. Slow seems to be the best way. Since August I've gone from 143 to 129...so hoping the slow weight loss will make it easier for me to keep it off. My goal is 125 and then maintenance. Anything lower than 125 is not realistic based on my age, body frame and lifestyle. at 5'4 I'll take 125 and be happy.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    I weighed myself today and I gained a pound this week. But I also know I had more fast food than normal (I still exercised but clearly not enough to burn off all those extra calories), changes in my cycle, etc. Some sites suggest weighing yourself once per month due to changes in cycles, because certain days/weeks will be better than others. At least if it's once per month it's roughly the same part of the cycle.

    You could also try:
    -lowering your calorie intake as you lose more weight because it's going to get harder and harder to lose weight... not only will your calorie needs be lower but you will also burn fewer calories doing the same exercises. you can also lose weight faster if you eat less, just don't go below 1200. (this is difficult because a lot of people still feel hungry or aren't eating all their macros if they go too low... but if they go too high then they'll plateau or gain weight.)
    -eat back only half of your exercise calories, due to underestimation in calories eaten and overestimation in calories burned... if your net is already high then you might not need to eat back any of the exercise calories.
    -food scale, measuring cups, heart rate monitor, etc. (if you have a little extra cash to be buying such things; some people are month to month and have extremely tight budgets right now) for more accurate measuring

    Fast food is high in sodium, the pound you gained is almost certainly water weight unless by eating fastfood you ate 3,500 calories above your maintenance level which seems pretty unlikely.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    My weight by day:

    10xzh1s.jpg

    My weight by weekly average:

    9amj34.jpg

    Might want to record your scale weight as a weekly average instead of day by day. Even weekly averages week to week might look like they aren't moving or are even going up but on the scale of months you should see a downtrend.

    I mean in my example above for the first 5 weeks my weight didn't budge at all. That does not mean I wasn't losing fat consistently.
  • emaybe
    emaybe Posts: 187 Member
    We're almost exactly the same on the height/weight front (5'5 / 175) and I know that my calculation for a 1lb per week loss was just above 1,500 calories (net). Maybe recalculate how many cals you should be eating/burning? MFP and other web calculators are a gross generalization, so you should always leave room for error.

    Currently I'm getting decent results with my goal set at 1,200 per day (with the intention of eating 1,500-1,700 and making up the deficit with activity). It also leaves plenty of room for error on the weekends when I remember that I live in Wisconsin, PBR is virtually free and my friends like to grill out because there's little else to do in this state.

    My plan wouldn't work for everyone and most likely won't work for you and it's taken me months to find a stable balance that I can stick to without feeling deprived, but that's just the point: experiment until you find something comfortable that is still getting results for you. Lower your calorie goal or exercise more for a week and see if it pays off.

    And totally seconded (or thirded or fourthed) that day-to-day weighing doesn't actually reflect loss or gain, especially when you have ladyparts. But it is REALLY fun to weigh yourself right after your period because then you get to feel like you worked off 2-3 pounds in a day. Ha!
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Every day the typical person takes in an average of about 13 pounds of oxygen, water, and food, and eliminates an average of about 13 pounds of carbon dioxide and liquid and solid wastes. Someone who is on a calorie deficit will eliminate slightly more than they take in. Someone losing 2 lb./week will drop 4.6 oz, or just under 0.3 lb., per day.

    But those are averages, and the amount of stuff you take in and eliminate is 2 entire orders of magnitude larger than the actual fat loss. Hence, daily—and even weekly—weigh-ins are overwhelmed by the noise. The only way to eliminate it is to use a weighted moving average. (TrendWeight.com is one site that lets you do that.)

    Hormonal changes can affect water retention, as can sodium consumption, eating lots of fiber, etc. On a shorter time scale, what you eat and drink matters, too. I just had an 8-oz. diet soda, so if I step on the scale now, I'll weigh half a pound more than I did before I drank the soda. Eventually I'll pee out those 8 ounces, but not right away.
  • heyhoneyxx
    heyhoneyxx Posts: 3
    Hey so I started my fat loss journey on the 8th March 2014, and I joined MFP less than a month ago. A week ago I weighed 175.8lbs and was the day I had hit my 14lbs loss. During that week, I started to get period pains and I felt a little bloated but I haven't started my period. And I weighed myself yesterday and I had put on 2lbs? I don't know whether this is water retention or whatever but it has put me off. I am 5 foot 4 and currently weigh 177.6lbs. I do weight lifting 3 times a week and cardio almost every day. I eat around 1900 and burn enough to make my net calories at 1700 or less. This has worked for me and I have lost just over a 1lb a week from it but I am genuinely put off because of this 2lb weight gain. I don't know if it's due to period or water retention because I don't know if I'm due on, the cramps that I had were the type I get before my period. But I don't know. So am I doing something wrong? Do I just stay away from the scale and stick to my diet and carry on taking measurements? My measurements say I have lost half an inch since last week but idk I'm just so put off and I feel really crap because I have snacked on a few sweets these past few days but i haven't gone over my calories so it can't be fat gain.

    So I weighed myself today and I'm down to 172lbs! thanks for your help guys

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