I can't tell if I'm loosing weight or not

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skinnysushicat
skinnysushicat Posts: 138 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been recording my weight (almost) daily for 23 days. Before, when I have lost weight, I have set myself goals of 1.5 or 2 lbs a week, and the results on my graph have been pretty obvious, even with natural fluctuations. This time, I want it to be sustainable, so am only trying to lose 0.5lb a week. Although I weigh myself at the same time each day before breakfast, my weight fluctuates hugely. I know this is normal, but looking at my graph I just can't tell if I'm losing weight or not. I don't want to waste another 20 days if all I'm doing is eating at maintenance!

I don't know if it's possible for others to see my graph? I'd be interested to know what you think.

Replies

  • Llamapants86
    Llamapants86 Posts: 1,221 Member
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    I just get excel to add in a trend line, if the line goes down, I am losing. Generally though, I look at a minimum of a months worth of data because of TOM weight issues (AKA I notice at small deficits I only actually see scale weight changes the week before hand)
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    I've been recording my weight (almost) daily for 23 days. Before, when I have lost weight, I have set myself goals of 1.5 or 2 lbs a week, and the results on my graph have been pretty obvious, even with natural fluctuations. This time, I want it to be sustainable, so am only trying to lose 0.5lb a week. Although I weigh myself at the same time each day before breakfast, my weight fluctuates hugely. I know this is normal, but looking at my graph I just can't tell if I'm losing weight or not. I don't want to waste another 20 days if all I'm doing is eating at maintenance!

    I don't know if it's possible for others to see my graph? I'd be interested to know what you think.
    Have you looked at your trend line in your graph?

    With natural fluctuations, is your weight often the same? If so, that is maintenance. If your trend is more downward, even with fluctuations, then it's weight loss.
  • skinnysushicat
    skinnysushicat Posts: 138 Member
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    Thanks for the interesting replies.

    I'm not really interested in reducing the fluctuations, as such - I mean, when I reach my goal weight, it won't bother me at all if I bounce between 119 and 123 lb. I would consider I had reached my goal of 120-ish lb. My weight has always fluctuated a lot - sometimes up to 5lb compared to the day before. I know there is no way I have lost or gained 5lb of fat in 24 hrs, so it does not worry me at all in itself. However, when I am only trying to lose 0.5lb per week, it makes spotting the trend pretty hard - my graph looks like one of those printouts from an earthquake zone! Even weekly weigh-ins would not really help, as depending if my weight was on a low or high on my weigh-in day, I would look like I had either gained or lost quite a few pounds, when I might have stayed completely still.

    I have given it 3 weeks, and I'm just unsure if I've lost my 1.5lb, or if I need to reduce my daily calories. I'm not great at excel - how would i create a graph there?
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    23 days at 0.5 a week... That is around 1.5 pounds... which can easily be masked by water. EASILY.

    At around 137 pounds, I had 1 serving of sunflower seeds an hour before bed, still under my daily calorie goal. The next day I gained 2.5 pounds. Yeah, I go for reduced sodium seeds now. lol. Dang water retention doing crazy things!

    ANYWAY, given your weight, your lower weekly goal, you'll be hard pressed to tell whats going on in 23 days.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
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    How about plotting a moving average? Say 4 day moving average?
  • skinnysushicat
    skinnysushicat Posts: 138 Member
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    Great Idea. After a quick teach-myself-excel-charts-via-google, I have produced a 7 day moving average chart which suggests I have lost around a pound. This is great - at least I know I'm heading in the right direction (but very, very slowly). I think I will reduce my daily calories by 100, and see if I can hit my 0.5lb per week.

    Thanks for your advice everyone!

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