How is it possible that I am down to 123 lbs already?

Tanie98
Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
edited November 8 in Health and Weight Loss
A month and half ago, I changed my settings to lose 0.5 since I only have few lbs to lose .I was at 130.5 then after a month I weighed myself the first thing in the morning and I was down to 130.I was disapointed because I was expecting to lose 2 pounds by then but I only lost 0.5 in a month.

However, I weighed myself again today after 2 weeks the first thing in the morning and I down to 123 lbs .How is that possible? I thought the last few lbs are slower.I am not sure if I should trust this

Replies

  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    The only thing that makes the last few pounds harder to lose is that people generally have less room for a calorie deficit when they reach that point. If you were retaining water when you weighed before and you had a more significant calorie deficit than you thought, I see no reason to doubt that you could lose that much in 2 weeks.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    Water weight fluctuations.. adjustment in carb... exercise routine, etc... lots of variables.
  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    ok, the last time I weighed myself it was time of the month so I was wondering why I only dropped 0.5 pound.In a whole month. I also stopped eating all of my exercise calories back
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    So essentially, you probably just created a larger deficit, which explains more weight loss. When you were eating back exercise calories, how were you calculating the burns?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    TOM probably masked weight loss and not eating exercise calories increased your defecit to about 500 a day so you dropped a lb a week unless there is another water weight fluctuation with water / sodium / exercise weight
  • DebraYvonne
    DebraYvonne Posts: 632 Member
    can I hate you? LOL -- count your blessings
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    5lbs worth of fluctuation up or down depending on time of month, hormones, salt intake, water intake, caffeine... hey, it can happen.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    You may want to check your scale's accuracy, too. Not that 7 lbs. in two weeks is impossible, but they do screw up sometimes. If it's digital maybe replace the battery.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Why even question it? Just don't be shocked if it goes back up a tad because bodyweight likes to fluctuate.
  • Linnaea27
    Linnaea27 Posts: 639 Member
    edited November 2014
    That sort of thing can certainly happen when you weigh yourself at that time of the month and then weigh a couple weeks later at a point in your cycle when there's no water retention. Not eating back exercise calories also would have created a much larger deficit than you had been set up for.

    If you have a new bag of flour or some dumbbells in the house, put those on your scale to test its accuracy just in case. My digital scale struggles with accuracy unless it is on a perfectly flat surface (like a tile) so I have a habit of testing it with my dumbbells sometimes.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Weight loss isn't a linear function, it is a trend. At that rate of loss, water and waste fluctuations can mask a lot. People can typically fluctuate a good 3-5 Lbs from day to day...and you're talking about trying to observe an actual loss of a couple pounds on the scale...good luck with that. Just watch the trend and look at averages, not the weigh in to weigh in numbers.
  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    So essentially, you probably just created a larger deficit, which explains more weight loss. When you were eating back exercise calories, how were you calculating the burns?

    I use a heart tate monitor and I only track calories burned for cardio.I used to eat all of them back and I still lost weight when I was heavier. Since I am lighter and have only few lns to lose, I now only eat half of them back

  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Weight loss isn't a linear function, it is a trend. At that rate of loss, water and waste fluctuations can mask a lot. People can typically fluctuate a good 3-5 Lbs from day to day...and you're talking about trying to observe an actual loss of a couple pounds on the scale...good luck with that. Just watch the trend and look at averages, not the weigh in to weigh in numbers.

    I usually weigh myself one a month the first thing in the morning before I eat anything .When I weigh myself later on the day I am usually 5 pounds hevier so I ignore it.

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    Tanie98 wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    So essentially, you probably just created a larger deficit, which explains more weight loss. When you were eating back exercise calories, how were you calculating the burns?

    I use a heart tate monitor and I only track calories burned for cardio.I used to eat all of them back and I still lost weight when I was heavier. Since I am lighter and have only few lns to lose, I now only eat half of them back

    Even HRM's can be inaccurate, especially if you are doing activities outside of steady state cardio. But also, when you are bigger, you have more room for error.
  • Spanander
    Spanander Posts: 16
    Could also just be because you don't have as much food in your stomach
  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    Spanander wrote: »
    Could also just be because you don't have as much food in your stomach

    I always weigh myself at the end of the month the first thing in the morning before I eat anything to get a consistency reading. I also use the same scale
  • spanorchid
    spanorchid Posts: 11
    When I first started my program I lost 3 pounds each week for the first two weeks. I compleyely cut out soda and fastfood (a trend I've been able to keep up :smile: ). I'm now losing about a pound a week even though my goal is only a half a pound a week. So yeah, it's possible :smiley:
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    hollydubs85 wrote: »
    Why even question it? Just don't be shocked if it goes back up a tad because bodyweight likes to fluctuate.

    This.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
    Your daily weight is about a 3 to 5 lb range anyway. Your goal is practically within the margin of error from your starting weight.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Daily fluctuations are normal and by minimizing the eating of the exercise calories, you created a larger deficit.
This discussion has been closed.

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