Weight Fluctuations (How does one know it's actual weight loss?)

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It is all weight loss. Fat loss? That is more difficult. I think it is common to see the scale fluctuate several pounds through the day. And progress isn't linear for most people. it seems that it takes me about 12 or 15 days and the. I suddenly drop 2 pounds.

You could use an app that will give you your trending weightloss. I have an app on my phone called Happy Scale. I enter my weigh ins everyday and it gives me an average based on how things are trending, and shows me a graph so I can see that it's going down.
This way the fluctuations even out and I can tell if the trending number is going down, staying the same, or going up. I can also see the line on the graph going down, staying the same or going up.

Psychgrrl wrote: »

Weight loss isn't a linear process. But over time, the trend will be downward. It may spike up, but it will head down.

What's your BMR? My observation from what you've posted is there's not a huge difference between your TDEE and your calories consumed. About 300. A calorie deficit of 300/day is between .5 and 1 pound per week loss. And your gender, height and age make a difference, too.

Of course, this depends on your logging accurately. Weighing solids and measuring liquids.

Yes like this. I spiked up, and if I were to break it down by month, you'd see them more, but I spiked a lot but the general trend was still downward.

Labouffecestbon wrote: »

MysticRealm wrote: »

You could use an app that will give you your trending weightloss. I have an app on my phone called Happy Scale. I enter my weigh ins everyday and it gives me an average based on how things are trending, and shows me a graph so I can see that it's going down.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Wouldn't MFP graph be enough?

That's what I use.

I like Trendweight. It gives a nice picture like the Happyscale app.

Zedeff wrote: »

You can overcome fluctuations by ONLY logging your lows. If the lowest point last week is higher than the lowest point this week, then it's pretty likely that you've lost weight. You can't expect every weigh-in to be the lowest ever, but when it IS the lowest ever, you can usually be confident that your weight has decreased. This is even more reliable than logging weekly or bi-weekly or on any time interval, as those can still be challenged by fluctuations.

This is what I do. If I see a number lower than my last entry I log it. If it's up again the next day I don't log it, I just wait to see another number lower. Works for me!

number wrote:

if you're maintaining at 158 with exercise and cutting calories it could just be that you're putting on some muscle.

1 - It's hard for women to build muscle.
2 - It's nearly impossible for anyone to build muscle while eating at a calorie deficit.
I'm thrilled that this calculator says that
I've gained 4 lb of lean body mass while losing over 80 lb of fat. I think it's measurement error, and
have probably only maintained LBM, but I'm perfectly happy with that. At least I haven't lost any
appreciable amount.

.

number wrote:

Also try cutting your daily calories by 100 which is equal to 700 calories a week
and should net you about a pound loss or more in a month.

700 cal/week x 4 weeks/month = 2800 cal/month
1 lb is about 3500 calories


At 5'3", 31yo, & currently 156 lb, this calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine shows that to
maintain your weight you should eat 1407 cal/day if you're inactive. So cut 250 cal/day from that
(1150) to lose 0.5 lb/week. You're short enough that it's probably not going to hurt you to be that
low. That calculator also tells how many servings of the food groups you should eat.

I generally go with the "inactive" setting because it is the most conservative on calories. I probably use
more than that, but I also probably eat more than I log because I don't use a scale & rarely actually
measure volume. The errors cancel out.

And with only 30 lb to lose, it's going to be slow. (That's where I'm stuck right now. Frustrating.)
If you're aiming for a healthy BMI, being 135 would put you at 24.0 & you'd need 1312 cal/day to
maintain if you are inactive.
https://www.bcm.edu/cnrc-apps/healthyeatingcalculator/eatingCal.html

kailyw05 wrote: »

Zedeff wrote: »

You can overcome fluctuations by ONLY logging your lows. If the lowest point last week is higher than the lowest point this week, then it's pretty likely that you've lost weight. You can't expect every weigh-in to be the lowest ever, but when it IS the lowest ever, you can usually be confident that your weight has decreased. This is even more reliable than logging weekly or bi-weekly or on any time interval, as those can still be challenged by fluctuations.

This is what I do. If I see a number lower than my last entry I log it. If it's up again the next day I don't log it, I just wait to see another number lower. Works for me!

Me, too. I write down my weight every day in a separate calendar (to observe trends, etc.), but only log new lows in MFP.

I use Libra (same idea as Happy Scale). I log my weight every day, and even though I thought I was maintaining (bouncing between 177-179), I was actually going down, but only at an overall rate of 0.2 lbs per week.