Please help explain - weight loss after a big "oops" day

VictoryGarden
VictoryGarden Posts: 194 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
Can anyone explain to me how, after being stuck at the same weight for well over a week, and then having a major mess up day, I *LOSE* a pound the next morning after that? Have I accidentally put myself into starvation mode?

During the time of no weight loss (had been losing steadily up to then), I scrupulously weighed/measured and overestimated portion sizes (I prefer homecooking, so use the recipe calculator here, which measures in serving sizes). I even record my lemon water!

FYI, I am also not fully sedentary, and not fully light active. I try to keep it around 1300-1400 cals a day. I did switch from lightly active (which allotted me about 1750/day) to sedentary (which allotted me about 1350/day) during this time. But as I was already eating about that amount while still set to lightly active, I'm not sure that's really a factor.

My diary is open if anyone cares to look. TIA.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    There is no starvation mode in that sense. The explanation is that weight loss is not linear.
  • noon1200
    noon1200 Posts: 35 Member
    Don't treat your daily fluctuations as gains and losses. If your seven-day average is less than it was a week ago, that's a weight loss.
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    Fat cells are funny things. They empty themselves and fill with water (so Lyle MacDonald theorises), making you think all you hard work and hunger is to no avail. Then one day, woosh! They empty.
    Also , muscles and organs fill themselves up with water and glycogen, from food, or to repair, then Woosh!
    Stomachs and digestives systems also decide to perhaps evacuate after a big food event.

    The weird things that have happened to my weight after alcohol and other diuretic situations.

    Look at trends, not every day events.
  • emmycantbemeeko
    emmycantbemeeko Posts: 303 Member
    noon1200 wrote: »
    Don't treat your daily fluctuations as gains and losses. If your seven-day average is less than it was a week ago, that's a weight loss.

    This.

    The bulk of the change in your weight from day to day is not down to fat gain or loss, no matter whether you eat half the fridge or run a massive deficit. It's affected in a much bigger way over a 24-hour period by things like water retention (or not) and waste in your GI tract (or not). Most people can't realistically burn a pound of fat in one day, but you can dehydrate by more than a pound of water, or poop out a pound of waste. So maybe you ate an excess of calories and gained a fraction of a pound of fat, but you also voided a bunch of waste and fluid. Boom, big drop in the number on the scale from yesterday despite eating more than maintenance calories. Or maybe you ate at a big deficit and went for a new super-intense workout class and burned off a fraction of a pound of fat- but you also drank a lot more water that your aching muscles are holding on to for repairs, and you haven't pooped in a day- there's a rise in the number on the scale tomorrow, even though you actually did achieve some fat loss.

    This is why trends are important. Most of us don't have brains that are good at seeing a steady downward trend among a set of varying data points until we put 'em on a graph and it clicks. Things like the average amount of fluid and waste you carry around are going to stay fairly steady over time despite their daily fluctuations, so when viewed over time, that little bit of fat loss each day will move the average down over time, even though the individual data points will continue to spike up and down in a jagged way pretty much forever.

    TL; DR version: You can see the scale number go up after days you were spot-on with everything and down after days that you overate and undermoved. Because day-to-day, that number is not telling you much about your fat.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Sometimes having a big calorie day leads you to go to the bathroom more, which means weight lost.
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