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A funny thing happened on my way to the maintenance...

wrharvill
wrharvill Posts: 60 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So there I was, losing about a 1/2 pound a week on 1240 calories (I'm 5'3" btw) when I found myself joyfully at my goal weight of 130 pounds. I decided on easing down to 127 pounds so that I'd have a nice range to roam thereby not freaking out at a number on the scale. I'm not a big exerciser, I do some walking but nothing major or even regular. Before I hit 130 I'd never eat my exorcise calories back because there were just too few of them and I wanted to account for the possibility of innacurate weighing or food selection on the list. Anywho, once I reached 129 pounds a couple of days ago, my fear of being able to maintain literally vanished- no explination for that- so, though I still log and will continue to do so I also started eating *more food* including up to and even over the allowance and exercise calories... all of them. I dropped another 2 pounds in 3 days. I think it's my metabolism ramping up, I have no other explination for it. Thoughts?

Replies

  • juliebowman4
    juliebowman4 Posts: 784 Member
    No explanations here....I'm no expert.
    But a hearty smile for you and a sincere 'atta'girl' for reaching your goal.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited September 2016
    Be careful. Eating in maintenance can be a slippery slope to weight gain. I would say it takes more discipline to eat in maintenance than to lose weight, because there is very little to no wiggle room if you over eat.

    Scale's aren't the best way to judge things. There could be a number of reasons you went down 2 lbs. I would slowly raise your calorie goal by 100 until you get to your maintenance kcal goal. Whatever you do, keep an eye on it.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    This could be due to "dieter's edema", in which eating at a deficit causes your cortisol level to increase, which in turn results in water retention. Once you go back to eating at maintenance, your cortisol goes down and you lose the water weight. This is sometimes the cause of the "whoosh" people can experience. I had this happen recently--went to the beach over the Labor Day weekend and ate about 300 above maintenance for two days, after having eaten at a deficit for 7 weeks. I expected to have at least gained food weight and water weight from sodium, but when I returned home and weighed the next morning, I had lost 2.5 lbs! No good explanation except water loss.
    So effectively, over time you had lost more weight than you thought, but water retention was masking it. That's my two cents, anyway! Congrats!
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    I would like to add that to lose 2 actual lbs over 3 days, your metabolism would have to ramp up to burn over 2000 extra calories each of those days. I say lost water weight is much more likely.
  • wrharvill
    wrharvill Posts: 60 Member
    Ah, that all makes so much sense! Thanks everyone :smiley:
This discussion has been closed.

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