Can someone please help me understand?

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justjenny
justjenny Posts: 529 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been logging my food, working out, and tracking my weight with WeightGrapher. I started slowly losing ounces, then after one week, it was a pound. Then I remained pretty flat with my weight for another week. I am in week three, and my daughter's birthday was this past weekend, and I didn't log food, and ate stuff I don't normally eat. Hero, and birthday cake. I had one slice of each and a couple of glasses of wine. In two days I am up 2 pounds. I know it is salt and water, but if it goes on overnight, why does it not come off as easy? How long before I am back to "normal"? I have been running and drinking a TON of water. I am beginning to think that maybe I have an allergy to something? It stinks that on the weekend, even when I figure in a splurge, that it completely derails me for a week. I am making no progress at all, and it is very frustrating. Does this happen to anyone else?

Replies

  • franceskondwros
    franceskondwros Posts: 1 Member
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    Yep every time I eat to much salty delicious food. Just keep at it. Don't look at the scale daily. I went to doctor on Friday was 220.5. got on this this morning it read 223.9. I was a couch potato this weekend but stayed with in my goals. It will fall off if you keep at it. You didn't gain all your weight overnight it will take time to get it off. Just don't stop. Even when you get to where you want to be. Don't stop counting. All calories add up the free ones and the delicious ones.
  • justjenny
    justjenny Posts: 529 Member
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    Thank you Frances. It just gets so frustrating. I try to figure out that one food that does it to me, and there is no rhyme or reason. I had ravioli for dinner last night and I am down today, yet, one piece of hero puts me up? Go figure. Lol.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    Yup, many times. I hate to say it but it seems to take a week or two to get back down but then often there is a good loss in a week or so. I find that I average out over time. Don't let it defeat you. I have a chart I use to calculate the average loss over months and that seems to make me feel better. Sometimes I see a gain but then there are several weeks with losses. I'm on my last 7 pounds so my average loss is .5 a week and that is what I expect on the calories I'm eating. Don't let it get you down... It's normal.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    There's a host of reasons why water weight goes: sodium/carb intake, hormones (especially ones related to a woman's cycle), lack of sleep, stress, etc. It doesn't always disappear right away either. Some women gain a week before their period starts and keep that weight for 10-14 days. Keep doing what you're doing.
  • justjenny
    justjenny Posts: 529 Member
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    Thanks Cheryl. I only want to lose 15 pounds, so that may be the problem too.
  • kokonani
    kokonani Posts: 507 Member
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    About 3 days or more for water weight to come off..
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    Yeah, in the beginning I lost 1.4 a week but now .5 makes me happy. I'm down 86 pounds but the last few are stubborn. The less you have to lose the harder it seems to be. I guess there's less deficit to work with.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,944 Member
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    justjenny wrote: »
    I have been logging my food, working out, and tracking my weight with WeightGrapher. I started slowly losing ounces, then after one week, it was a pound. Then I remained pretty flat with my weight for another week. I am in week three, and my daughter's birthday was this past weekend, and I didn't log food, and ate stuff I don't normally eat. Hero, and birthday cake. I had one slice of each and a couple of glasses of wine. In two days I am up 2 pounds. I know it is salt and water, but if it goes on overnight, why does it not come off as easy? How long before I am back to "normal"? I have been running and drinking a TON of water. I am beginning to think that maybe I have an allergy to something? It stinks that on the weekend, even when I figure in a splurge, that it completely derails me for a week. I am making no progress at all, and it is very frustrating. Does this happen to anyone else?

    First ... ease back on the water. Water has weight and if you haven't started releasing the water retention (peeing copious amounts) yet, you're retaining all the water you're drinking. Keep it to about 2 litres a day.

    Second ... it takes 3 days for water retention to let go, from my experience. I'll exercise lots, retain the water, and 3 days later, I wear a track in the carpet to the toilet.

    Third ... I gained most of my weight by eating well during the week ... and letting it go on the weekend. It's amazing just how many calories you can consume in a couple days. My weight gain was very slow until one day ... I was overweight. When I decided to lose weight, I had to stick to it for a full 16 weeks with absolutely no days off whatsoever. That worked. :)

  • dasher602014
    dasher602014 Posts: 1,992 Member
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    Just keep going. Choose wisely every time you eat. Stay off the scale except for once a week.
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
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    kokonani wrote: »
    About 3 days or more for water weight to come off..

    About this... I get more salt/sodium over the weekend and my lowest weight is always on Friday. Highest is Monday and little or no change to Tuesday... then down a bit on Wednesday, more Thursday, and lowest Friday. For me it's roughly 165 Monday/Tuesday, 164 Wednesday, 162ish Thursday, and 160 Friday.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,944 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    mburgess458 wrote: »
    kokonani wrote: »
    About 3 days or more for water weight to come off..

    About this... I get more salt/sodium over the weekend and my lowest weight is always on Friday. Highest is Monday and little or no change to Tuesday... then down a bit on Wednesday, more Thursday, and lowest Friday. For me it's roughly 165 Monday/Tuesday, 164 Wednesday, 162ish Thursday, and 160 Friday.

    This is my predictable pattern as well - I'm in maintenance but similar pattern when I was losing. I can also pinpoint the highest weight of the month and the lowest weight of the month based on my cycle.

    And those suggesting to only weigh in once a week, I actually disagree with that advice. For people who are bothered by seeing the normal weight fluctuations from so many reasons, I think weighing daily (and maybe logging weight in a trend weight app) helps assuage the concerns so that you realize that this is normal, and that overall the trend line is going down, even with some temporary spikes like what OP is worried about.

    Yes!

    I weigh daily and I know my fluctuations ... it's almost all completely predictable. Once in a while it'll toss me something unexpected ... that might have happened 3 or 4 times in the last couple years ... but the rest of the time there's a completely logical explanation why my weight is going up or down. And it is all about the trend.
  • justjenny
    justjenny Posts: 529 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    mburgess458 wrote: »
    kokonani wrote: »
    About 3 days or more for water weight to come off..

    About this... I get more salt/sodium over the weekend and my lowest weight is always on Friday. Highest is Monday and little or no change to Tuesday... then down a bit on Wednesday, more Thursday, and lowest Friday. For me it's roughly 165 Monday/Tuesday, 164 Wednesday, 162ish Thursday, and 160 Friday.

    This is my predictable pattern as well - I'm in maintenance but similar pattern when I was losing. I can also pinpoint the highest weight of the month and the lowest weight of the month based on my cycle.

    And those suggesting to only weigh in once a week, I actually disagree with that advice. For people who are bothered by seeing the normal weight fluctuations from so many reasons, I think weighing daily (and maybe logging weight in a trend weight app) helps assuage the concerns so that you realize that this is normal, and that overall the trend line is going down, even with some temporary spikes like what OP is worried about.

    Thank you. I like to see how what I eat, and what I do affects my weight loss. I guess I am just trying to figure out what works best for me. I do see a trend over a week, so I am happy that I made progress, but I just want to see more than a pound loss over the course of a month. I am hoping in the next 2 weeks I can lose another pound or so. I am thinking that is realistic. No?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    justjenny wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    mburgess458 wrote: »
    kokonani wrote: »
    About 3 days or more for water weight to come off..

    About this... I get more salt/sodium over the weekend and my lowest weight is always on Friday. Highest is Monday and little or no change to Tuesday... then down a bit on Wednesday, more Thursday, and lowest Friday. For me it's roughly 165 Monday/Tuesday, 164 Wednesday, 162ish Thursday, and 160 Friday.

    This is my predictable pattern as well - I'm in maintenance but similar pattern when I was losing. I can also pinpoint the highest weight of the month and the lowest weight of the month based on my cycle.

    And those suggesting to only weigh in once a week, I actually disagree with that advice. For people who are bothered by seeing the normal weight fluctuations from so many reasons, I think weighing daily (and maybe logging weight in a trend weight app) helps assuage the concerns so that you realize that this is normal, and that overall the trend line is going down, even with some temporary spikes like what OP is worried about.

    Thank you. I like to see how what I eat, and what I do affects my weight loss. I guess I am just trying to figure out what works best for me. I do see a trend over a week, so I am happy that I made progress, but I just want to see more than a pound loss over the course of a month. I am hoping in the next 2 weeks I can lose another pound or so. I am thinking that is realistic. No?

    With 15 lbs to lose, an appropriate goal would be to lose 0.5 lb/week, so yeah, you could see the scale drop by a pound in the next 2 weeks. When someone isn't losing at the rate they desire, it is usually less about the specific foods they ate (a hero and some cake) and more about the accuracy of their logging to ensure that they are maintaining a consistent deficit. The weekend indulgence is just the water retention - the bigger thing to focus on is how accurately you are logging your calories in, and how you are measuring calories out and if you are eating those back (following MFP method you should, but some people find the exercise burns are inflated so something to be aware of).

    The other thing I've noted for myself, and this is simply anecdotal and not really based in anything other than the fact that I've been here for about 4 years now - is that the actual impact of my efforts take about 2 weeks to show up on the scale. When I was losing, and had a super diligent week, at or just below calories all week, no salty foods or anything that would spike water retention - I didn't see any immediate change. However a week or two later, I would suddenly have a little whoosh and get that validation that my efforts were paying off. Similarly, on a week when I have a lot of indulgences, even accounting for the water retention, sometimes the next week I wouldn't see any major change on the scale but a week later I would be up rather inexplicably. So for me, there is usually a full week lag in both the positive and negative outcomes of my efforts.

    Which, since I just came back from vacation and am already comfortably back in my maintenance range - means that next week I will be up a little, even with getting back on track now that I'm home. But I've been doing this long enough to not be bothered by this and to even expect it, so I'm not going to sweat it.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,217 Member
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    cheryldumais wrote: »
    Yeah, in the beginning I lost 1.4 a week but now .5 makes me happy. I'm down 86 pounds but the last few are stubborn. The less you have to lose the harder it seems to be. I guess there's less deficit to work with.

    You hit the nail on the head; the closer you get to an ideal or healthy weight the higher percentage of your body weight you're trying to lose. If you start at 225 and try to get to 150; the first pound is only 0.4% of your weight where the last will be 0.667%, and even more drastic when if you consider lean mass and not overall weight. It may not seem like a huge difference but that does make it harder to drive change.
    justjenny wrote:
    Thank you. I like to see how what I eat, and what I do affects my weight loss. I guess I am just trying to figure out what works best for me. I do see a trend over a week, so I am happy that I made progress, but I just want to see more than a pound loss over the course of a month. I am hoping in the next 2 weeks I can lose another pound or so. I am thinking that is realistic. No?

    That observation and adjustment is all part of this process. MFP is pretty solid but the standard settings are very broad approximations attempting to apply to a very wide range of people. You've got the right approach to try to be mindful and analytical about how certain things affect you. Something you may want to consider is adjusting your macro split or sodium limit. I noticed over the first few weeks/months of logging back in 2011 that being under on carbs and at my limit or even a little over on calories I would see better progress than if I hit all my numbers across the board. Especially since I'm assuming your calorie level is set fairly low being within striking distance of your goal weight that trading carbs for protein might help with satiety throughout the week which can curb weekend excursions.

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