Confused on Weight Loss/Gain...

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sbrezo82
sbrezo82 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I'm a little confused. Mon-Fri I do Intermittent Fasting (16:8) and exercise 5 days. I weight myself daily (just for the heck of it) and it shifts 1-2lbs (157-158lbs). Come the weekend - I don't exercise, eat breakfast, don't count calories and all around unscheduled days. I do have 2.5 kids (5yr, 2yr, 8wk) and they keep me busy.

I weight myself Monday morning expecting to gain 3-5lbs and I'm actually LESS (156.4lbs today) than I was all the previous week. Huh? How is this. It makes me think/feel that my calorie counting, exercising, etc... is pointless sometimes. Could sometime give me some insight to why this might be happening? Is it that I'm more carefree on the weekends and less stressed?

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Because weight loss isn't linear
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Your body consists of more than just fat. Those other things weigh something too, and some of them, like water and waste, come and go, much as they please. So you never weigh X.X pounds; a reading on the scale is just a snapshot, i tells you where you are in that particular cycle. At any time, or within any given week, your weight is within a range of up to 6-7-8 pounds. This fact does not change depending on whether you are gaining, losing or maintaining weight. You will get a clearer picture of this if you continue to weigh yourself daily and look at the trend over time.
  • BootyEvolve
    BootyEvolve Posts: 45 Member
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    sbrezo82 wrote: »
    So I'm a little confused. Mon-Fri I do Intermittent Fasting (16:8) and exercise 5 days. I weight myself daily (just for the heck of it) and it shifts 1-2lbs (157-158lbs). Come the weekend - I don't exercise, eat breakfast, don't count calories and all around unscheduled days. I do have 2.5 kids (5yr, 2yr, 8wk) and they keep me busy.

    I weight myself Monday morning expecting to gain 3-5lbs and I'm actually LESS (156.4lbs today) than I was all the previous week. Huh? How is this. It makes me think/feel that my calorie counting, exercising, etc... is pointless sometimes. Could sometime give me some insight to why this might be happening? Is it that I'm more carefree on the weekends and less stressed?

    I think it's the exercising. When you take a break your body has time to repair. I usually weigh more when I am sore or exercising. They say to usually weigh after you had a rest day because then your body has had time to repair it from the stress. Working out = small tears in muscle = water retention
  • edlanglais5
    edlanglais5 Posts: 172 Member
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    The above comments make a lot of sense. Also, the human body taking 3-5 days to digest food can explain a lot as well.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    I'm curious why you were expecting to gain 3-5 lbs after a relaxed weekend. It would be pretty challenging to eat enough calories in two days to create even three lbs of fat (that's 10.5k calories over your maintenance), and since you are eating less during the week, you're probably balancing out the weekend. I can manage maybe 4-5k in a day on a serious bender, but since I'm burning about 2400 maintaining my weight, I still couldn't gain 3+ lbs even if I could somehow manage that twice in a row (most of that would have to be booze).

    In any case, you've got to track your weight over weeks and months, not days. As others have said, the daily fluctuations are normal and you can't do anything to control them.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
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    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    I'm curious why you were expecting to gain 3-5 lbs after a relaxed weekend. It would be pretty challenging to eat enough calories in two days to create even three lbs of fat (that's 10.5k calories over your maintenance), and since you are eating less during the week, you're probably balancing out the weekend. I can manage maybe 4-5k in a day on a serious bender, but since I'm burning about 2400 maintaining my weight, I still couldn't gain 3+ lbs even if I could somehow manage that twice in a row (most of that would have to be booze).

    In any case, you've got to track your weight over weeks and months, not days. As others have said, the daily fluctuations are normal and you can't do anything to control them.

    A large domino's pep pizza is 2400 calories, you would have to eat 4.4 large pizzas by yourself in 2 days, Above your daily calorie needs. which is essentially a large pizza per day, so unless they somehow ate 6 large pizzas by themselves in 2 days, there is no way they gained 3 lbs of fat.

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