How long until the scale moves?
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txblondiee
Posts: 16 Member
Hey everyone!
I have a question about how long it takes after starting a fairly intense workout regiment to see a drop on the scale??
about 6 weeks ago I started dieting... I lost about 7 pounds in 2 weeks.
about 4 weeks ago I started tracking on MFP and working out.. the first week I did 2 workouts, the next week I did 3, and for the last 3 weeks we (my partner and I) have been doing 4 workouts a week, mod-high intensity (20-30 minutes HIIT,30-45 min weight training, on a 4 day split.
up until 4 weeks ago, I wasn't working out at all, for about 2 years.
The problem is the scale isn't budging, and I have about 30-35 pounds to lose. Shouldn't it have moved by now? In fact the scale has been fluctuating UP about 2 pounds after workouts, and then goes back down on my rest days. shouldn't it be trending downward more?
I'm tracking calories first but also macros, I'm following a 25C-40-35.
Basically I just wanted to know if other people experienced such a wait... before a drop in weight (haha)
Thank you!
I have a question about how long it takes after starting a fairly intense workout regiment to see a drop on the scale??
about 6 weeks ago I started dieting... I lost about 7 pounds in 2 weeks.
about 4 weeks ago I started tracking on MFP and working out.. the first week I did 2 workouts, the next week I did 3, and for the last 3 weeks we (my partner and I) have been doing 4 workouts a week, mod-high intensity (20-30 minutes HIIT,30-45 min weight training, on a 4 day split.
up until 4 weeks ago, I wasn't working out at all, for about 2 years.
The problem is the scale isn't budging, and I have about 30-35 pounds to lose. Shouldn't it have moved by now? In fact the scale has been fluctuating UP about 2 pounds after workouts, and then goes back down on my rest days. shouldn't it be trending downward more?
I'm tracking calories first but also macros, I'm following a 25C-40-35.
Basically I just wanted to know if other people experienced such a wait... before a drop in weight (haha)
Thank you!
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Replies
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You just started what sounds like new exercise, and quickly increased the amount of said intensity. New exercise causes temporary water weight that can last for a couple weeks more or less. As long as your weighing your food, tracking accurately and not eating back too many exercise calories you should eventually see the scale go down. 2lbs up is a pretty reasonable water weight fluctuation.2
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MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »You just started what sounds like new exercise, and quickly increased the amount of said intensity. New exercise causes temporary water weight that can last for a couple weeks more or less. As long as your weighing your food, tracking accurately and not eating back too many exercise calories you should eventually see the scale go down. 2lbs up is a pretty reasonable water weight fluctuation.
Yes it's all new, before I had my son I was in really good shape, but with sciatica and SPD I had to stop working out around 15 weeks pregnant and then my SPD got so bad I couldn't even walk more than a few steps at a time by about 19 weeks. so I've been out of the workout game for almost 4 years until recently. I need to be better about weighing my proteins, I usually estimate on the high side and for most other foods I use measuring cups. is that not as accurate as weighing? either way, I have enough of a deficit in both diet and especially with my workouts that I thought it would for sure be going down by now.0 -
txblondiee wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »You just started what sounds like new exercise, and quickly increased the amount of said intensity. New exercise causes temporary water weight that can last for a couple weeks more or less. As long as your weighing your food, tracking accurately and not eating back too many exercise calories you should eventually see the scale go down. 2lbs up is a pretty reasonable water weight fluctuation.
Yes it's all new, before I had my son I was in really good shape, but with sciatica and SPD I had to stop working out around 15 weeks pregnant and then my SPD got so bad I couldn't even walk more than a few steps at a time by about 19 weeks. so I've been out of the workout game for almost 4 years until recently. I need to be better about weighing my proteins, I usually estimate on the high side and for most other foods I use measuring cups. is that not as accurate as weighing? either way, I have enough of a deficit in both diet and especially with my workouts that I thought it would for sure be going down by now.
Nope, measuring cups are pretty inaccurate except for perhaps liquids. Weigh food on a food scale, even protein powder if you have protein shakes. It's your calorie deficit that's going to determine weight loss, but the right macro combination can help with staying satisfied which helps you stick to that deficit. Track everything accurately for 4-6 weeks and then assess your results. That'll give you enough time to get an idea of whether anything needs tweaking or not, and not let fluctuations like temporary water weight or TOM skew the results. I weigh daily in the morning and record my weigh-ins on the Libra app.3 -
MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »txblondiee wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »You just started what sounds like new exercise, and quickly increased the amount of said intensity. New exercise causes temporary water weight that can last for a couple weeks more or less. As long as your weighing your food, tracking accurately and not eating back too many exercise calories you should eventually see the scale go down. 2lbs up is a pretty reasonable water weight fluctuation.
Yes it's all new, before I had my son I was in really good shape, but with sciatica and SPD I had to stop working out around 15 weeks pregnant and then my SPD got so bad I couldn't even walk more than a few steps at a time by about 19 weeks. so I've been out of the workout game for almost 4 years until recently. I need to be better about weighing my proteins, I usually estimate on the high side and for most other foods I use measuring cups. is that not as accurate as weighing? either way, I have enough of a deficit in both diet and especially with my workouts that I thought it would for sure be going down by now.
Nope, measuring cups are pretty inaccurate except for perhaps liquids. Weigh food on a food scale, even protein powder if you have protein shakes. It's your calorie deficit that's going to determine weight loss, but the right macro combination can help with staying satisfied which helps you stick to that deficit. Track everything accurately for 4-6 weeks and then assess your results. That'll give you enough time to get an idea of whether anything needs tweaking or not, and not let fluctuations like temporary water weight or TOM skew the results. I weigh daily in the morning and record my weigh-ins on the Libra app.
Ok, I will try that. I usually do frozen meals for lunch (Atkins), and greek yogurt (individual cups) plus I count out 20 raspberries for breakfast, so I feel like that's pretty accurate, give or take. I just made my protein egg cups for the morning to alternate, and I measured all the liquids when I made them, so that should be accurate. Dinner is usually my guestimate meal, that I overestimate on. And I drink a gallon+ of water a day.
So it takes about 4-6 weeks to notice a change sometimes?0 -
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txblondiee wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »txblondiee wrote: »MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »You just started what sounds like new exercise, and quickly increased the amount of said intensity. New exercise causes temporary water weight that can last for a couple weeks more or less. As long as your weighing your food, tracking accurately and not eating back too many exercise calories you should eventually see the scale go down. 2lbs up is a pretty reasonable water weight fluctuation.
Yes it's all new, before I had my son I was in really good shape, but with sciatica and SPD I had to stop working out around 15 weeks pregnant and then my SPD got so bad I couldn't even walk more than a few steps at a time by about 19 weeks. so I've been out of the workout game for almost 4 years until recently. I need to be better about weighing my proteins, I usually estimate on the high side and for most other foods I use measuring cups. is that not as accurate as weighing? either way, I have enough of a deficit in both diet and especially with my workouts that I thought it would for sure be going down by now.
Nope, measuring cups are pretty inaccurate except for perhaps liquids. Weigh food on a food scale, even protein powder if you have protein shakes. It's your calorie deficit that's going to determine weight loss, but the right macro combination can help with staying satisfied which helps you stick to that deficit. Track everything accurately for 4-6 weeks and then assess your results. That'll give you enough time to get an idea of whether anything needs tweaking or not, and not let fluctuations like temporary water weight or TOM skew the results. I weigh daily in the morning and record my weigh-ins on the Libra app.
Ok, I will try that. I usually do frozen meals for lunch (Atkins), and greek yogurt (individual cups) plus I count out 20 raspberries for breakfast, so I feel like that's pretty accurate, give or take. I just made my protein egg cups for the morning to alternate, and I measured all the liquids when I made them, so that should be accurate. Dinner is usually my guestimate meal, that I overestimate on. And I drink a gallon+ of water a day.
So it takes about 4-6 weeks to notice a change sometimes?
4-6 weeks just gives you a better time frame than say 2 weeks, where a fluctuation can throw you off. I've gone a week with water weight hiding weight loss, and then having a big whoosh. Weight loss isn't linear and it's not uncommon to go a week or two or even three before seeing a sudden big drop. Giving it 4-6 weeks gives you more data to look over. Fruits and veg for the most part are so low cal that you can safely guesstimate, the only fruits you'd have to worry about are things like bananas and avocados. But everything else you should weigh, even pre-packaged stuff. Sometimes it's pretty spot-on in terms of weight, and sometimes the actual weight of what you're eating can be enough to actually make a calorie difference.2 -
What are your stats - height, current weight, goal weight, current calories set by MFP, desired rate of loss?
My reason for asking is that you appear rather slim in your profile photo so we should be cautious giving advice on weight loss if you’re already at a healthy or low BMI. A recomp program may be more suitable for you and give the results you desire.2 -
sarabushby wrote: »What are your stats - height, current weight, goal weight, current calories set by MFP, desired rate of loss?
My reason for asking is that you appear rather slim in your profile photo so we should be cautious giving advice on weight loss if you’re already at a healthy or low BMI. A recomp program may be more suitable for you and give the results you desire.
I understand
looking at my face and neck area you wouldn't necessarily guess that I'm overweight.
I'm 5'9 1/2, currently 185, trying to get back to 155, and reevaluate. I 152-155 before I had my son, and in the best shape of my life. I got back down to 168 post pregnancy, not really doing anything other than eating relatively clean because that's actually the way I prefer to eat.
Then when I weaned him last spring my thyroid went insane and my weight jumped up about 25 pounds in a matter of months, when I was actually eating even cleaner (whole 30 clean) than I had in the 2 years prior.
I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and I'm currently treating with an array of natural supplements (under the supervision of my DR), giving it 5-6 months to stabilize, if that doesn't work then we will switch to synthetic hormones/ medications.
What is a recomp program? Just focused on building muscle? That's what I'm currently doing, heavy weights + HIIT.
as far as MFP I believe the settings generated like a 1650 calorie goal, I'm going off of the Scooby calculator though which gave me about 1717 calories based on my workouts. I try to stay between 1600 and 1700 though, mostly focusing on hitting my protein goal first then fat.
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sarabushby wrote: »What are your stats - height, current weight, goal weight, current calories set by MFP, desired rate of loss?
My reason for asking is that you appear rather slim in your profile photo so we should be cautious giving advice on weight loss if you’re already at a healthy or low BMI. A recomp program may be more suitable for you and give the results you desire.
I know it might take longer with thyroid issues to lose weight, my gf has struggled for years with hypo, but even still with following a 20% deficit and the workouts I really thought I would see a drop on the scale by now.0 -
I'm definitely going to start weighing everything, thank you so much for that suggestion Michelle!!
I saw someone else post this video about the importance of weighing everyyhing in the forums, and I thought I would share here too for anyone who runs across this post. it's only 3 minutes but def worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.be 1 -
Just a quick thing on the prepackaged food, whether it is frozen or a bar, the calorie count is not necessarily accurate. Some bars will fluctuate up/down 10+ grams which is a small thing in an individual case, but can add up. Same with frozen meals. Some may be more, some less.
Also, Atkins in particular is quite sneaky in their nutrition info label. If you look at their nutrition info and try to add up the macros, you will notice the listed calorie number is significantly lower than what the 4/c, 4/p, 9/f additions would give you. This is because they are a NET carb based diet plan so they subtract dietary fiber away from total carbs and then do their calculations. Again, isn't much on an individual meal, but if that is all you eat you will be way off in your calcs.
I understand the time it takes to shop/prepare/cook/store all of your meals is extremely daunting, but it is the only way you can assure 100% accuracy. Most people ( you and I included ) don't really need to be that on point to achieve our goals, but it is worth it to me to negate any possible variables out of my control.1 -
Scottgriesser wrote: »Just a quick thing on the prepackaged food, whether it is frozen or a bar, the calorie count is not necessarily accurate. Some bars will fluctuate up/down 10+ grams which is a small thing in an individual case, but can add up. Same with frozen meals. Some may be more, some less.
Also, Atkins in particular is quite sneaky in their nutrition info label. If you look at their nutrition info and try to add up the macros, you will notice the listed calorie number is significantly lower than what the 4/c, 4/p, 9/f additions would give you. This is because they are a NET carb based diet plan so they subtract dietary fiber away from total carbs and then do their calculations. Again, isn't much on an individual meal, but if that is all you eat you will be way off in your calcs.
I understand the time it takes to shop/prepare/cook/store all of your meals is extremely daunting, but it is the only way you can assure 100% accuracy. Most people ( you and I included ) don't really need to be that on point to achieve our goals, but it is worth it to me to negate any possible variables out of my control.
I know, the sodium is really high too! I was meaning to meal prep this weekend and get back into that but we were at my in laws helping with yard work all day and didn't get back until really late, but I totally agree, before when I got in really great shape I weighed everything and meal prepped twice a week. I need to stop taking short cuts, however I really thought they weighed the packaged foods and that the calories/macros listed were accurate!! I had NO idea they weren't, I thought it was just the sodium that was bad. I'm learning so much on this thread already yall, thank you so much!!!
So that right there might be a big part of my problem. I used to (first go 'round in 2014) weigh my greek yogurt and count my berries each time, but this time I've been trying to squeeze as much "healthy" into my life with as little time, so I bought the individual cups which say they're 90 cals a container. But if the containers are off, and you add that to my prepackaged lunches, really only my dinners have been accurate, most likely!!
After this thread yesterday when I went to enter my lunch I noticed that there are entries on MFP with titles like "Atkins - Meat Lasagna (Total Carbs)" meaning I've probably been logging the NET for the last few weeks!!
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txblondiee wrote: »Scottgriesser wrote: »Just a quick thing on the prepackaged food, whether it is frozen or a bar, the calorie count is not necessarily accurate. Some bars will fluctuate up/down 10+ grams which is a small thing in an individual case, but can add up. Same with frozen meals. Some may be more, some less.
Also, Atkins in particular is quite sneaky in their nutrition info label. If you look at their nutrition info and try to add up the macros, you will notice the listed calorie number is significantly lower than what the 4/c, 4/p, 9/f additions would give you. This is because they are a NET carb based diet plan so they subtract dietary fiber away from total carbs and then do their calculations. Again, isn't much on an individual meal, but if that is all you eat you will be way off in your calcs.
I understand the time it takes to shop/prepare/cook/store all of your meals is extremely daunting, but it is the only way you can assure 100% accuracy. Most people ( you and I included ) don't really need to be that on point to achieve our goals, but it is worth it to me to negate any possible variables out of my control.
I know, the sodium is really high too! I was meaning to meal prep this weekend and get back into that but we were at my in laws helping with yard work all day and didn't get back until really late, but I totally agree, before when I got in really great shape I weighed everything and meal prepped twice a week. I need to stop taking short cuts, however I really thought they weighed the packaged foods and that the calories/macros listed were accurate!! I had NO idea they weren't, I thought it was just the sodium that was bad. I'm learning so much on this thread already yall, thank you so much!!!
So that right there might be a big part of my problem. I used to (first go 'round in 2014) weigh my greek yogurt and count my berries each time, but this time I've been trying to squeeze as much "healthy" into my life with as little time, so I bought the individual cups which say they're 90 cals a container. But if the containers are off, and you add that to my prepackaged lunches, really only my dinners have been accurate, most likely!!
After this thread yesterday when I went to enter my lunch I noticed that there are entries on MFP with titles like "Atkins - Meat Lasagna (Total Carbs)" meaning I've probably been logging the NET for the last few weeks!!
Just as an example, I eat a protein bar every day for lunch (because I like it) the weight listed is 50g typically they weigh from 45g to 62g. 9/10 times they weigh over 50g. It doesn't seem like much when it's only 10-20 calories but doing it every work day was some weeks 100 calories of my deficit gone and I didn't even realize.
Now do that on more than one food (looking at you single serve yogurt) and suddenly it wasn't hard to see why I wasn't losing as fast as I should have been....1 -
It takes time. Weight goes on quick comes off slowly.1
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I didn't see solid progress on the scale until weeks 5-6.1
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txblondiee wrote: »Scottgriesser wrote: »Just a quick thing on the prepackaged food, whether it is frozen or a bar, the calorie count is not necessarily accurate. Some bars will fluctuate up/down 10+ grams which is a small thing in an individual case, but can add up. Same with frozen meals. Some may be more, some less.
Also, Atkins in particular is quite sneaky in their nutrition info label. If you look at their nutrition info and try to add up the macros, you will notice the listed calorie number is significantly lower than what the 4/c, 4/p, 9/f additions would give you. This is because they are a NET carb based diet plan so they subtract dietary fiber away from total carbs and then do their calculations. Again, isn't much on an individual meal, but if that is all you eat you will be way off in your calcs.
I understand the time it takes to shop/prepare/cook/store all of your meals is extremely daunting, but it is the only way you can assure 100% accuracy. Most people ( you and I included ) don't really need to be that on point to achieve our goals, but it is worth it to me to negate any possible variables out of my control.
I know, the sodium is really high too! I was meaning to meal prep this weekend and get back into that but we were at my in laws helping with yard work all day and didn't get back until really late, but I totally agree, before when I got in really great shape I weighed everything and meal prepped twice a week. I need to stop taking short cuts, however I really thought they weighed the packaged foods and that the calories/macros listed were accurate!! I had NO idea they weren't, I thought it was just the sodium that was bad. I'm learning so much on this thread already yall, thank you so much!!!
So that right there might be a big part of my problem. I used to (first go 'round in 2014) weigh my greek yogurt and count my berries each time, but this time I've been trying to squeeze as much "healthy" into my life with as little time, so I bought the individual cups which say they're 90 cals a container. But if the containers are off, and you add that to my prepackaged lunches, really only my dinners have been accurate, most likely!!
After this thread yesterday when I went to enter my lunch I noticed that there are entries on MFP with titles like "Atkins - Meat Lasagna (Total Carbs)" meaning I've probably been logging the NET for the last few weeks!!
Just as an example, I eat a protein bar every day for lunch (because I like it) the weight listed is 50g typically they weigh from 45g to 62g. 9/10 times they weigh over 50g. It doesn't seem like much when it's only 10-20 calories but doing it every work day was some weeks 100 calories of my deficit gone and I didn't even realize.
Now do that on more than one food (looking at you single serve yogurt) and suddenly it wasn't hard to see why I wasn't losing as fast as I should have been....
This is SOOOO helpful, thank you!!! So how do you change it, just do like 1 and 1/8 serving or as close as you can get without going under?0
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