VERY confused!

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gia80
gia80 Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
For the last month and a half or so, I've worked out an average of 6 days/wk, mixed cardio and yoga and walking. I ate around 1400-1700 cals a day and ate exercise calories most of the time.

I lost 7 lbs from 180 to 173 and then sat at that weight for a week.

And then I got frustrated, and for the past 3-4 days I kinda went "off the wagon" and ate lots of chocolate and didn't log food, exercise, etc.

Today I woke up and decided to get back into it, and went to the scale to see how much damage I'd done.

AND I'D LOST 3 LBS. Now I'm at 170!!!

What the heck! :explode: I don't understand this at all. Any idea what's going on? Does this mean I get to eat lot of Reeses peanut butter cups and get skinny? :tongue:

Anyone experience this or have any idea what is happening?

Replies

  • gia80
    gia80 Posts: 8
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    For the last month and a half or so, I've worked out an average of 6 days/wk, mixed cardio and yoga and walking. I ate around 1400-1700 cals a day and ate exercise calories most of the time.

    I lost 7 lbs from 180 to 173 and then sat at that weight for a week.

    And then I got frustrated, and for the past 3-4 days I kinda went "off the wagon" and ate lots of chocolate and didn't log food, exercise, etc.

    Today I woke up and decided to get back into it, and went to the scale to see how much damage I'd done.

    AND I'D LOST 3 LBS. Now I'm at 170!!!

    What the heck! :explode: I don't understand this at all. Any idea what's going on? Does this mean I get to eat lot of Reeses peanut butter cups and get skinny? :tongue:

    Anyone experience this or have any idea what is happening?
  • Phoenix_Rising
    Phoenix_Rising Posts: 11,417 Member
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    Does this mean I get to eat lot of Reeses peanut butter cups and get skinny? :tongue:


    If this works, I'm starting YOUR diet!!! :wink:
  • 3babybeans
    3babybeans Posts: 8,268 Member
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    Banks would probably have a technical answer for this, but here's my answer.

    You're just keeping your body guessing. Your metabolism likes to be fooled. If I ever catch myself starting a plateau, I have a crap day (just one day!) of bad eating & no exercise & (for some reason) it helps kick things back in gear & I'm always headed in the right direction the next day. I get back on the wellness wagon & things just click again.

    OR, you can experiment with that chocolate thing & get back to me. I KNEW there had to be an easier way! :laugh:
  • gia80
    gia80 Posts: 8
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    A girl can dream, huh? :ohwell:
  • mgullette
    mgullette Posts: 401 Member
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    Aww, that's cool that you dropped a few more, but keep in mind how you feel. You probably didn't like the way you were feeling with that junk going in your body!

    I can guarantee you though, you wouldn't be doing your body any favors by continuing to eat all that candy, weight loss or not! Good luck.
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
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    OR, you can experiment with that chocolate thing & get back to me. I KNEW there had to be an easier way! :laugh:

    It won't work! Trust me, I've tried it. :cry:
    I blame a whole ten pounds on the chocolate diet... BOO
  • margz85
    margz85 Posts: 11
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    OMG thats too funny the same thing happens to me!!! I am around the same weight 170 (gained 20lbs since summer) DO NOT ASK ME HOW!!! lol But I have found that when I don't eat my exercise calories I loose weight. I know in the past that is how I lost it. Good Luck! if u need motivation let me know! Once the pounds start dropping from not eating the exercise calories ...you kind of get into a routine and excited...LOL
  • TashaT29
    TashaT29 Posts: 12
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    Good job on your loss.

    I've heard of this happening...it's like sending your body into shock (or as another poster stated 'fooling your metabolism'. I've actually read that some encourage a 'bad' day.

    I certainly wouldn't make it a habit, but don't beat yourself up.
  • aprilvet
    aprilvet Posts: 724 Member
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    I sometimes feel like the scale has a "lag" in it. I can be great for a week and see nothing, then have a not-so-good week and see a drop!:grumble: :noway: Go figure. Most likely, as 3babybeans has said, it causes your metabolism to keep guessing. For MUCH personal experience, though, you can really only get away with this "bad" metabolism boost on a rare occasion. This is probobly I've been unable to lose weight for so many years!!LOL:blushing:
  • joonieB
    joonieB Posts: 101
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    I can't explain it...but I do know what you are talking about. That is why I have one cheat afternoon a week (Sundays between the hours of noon and 7ish). I know that that is an unpopular "thing to do" around here, but hey, it works for me. I have 6 more pounds to lose and I did it through the first 15, no problem. I will say though, that while eating like that now and again can have a good effect (like what you reported) or zero effect, HOWEVER eating like that more often will send you in the other direction. After all, we are all here because we have weight to lose, and my guess is we didn't gain that weight on celery sticks and cucumber slices!
  • jds916
    jds916 Posts: 18 Member
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    A lot of guys that workout a lot tell me that you need to have the occasional 'fun' day. One guy I know who's lost sooo much weight does this every sunday! that's once a week! To my understanding, stress will mess everything up! so you platued (sorry I can't spell i'm an engineer!) and you start to stress about it... and that just doesn't help with weight loss! then you binge, stress goes away, and your body goes back to burning mode. You have to have the Reese's once a week to prevent you from eating the box if you deprive yourself! I would say, at least 2x a month to just let go! but make sure you're behaving all the other days! :drinker:
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    LOL, I have no technical answer for this, besides "lucky" :tongue:

    What I can tell you is that it takes a while for the metabolism to change, so 3 or 4 days your metabolism is probably working at the same rate it was before (or close to it). It could be a million different reasons, it could be that you weren't eating enough, and now 3 or 4 days of eating more told your body "hey, I'm giving you enough cals now, you can start burning energy normally", or it could be that you weren't giving your body enough carbs before, or it could be as simple as something in that "bad" food stimulated your body to drop water weight, or it could be just luck that you were finally in a place where you could burn like you wanted, and you just gave up a couple days early. It's really hard to tell, but just take it for what it is, a plesant surprise, and run with it.
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
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    Banks, I Had nothing to do with it!!!

    But I just had a big cheeseburger and fries and real soda, so maybe my plateau will be broken too! LOL

    Before anybody has anything to say about the "naughty" lunch I just ate, please see my other post for how I spent my morning.

    I earned a cheeseburger, dammit.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Banks, I Had nothing to do with it!!!

    But I just had a big cheeseburger and fries and real soda, so maybe my plateau will be broken too! LOL

    Before anybody has anything to say about the "naughty" lunch I just ate, please see my other post for how I spent my morning.

    I earned a cheeseburger, dammit.

    I'm prophetic! Ha! I knew it! I knew that voice in my head was right. Now ... where is my rifle?

    LL put down the second cheeseburger, I know you have one stashed somewhere! 1 is a shock, 2 is just plain wrong.
  • sassyredgirl
    sassyredgirl Posts: 162 Member
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    I done the same thing was sick all last week so i went out to eat a couple times so i went to the gym today worried on how much i put back on and there it was another 2lbs down. I agree with a few others about giving ur system a shock and keeping it guessing. Good job though!

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