Curiosity - do you see a pattern in your weight loss

jelleigh
jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Since weight loss isn't linear, I'm guessing most people see an up and down pattern in their tend line.
Obviously what you eat, level of sodium, etc. will impact your daily weigh in, but for those who are on a steady down trend do you see a pattern in how the ups and downs work?
I was just looking at my trend and since September 1st it essentially goes down, down, down, up (sometimes two days of a slight uptick) and repeats. So 3 days falling and one or two upticks then again the 3 days falling. Thought it was interesting to see a pattern like that. Does anyone else have this?
And if my intake is fairly consistent, I wonder what causes every third day to uptick.. 🤔
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Replies

  • jhanleybrown
    jhanleybrown Posts: 240 Member
    A lot of up and down with a downward trend. I go for a longer bike ride on the weekend and I seem to get a nice dip 2 days after a longer ride then random up and down (with a downward trend) rest of week.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,130 Member
    It's not just limited to what you're eating affecting it.

    It could be a more intense or different workout, it could be that you drank more fluid than normal, it could be that you didn't go to the bathroom as much that day, it could be hormonal (ovulation/pre-period/period related bloating), it could be a food intolerance, it could be all sorts of things.

    I tend to spike up around 4 days before my period and again at the beginning of ovulation.

    I also might spike up when I have been doing my strength training routines, as it's progressive overload, so I am consistently increasing the intensity either through extra weight or reps.

    I recently discovered that I have a mild intolerance to dairy milk and often bloat more after eating products with milk in unless it's just a small part of a recipe.

  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    My weekend eating habits are different than my weekday habits so there are changes that fluctuate there. I am a female with a menstrual cycle so I see changes that fluctuate throughout the month as well.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    It's quite easy for me to connect the patterns with my lifestyle.
    Weekends are when have a tendency to spike up, because the daily routine is looser than weekdays.
    Holiday I stay pretty steady because my activity increases significantly and generally washes out the vacation meal events UNLESS I add daily alcohol to the holiday plan, in which case all bets are off and the weight starts to stick again.
    Bread or alcohol are the two things that do me in and FAST - if I stick to no more than one drink/sandwich a week, or even less frequently, I'm okay but if I have two drinks/sandwiches, or drink/eat bread two days in a row, my weight loss plan gets shot down and its even harder to get back on track.

    when I DILIGENTLY WITHOUT FAIL weigh and log my food BEFORE i eat it, those are the sections of my progress line that have the fewest spikes.

    good luck to you and good fitness to us all!
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I had lots of daily fluctuations while losing 150 and had a new low about every 2 weeks.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    Oh yes. I am flat for the first two weeks of my cycle. I then suddenly get a major drop shortly before the start of my next cycle.

    I have also learned that after Every Single half marathon, I get a weight blip -- and one that can't be evened out by Happy Scale. It starts coming off again about 3-4 weeks after the half.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited October 2019
    Completely rando. One member mentioned seeing a 7 day pattern and I found that interesting. Whenever they go off the rails it doesn't show up for them until 7 days later. All I can tell you is that I don't get away with one cotton pickin' thing. Nothing. I track all of my data points on the daily and I accept that this will be my pattern for the foreseeable future. Nothing else works for me. I have found the greatest stability with my weight using MFP.

    It's not bragging if it's true. ;)

  • Melwillbehealthy
    Melwillbehealthy Posts: 894 Member
    I haven’t deviated much from my regular eating pattern and have been losing weight steadily since July. Yesterday, I got a flu shot, and this morning I gained 6.5 lbs. It’s weird. Been feeling sick and weak all day. I use a weight trending app, so I know this can’t be permanent, but I never thought I could gain that much weight overnight.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Wow ya @Melwillbehealthy that's a lot of water weight. But not surprising if you aren't feeling well. Hope you feel better! I've had my weight fluctuate 5-10 lbs in a day so don't worry too much
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    mads_o86 wrote: »
    None. Zero. Nilch.

    I can go to bed thinking "today was great, I'll surely have lost tomorrow", and no. Or the other way around.

    The one thing I do notice is that there's about a half to a whole pound of difference between weighing in at 6 am and when I sleep in till 8 or 9.

    Yep. The sleep-weight connection is weird. I often go to sleep around 2 but wake up around 7. If I weigh in and then just stay up and read in bed, at 9 am my weight is usually unchanged. But if I go back to sleep and wake up at 9 or 9:30, it's usually a pound less.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,092 Member
    As I've come closer to goal my weight has been fluctuating more. Almost every other week I've been going up 2-5lbs despite not eating more. Then I dial back my calories a bit the next week and my weight drops the gain plus two pounds when I should be slowing it down. It's kept me on my toes! Now that I know what's going on I'm better able to deal with it.
  • Melwillbehealthy
    Melwillbehealthy Posts: 894 Member
    Ok, so I weighed myself again one day later. Yesterday, I gained 6.4 lbs. overnight. Today, I lost 6.1 lbs. overnight. I sweated last night. This was wierd as I was freezing all day. This was the first flu shot I’ve had in years. It made me gain weight and feel horrible! I may never do it again.
    I’ve been deligent logging my food everyday. It’s been working for me, and I have felt good. I’m very glad that it wasn’t a true weight gain. It would have been pretty discouraging.
  • Cyberbartender
    Cyberbartender Posts: 1,319 Member
    That is why I never weighing every day. If I do it, I do it at the same time on the same day once a week.
    But you can easily gain muscles, and then you cant see your weight loss.
  • Lobsterboxtops
    Lobsterboxtops Posts: 92 Member
    I weigh myself once a week. I’ve noticed that I seem to ‘get stuck’ at a weight for a couple of weeks fluctuating between 1 lb up and down then then have a couple of weeks where it’s a consistent down for a couple of weeks. My chart sort of resembles a staircase.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Lobsterboxtops wrote: »
    I weigh myself once a week. I’ve noticed that I seem to ‘get stuck’ at a weight for a couple of weeks fluctuating between 1 lb up and down then then have a couple of weeks where it’s a consistent down for a couple of weeks. My chart sort of resembles a staircase.

    Interestingly, I noticed that if I had weighed in once per week, there were a number of times where it would have appeared that my weight hadn't moved at all because the low bounce of the first week matched the high bounce of the second week (if that makes sense). If you are a patient person that may make no difference, but for me if I saw two weeks with no apparent movement at all I would get discouraged and think I was doing something wrong. That's actually why I moved to daily weighing because then I could see this sort of bounce trend down.
    I also joined the Give Me 10 Days Challenge and I find that super encouraging because 10 days is enough to hit a new low so you see your number dropping by increments.
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
    Mine goes up and down during the week with the 'actual' weight loss only showing up on Saturday/Sunday.
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
    I weigh daily. Mine varies, but if I were to analyse it into a vaguely typical result at times when I am totally on track calories-wise I get:
    Two steps forward (i.e. a loss), no change, no change, no change, one step back, two steps forward, no change, no change, no change - rinse, repeat.
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    Every weekend my weight spikes then I reach my low around Thursday. Lately the spikes aren't as high and I'm seeing a downward trend. Salt and amount of carbs definitely affect it. Cardio at night leaves me with a lower morning weight the next day, even after eating and drinking post workout. I have the best losses on weeks I eat lots of fish, salads, and vegetarian meals.
  • etherealanwar
    etherealanwar Posts: 465 Member
    The most common trend for my is staying around the same weight between Mon-Friday and then seeing the loss on Sat-Mon.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,023 Member
    My weight loss trend is down but during any given week it is all over the place. Example: Yesterday it was 205.6 and today it is 203.2
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    I lose weight in a step ladder formation. 4-10 days of scale flatness, followed by 1-2 days of losing all the weight that should've been lost for the now 5-12 day period.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    ... Tuesdays... For whatever reason, my lowest weight of the week is always on Tuesdays...
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,756 Member
    A loss of a pound or two....same....same ....slight gain.....same ...whoosh a loss of two more.....repeat.
  • MercuryForce
    MercuryForce Posts: 103 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    I lose weight in a step ladder formation. 4-10 days of scale flatness, followed by 1-2 days of losing all the weight that should've been lost for the now 5-12 day period.

    That's what I do to. It's both frustrating and fascinating. I'll think nothing is happening and then *woosh* 2 lbs gone. I did that last week. I'd been hovering between 181 and 182 for about 2 weeks....and now suddenly one day I was 179.

    I suspect some of that came because I weighed myself later in the day that usual, since it was a Saturday. But, even now, I'm at around 180. I suspect I'll be here for another week or two, then have another *woosh*
  • qwebster01
    qwebster01 Posts: 22 Member
    If I eat salt my weight goes up bc of the water retention. Ratings heavy foods like red meat make my weight go up. But I still have a downward trend
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,075 Member
    edited October 2019
    I've track my weight for ages (even when I wasn't actively needing or trying to lose weight), and additionally started using a trend app almost 2 years ago, so lots of data.

    Basically, when I'm losing, I go through "wooshes" like this (as an example):

    Stay on track, keep with the plan - Woosh! Down 3 pounds within a couple/few days.
    Have a couple/few days within a pound or so of the woosh low-end.
    Uptick of 2-3 pounds one day
    Slowly dropping down over ~4-5 days back to within a pound or so of the woosh low end
    Hold steady-ish (daily variances) here for a week or two.
    Woosh again!

    Of course, my own consistency plays a role, and sometimes I'm just freaking hungry, so will eat closer to maintenance for a few days.

    Additionally, I track my daily weights, and average each week to see my weekly loss average week over week to make sure I'm staying on point overall.

    I'm presently down the last 10-15 pounds. Where I finally land will depend on how I look when these next 10 are gone.

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